Catalogue transcription

A catalogue transcription preserves what the source says, including approximate dates, attribution qualifiers and unknown fields. Keep it separate from your own interpretation or translation. In watch research, do not replace a missing maker with a famous name suggested by style, or turn ‘ca.’ into an exact production year. Record the institution, object identifier, stable source URL and consultation date. Spectrum treats cataloguing as gathering and cross-referencing knowledge from multiple sources; an unfinished record can still be useful when its limits are explicit.