In this section, you find some basic practical information on how to understand and use the database at the present preliminary stage.

– AtoM is organized in several interconnectable internal databases, of which the project will be using 1) Archival institutions (renamed for clarity’s sake as “Entail / vínculo”; 2) Authority Records; 3) Archival descriptions.
– These three internal databases will be completed gradually, and in an integrated way. As such, information, although available, will be partial until the finalization of document’s introduction. The indexation results, available when pressing the button “subjects”, function in the same way.
– Fields are only be visible when filled with information. Therefore the current aspect of each template is only partial. Information on social characteristics of persons, on geographical places, on the history of each entail, etc., is not yet visible but will be when completed, in the course of the project.
– Persons and institutions’ names are normalized and written in contemporary language.
– Buttons “Functions”, “Places” and “Digital objects” will not be providing information until the finalization of the project.
– When the global database is finished, the working documents prepared to build it will be also be released and published as “database related document”.
– The acronyms ACC (Arthur de Carvalho Curvelo), AFR (Abel Rodrigues), AML (Ana Mafalda Lopes), ARR (Ana Rita Rocha), FAD (Fábio Albino Duarte), MSF (Mário Farelo), MPA (Miguel Pereira Aguiar), MTO (Maria Teresa Oliveira), RPF (Rodolfo Feio) stand for the names of the team members in charge of the information inserted in the data base. FB stands for Maria de Fátima Barros, from the Direção Regional do Arquivo e Biblioteca da Madeira (see note below).

INFORMAÇÃO IMPORTANTE - Os registos descritivos da série de autos de contas de capelas do fundo do Juízo dos Resíduos e Provedoria das Capelas da Madeira, sob custódia do Arquivo e Biblioteca da Madeira, dizem respeito a um conjunto documental ainda em tratamento, não tendo os mesmos registos descritivos sido objeto de publicação por parte da Direção Regional do Arquivo e Biblioteca da Madeira (DRABM). O projeto VINCULUM. Entailing Perpetuity: Family, Power, ldentity. The Social Agency of a Corporate Body (Southern Europe, 14th-17th Centuries) (ERC Co.G 819734) fica autorizado pela DRABM a publicar aquela informação descritiva, de autoria de Fátima Barros, em bases de dados ou plataformas por si geridas e a utilizar a mesma informação para os fins que tiver por convenientes no âmbito das atividades de investigação histórica e divulgação arquivística previstas naquele projeto. Tendo em conta a natureza da informação e a inacessibilidade da documentação original, por mau estado de conservação, a introdução dos dados na base foi feita pela uma adaptação mínima dos registos originais, e mantendo-se em Português. Os registos elaborados a partir destas descrições são identificados, em “Archivist's note”, com a sigla FB, seguida da sigla do membro do projeto que introduziu os dados, entre parêntesis.

IMPORTANT NOTE - The descriptive records of Chapels administration’s account of the Fonds Juízo dos Resíduos e Provedoria das Capelas da Madeira, kept under the custody of the Arquivo e Biblioteca da Madeira, refer to a set of documents still being processed and therefore not yet object of publication by the Direção Regional do Arquivo e Biblioteca da Madeira (DRABM). VINCULUM project - Entailing Perpetuity: Family, Power, Identity. The Social Agency of a Corporate Body (Southern Europe, 14th-17th Centuries) (ERC Co.G 819734) has been authorized by DRABM to publish the said descriptive information, authored by Fátima Barros, in databases or platforms managed by the project, and to use it for the purposes considered convenient, within the scope of the project’s historical research and archival dissemination activities. Taking into account the nature of the information and the inaccessibility of the original documentation due to poor conservation status, the introduction of the data in the database was made by a minimal adaptation of the original records, and kept in Portuguese. The records elaborated from these descriptions are identified, in "Archivist's note", with the initials FB, followed by the initials of the project member that introduced the data, in brackets.