The identification of LYRASIS as the organizational home for ArchivesSpace is an important step toward ensuring a sustainable future for the financial, technical, and governance life of the ArchivesSpace system. In turn, it ensures continuity for the hundreds of archives that now depend on the Archivists Toolkit (AT) or the Archon systems to support the management of and access to archives. Engaging the ArchivesSpace user community in a new membership and governance structure will be the central factor in sustaining a vibrant software tool. LYRASIS’ demonstrated ability to foster collaboration among its member libraries and other archival institutions positions it well to support this activity. Development of the ArchivesSpace software system is slated to commence in summer 2012, with release by the end of 2013.

About LYRASIS: Created in April 2009 by the merger of the PALINET and SOLINET library services consortia, and joined shortly thereafter by NELINET, LYRASIS is the largest regional membership organization serving libraries and information professionals in the United States. LYRASIS includes more than 1700 member institutions across the US and internationally. Though large in scale, LYRASIS is known for its local touch – fostering collaboration and cooperation among members and facilitating their success through networking and programming, innovative solutions, and significant cost savings through group purchasing for products and services. For more information, please visit http://www.lyrasis.org.

For the full press release, visit http://www.nyu.edu/about/news-publications/news/2012/04/18/lyrasis-to-serve-as-base-for-archivesspace.html.

• 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.

What does Agile Scrum mean for the ArchivesSpace community? Unlike more traditional software development methods, Agile focuses on getting a “minimum viable product” in front of the people who will be using the system as soon as possible. This means the ArchivesSpace team will be asking community members who have volunteered to test the software to try the software before it is “done”. This early testing insures that the product will meet requirements before the software is so far along in development that changes would be difficult.

Because testers are looking at an unfinished product, it is important to focus on basic functionality, rather than detailed design features in the early phases. This new methodology requires a little different way of working, but the payoff should be a product that more closely meets the needs of the community when the development phase winds down.

The presentation, available from our website , provided information on project status, plans, and team roles. The presenters, Mark Matienzo and Katherine Kott encouraged members of the audience to get involved, and to post the questions they asked in the session to the ArchivesSpace Google Group to make sure all members of the community get the benefit of the answers.

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.

We are very interested in getting community feedback and involvement and would encourage you to submit comments and feedback via the ArchivesSpace Google Group.

We hope the ArchivesSpace community will review the general information or wireframes we have provided, or review the full description and business requirements.  Please provide comments via the ArchivesSpace Google Group by the end of October.

We encourage everyone to take a close look at any of the information we have posted an to offer comments on the appropriate page of this site.  We are reviewing comments and will take them into consideration as we continue to refine the data model and system requirements.

Proposals are due no later than 5 PM Eastern Time on October 14, 2011.