Correspondence guideline, 2019-11-08—Jean Charlot

Correspondence guideline, 2019-11-08


# identification

Remember, secondhand information is prone to misinterpretation or error. Favor firsthand generic representation for identifying these documents.

For example, there are a couple of boxes of correspondence between Jean Charlot and Zohmah, before and after marriage. The image for each scanned item is named by the location of the item in the box they were kept in when they were accessed. Each box has several dated folders.

The location is kept generic for the identification of each item by numbering boxes and folders in the order they were kept. Therefore the location is represented by: box 1 folder 1, box 1 folder 2, and so on. This is abbreviated: 1-1, 1-2, and so on.

Each item in a folder was scanned in the order it was found in a folder, as much as possible. Each side with markings is scanned, sometimes in the manner the item was folded. Therefore a sheet of paper might have multiple scans: item 1 scan 1, item 1 scan 2, item 1 scan 3, and so on. This is abbreviated: 1-1, 1-2, 1-3, and so on.

Full identification is least specific to most specific, the location and then the item: 1-1_1-1, 1-1_1-2, and so on. No prepended zeros for helping a computer to sort listed documents because computers have been programmed to properly sort document names with numbers without that need.

# item description

A description is provided for each image and its preview in the documents listing them. The description is oberservational and based on: context, possible relations with other items, and external references.

Use "sheet" for the piece of paper. Use "page" when numbering the sides of a sheet. The sides of a sheet are "recto" for the front, "verso" for the back, "inside" or "outside" when folded, or the "left side" or "right side" of the "inside" or "outside".

Sheet 1, recto, page 1 of letter
Sheet 1, verso, page 2
Sheet 2, recto, page 3
Sheet 2, verso, page 4
Sheet 3, recto, page 5
Sheet 3, verso, page 6 and so on

No need to use all of this identification.

Group multiple views of a sheet, such as recto, verso, and inside, as a preview with multiple samples. Group multiple sheets for a document into a set of previews.

# dates and annotations in biblio

The order of dates and annotations is: confirmed date; author date/annotation; then date/annotations from others. No need for confirmed/presumed date when complete "month day, year" are available from author or annotations. Otherwise, add full date as "Date:" or "Date from diary:".

dates

Dates that are stamped or derived from other sources are provided as follows:

Dates are formatted as "month day, year, hour:minute[AM|PM]". Spell out the months completely. Examples:

Search for all the four-digit numbers beginning with the two digits "19" and prefixed with a space " " in order to find all the years. Use this specific search expression: " 19[0-9][0-9]". Review the lists of results and manually edit as needed rather than using automatic replacement.

annotations

After verified dates are the annotations of dates and such. Annotations by others are as they were recorded in the correspondence, provided in quote marks, with no modifications. Therefore, dates in annotations are unmodified.

# navigation

Some documents have multiple items. The related links for an individual item include the next item, the previous item, and then the item itself within the document set.

Additional relations are after those links. For example, an item in "Correspondence with Zohmah" also has a link to its chronological listing.

A list of possible links, in order.


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Jean Charlot & The Jean Charlot Foundation