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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 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.

Digital collections:

In the digital collections, the letter takes the form of a work: https://digital.sciencehistory.org/admin/works/wm117p03j

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

In the digital collections, series and sub-series arrangement is stored as an unordered sequence of strings attached to the work. 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 sub-series.

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

ASpace Reference Number

The letter also has an ASpace Reference Number: 118f36c4c5a373e4b4a81253ebc85fae.

• This ASpace Reference number can tie a work or collection in the D.C. to a “file”, “sub-series” or “series” in ArchivesSpace - any description level that is an “archival object”. 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 to catalog rare books and museums items).

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

  • “Box” is the string “1”; “Folder” is the string “29”.

ArchivesSpace:

Digital object

In ArchivesSpace, the letter takes the form of a “digital object”:

• URL: https://sciencehistory.libraryhost.com/admin/digital_objects/247#tree::digital_object_247

• Digital objects in ArchivesSpace are currently not published; they are invisible to the public.

• Title is the same as the D.C. work title.

• The “digital object” contains as part of its metadata the URL to the “work” in the digital collections.

• The “digital object” is NOT an “archival object”.

• Digital objects were not part of the earliest versions of ArchivesSpace (as item-level description is a fairly uncommon archival practice).

• It is part of what ArchivesSpace calls a “file”.

• The digital object has a link to the work in the digital collections. (The work does not have a link back to the digital object.)

File

• The file is a digital surrogate for a particular manila folder (folder 29 in box 1) which contains the letter.

  • The name is confusing; this has nothing to do with a computer file.

• A file is the lowest level of standard archival description as usually practiced in ArchivesSpace.

• Title: “Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce - Air Pollution Committee, 1951-1954”

• URL: https://archives.sciencehistory.org/repositories/3/archival_objects/10615

• Is an “archival object” (as opposed to a “digital object”).

• Files, sub-series and series are all considered “archival objects”. “Digital objects” and “collections” are not.

• All “archival objects” have a unique ID called a Ref ID.

• The “file” has ref ID 118f36c4c5a373e4b4a81253ebc85fae.

Subseries

• Title: “Sub-series 1. Correspondence”.

• Is an “archival object”.

• URL: https://sciencehistory.libraryhost.com/admin/resources/1#tree::archival_object_5

• Ref ID: 66a590971707f99df33fc42be0d0c909

Series

• Title: Series I. Arnold O. Beckman Files, 1918-2009, undated

• URL: https://sciencehistory.libraryhost.com/admin/resources/1#tree::archival_object_1

• Ref ID: 5575406909262fd92cf89083a49f855b

Collection

• Title: Beckman Historical Collection

• URL: https://sciencehistory.libraryhost.com/admin/resources/1#tree::resource_1

• External URL:

• The collection is not an “archival object”, but a “resource”.

  • Because of this it does not have a hexadecimal Ref ID.