Managing Party records

Managing Party records

This article explores advanced functionality relating to Party records. If you have never worked with Parties before, we recommend you refer to our article ‘Creating and linking Party records’ to learn more about Parties.

When working within the Party records catalogue, you can: 

  1. View and update the details of Party records
  2. View which Item records in your collection a Party is linked to
  3. use the Reassign Party links action to resolve duplicated Party records

Viewing and searching your Party records catalogue
Your Party records catalogue has settings and functionality which is similar to that of your Item records catalogue. From within the Party records catalogue you can:
  1. Switch between a table or list layout when viewing your Party records
  2. Select specific columns to include in the table layout
  3. Run simple and advanced queries
  4. Sort the results of a query, or your entire Party records catalogue
Each Party record is comprised of three Sections:
  1. Details includes the Party’s name, and relevant contact or location information
  2. Linked Item records indicates all Item records in your collection that this Party is linked to
  3. Admin includes system generated information: the cataloguer who created or last modified the Party, and whether this Party is publicly visible when linked to an Item record (shown by this symbol on the right) 
A Party’s Linked Item records may include deaccessioned Item records. These will be marked on the right with the following symbol .


Resolving duplications using 'Reassign Party links'
The Reassign Party links action requires a specific user permission. Your organisation’s administrator can modify permissions if this action is required.

Your Party records may include duplicates for a range of intentional and unintentional reasons. These may include separate people/organisations with identical names (e.g. multiple John Smiths), multiple entries which are known to be the same Party, duplicates of the same Party with minor variations or misspellings (e.g. Jon Smith, John Smith, John Smyth), or Parties which have had name changes over time (e.g. Telecom Australia / Telecom / Telstra).

Where unintentional and unwanted duplicate Party records exist, and these have Linked Item records, this can be resolved using the ‘Reassign Party Links’ action.

Before using the Reassign Party Links action, we recommend checking all duplicates to ensure they are the same Party, reviewing which of these Parties have linked Item records, and confirming which Party is your preferred Party (that is, the Party record you would like to retain). To do this, view your Party records as a table with the Linked Item count column included in the table. This will ensure you can view how many Item records each party is linked to.

The Reassign Party Links action is made from within an individual Party record in the Party records catalogue. Using it you can reassign the Item record links for these Parties in one of two ways:
  1. Working from your preferred Party record to reassign the Item Record links from multiple duplicate parties to this preferred Party
  2. Working from the duplicate/unwanted Party record to Reassign the Item Record links from that Party to another preferred Party

Working from your preferred Party record:

  1. Click the Actions button in the top right and select Reassign links
  2. Click the option 'Reassign Item record links from other Party records to this Party record'
  3. Use the search bar to find the applicable duplicate/error Parties
  4. Click the check box to the left-hand side of each Party with linked Item records which you would instead like to be linked to your preferred Party
  5. Click 'Next' in the top right corner
  6. Review the summary of where and how Item record links will change, and click 'Next'
  7. Confirm the Item records which will have Party record information updated and complete the action, click 'Begin update'
When selecting this option, you can select and update the Item record links across multiple duplicate or unwanted Party records during a single process.

Working from a duplicate or unwanted Party Record

  1. Click the Actions button in the top right and select Reassign links
  2. Click the option 'Reassign these Item record links to a different Party record'
  3. Use the search bar to find your preferred Party record
  4. Click the check box to the left-hand side of your preferred Party record 
  5. Click 'Next' in the top right corner
  6. Review the summary of where and how Item record links will change, and click 'Next'
  7. Confirm the Item records which will have Party record information updated and complete the action, click 'Begin update'
When selecting this option, you can only select one Party record to reassign Item record links to during this process.

Deaccessioned items which are linked to Party records may be updated during this process. The system will notify you if this is the case.

Deleting duplicate Party records

The final step to resolving duplicate Party records is to delete unwanted Parties after using the Reassign Party Links action. To delete a Party record:

  1. Navigate to the Party records catalogue
  2. Search for, and open the unwanted duplicate Party record
  3. Confirm the Party is not linked to Item records in the Linked Item records section
  4. Click the Actions button in the top right and select Delete record
  5. Click 'Accept' to confirm deletion of the Party record

You cannot delete a Party record if it is linked to one or more Item records, including deaccessioned Items.



    • Related Articles

    • Creating and linking Party records

      Items within your collection will have linked “Parties”. A “Party” refers to a person or organisation that has been involved in the life of an Item. For example, a book’s linked Parties may be the author, editor, publisher, and illustrator. When ...

    • Why can't I add a new record?

      When viewing your organisation’s catalogue, you can click the New record button on the left of the screen to create a new object, artwork, publication or archive record. If the New record button is not visible on the left of your screen when viewing ...

    • How can I sort the list of records in my catalogue?

      You can adjust the presentation of your item records or search results in various ways, according to the needs of your activity.  After clicking Catalogue > Items you will land on the item list page. Click on the Sort icon  and select the field on ...

    • Video: managing your members

      The following is a video tutorial on how to manage your organisation's members within the Victorian Collections CMS:

    • VC Cataloguing Manual

      The Victorian Collection Cataloguing Manual can be accessed by clicking on and downloading the relevant files below. The segments of the manual are: Cataloguing Object Collections Cataloguing Artwork Collections Cataloguing Publication Collections ...