[Archivesspace_Users_Group] Linking location data to containers

[Bowers, Kate A.]

Sibyl:

This is one of the things we were really hoping to see changed from AT to ArchivesSpace. In AT and in ArchivesSpace, there is no container record.

In AT, an instance has a location.  It's modeled as if a folder sits on a shelf, so the relationship might be stated as "instance has location". Container has no logical existence in the data model. However, this is not a reflection of the real world. In the real world, "instance has container" and "container has location". In addition to location, other characteristics of containers, such as location history, dimensions, and barcodes, would be useful to record in a container record.

In ours and in many archives, items are often housed together due to media, size, preservation needs, and space constraints.  Archives often house small collections in larger, shared containers (a container within a container). 

Another scenario we see  is the housing of physical units from disparate collections together.  For example, we relocate high-risk items from collections to our vault. These items are in folders and those folders are in boxes in our vault, with many items from disparate collections sharing one box.  This is also a scenario for smaller media, like DAT tapes. 

Harvard University archives has 60,000 of these which we call "group boxes."  I did not discover a common term for them, but every archive that I've surveyed at Harvard has material stored in this way.

Kate



-----Original Message-----
From: archivesspace_users_group-bounces at lyralists.lyrasis.org [mailto:archivesspace_users_group-bounces at lyralists.lyrasis.org] On Behalf Of Schaefer, Sibyl
Sent: Wednesday, June 18, 2014 3:31 PM
To: archivesspace_users_group at lyralists.lyrasis.org
Subject: [Archivesspace_Users_Group] Linking location data to containers

Hi ArchivesSpace staff and users-

It appears the only way to link locations and materials is at the instance level. Is this correct? There is a closed Pivotal Tracker issue concerning
this:
"As an Archivist, I want to assign Location information to a Container²
https://www.pivotaltracker.com/s/projects/386247/stories/35417697

There¹s also a question on the Google Group referring to the AT functionality using the "Manage Locations² button (which involves linking locations to the containers listed within a resource record), dated after the PT issue was closed:
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!msg/archivesspace/Vhbs9WvEmwY/ilAlzQMZUI0
J

Has this feature actually made it into the application? If it has, where exactly can I expect to find it?

Thanks!

Sibyl

Sibyl Schaefer
Asst. Director, Head of Digital Programs Rockefeller Archive Center




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