Protection periods¶
The protection periods determine when the media of a unit of description become public. How they take effect in cataloguing is described in Access and protection periods — this page deals with the set-up.
How Anton calculates¶
Anton determines one release year for each record and keeps it stored. Catalogue, gallery and search all read the same value — there is no second calculation elsewhere. Decisive is:
- The protected until field on the record. It takes precedence and is inherited downwards by the entire subtree.
- Otherwise the period of the type chosen in the conditions of access / closure period field, counted from the date of creation. Type periods apply only to the record itself and are not inherited.
Unified since v0.78
Before version 0.78, several places calculated the period independently of one another, which could lead to discrepancies between catalogue, gallery and search. Since then there is exactly one source. After updating, the release year is recalculated once for the whole holdings.
Records without a date of creation¶
A type period is counted from the end of the period of creation, that is, from the creation to field. If this is missing, the release year cannot be determined — the record then remains blocked until one of the two entries is supplied:
- the creation date to, or
- a protected until directly on the record.
Fill in both date fields
Anton expects creation from and creation to to be set. With a single date, both fields contain the same value. A filled-in «from» alone is not sufficient: what counts for the period is the end of the range, and Anton does not guess it from the start — an 80-year period from 1933 ends differently from one starting in 1965, and only the archive knows which of the two values is meant.
Changed: such records used to be displayed
Until then, Anton calculated from year 0 when the date was missing. A period of 80 years therefore expired in the year 81, that is, long ago — the record counted as free and was publicly visible even though a period was set. On updating, these records disappear from the public view.
Only records for which someone actually chose a period are affected. Without a chosen closure period, a record remains free even without a date of creation.
Which records in a given holding are affected can be evaluated on request — with Anton as a Service via k & r. It makes sense to supply the missing creation dates rather than leaving the entries blocked.
Maintaining the types¶
Every entry of the value list carries:
| Item | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Duration in years | Period from the date of creation |
| public | no period — immediately free |
| never release | permanently blocked |
Three types are provided by default: public (0 years), standard protection period (30 years) and extended protection period (70 years). Types can be renamed, added and changed in duration.
Reserved for superusers
The editor is located at /admin/protection-periods and is reserved for
superusers — it cannot be reached with the admin role. With Anton as a
Service, k & r is responsible for it.
For archives without permanent blocks, «never release» is optional; it does not have to be configured.
What the displayed year means¶
What is displayed is the first year in which the unit is free. With creation in 1990 and a 30-year period, therefore 2021, not 2020.
When changing a period¶
A changed duration affects all records of that type — including existing ones. The release year is redetermined, and media can therefore become public or disappear from one moment to the next. Changing the periods is accordingly not a trifle and should be checked before it lands on a production archive.