[Archivesspace_Users_Group] barcodes and EAD export/import

[Steven Majewski]

We made an initial attempt to migrate EAD from our test server onto a production server by exporting with ead_export.sh script on the test server and importing on production server. Everything appeared to work OK, but on further inspection we found that the barcodes were not imported. Further inspection showed that the barcodes are not exported in EAD. 

Looking at the export/import mappings spreadsheet, I see that a mapping is given for barcodes in ArchivesSpace to EAD, but not in EAD to ArchivesSpace mappings. 

Looking further, I find a Jira issue reporting this:
https://archivesspace.atlassian.net/browse/AR-983?jql=text%20~%20%22container%20label%22 <https://archivesspace.atlassian.net/browse/AR-983?jql=text%20~%20%22container%20label%22>

pointing me to the Yale-ead-exporter plugin:

https://github.com/archivesspace/yale-ead-exporter <https://github.com/archivesspace/yale-ead-exporter>


I downloaded and installed the yale-ead-exporter. 
ArchivesSpace fails to restart do to a syntax error. 

I fixed and reported syntax error:
https://github.com/archivesspace/yale-ead-exporter/issues/1 <https://github.com/archivesspace/yale-ead-exporter/issues/1>

and restarted successfully. 
I installed plugin on both servers and did another export and import cycle. 

This appeared to mostly work, except that instances of Type "Graphic Materials” with a barcode were imported as Type “Graphic” with a barcode of “Materials” . I changed the delimiter in both the export and import methods of the plugin from a space (“ “ ) to a bar ( “|” ). So far this seems to work. 


The main reason I bring this up in detail rather than just forking and fixing it is that my impression from the export/import mappings, JIRA thread, etc. is that these issues were unresolved due to a lack of consensus on how (or even whether) barcodes should be encoded. I’m hoping for some discussion and consensus on that issue now. 


I also understand that barcodes and location information might be something that some may not want published. Typically, one might use an @audience attribute to  tag things in the EAD that shouldn’t be published, but that’s not available when encoding the barcode itself as an attribute. However, if we’re using EAD as the standard for transmission and archiving we need to include that info. Perhaps we need an export option that turns this feature off and on ( like the :use_numbered_c_tags or :include_daos flags ): this would need more extensive changes than the current plugin. 

I’m also wondering if this is either addressed by the Yale Container Management work or if any changes here might conflict with that. I see many mentions of barcodes, but I didn’t see anything that looked like the export/import changes in the yale-ead-exporter plugin.  

BTW: Is this the best and current repo for that work:
https://github.com/hudmol/container_management <https://github.com/hudmol/container_management>

I also see a container_management_dartmouth and a container branch on archivespace/archivesspace. 


— Steve Majewski








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