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ArchivesSpace is “an open source archives information management application for managing and providing web access to archives, manuscripts and digital objects”.

Hosting information

In August 2022 we switched from hosting our own ASpace server on EC2 to a third-party-hosted instance at LibraryHost. Hosting and support costs are paid out of Project 1520 - Born Digital. Our annual plan renews in September. Our original contract was for a Light Plan with our database on a shared server, however from August 2022 until August 2023 our instance was hosted on a standalone server. This was due to physical memory issues in August 2022 which brought down the entire database and required an emergency move from our shared server to a dedicated server. The Light Plan pricing was locked in through the end of the ‘22-’23 annual contract, but in September 2023 we switched to a Plus Plan.

Support: support@libraryhost.com

PUI: https://archives.sciencehistory.org

SUI: https://archives.sciencehistory.org/admin

API: https://sciencehistory-api.libraryhost.com/   

IP: 50.116.19.60

Our wildcard SSL certificates expire annually in October.

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We store digital descriptions of our archival collections in the following places:

Workflow

• Finding aids are For newly processed collections, finding aids can be first written up as Word documents ultimately stored at Shared/P/Othmer Library/Archives/Collections Inventories/Archival Finding Aids and Box Lists. Finding aids/resource records may also be entered directly into ArchivesSpace or created using the bulk ingest spreadsheet for box and folder inventories or digital objects.

• For legacy finding aids (finding aids created before ArchivesSpace was in use at SHI), the Word document is revised and the revised finding aid data is entered into ArchivesSpace as a resource record. Kent A list of legacy finding aids may be found at P:\Othmer Library\Archives\Legacy Finding Aid Docs

• Processing archivist enters the data into ArchivesSpace. They finding aids are If this data is from a legacy finding aid, the Word document finding aid is revised in the process.

• Once they the collections are described in ArchivesSpace as resource records:

  • Our EAD export app in Heroku (see EAD export app ) retrieves public EAD files from ArchivesSpace’s API and posts them to the Science History Institute EAD bucketKent also exports them to a PDF, which he then sends to Caroline. These are entered into the OPAC. (see e.g. https://othmerlib.sciencehistory.org/articles/1065801.15134/1.PDF ) where they are harvested by PACSCL and CHSTM (see below).

  • If the processing archivist entered data directly into ArchivesSpace (there is no Word doc version), then a PDF is exported from the SUI and saved to the finding aid folder on the P:\ drive.

    • Note: the PDF or the Word doc has to be manually updated in the OPAC every time the metadata resource record in ArchivesSpace changes.

  • The processing archivist exports a MARC XML version of the resource record and sends it to a cataloging librarian (usually Caroline), who creates a record in OCLC and the OPAC. The OPAC also points to a PUI URL at https://archives.sciencehistory.org/ .

    • Alternately, the cataloging librarian could use an ASpace account to export the MARC XML themselves.

    • Previously, there was a PDF version of the finding aid attached to the OPAC record. This practice has been discontinued with the launch of the ASpace PUI in Summer 2022.

  • Certain works in the Digital Collections also point to the PUI. Example: https://digital.sciencehistory.org/works/81jkowj.

• Finally, the exported EAD files in the Science History Institute EAD bucket 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 on a nightly basis and adds them to the Philadelphia Area Archives search portal, a service funded by PACSCL.

    • Example: https://findingaids.library.upenn.edu/records/SCIHIST_2015.003

  • Likewise, CHSTM ingests these EADs and makes them searchable at its search portal.

    • Example: https://www.chstm.org/collections/search?text=Carbogel

OBSOLETE – Technical details about the server

This section should be removed later in 2022.

ArchivesSpace lives on an AWS S3 server ArchivesSpace-prod, at https://50.16.132.240/ (also found at https://archives.sciencehistory.org)

The current production version of Aspace is 3.0.1 .

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.

SSL is based on the following: http://www.rubydoc.info/github/archivesspace/archivesspace

The executables are at /opt/archivesspace/

The configuration file is /opt/archivesspace/config/config.rb
Logs are at: logs/archivesspace.out

Apache server is at /var/log/apache2/

Configuration for the Apache site is at /etc/apache2/sites-available/000-default.conf.

OBSOLETE – Startup

• To start Archivesspace:

  • /opt/archivesspace/archivesspace.sh start (as user ubuntu)

• There may be a short delay as the server re-indexes data.

OBSOLETE –Restarting the server to fix Tomcat memory leak

We restart the ArchivesSpace program (not the server) using a cronjob that runs /opt/archivesspace/archivesspace.sh restart every night at 2 am. This prevents a chronic memory leak from eating up all the CPU credits for the machine.

When the server is restarted, Jetty creates a set of temporary files in /tmp

that look like this:

hsperfdata_ubuntu
jetty-0.0.0.0-8089-backend.war-_-any-3200460420275417425
jetty-0.0.0.0-8090-solr.war--any-_1669707332158985985
jetty-0.0.0.0-8091-indexer.war-_aspace-indexer-any-3026688914663148716
jetty-0.0.0.0-8080-frontend.war--any-3028692540497613460
jetty-0.0.0.0-8081-public.war--any-268053434795494538
jetty-0.0.0.0-8082-oai.war--any-_243630232179303838

Only the most recent set are used by Jetty, but the old ones accumulate rapidly if the server is restarted nightly.

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Backups

A nightly backup is uploaded by LibraryHost to s3://chf-hydra-backup/Aspace/aspace-backup.sql.
LibraryHost has a login to access our s3 bucket. Credentials are maintained by SHI library application developers and IT staff.

Export

The ArchivesSpace EADs are harvested by:

Both institutions harvest the EADs athttp://ead.sciencehistory.org/.

OBSOLETE – Backups

These consist of making backups of the sql database used by the ArchivesSpace program.

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Place the Mysql database in /backup

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mysql-backup.sh

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Sync /backup to an s3 bucket

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s3-backup.sh

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Runs an aws s3 sync command to place the contents of /backup at https://s3.console.aws.amazon.com/s3/object/chf-hydra-backup/Aspace/aspace-backup.sql?region=us-west-2&tab=overview.

This script is run as a crontab by user ubuntu : 45 17 * * 1-5 /home/ubuntu/archivesspace_scripts/s3-backup.sh

See Backups and Recovery (Historical notes) for a discussion of how the chf-hydra-backup s3 bucket is then copied to Dubnium and in-house storage.

Documentation

https://archivesspace.atlassian.net/wiki/home contains comprehensive documentation.

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