Summary

Relations connect two RiC-CM entities. They can be used for recording any connection that has some meaning and impact in the archival world from a certain point of view, particularly for understanding and anticipating the history and content of Record Sets or for discovering complementary records (EGAD, May 2018, Draft v0.2).

Details

The Records in Context - Conceptual Model (EGAD, May 2018, Draft v0.2) defines and describes Relations as follows:

"Relations connect two RiC-CM entities. They can be used for recording any connection that has some meaning and impact in the archival world from a certain point of view, particularly for understanding and anticipating the history and content of Record Sets or for discovering complementary records.

For example, if some Agent is linked to another one through a professional activity, they have probably sent Records to each other.

If some Agent was replaced by an existing one for fulfilling a Function, the Records held by the second Agent may include some Record Sets created by the former.

If some Record is the copy of another one, we can expect that it conveys the same message.

Depending on the knowledge one has on a specific Relation, and on the human, financial or technical resources available, Relations may or may not have all or part of the attributes below:

- Identifier
- Description
- Date
- Location
- Certainty (for specifying in the relation is certain or not)
- State (for specifying if the relation is present or past, or if state is unknown)" (EGAD, May 2018, Draft v0.2).

For further information on the nature and arrangement of Relations in RiC-CM see: https://web.esrc.unimelb.edu.au/ICAD/biogs/E000006b.htm

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