Element Sources

In RIMMF, there is support for different sources of elements. Of course, there are the RDA Elements, upon which the whole thing is based, but there are also some other element sources that you can use.

We think it is important for you to tell at a glance the source of an element, caption, or vocabulary in a template, so we have assigned visual symbols to each non-RDA element type (RDA elements are not marked):

Element symbols

• RDA (from the ESV):
• RDA (inferred from instructions): °
• RIMMF (needed for functionality): †
• MARC (brought over from MARC): ‡
• User (elements that you add): §

If an element/caption/vocabulary comes from any source other than RDA, and the person assigning the symbol remembered to indicate the source when they added the element, the symbol for that source will appear at the end of the Element Label in a RIMMF form (record or template).

For example, in–

Attributes for identifying the work †

–the “†” indicates that the source of this element/caption/vocabulary is RIMMF (added by us for RIMMF functions).

Note

In the next version we want to change this a bit, so that there are just three sources of element:

• RDA:
• RIMMF: †
• Other: ¤

or perhaps just:

• RDA:
• Other: †

'Other' will be explained in the Element Editor, by a code indicating the source of the element or term. However, this thought came to us a bit late to make it into the first version.