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We’ve received two grants to digitize the Beckman and Bredig collections respectively; we have another one coming soon (the Dow collection). This is a quick overview of the current state of metadata and information architecture setup data models in ArchivesSpace and the Digital Collections, to make future conversations about these two websites easier. The terminology is confusing.

Let’s take a look at a letter from the Beckman collection as an example.

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To place the work in the context of the collection’s archival arrangement, the D.C. gives you the following clues:

Collection

  • The letter is part of a collection, the Beckman Collection.

    • 💡 A work can be part of more than one collection, but

    • A collection cannot be part of another collection.

  • The letter is part of a subseries and a series within the Beckman collection.

Series arrangement

Series and subseries In the digital collections, series and sub-series arrangement is stored as an unordered sequence of two strings attached to the work, as follows. In this case we have:

  • Series Arrangement

    • Series I. Arnold O. Beckman Files

    • Sub-series 1. Correspondence

  • Each string concatenates the type of metadata ( Sub-series), the identifier, (I.), and the title of the grouping: (Arnold O. Beckman Files)

  • There’s no ordering information to encode the fact that a series is more important than a subseriessub-series.

  • There’s no way to order the subseries within a given series, or to order the series within a collection.

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  • This ASpace Reference number can tie a work or collection in the D.C. to a “file”, “sub-series” or “series” in ArchivesSpace - any level of archival arrangement in ArchivesSpace as long as that level description level that is an “archival object”Practically speaking, this means works or collections in the D.C. can be associated with “file”s, subseries, or series in ArchivesSpace.. More on this below.

Physical Location

  • The letter’s physical location is encoded as set of seven keys (box; folder; page; part; volume; shelfmark; and reel). Archival records in the D.C. so far have only used box, folder, and reel. (The others are in use by the to catalog rare books and museums staffitems).

  • For this letter, all the keys except box and folder are blank;

    • “Box” has as its value is the string “1”; “Folder” has as its value is the string “29”.

ArchivesSpace:

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Collection