Skip to main content

Creating Your Fonds Structure

The end-to-end walkthrough for building out an archival hierarchy. Available on Professional plans and above.

Plan first, click second​

Before clicking Create Fond, sketch out:

  1. Who created the records you hold? Each distinct creator becomes a fond.
  2. What kinds of records did they create? Each record series becomes a series within that fond.
  3. Are there major sub-divisions? Sub-fonds (for organisational sub-units) and sub-series (for fine-grained record types) handle these.

Five minutes on paper saves hours of rearranging later.

The Fonds page​

Fonds in the sidebar opens the Fonds management screen.

Fonds empty

When empty, you see total counts (Fonds, Total Items, Date Span, Accessions assigned) plus a Get Started CTA. Click it to create your first fond.

The top right has:

  • List / table view toggle
  • Select — multi-select mode for bulk operations
  • Manage — the structure editor (drag-drop arrangement)

Creating a fond​

  1. Click Get Started (or + New Fond once you have existing fonds).
  2. Fill in:
    • Title (required) — the name of the creating person, family, or organisation
    • Reference code (optional) — your institutional identifier
    • Date span (optional) — the dates of creation
    • Scope and content — narrative description
    • Biographical / administrative history — about the creator
  3. Save. The fond appears in the list.

The Archiver applies ISAD(G) and DACS defaults to the fond schema — you can adjust them in Settings → Data Model under the Collection category.

Adding sub-fonds, series, and sub-series​

Open any fond. The detail page has a Structure panel on the left and an Items panel on the right.

  • Click + Add child under a fond to create a sub-fond.
  • Click + Add child under a sub-fond to create a series.
  • Click + Add child under a series to create a sub-series.

Each level has its own description fields, inherited defaults from the parent, and a date span computed from its children.

Editing ISAD(G) fields​

You can edit a node's metadata in two ways:

From the cards view: Click a fond or series card, and the Metadata editor modal opens. From here you can:

  • Edit all ISAD(G) collection-level fields (Scope and content, Biographical/administrative history, Physical description, etc.)
  • Generate an AI draft of field values from the node's accessions and items (see AI Analyse ISAD)
  • See the fields already inherited from parent levels (read-only)

From the structure tree: Click Manage (top right), then right-click a node to Edit description. This opens a lightweight editor for the main description fields.

Rearranging​

The Manage mode (top right of the Fonds page) puts the structure into drag-and-drop. You can:

  • Drag a node to a new parent — moves the entire sub-tree
  • Alt-drag — copy (creates a new node with the same title in the new location, descendants are not duplicated)
  • Right-click → Rename, Edit description, Delete

Deletion of a node with children is allowed; children move up to the deleted node's parent (no cascade delete).

Best practices​

  • Mirror the creator, not the topic. Thornton Family Papers is a fond; World War One materials is a dossier.
  • Keep the hierarchy shallow. Three levels is usually enough. Five-level hierarchies become hard to navigate.
  • Reference codes are your friend. Set them once at fond level; sub-fonds and series inherit a prefix automatically.
  • Use the description field generously at the top. Researchers read fond-level descriptions first; that's where to put context.

Next​