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This overview of the data models in ArchivesSpace and the Digital Collections should make future conversations about these two websites easier.

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 work is part of a sub-series 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).

    • These are stored separately in ArchivesSpace.

  • 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 sub-series 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.

  • In this case the Reference Number refers to a file in ArchivesSpace.

Physical Location

  • A work’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 work, 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.

  • ArchivesSpace maintains a distinction between a digital object and an archival object.

  • Like all digital objects, it has been unpublished since 2022.

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

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

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

  • Digital objects were not part of the earliest versions of ArchivesSpace (item-level description is uncommon in archival practice as it’s unsustainable at scale).

  • The digital object is part of a file.

File

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

    • ⚠️ Nothing to do with a file in the operating system sense.

  • A file is the lowest level of standard archival description as 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.

  • Ref ID:118f36c4c5a373e4b4a81253ebc85fae.

Sub-series

Series

Collection

  • URL: https://archives.sciencehistory.org/repositories/3/resources/1

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

    • Hence, it does not have a hexadecimal Ref ID.

  • Has an accession number: 2012-002

    • Accession numbers are arbitrary strings and might contain digits, spaces, letters and punctuation.

  • Has an internal ID, like all resources: in this case the integer 1, which is at the end of its URL.

  • We use the ID as part of the file name at the EAD export page.

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