archivists' toolkit ...
... or, how anarchivist got his groove back
mark matienzo, american institute of physics
what is it?
- open source (ECL) relational database application for "back office" archival functions (arrangement, description, ...)
- two phase project funded by mellon foundation
- java (swing, hibernate, jaxb, jasperreports ...)
- support for mysql, mssql, and oracle backends
- promotes standardization (DACS/ISAD(G), ISAAR(CPF) ...) and efficiency
even better...
- centralized way to create/maintain metadata for archival resources
- ingests MARCXML, EAD, AT accessions XML, CSV accessions info
- exports MARCXML, EAD, MODS, METS, DC, HTML, PDF
- what does this mean? no more handcoding EAD!
primary modules
- name/subject authorities
- accessions
- description ("resources")
- metamodules: ingest, export, reports
screenshot of names module
screenshot of accessions module
screenshot of resources module
how does $MPOW use it?
- originally planned just to use description module
- our EAD workflow was complicated and messy
- it used excel, access AND handcoding
- decided to use accessions module too
- existing ms access 2000 accessions/user tracking database
- in use since 1999
- less than ideal in many ways, but we had no other motivation to change until now
the fun part: importing a legacy database
- had fields that didn't map directly to AT
- required planning meetings to figure out what stayed/went and where it should go
- mapping: method: good old pen & paper
- import process (post-mapping)
- used CSV dump of access database
- imported several times to test
- from planning to final import: < 10 days
gotchas
- think carefully about data cleanup
- still many subtle bugs
- you can only import one MARCXML record at a time
- CSV is not preferred accessions import format (AT dev team pushes XML format)
- no way to import location information directly (maybe by SQL)
- breaking apart name headings is hard! (dark regex magic from the dark archives)
in summary
- software rapidly maturing
- dev team is extremely accessible and cooperative
- ... and they're looking for a new staff developer
- www.archiviststoolkit.org
- mark@matienzo.org
