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There was some discussion about ArchivesSpace being mature as a tool but less mature in its use of digital objects, making it a good time to dig in and focus on some of these more areas.
Many attendees expressed an interest in expand expanding the current spreadsheet functionality to allow for more robust bulk ingest of Digital Objects, including an expansion of fields included in the spreadsheet and the ability to include multiple file versions (links). The There was also significant interest in being able to do bulk editing with spreadsheets. It was noted that the Usability sub-team is currently reviewing the New School Bulk Edit Updater plugin for addition to core code. Many users expressed their support of this.
There was also interest in resources that would help people learn and improve their API (and specifically Python) skills. Recommendations for learning included a DPC Python Study group hopefully coming in summer 2023: https://www.dpconline.org/blog/wdpd/python-groups-update and a Coursera class https://www.coursera.org/specializations/python , with a free version by the same professor: https://www.py4e.com/ as well as ArchivesSpace API-specific instruction. A recording of training trainings related to using the ArchivesSpace API and an introduction to ArchivesSnake are available on the ArchivesSpace YouTube. ArchivesSpace API documentation can be found at https://archivesspace.org/application/technical-documentation. The community generated ArchivesSnake API client library is available at https://github.com/archivesspace-labs/ArchivesSnake
Members of the Metadata Standards Sub-team requested feedback on the types of metadata support users would like to expand or include. Attendees expressed interest in expanded metadata import and export support including the ability to export data for both digital objects and their affiliated archival objects. Members of the Metadata Standards Sub-team requested feedback on the types of metadata support users would like to expand or include.
While many users expressed frustration with the complexity of digital object records and the ability to create standalone digital object records (vs. only creating them as an accession resource/archival object or repurposing the description from one of these), over 20% of survey respondents and some in attendance indicated a simplified digital objects module or removal of standalone digital objects would negatively impact their workflow.
There was general agreement that ArchivesSpace should continue to work with other systems that do digital objects rather than become a digital asset/preservation system itself, but some frustration with the current limitations of how ArchivesSpace digital objects play with other systems and the data in other parts of ArchivesSpace itself.
Many users expressed interest in training opportunities related to digital objects. The ArchivesSpace Trainers Corps recently offered a training on Digital Objects. The recording of this ArchivesSpace digital objects training is available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mDRzNOr1G-U&list=PL3cxupmXL7WiHyMc0uFmsCEIVOQmrI7FL&index=6 and Digital Object tutorial videos are available in the Help Center (ArchivesSpace members only) at /wiki/spaces/ArchivesSpaceUserManual/pages/915341360.
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