[Archivesspace_Users_Group] Integration of AS with BePress

Mon Oct 3 16:35:07 EDT 2016

Hi Martin,

We discussed this a bit at our last Integration sub-team
<https://archivesspace.atlassian.net/wiki/display/AC/2016-09-30+Meeting+notes>
meeting. We'd recommend finding a digital asset management system that
you're happy with (e.g., BePress, or a couple of our members suggested
Islandora, but really any will do--some better than others, of course) and
looking into that. As to your concern about having digital objects and
metadata "separated," I'm sure there's others on this list who would
disagree, but we've at least taken the approach that ArchivesSpace is our
system of record for administrative and descriptive metadata while DSpace
is our system of record for preserving/providing access to digital
objects/packages. While the metadata/objects then are technically
"separated" in different systems, all that really means is that we have two
systems that specialize in different things (and do each of those different
things better than either one of them could do both) that function together
in a coordinated whole. Unique identifiers end up playing a big role in
linking systems together.

One of the best things about ArchivesSpace is the API
<http://archivesspace.github.io/archivesspace/api/>, which allows you to
easily get data in and out and share it with other systems, so I'd also
look into that.

Hope that helps,
Max

On Fri, Sep 23, 2016 at 3:38 PM, Martin Cohen <mjcohen at stmarys-ca.edu>
wrote:

> Max,
>
> Thank you!
>
> It does seem that most places have created separate sites for their
> digital objects
> using a variety of systems (ContentDM, etc) while using the archives
> system just as
> a finding aid (as with Archivists Toolkit). Archon does provide the
> capacity for
> creating digital libraries within it and populating these with both
> metadata and associated
> JPEGs, so we built on that. Since AS does not provide that functionality,
> we would be looking
> to put the JPEGs etc in BePress, but haven't sorted out how that would
> work -- just linking
> to JPEGs would seem to separate the object from its metadata: not a good
> idea! Maybe
> we would have to rebuild the digital library in BePress, which seems a lot
> of duplicated
> work.... Even if we do build a reduced digital library in BePress
> (hundreds rather than
> thousands of images) , I would be sorry to lose when we've built in Archon
> when we
> migrate to AS.
>
> Duke University has done something similar as reported in Noah Huffman's
> "The Tao of
> the DAO: Embedding digital objects in finding aids" (July 6, 2015), using
> custom EAD
> coding. I'm not sure we could undertake that kind of project here and am
> looking for
> a "ready made" solution, if that's possible.
>
> My problem is that I'm not familiar using either AS or BePress.... so
> starting with
> questions at both ends. Plus, we don't have the resources of a Duke
> University to
> implement a large-scale project like they did.
>
> -Martin
>
> On Fri, Sep 23, 2016 at 12:12 PM, Max Eckard <eckardm at umich.edu> wrote:
>
>> Hi Martin,
>>
>> I apologize for the delay in getting back with you. I've added this as an
>> agenda item to the Integrations sub-team meeting next Tuesday so we'll
>> definitely discuss it then. Unless I'm missing something it sounds like
>> what you're talking about may be possible (as long as you have a link to
>> the object online somewhere--not a metadata/download screen, unless you
>> just wanted a link). I also assume you're talking about the public
>> interface here?
>>
>> I also wonder if anyone from the migrations sub-team would have any ideas
>> about the retaining data structures from Archon to ArchivesSpace part.
>>
>> Max
>>
>>
>>
>> On Tue, Sep 20, 2016 at 3:51 PM, Martin Cohen <mjcohen at stmarys-ca.edu>
>> wrote:
>>
>>> Max,
>>>
>>> Thanks for responding so quickly.
>>> I don't see in the Integrations and Comunity Projects page a reference
>>> to what we
>>> have in mind.
>>>
>>> We have been using Archon and have built within in it an integrated
>>> digital library of images
>>> of the history of the College. Each image is contained within a "digital
>>> library" which includes
>>> descriptive metadata (title, physical description, content description,
>>> creator, date, copyright
>>> and publisher data, location of the physical source of the digital
>>> object, etc).
>>> These individual digital libraries are each associated with the
>>> collection to which they pertain,
>>> such that a given collection may contain physical boxes, folders,
>>> audiotapes, video, photographs
>>> and digital objects as well.
>>>
>>> What we want is to make the digital object (JPEG, PDF, etc) viewable
>>> together with its
>>> metadata via AS. The digital objects themselves would be contained
>>> within BePress, while
>>> the physical objects would be referenced in AS. We hope not to have to
>>> reconstruct our
>>> whole catalog separately in BePress but to retain the data structures
>>> from Archon as we
>>> migrate to AS -- hence considering that we would in some fashion
>>> be integrating BePress with AS.
>>>
>>> At this point I don't know whether what I'm asking is trivially obvious
>>> or basically un-doable.
>>> Thanks for pointing me in a good direction.
>>>
>>> -Martin
>>>
>>> On Tue, Sep 20, 2016 at 12:25 PM, Max Eckard <eckardm at umich.edu> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Hi Marten,
>>>>
>>>> I believe you're the first (at least that I'm aware of from our work on
>>>> the Technical Advisory Committee Integrations sub-team) to be interested in
>>>> an integration with BePress (although not the first to be interested in
>>>> integration with an access system). I'd suggest taking a look at the Integrations
>>>> and Other Community Projects
>>>> <https://archivesspace.atlassian.net/wiki/display/ADC/Integrations+and+Other+Community+Projects>
>>>> page on the wiki to see if any of those integrations work in similar ways
>>>> to the one you have in mind. If you find one, I'd reach out to that
>>>> institution for more information.
>>>>
>>>> If you don't see what you're looking for, perhaps you could reply with
>>>> a little more detail about exactly what you're after. After that, I'm sure
>>>> one of us on the Integrations subteam or someone in the community would
>>>> have some suggestions for first steps.
>>>>
>>>> Thanks,
>>>> Max
>>>>
>>>> On Tue, Sep 20, 2016 at 3:01 PM, Martin Cohen <mjcohen at stmarys-ca.edu>
>>>> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> Related to the query about Preservica, we are looking to integrate
>>>>> AS with BePress and would like to learn what's involved.
>>>>>
>>>>> --
>>>>> Martin J. Cohen
>>>>> Librarian / Archivist
>>>>> Saint Mary's College of California
>>>>> mjcohen at stmarys-ca.edu
>>>>> 925-631-4231
>>>>>
>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>> Archivesspace_Users_Group mailing list
>>>>> Archivesspace_Users_Group at lyralists.lyrasis.org
>>>>> http://lyralists.lyrasis.org/mailman/listinfo/archivesspace_
>>>>> users_group
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> --
>>>> *Max Eckard*
>>>> *Assistant Archivist for Digital Curation*
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Bentley Historical Library
>>>> 1150 Beal Ave.
>>>> Ann Arbor, MI 48109-2113
>>>> (734) 763-7518
>>>> http://bentley.umich.edu/
>>>>
>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>> Archivesspace_Users_Group mailing list
>>>> Archivesspace_Users_Group at lyralists.lyrasis.org
>>>> http://lyralists.lyrasis.org/mailman/listinfo/archivesspace_users_group
>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>> Martin J. Cohen
>>> Librarian / Archivist
>>> Saint Mary's College of California
>>> mjcohen at stmarys-ca.edu
>>> 925-631-4231
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> Archivesspace_Users_Group mailing list
>>> Archivesspace_Users_Group at lyralists.lyrasis.org
>>> http://lyralists.lyrasis.org/mailman/listinfo/archivesspace_users_group
>>>
>>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> *Max Eckard*
>> *Assistant Archivist for Digital Curation*
>>
>>
>> Bentley Historical Library
>> 1150 Beal Ave.
>> Ann Arbor, MI 48109-2113
>> (734) 763-7518
>> http://bentley.umich.edu/
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Archivesspace_Users_Group mailing list
>> Archivesspace_Users_Group at lyralists.lyrasis.org
>> http://lyralists.lyrasis.org/mailman/listinfo/archivesspace_users_group
>>
>>
>
>
> --
> Martin J. Cohen
> Librarian / Archivist
> Saint Mary's College of California
> mjcohen at stmarys-ca.edu
> 925-631-4231
>
> _______________________________________________
> Archivesspace_Users_Group mailing list
> Archivesspace_Users_Group at lyralists.lyrasis.org
> http://lyralists.lyrasis.org/mailman/listinfo/archivesspace_users_group
>
>

-- 
*Max Eckard*
*Assistant Archivist for Digital Curation*

Bentley Historical Library
1150 Beal Ave.
Ann Arbor, MI 48109-2113
(734) 763-7518
http://bentley.umich.edu/
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