ArchivesSpace

Software Development Update

This week, ArchivesSpace released version 0.5 of its software. Since the 0.4 release, ArchivesSpace developers have enhanced or added support for the following features:

• Improvements to the staff user interface, based on community feedback, remote user testing, and in-person usability testing performed by the ArchivesSpace project team
• Support for digital objects and advanced search in the public user interface
• A basic reporting framework for the application with a small number of predefined reports
• Relationships between Agents (e.g. associative, parent/child, earlier later)
• Support for user-defined fields for Accessions, Resources, and Digital Objects
• Transferring components between Resources
• Support for “backups” of application data and configuration that can be easily redeployed
• Assigning Instances and Locations to Accessions
• Deployment documentation for large ArchivesSpace instances

A full list of all enhancements and bug fixes is available in the software change log. Please stay tuned for forthcoming information about testing the latest release.

ArchivesSpace 1.0 is scheduled for release in August 2013. Software development over the next few months will include:

• Refinements to import and export mappings
• The ArchivesSpace plugin architecture and associated documentation
• Improved user interaction and responsiveness, based on additional feedback received from the user community
• Improvements to the public discovery interface application
• Additional report definition:

The software is still in its “alpha” phase, and its first stable release is targeted for August 2013. ArchivesSpace is using Pivotal Tracker to help manage development using the Scrum methodology. Community members interested in tracking the software development process may view the user stories and programming tasks prioritized for development and awaiting prioritization.  More information on Pivotal Tracker is available.

ArchivesSpace Seeking Stylesheet Development Contractor

Are you comfortable working with XML and XSLT and looking for a way to participate in the ArchivesSpace development? The project is looking for a contractor to develop XSLT and XSL:FO stylesheets to transform exported EAD records to HTML, exported EAD records to PDF, and exported EAC-CPF records to HTML. More information about the contract opportunity can be found on the ArchivesSpace website. The deadline for applications is May 31, 2013.

Bradley Westbrook Hired as ArchivesSpace Program Manager

LYRASIS, the organizational home of ArchivesSpace, has hired Bradley Westbrook as the ArchivesSpace Program Manager. As Program Manager, Mr. Westbrook will serve as the liaison between the ArchivesSpace developer and user communities and will assist in shaping a strategic vision for the ArchivesSpace program. Mr. Westbrook will work closely with advisory groups and the wider archives community to identify near-term and long-term user needs. He will also lead the day-to-day support, outreach, training and membership activities of the community in support of ArchivesSpace members.  Mr. Westbrook will begin his new role as ArchivesSpace Program Manager on June 1, 2013. Prior to joining ArchivesSpace, Mr. Westbrook was the Archivists’ Toolkit project manager and lead designer and the head of the Metadata Analysis and Specification Unit in the University of California, San Diego Library. He previously served as lead designer for the Mellon-sponsored Union Catalog of Art Images project, as the Manuscripts Librarian and University Archivist at the University of California San Diego, and as the exhibits curator at Columbia University’s Rare Book and Manuscripts Library. He has an MLS from UCLA and an MA in English from SUNY-Albany.

About ArchivesSpace

ArchivesSpace is open source software, and its source code is available on Github. For the technically inclined, build instructions and technical documentation are available. As a disclaimer, no technical support is currently available to software testers, but the developers are eager for early feedback.  If you have trouble getting a test server running, feel free to ask for help or report problems to the ArchivesSpace Google Group email list.

ArchivesSpace is being developed by Hudson Molonglo in partnership with the New York University Libraries, UC San Diego Libraries, and University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Library with funding from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and organizational support from LYRASIS.

Questions about ArchivesSpace development should be directed to the ArchivesSpace Google Group. Questions regarding membership should be directed to <ArchivesSpaceHome@lyrasis.org>.

Software Development Update

This week, ArchivesSpace released version 0.4 of its software. Since the 0.3 release, ArchivesSpace developers have enhanced or added support for the following features:

• A basic public discovery interface application, with templating and style customization
• Import of Resources, Subjects, and Agents from MARCXML
• Export of Resources to MARCXML
• Import of Digital Objects and Accessions from CSV
• Export of Digital Objects to Dublin Core, MODS and METS
• Import and export of Agents from/to EAC-CPF
• Enumerations (configurable lookup lists) for semi-controlled information such as extent types, container types, and more
• User Groups for Project Managers, Advanced Data Entry users, and Basic Data Entry users
• Configurable help tooltips and configurable links to external help documentation
• Improved workflow for Rights records and spawning Resources from Accessions
• Automatic generation of Resource Component titles from Date statements

A full list of all enhancements and bug fixes is available in the software change log. Please stay tuned for forthcoming information about testing the latest release.

ArchivesSpace 0.5 is scheduled for release in May 2013. Software development in March and April will focus on:

• Predefined reporting options and supporting components to generate formatted reports
• Improved interaction and workflow based on feedback from user testing of the 0.2 and 0.3 releases of ArchivesSpace
• Refinements to import and export mappings
• Improved deployment and application administration

The software is still in its “alpha” phase, and its first stable release is targeted for August 2013. ArchivesSpace is using Pivotal Tracker to help manage development using the Scrum methodology. Community members interested in tracking the software development process may view the user stories and programming tasks prioritized for development and awaiting prioritization.  More information on Pivotal Tracker is available.

About ArchivesSpace

ArchivesSpace is open source software, and its source code is available on Github. For the technically inclined, build instructions and technical documentation are available. As a disclaimer, no technical support is currently available to software testers, but the developers are eager for early feedback.  If you have trouble getting a test server running, feel free to ask for help or report problems to the ArchivesSpace Google Group email list.

ArchivesSpace is being developed by Hudson Molonglo in partnership with the New York University Libraries, UC San Diego Libraries, and University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Library with funding from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and organizational support from LYRASIS.

Questions about ArchivesSpace development should be directed to the ArchivesSpace Google Group. Questions regarding membership should be directed to <ArchivesSpaceHome@lyrasis.org>.

The ArchivesSpace team has uploaded updated drafts of existing and new documentation to the project website, available on the Specifications section of the website. Drafts of specifications are indicated by revision date. The new and revised specifications are listed and linked below:

• Agent specification (March 23, 2012 draft; replaces name specification)
• Archival Object specification (March 23, 2012 draft)
• Collection management sub-record specification (March 23, 2012 draft)
• Date specification (April 4, 2012 draft)
• Event specification (March 23, 2012 draft)
• Rights management specification (March 23, 2012 draft)
• Position statement on deployment (March 23, 2012 draft)
• Position statement on reporting (March 23, 2012 draft)

As always, we welcome feedback on the specifications via the ArchivesSpace Google Group or via e-mail to Mark A. Matienzo, Technical Architect, at mark.matienzo@nyu.edu.

The ArchivesSpace project has made the decision to extend the deadline for responses to our RFP until 12 PM Eastern Time on Monday, October 17.

Proposals should still be submitted to Mark A. Matienzo, ArchivesSpace Technical Architect, at mark.matienzo@yale.edu and Katherine Kott, ArchivesSpace Development Manager, at katherine.kott@gmail.com.

Over the upcoming weeks, the ArchivesSpace Technical Review Team will be leading a collaborative process to review and finalize requirements documents and functional specifications for the ArchivesSpace tool.

Led by Technical Architect Mark Matienzo and Project Manager Katherine Kott, team members Joe Pawletko, Chris Prom, Scott Schwartz, Brian Tingle, Adrian Turner, and Brad Westbrook will exhaustively review the existing specification documents, seeking to rationalize inconsistent language, identify potential development barriers, and develop a more detailed and concise data model. In addition, the team will be developing more detailed functional requirements for the Administrative Interface and System Configuration Panel. The team will be completing this work in their project workspace and in a two day meeting, scheduled for October 5th and 6th.

During this process, the team seeks feedback and suggestions from the archival community, from potential bidders on the RFP, and from other interested parties. Comments and feedback can be provided in the comments section of pages linked under the specifications section of the ArchivesSpace website at http://www.archivesspace.org/documents/specifications/.

All feedback will be reviewed by team members. Where appropriate, we will incorporate suggestions into the final versions of the specification documents, which will be updated as they are completed, according to the timeframe below.

We are particularly seeking analysis of the specs completeness and discussion of whether they describe the required functionality consistently and clearly. Community members should also note gaps in functionality between the specifications and existing functionality of the Archivists’ Toolkit or Archon. They should also identify recommendations of potential integration points or scalability and performance concerns, noting potential gaps in the proposed system design/data model.

If possible, please submit your feedback by the following dates:

• September 26: repository records, staff user records, location records
• October 3: subject records, name records
• October 10: accession records, de-accession sub-records
• October 17: digital object records
• October 24: resource records
• October 31: All sub-records specifications (date statement, extent statement, external document, rights management); public interface design principles, and system configuration panel.

As previously announced, the request for proposals has been released. ArchivesSpace is accepting proposals from any interested party. More information, including the full text of the RFP, is available at http://archivesspace.org/rfp. Proposals are due no later than 5 PM EDT on October 14, 2011.