ArchivesSpace
1.
Define ArchivesSpace: “ArchivesSpace
is the next-generation open source archives information management application
designed by archivists for describing, managing, and providing access to
archives, manuscripts, and digital objects.”
a.
Open-source archives management
software
i.
Create (Encoded Archival
Description) EAD-finding aids, accession records, holdings notes, etc.
b.
Merger of Archon and
Archivists’ Toolkit
i.
These were two types of open-source
archival software that were used by archival professionals
1.
Archon was developed by the
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
2.
Archivists’ Toolkit was
developed by the New York University Libraries and New York University with
funding from the Andrew Mellon Foundation
2.
Benefits of ArchivesSpace
a.
Allows finding aids, the
primary surrogate records for archival collections, to be easily written and
exported as MARC-records or EAD finding aids
b.
Is relatively inexpensive
to use: the highest fee is $7,500 per year, and is based on institution’s size classification
with JSTOR/ARTstor
i.
This may help smaller
repositories a way to write EAD finding aids that can be published online,
thereby increasing the digital presence of online repositories
3.
Potential Pitfalls
a.
Small staff
i.
The ArchivesSpace team only
has three employees, and most likely of hundreds of subscribers
1.
This can lead to slow
response times, or perhaps no responses at all. I e-mailed the ArchivesSpace
team and received no response.
b.
Lack of help guides
i.
There is no central user
guide, at least in the test version of ArchivesSpace
1.
A commercial product would
offer better user support
2.
It is unclear how
ArchivesSpace defines certain terms and phrases
3.
This lack of guidance makes
the software very clunky to use, and makes it difficult for a user to benefit
from the software’s capabilities
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