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 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:
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.
This information is stored as an unordered sequence of two strings:
Series ArrangementSeries I. Arnold O. Beckman FilesSub-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 to order the series within a collection.
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.
The letter’s physical location within the collection is also denoted by metadata, in the form of a Work::PhysicalContainer. This is just a set of seven keys (box; folder; page; part; volume; shelfmark; and reel).
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:
In ArchivesSpace, the letter takes the form of a “digital object”:
https://sciencehistory.libraryhost.com/admin/digital_objects/247#tree::digital_object_247
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”.
It also contains a link to what ArchivesSpace calls a “file”:
The “file”'s URL is https://sciencehistory.libraryhost.com/admin/resources/1#tree::archival_object_10615 .
The “file” is a digital surrogate for a manila folder (folder 29 in box 1) which contains the letter.
A “file” 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”
The “file” has a unique ID which is
118f36c4c5a373e4b4a81253ebc85fae.The “file” is also part of a subseries.
The subseries the “file” is part of is called “Sub-series 1. Correspondence”.
Like the file it contains, the subseries is an “archival object”.
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 I. Arnold O. Beckman Files, 1918-2009, undatedThe series is also an “archival object”
Its URL is https://sciencehistory.libraryhost.com/admin/resources/1#tree::archival_object_1
The series is part of a collection, of course.
Beckman Historical Collection
https://sciencehistory.libraryhost.com/admin/resources/1#tree::resource_1
The collection is not an “archival object”, but a “resource”.
It does not have a hexadecimal Ref ID, but