ArchivesSpace is a server whose main purpose is to host a software program also named… ArchivesSpace. The program is “an open source archives information management application for managing and providing web access to archives, manuscripts and digital objects”. The server also hosts a few auxiliary programs who take the output from ArchivesSpace and convert it into various other formats, which are then made available via an Apache webserver on the same machine.
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Location | Format | Number of collections described | Source | Example | Who can see it? |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Word documents? | Roughly 270, dates 1997 – present. | 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 |
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 | |
https://guides.othmerlibrary.sciencehistory.org/friendly.php?s=CHFArchives | LibGuide | Most collections, categorized by subject. | ? | Technically public, but does not appear to be linked to from anywhere. |
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/html
are actually served. (e.g. https://archives.sciencehistory.org/GB00-16.GB01.09.html is a broken link, even though the same information is public at UPenn. )
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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