Collection Assistant — User Guide
AtoM Heratio The Archive and Heritage Group (Pty) Ltd
What is the Collection Assistant?
The Collection Assistant lets you ask questions about the catalogue in plain language — the way you'd ask a colleague — instead of building a search query.
You might ask:
“What records do we hold about land claims in the 1960s?” “Are there any photographs of the old town hall?” “Summarise what we have on the Smith family.”
The assistant reads the published descriptions that best match your question and writes a short, plain‑language answer, citing the exact records it used so you can open them and check for yourself.
Opening the assistant
- Sign in to AtoM Heratio.
- In the top navigation, open the Manage menu.
- Choose Collection assistant.
You can also go straight to it at /ai/assistant.
A badge at the top of the page shows whether the AI is ready or offline (see If the assistant is unavailable, below).
Asking a question
- Type your question in the box at the bottom.
- Press Send (or Enter).
- The assistant searches the catalogue and replies in a moment.
You can keep the conversation going — ask a follow‑up and it remembers the recent context, so you can say things like “and which of those are photographs?”
Understanding the answer
Each reply has two parts:
- The answer — a short summary written from the records that matched your question.
- Sources — a list of the catalogue records the answer was based on. Click any source to open the full record.
Always open the sources to confirm. The answer is a helpful starting point, not a substitute for reading the record itself.
Writing good questions
You'll get the best results when you:
- Use real words from the material — names, places, subjects, dates (e.g. “mining”, “1985”, “Cape Town”).
- Be specific — “annual reports from the 1970s” works better than “old documents”.
- Ask one thing at a time — then refine with a follow‑up.
- Rephrase if needed — if nothing relevant comes back, try different words or a broader question.
What it can and can't do
It can:
- Find and summarise published descriptions that match your question.
- Point you to the specific records, with links.
- Hold a short back‑and‑forth conversation.
It can't:
- See unpublished or draft records (only published descriptions are searched).
- Replace the full Browse and Advanced search tools — for exhaustive or filtered searching, use those.
- Guarantee completeness — it answers from the best matches, not the entire archive.
Good to know
- Only published records are ever used, so the assistant won't reveal drafts or restricted material.
- AI can be wrong. It may miss a relevant record or phrase something imprecisely — always verify against the cited record before relying on it.
- Your questions are used to find records and generate the answer. Don't enter personal or sensitive information you wouldn't put into a normal search.
If the assistant is unavailable
If the badge shows AI offline, the language model isn't reachable. You can still ask questions — instead of a written answer, the assistant returns a list of the most relevant records so you're never left empty‑handed. Try again later for full answers, or use Browse and Search in the meantime. If it stays offline, let your administrator know.
Frequently asked questions
Does it search everything in the archive? It searches the published archival descriptions and answers from the best matches — it isn't a guarantee of completeness. For an exhaustive search, use Browse / Advanced search.
Why did it say it couldn't find anything? Either there are no published records matching your words, or the terms were too general. Try names, places or dates that are likely to appear in the descriptions.
Can I trust the answer? Treat it as a knowledgeable starting point. The cited sources are the authority — open them to confirm.
Who can use it? Any signed‑in user. It appears under the Manage menu.
For technical and installation details, administrators should see the AI Architecture & Installation technical manual.