Wisaard Q & A
Jan 23, 2017
Happy Monday everyone! Time for some Wisaard fun facts! Q: Sometimes when I use the Filter Search in Wisaard I get duplicate results? What is that? What should I do? A: A duplicate result is when the same exact Resource, with the same exact identification number, appears in search results more than once. This could potentially occur when searching in any of the data categories using the Filter Search function. For example, say I wanted to find all of the buildings in the Wisaard inventory with Terra Cotta cladding built between 1940 and 1969. I would go to the Property category and use the Filter Search button. Like this: 
The results would look like this: 
Notice that the top two results are exactly the same. You can tell that they are exactly the same because the Property ID is exactly the same. The ID number for each type of Resource (i.e. Smithsonian number (archy sites), Record ID (cemeteries) etc...) is discrete. There cannot be two separate Resources with the same ID number. If you were to examine the data in these two records, you would see that it is exactly the same. These are actually "virtual duplicates." That means that the data is not in the system twice, it is just appearing twice in the search. This will sometimes happen when trying to extract data with more than one search filter. I won't get into the weeds about why this is happening, and it is not something that can be easily remedied, which is why it is still occurring. It is on our list of things to do. For the user, it is important to know that it happens. Remember, Wisaard is a starting place for research and records searches and the data must always be critically examined before coming to any conclusions.
The results would look like this: 
Notice that the top two results are exactly the same. You can tell that they are exactly the same because the Property ID is exactly the same. The ID number for each type of Resource (i.e. Smithsonian number (archy sites), Record ID (cemeteries) etc...) is discrete. There cannot be two separate Resources with the same ID number. If you were to examine the data in these two records, you would see that it is exactly the same. These are actually "virtual duplicates." That means that the data is not in the system twice, it is just appearing twice in the search. This will sometimes happen when trying to extract data with more than one search filter. I won't get into the weeds about why this is happening, and it is not something that can be easily remedied, which is why it is still occurring. It is on our list of things to do. For the user, it is important to know that it happens. Remember, Wisaard is a starting place for research and records searches and the data must always be critically examined before coming to any conclusions.
