Content Comparison

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 in ArchivesSpace and the Digital Collections, to make future conversations about these two websites easier.

Example 1:

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

...

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

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

  • A collection cannot be part of another collection.

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

  This information

Series arrangement

Series and subseries arrangement is stored as an unordered sequence of two strings attached to the work, as follows:

• Series Arrangement

  • Series I. Arnold O. Beckman Files

  • Sub-series 1. Correspondence

    Notes re: series arrangement:

• 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 subseries.

• There’s no way to order the subseries within a given series

  There’s no way

  , 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 any level of archival arrangement in ArchivesSpace as long as that level 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.

Physical Location

• The letter’s physical location within the collection is also denoted by metadata, in the form of a Work::PhysicalContainer. This is just a 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 rare books and museums staff).

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

  .

  ;

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

• 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 NOT an “archival object”.

• It also contains a link to is part of what ArchivesSpace calls a “file”:

  The “file”'s URL is

  .

File

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

• URL: https://sciencehistory.libraryhost.com/admin/resources/1#tree::archival_object_10615 .

• The “file” is

  Is a digital surrogate for a manila folder (folder 29 in box 1) which contains the letter.

• A “file” is

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

  The “file”’s title is “Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce - Air Pollution Committee, 1951-1954”

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

• The “file” has

  a unique

  ref ID

  which is

  118f36c4c5a373e4b4a81253ebc85fae.

• The “file” is also part of a subseries.

The subseries the “file” is part of is called

Subseries

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

• Like the file it contains, the subseries is

  Is an “archival object”.

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

• The subseries has a unique ID,

  Ref ID: 66a590971707f99df33fc42be0d0c909

  The subseries is part of a series.

  The series is called

Series

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

• The series is also an “archival object”

Its URL is

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

• The series is also “archival object” and thus has Ref ID is 5575406909262fd92cf89083a49f855b

Collections

• The series is part of a collection, of course.

  • Title: Beckman Historical Collection

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

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

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

    , but

    • .