Authority data (GND, Wikidata, Metagrid …)¶
Actors, places and keywords can be linked to entries in external authority databases and reference works – to the Integrated Authority File (GND), to Wikidata or to Metagrid, for example. Metagrid plays a special role here: it is not a single reference work but a linking service that brings together entries on the same person across many Swiss research and memory institutions (e.g. Historical Dictionary of Switzerland, Dodis, Swiss Social Archives, Swiss Economic Archives).
How links come about¶
When editing an actor, a place or a keyword, the providers can be searched for
matching entries and the correct hit saved as a resource. Anton then stores a
link in a dedicated resources table – the link subsequently belongs to the
record.
Local copy
Anton holds the external links as a local copy and displays them from there. When an actor is opened, Metagrid, GND or Wikidata are not queried live on every page view. This makes the display fast and independent of the availability of the external services – but it also means that newly added external links only appear after a synchronisation.
Synchronisation¶
Newly added external links only appear in Anton after a synchronisation with the providers. In production installations, this synchronisation runs automatically and repeatedly as a scheduled job; the frequency is configurable per installation. Manual intervention for each new link is not necessary – new links appear by themselves, at the latest on the next scheduled run.
For the administration
The underlying resources:sync command and scheduled operation are described
under Authority data synchronisation.
Two directions¶
For the interplay with a linking service such as Metagrid, it is worth keeping two directions apart. They are independent of one another.
Anton as a source: making new actors known¶
When a new actor is recorded in Anton, it is up to the linking service and the partners involved to take up this entry and – where appropriate – link back to Anton. Whether and how often a partner (the Historical Dictionary of Switzerland, for example) updates its links is determined by the partner or the linking service, not by Anton.
Anton's contribution to this direction is twofold:
- the link between the actor and the entry in the linking service, and
- making the person data available via the Anton API so that partners can collect it periodically (page by page, filtered by entity type).
Prerequisite: partnership with Metagrid
This direction – making one's own actors visible to the linking service – works only if the institution has previously registered as a partner with Metagrid. Without this partnership, the persons recorded in Anton are not taken up by Metagrid and no back-links arise there either. Registration takes place directly with Metagrid and is independent of the technical synchronisation in Anton.
In practice
An entry published before the corresponding actor existed in Anton initially contains no back-link to Anton – the target record did not yet exist at the time. Whether such legacy entries are updated retrospectively depends on the update rhythm of the respective partner. Questions about synchronisation frequency or back-links should therefore be addressed to the linking service or the partner.
Anton as a consumer: adopting new links¶
When new partner institutions join the linking service, additional linking options arise for existing actors. These new links appear in Anton after the next synchronisation – that is, through the scheduled run described above. No manual procedure per link is required; the recurring synchronisation pulls in the newly available links automatically.
In summary¶
- External links are stored locally and displayed from there.
- A scheduled, recurring synchronisation keeps the local stock up to date and adopts newly available links on its own.
- How quickly other institutions take up a new Anton actor is determined by those institutions or the linking service – not by Anton.
- For one's own actors to appear in Metagrid at all, the institution must be registered as a partner with Metagrid.