FOR INSTITUTIONS · HERITAGE RECORDS · FORMAT 0.4-DRAFT
Heritage record templates.
A heritage record describes a smell connected to an object, a document, a place or a practice, and links it to SmellBook by permanent identifier. The format is a draft for discussion; no institution has adopted it yet.
Four kinds of record
- Object. A smell connected to an object in a collection: a censer, a perfume bottle, a spice box. Needs heritageObject.holdingInstitution and heritageObject.objectReference. Spreadsheet template.
- Archival or historical document. A smell described in a document: a letter, a travel account, a newspaper, a novel. Needs sources, each with a locator and its date as catalogued. Spreadsheet template.
- Place. A smell documented for a named place or a kind of place. Needs place.entity or place.name. Spreadsheet template.
- Practice or tradition. A smell belonging to a practice, craft, festival or ritual. Needs a period, and a tradition or place. Spreadsheet template.
Every template as JSON, with the worked examples and their check results: /data/heritage-templates.json. The full format: JSON Schema.
What to write in each field
recordId: Your own identifier for the record, for example your object number with a suffix. Begin with EXAMPLE- only for practice records that describe nothing real.recordKind: object, archival-document, place or practice.title: A short title naming the smell and what it is connected to.smellDescription: What the smell is like, in your own plain words. Do not copy an object description or a source passage.smellbookEntities: SmellBook permanent identifiers (smellbook:smell:…, smellbook:place:…, smellbook:locality:…), from /identifiers or an entry page.smellbookRecordIds: Optional: the SB numbers of the smells, beside their permanent identifiers (both are kept).evidenceClass: scientific, historical, cultural, editorial, community or predicted. Only scientific and historical evidence can connect a smell to a place or tradition on SmellBook.sources: The citation, and for a historical source the page, folio or chapter of the passage (locator) and its date exactly as catalogued.period: The time the record describes, and how it is known (stated-in-passage, publication-date or object-dating). A historical record describes that time, not today.heritageObject: For an object: the holding institution, the object reference, the catalogue URL and, for EDM, your persistent object URI.rights: The rights class of your metadata. Citing a source never grants a right to republish its content.recordedBy / recordedOn / status: Who recorded it, on which date (YYYY-MM-DD), and draft, reviewed or published.
Worked examples
Worked examples are built only from evidence SmellBook has registered and are recorded by SmellBook from registered sources and their public catalogue or publisher records; the institutions named in them hold the sources and have not reviewed, endorsed or contributed the records. Illustrative records are invented, begin with EXAMPLE- and name no real institution. SmellBook has no institutional partners.
- Garlic and oil as a local scent of Spanish cooking in an 1858 travel essay archival-document · historical · from CLM-GARLIC-002 and SRC-LEMOINNE-1858
- Incense outside Valencia Cathedral in a 1901 novel place · historical · from CLM-INCENSE-002 and SRC-BARRACA-1901
- Volatile compounds of artisan bread from bakeries in Valencia place · scientific · from CLM-BREAD-002 and SRC-VALENCIA-BREAD-2024
- Smell of a wooden spice box (illustrative example) object · invented, EXAMPLE-OBJ-0001
- Early-morning baking in a neighbourhood bakery (illustrative example) practice · invented, EXAMPLE-PRA-0001
From a collection export
A LIDO or Dublin Core export describes the object, not its smell. The offline collection tool (node smellbook-collection-tools.mjs import export.xml) turns it into draft records: object fields are copied, smell fields are left for you, descriptions are never copied as smell descriptions, and subject terms that match a SmellBook name are only suggested.
| LIDO element | Becomes | Note |
|---|---|---|
lidoRecID | recordId | The LIDO record identifier becomes the record ID. |
objectIdentificationWrap/titleWrap/titleSet/appellationValue | title | The first title. |
objectIdentificationWrap/repositoryWrap/repositorySet/repositoryName/legalBodyName/appellationValue | holdingInstitution | The current repository holding the object; a repositorySet marked former is skipped. |
objectIdentificationWrap/repositoryWrap/repositorySet/workID | objectReference | The inventory number in the current repository. |
recordWrap/recordInfoSet/recordInfoLink | objectUrl | Only when it is an http(s) URL of the object record. |
eventWrap/eventSet/event (production or creation)/eventDate/date/earliestDate | periodFrom | Only from the production or creation event (eventType production or creation, or LIDO terms lido00007 and lido00012), and only a year or ISO date; the period basis becomes object-dating. Dates of other events (acquisition, exhibition) are never used. |
eventWrap/eventSet/event (production or creation)/eventDate/date/latestDate | periodTo | As earliestDate, from the same event. |
eventWrap/eventSet/event (production or creation)/eventDate/displayDate | periodLabel | The date as displayed, from the same event. |
eventWrap/eventSet/event (production or creation)/eventPlace/place/namePlaceSet/appellationValue | placeName | Place name only, from the same event; link a SmellBook place or locality in placeEntity. |
eventWrap/eventSet/event (other types) | not copied | Not copied: an acquisition, exhibition or other event does not date the object. |
rightsWorkWrap/rightsWorkSet/rightsType/term | not copied | Not copied: these are rights in the object itself, not the licence of a heritage record about its smell. |
subjectWrap/subjectSet/subject/subjectConcept/term | not copied | Not copied. Terms matching a SmellBook name exactly are suggested as links to confirm. |
objectDescriptionWrap/objectDescriptionSet/descriptiveNoteValue | not copied | Not copied: it describes the object. Write the smell in smellDescription. |
objectClassificationWrap/objectWorkTypeWrap/objectWorkType/term | not copied | Not copied. |
eventWrap/eventSet/event/eventActor | not copied | Not copied: the object's maker is not the person recording the smell (recordedBy). |
The Dublin Core mapping is in /data/heritage-crosswalk.json.
Back into your catalogue
The same tool (node smellbook-collection-tools.mjs export records.json --format lido) prints, for every valid record, the statements to add to your own catalogue so it points to SmellBook. SmellBook writes nothing into anyone's catalogue.
- Dublin Core (oai_dc XML) (
--format dc): The heritage record in Dublin Core, with SmellBook resolver addresses as dc:relation. - Europeana Data Model (JSON-LD) (
--format edm): edm:isRelatedTo from your object's persistent URI (heritageObject.uri) to SmellBook resolver addresses. Not a full Europeana submission. - LIDO (XML fragment) (
--format lido): A subjectWrap for lido:descriptiveMetadata/lido:objectRelationWrap, naming each SmellBook entity by resolver address and permanent identifier.