2018-07-26 Meeting notes

It would be useful to discuss and gather community input on ANW-380, which deals with EAD3 structured date implementation in the Resource, Accession, and Digital Object modules in ArchivesSpace. There seems to be a growing consensus that adding structured dates as another option would be preferable to replacing the existing date entry subrecord and migrating the content. Additional feedback would be helpful, though.

• Curious of impact for resource records, digital object records, accession records, and other places dates are being used in the application
• Please send any feedback to Cory, or comment on the Jira ticket

More of an announcement than a discussion point, but I could mention the kickoff of our migration project, if interested. It's scheduled as a 2-year project and we'll be in the planning phase through October. So nothing overly exciting yet =)

• AT holding collection level descriptions. Database for spreadsheets. Another database for names/agents. Database for digital objects. Migrating all of that into one – into ASpace!
• Will keep the community updated. Trying to show the community that you can do it tool

Also more of an announcement than a discussion point. The User Documentation sub-team will be hosting a Twitter chat on August 8th from 11am-12pm PDT (2pm-3pm EDT) and 6pm-7pm PDT (9pm-10pm EDT). The chat will be hosted by @ArchivesSpace. Please use the hashtag #aspacedoc to tag your questions/comments.

• Share your thoughts on the user manual! https://goo.gl/forms/7MFLUqIzeKY6iPeq1

Managing locations in AS

• Denver: Set it up as close to ALMA as possible, since that's the primary circulation system.
• Seth Shaw: Currently using a google sheet for locations, eventually migrating to AS locations.
• Maura Carbone: There’s an ASpace/Aeon plugin coming
• From Rebecca Romanchuk to Everyone: 11:37 AM
  We have locations entered in an Access database down to shelf level for control of all locations. In AS, we have locations created and are linking accessions to them as we import accession data and enter new accessions, which is a slow process so far. This is at TX State Archives.
• From Nora Blackman CWRU to Everyone: 11:39 AM
  We do use AS to create location recods in batches - our collection is pretty static and we only have to make location records as we gain new space.

Are there ways to create custom ingest forms for resources, a la Islandora? Just something I've been thinking about as I start to create resources, and the fields are either way too specific or wildly general! Would this even be possible or practical for ArchivesSpace?

•  Accession form plugin now...
• Miloche Kottman: Sort the most often used at the top, and anything beneath a certain value, ignore.
• From Nora Blackman CWRU to Everyone: 11:32 AM
  We just use project specific instructions that tell user to "click this" "enter that" save and move on to the next step - very basic and not customized I'm afraid
• Kevin Clair: our plugin for looking up new collection numbers also doubles as a very simple (only two fields!) custom form: https://github.com/duspeccoll/next_resource

Setting up stand alone site

• #1: Want to set up our own dedicated server. From the instructors, can be done. But unclear. And don't indicate whether it's better to put it on a LINUX and which distribution it runs best on, or putting it on a Windows server (would rather not do) – a little bit more guidance in that direction.
  • Can submit a ticket for support.
  • Would also like more guidance in the documentation - can help with that.
  • LINUX server tends to run more smoothly. 
  • Which distribution? Connect with tech support.
• #2: Need to be able to run an offline version of it, and then merge it into the public version of it online. Most of the stuff is stored where we don't have any internet access at.
  • Spreadsheet data entry and import.
  • Would also have to be a separate export in order to work effectively
  • Setting up a local instance to sync wouldn't go well.
  • Export / offline edit tool. Would need to develop the script to do the update via API

Prompted by conversations and suggestions during workshops at smaller institutions, I think it would be useful to have some sort of forum targeted to smaller orgs where they could discuss ASpace implementation issues/strategies specific to small institutions. For example, discussions about what parts of the applications you use and, perhaps more importantly, what modules or functionality you don't use and why.

• Someone at College of Charleston brought up the idea of where smaller/medium institutions could talk about how they implemented ASpace in their context. Things they chose to use/not use. e.g. locations, advanced functionalities around containers.
• Even something like this call, targeted towards smaller places
• Possibly an online half-day forum that covers themes specific to smaller institutions?

The ArchivesSpace team is interested in developing a community Code of Conduct that applies to our in-person and online events, as well as our community collaborations. We would like to gauge interest to convene an ad hoc working group, as well as any ideas or feedback on how to approach this as a community.

• convene a working group
• share draft for feedback

Annual Member Forum coming up on August 14th

• ArchivesSpace Member Forum 2018 program