We store descriptions of our archival collections in the following places:
Location | Format | Number | Source | Example | Who can see it? | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Word documents | ? | This is the original collection description. | ? | Institute staff | ||||||
ArchivesSpace site | MySQL-backed website | Roughly 45 as of 2020 | Entered manually based on the P drive Word files. | https://archives.sciencehistory.org/resources/81#tree::resource_81 | Only logged in ArchivesSpace users | ||||||
OPAC | ? | Exported manually as PDF from the ArchivesSpace site, then attached to the OPAC record for the collection | https://othmerlib.sciencehistory.org/articles/1065801.15134/1.PDF | Public | ArchivesSpace Apache front end | EAD (xml format) | Roughly 45 as of 2020 | Generated nightly from ArchivesSpace database | https://archives.sciencehistory.org/ead/scihist-2012-021.xml | Public | |
ArchivesSpace Apache front end | HTML | Roughly 45 as of 2020 | Generated nightly from ArchivesSpace database | Public | |||||||
OPAC | ? | Exported manually as PDF from the ArchivesSpace site, then attached to the OPAC record for the collection | https://othmerlib.sciencehistory.org/articles/1065801.15134/1.PDF | Public |
Workflow
Finding aids are stored as Word documents at
Shared/P/Othmer Library/Archives/Collections Inventories/Archival Finding Aids and Box Lists.Kent enters the data in them, one by one, into ArchivesSpace. He revises them in the process. As of summer 2020 approximately 45 have been entered.
Once they are in ArchivesSpace:
Kent exports them to a PDF, which he then sends to Victoria. These are entered into the OPAC. (see e.g. https://othmerlib.sciencehistory.org/articles/1065801.15134/1.PDF )
They are also automatically exported, via a nightly cron job described below, to https://archives.sciencehistory.org/ead/ .
They are also converted to HTML where most of them are available to the public. Examples: Wotiz; Simon; Fenn; Carbogel; Brody.
Note: because of a bug in the Apache config, not all HTML files in
var/www/htmlare actually served. (e.g. https://archives.sciencehistory.org/GB00-16.GB01.09.html even though the same information is public at e.g. http://dla.library.upenn.edu/dla/pacscl/ead.pdf?id=PACSCL_SCIHIST_GB0016GB0109USpaphchf )
Finally, the exported EAD files are also ingested by University of Penn Libraries Special Collections and the Center for the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine (CHSTM).
Penn, in turn, processes these EAD files (possibly nightly) and adds them to the Philadelphia Area Archives Research Portal (PAARP)
Likewise, CHSTM ingests these EADs and makes them searchable at its search portal.
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The current production version of Aspace is 2.7.1 .
Terminal access: ssh -i /path/to/production/pem_file.pem ubuntu@50.16.132.240
The ubuntu user owns all the admin scripts.
The relevant Ansible role is: /roles/archivesspace/ in the ansible-inventory codebase.
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