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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.

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:

  • 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.

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

  • 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, 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 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”:

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 .

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

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

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

  • The “file” has ref ID 118f36c4c5a373e4b4a81253ebc85fae.

Subseries

Series

Collections

  • No labels