BLOCK A
We’re on the Road to Somewhere: Navigating Your ArchivesSpace Implementation: This presentation will focus on what institutions should consider when starting an ArchivesSpace implementation, including creating a project plan for the process and tools/resources for importing legacy data, training, and engaging with the ArchivesSpace community.
- Anne Marie Lyons, Atlas Systems – Anne Marie Lyons is a training and library solutions consultant at Atlas Systems. She’s been with Atlas for nine years and works with special collections and archives customers on their ArchivesSpace and Aeon implementations. Before working at Atlas, she was the Digital Initiatives Consultant at BCR, a regional cooperative libraries network based in Denver, Colorado. Prior to moving to Denver, she worked as a cataloger at the National Security Archive in Washington, D.C., and part-time in the NPR library.
- Madeline Sheldon, LYRASIS – Madeline Sheldon is a member outreach representative for the Digital Technology Services team at LYRASIS. She works with institutions interested in hosting ArchivesSpace, Islandora, and/or CollectionSpace with LYRASIS. Her past involvement with academic, public, and government cultural heritage organizations included projects focused on digitization, digital asset management, archival processing, and marketing/outreach. Madeline holds a MSI from the University of Michigan School of Information and specialized in library science and preservation.
So Much Data, So Little Time: Prioritizing Manuscript Collections for ArchivesSpace: This presentation will explore the prioritization process undertaken at the Watkinson Library for Special Collections and College Archives at Trinity College (Hartford, Connecticut) for rewriting and entering approximately 45 manuscript finding aids into ArchivesSpace. The bulk of the manuscript finding aids at the Watkinson existed in the digital repository of Trinity College or in legacy print formats and did not conform to current standards such as DACS and EAD. This talk will examine the challenges presented to the Special Projects Associate charged with working on the project, as well as how she went about selecting collections for the project and contributing factors such as whether collections would require further processing.
- Michelle C. Sigiel, Watkinson Library – Michelle C. Sigiel graduated from Simmons University (Boston, Massachusetts) in 2017 with an MSLIS in Library & Information Science and concentration in Archives Management. She has worked in several project/ grant-funded positions, including her most recent position at Trinity College’s Watkinson Library for Special Collections and College Archives where she undertook work on a data migration for manuscripts into ArchivesSpace. Sigiel also holds an MA from the University of Vermont where she focused on Central European History, and undergraduate degrees from Keene State College (Keene, New Hampshire).
“Where Did I Put That?" Using Locations in ArchivesSpace: A brief look at our pilot project to incorporate the location features in conjunction with our use of top containers in ArchivesSpace. Since our headquarters move in 2017, our two-thirds of our collections are stored off-site. As we near the final stages of a full shelf reading and locator listing of both sites, we are evaluating the locations feature to determine if it will work for us. Will we be able to use ArchivesSpace as our sole repository for location information or will we continue to rely on an external spreadsheet to record this data?
- Sarit Hand and Francesca Pitaro, AP Corporate Archives – Sarit Hand’s role includes oversight of acquisition of born-digital assets, digitization projects and digital preservation. Among other things, Sarit is currently engaged in syncing the preservation system, Preservica, with ArchivesSpace and evaluating the viability of incorporating the locations feature in AS.
- Francesca Pitaro’s work at the AP covers a range of archival activities including processing, reference, exhibitions and contributions to AP publications, highlighting the collections and work of the archives. I am also responsible for maintaining ArchivesSpace. Last year we rolled out the Public side, providing all AP staff with access to our collections. With the synching of ArchivesSpace with Preservica they will also be able to view our digital files.
Columbia University Libraries ArchivesSpace Migration: In 2017 Columbia University Libraries (CUL) undertook a multi-phase project to migrate archival data across several repositories into ArchivesSpace, hosted by LYRASIS. A main goal of the project was to consolidate description activities in the platform, which would serve as a single source of truth propagated out to the catalog, finding aids, and other discovery venues. CUL Columbia adopted a 3-phase roadmap: (1) migrate collection-level data and manage it solely in ArchivesSpace; (2) migrate finding aid data from an XML repository and merge with already migrated collection-level data, which will then flow out to a legacy publishing platform; and (3) adopt the PUI or a comparable front-end application, integrate it with discovery services, and decommission the legacy finding aid publishing platform. Along the way CUL developed custom tools and methods to review and remediate data as well as integrate AS with other applications. Completion of all phases is targeted for early 2020.
- Kevin Schlottman and David Hodges, Columbia University – Kevin Schlottmann has been Head of Archives Processing at Columbia University's Rare Book and Manuscript Library since 2018. Among his first tasks was spearheading migration into ArchivesSpace. Previously, Kevin was Digital Archives Manager at the New York Philharmonic and Archival Processing Manager at the Center for Jewish History.
- David Hodges is Special Collections Analyst in the Digital Collections and Preservation Services unit of the Libraries and served as project manager for the first phase of the migration project.
Integrations for Digital Objects
- Venkat Srinivasan, National Centre for Biological Sciences - Venkat Srinivasan is a visiting researcher and archivist at the Archives at the National Centre for Biological Sciences in Bangalore, India (http://archives.ncbs.res.in/). The Archives at NCBS is a new public space for the history of contemporary biology in India. It opened in February 2019. In addition to the setting up of this archive, the team is developing templates to pull archival material into coherent stories, and connect personal stories to established records of a scientific process.
- Mariella Soprano and Tommy Keswick, Caltech
- Suzanne Chase and Terry Brady, Georgetown University
- Noah Huffman, Duke University - Noah Huffman is the Archivist for Metadata, Systems, and Digital Records in the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library at Duke University. He led Duke’s implementation of ArchivesSpace in 2015, served on the ArchivesSpace Technical Advisory Council (2015-2017), and teaches ArchivesSpace workshops as part of the ArchivesSpace Training Corps.
BLOCK B
Working with IT and ArchivesSpace: An Open Discussion
- Blake Carver, LYRASIS
- Laney McGlohon, ArchivesSpace
Regional Discovery Networks
- Mark Custer, Yale University
- Amanda Focke, Rice University
ASpace to Learn: Training Student Employees to Use ArchivesSpace: For many institutions, student employees play an integral part in processing of archival collections and data entry into collection management systems. In this presentation I will share some lessons I learned in the process of training student employees to use ArchivesSpace and the importance of having centralized training for ALL ArchivesSpace users.
- Krista Oldham, Clemson University – Krista Oldham is the University Archivist at Clemson University, where her responsibilities include overseeing the acquisition, description, and preservation of University records, as well as supporting and promoting their use. Additionally, Krista is responsible for assisting in developing and managing a comprehensive, institution-wide records management program. She earned a M.I.S. from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville and earned both a M.A. in History and a B.A. in History from the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville. Previously, Krista worked in Quaker and Special Collections at Haverford College as the College Archivist/Records Manager and the University of Arkansas Special Collections for 10 years as the Senior Archivist and the Senior Archives Manager. In addition to her archival work, Krista served as Co-Director of the Arkansas Delta Oral History Project, an initiative led by the endowed Brown Chair in English Literacy. She is a co-author of The Arkansas Delta Oral History Project: Culture, Place, and Authenticity, which was published in 2016 by Syracuse University Press.
The Implementation Roller Coaster: Danielle Butler, from the Central Arkansas Library System's Butler Center for Arkansas Studies will discuss the planning and implementation process for a locally hosted Windows Service instance of ArchivesSpace. This will include discussion of initial install, migration from Archivists' Toolkit, user guide creation, staff training, and data cleanup.
- Danielle Butler, The Butler Center for Arkansas Studies – Danielle Butler is an Archivist and ASpace administrator at the Butler Center for Arkansas Studies, the Arkansas history and genealogy department of the Central Arkansas Library System. Danielle earned an M.A. in Public History in 2016 from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. She joined the staff at the Butler Center in 2017, after serving as the project archivist for a CLIR Digitizing Hidden collections grant project and project archivist for a Japanese American Confinement Sites digitization project. In Spring of 2018, Danielle began working with the library system’s IT department and administration to implement ASpace at the Butler Center. The Center officially migrated to ASpace in August of 2018.
It’s All About the Fit: Engaging Student Assistants, Interns, and Volunteers with ArchivesSpace: Not every student assistant, intern, or volunteer is right for ArchivesSpace. The software is complicated. It requires deep knowledge of foundational archival principles and the ability to quickly adapt to a new lexicon of application-specific terms. Like many archival repositories, my repository relies heavily on the inexperienced shoulders of undergraduate students to build finding aids and manage collections in ArchivesSpace. In this presentation, I’ll share some of the selection, placement, orientation, and mentorship strategies we use to ensure high quality work in ArchivesSpace by our amateur team of student assistants, interns, and volunteers.
- Carolyn Runyon, University of Tennessee at Chattanooga – Carolyn Runyon is the Assistant Head of Collection Services and Director of Special Collections at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. She has managed student assistants and interns working on processing, description, and digitization projects for more than a decade, and has recently delved into volunteer engagement in archives.
ArchivesSpace Implementation at University of Southern Mississippi Special Collections: In May 2018, Special Collections at the University of Southern Mississippi received the good news that ArchivesSpace was being implemented. The timeframe for converting legacy finding aids, however, was quite short – originally only six months. Due to time-saving initiatives, the conversion of 1,250 finding aids for processed collections was complete by February 2019. Head of Special Collections/Curator, Historical Manuscripts, Lorraine Stuart, will discuss decisions regarding the implementation and how the implementation has positively affected workflows.
- Lorraine Stuart, University of Southern Mississippi – Lorraine A. Stuart joined the faculty of the University of Southern Mississippi as Head of Special Collections/Curator, Historical Manuscripts and Archives in August 2016. She comes to USM from the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, where she headed the archival program since 1995. Lorraine obtained a MLIS with an archival specialization from Louisiana State University and a B.A. in art history with honors from the University of Texas at Austin. She has been a member of the Academy of Certified Archivists since 2004, obtained her Digital Archives Specialization in 2014, and has served on the boards of local and regional professional organizations as well as committees for the Society of American Archivists. She is currently on the advisory board for the USM School of Library and Information Science.
Moving Up and Moving In:
- Caitlin Rizzo, Pennsylvania State University
BLOCK C
Series of Tubes: Moving Subjects from MARC to ArchivesSpace Records:
- Ruth Kitchin Tillman, Pennsylvania State University
Moving Metadata and Boxes: ArchivesSpace Migration and an Off-site Storage Move: The University of Arkansas Special Collections migrated to ArchivesSpace as part of preparations for an off-site storage move. Move-related deadlines and logistical considerations shaped our implementation in a variety of ways, from spurring the involvement of library-wide volunteers to necessitating integration of ArchivesSpace data into our facility’s inventory management system, Caiasoft. This session will offer an overview of what worked well, what didn’t, and what we’re still working out!
- Katrina Windon, University of Arkansas Libraries – Katrina Windon is Collections Management and Processing Head for the University of Arkansas Special Collections. She holds an MSIS from the University of Texas at Austin’s School of Information and is a Certified Archivist.
Customizing the ArchivesSpace Public Interface: Some Simple How-Tos
- Laney McGlohon, ArchivesSpace
- Lora Woodford, ArchivesSpace
Making the Case for ArchivesSpace
- Stephen Innes, University of Auckland
- Emma Jolley, National Library of Australia
- Venkat Srinivasan, National Centre for Biological Sciences - Venkat Srinivasan is a visiting researcher and archivist at the Archives at the National Centre for Biological Sciences in Bangalore, India (http://archives.ncbs.res.in/). The Archives at NCBS is a new public space for the history of contemporary biology in India. It opened in February 2019. In addition to the setting up of this archive, the team is developing templates to pull archival material into coherent stories, and connect personal stories to established records of a scientific process.
- Leilani Dawson, University of Hawaiʻi - Mānoa