Why Integrate with ArchivesSpace

As the central repository of archival information for many institutions, ArchivesSpace plays a critical role supporting the daily activities performed by special collections and archives institutions. However, it is only one piece of a larger software ecosystem employed by these institutions, and many institutions maintain several other applications that perform other tasks, such as digital asset management, patron fulfillment workflow management, etc. While the employment of so many systems can have a negative impact on staff efficiency due to increased training needs, disparate workflows, and duplication of work between systems, it doesn’t have to. Integrating these disparate systems together allows institutions to couple various systems together to create efficient workflows that minimize the duplication of work while maximizing the overall benefit of the entire set of applications.

Importance of supporting the open-source software community

Open source software requires the support of its community to keep operating and moving forwards. ArchivesSpace, like all open-source software, depends to some extent on supporting institutions for ongoing sustainability as well as active development.

If your institution is an ArchivesSpace member, then they are already committed to supporting open-source software. However, there are ways to increase that support that benefit both your institution as well as the broader ASpace community such as developing new integrations which can be shared with other community members. The projects work best when they reinforce your institution’s mission and values while helping to meet your institution’s business needs. Additionally, collaborating with another institution on an integration can help you fulfill your needs while giving back to the open source community at the same time.

Integration Scenarios

The following is a list of typical integration scenarios.

Aggregated Discovery Layers

Content Publication Systems

Digital Asset Management and Repository Systems

Digital Preservation Systems

Document and Records Management

Reference and Reading Room Systems

Integrated Library Systems

Workflow Enhancements and Tracking

Next Steps

We understand that the integrations scenarios we described above do not encompass the entire universe of possible ArchivesSpace integrations. For example, the Integrations sub-team has identified rights management systems and reporting systems as scenarios for possible growth. If you have more integrations, we’d love to hear about them.

A number of integrations with ArchivesSpace already exist or are in their planning stages. The ArchivesSpace Integrations sub-team maintains a list of known integrations on the ArchivesSpace site.

Ready to get started? Check out How to Integrate with ArchivesSpace.