ArchivesSpace is “an open source archives information management application for managing and providing web access to archives, manuscripts and digital objects”. In August 2022 we switched from hosting our own ASpace server on EC2 to a third-party-hosted instance at LibraryHost. Our annual plan renews in September. From 9/25/2022-9/26/2022 we are paying for a Light Plan
PUI: https://archives.sciencehistory.org
SUI: https://archives.sciencehistory.org/admin
API: https://sciencehistory-api.libraryhost.com/
IP: 50.116.19.60
Background
We store digital descriptions of our archival collections in the following places:
Location | Type of technology | Number of collections described | Source | Example | Who can see it? |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Word documents | Roughly 270, dates 1997 – present. | This is the initial description we create upon accessioning a collection. |
| Institute staff |
ArchivesSpace public user interface (PUI) | MySQL-backed website | Same as below | Public | ||
ArchivesSpace admin site | Same as above | Roughly 120 as of 2022 | Entered manually based on the P drive Word files. | Only logged in ArchivesSpace users | |
Public EAD bucket | EAD (xml format) | Roughly 120 as of 2022 | Generated weekly from ArchivesSpace database | Public | |
https://guides.othmerlibrary.sciencehistory.org/friendly.php?s=CHFArchives | LibGuide | Most collections, categorized by subject. | Created and maintained by Ashley Augustyniak | Technically public, but does not appear to be linked from anywhere. | |
WorldCat | Librarians manually update OCLC master records based on the metadata in ArchivesSpace. This is provided in the form of a MARCXML file by Kent and sent to Caroline. | Public |
Workflow
Finding aids are first written up as Word documents at
Shared/P/Othmer Library/Archives/Collections Inventories/Archival Finding Aids and Box Lists.Kent enters the data into ArchivesSpace. They finding aids are revised in the process.
Once they are in ArchivesSpace:
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 bucket
Kent 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 )
Note: the PDF has to be manually updated in the OPAC every time the metadata in ArchivesSpace changes.
The OPAC also points to a PUI URL at https://archives.sciencehistory.org/ .
Certain works in the Digital Collections also point to the PUI. Example: https://digital.sciencehistory.org/works/81jkowj.
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 on a nightly basis and adds them to the Philadelphia Area Archives search portal, a service funded by PACSCL.
Likewise, CHSTM ingests these EADs and makes them searchable at its search portal.
Backups
A nightly backup is uploaded by LibraryHost to s3://chf-hydra-backup/Aspace/aspace-backup.sql.
Export
The ArchivesSpace EADs are harvested by:
Institution | Liaison | Contact |
Center for the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine (CHSTM) | Richard Shrake | |
University of Penn Libraries Special Collections | Holly Mengel |
Both institutions harvest the EADs at http://ead.sciencehistory.org/.
Documentation
https://archivesspace.atlassian.net/wiki/home contains comprehensive documentation.
If you have a sciencehistory.orgaddress, you can get access to it by filling out a form.