[Archivesspace_Users_Group] Accruals/related accesions

Fri Mar 31 12:00:44 EDT 2017

Here at UH we are approaching things in a very similar way to what Olivia has described. We’ve been looking for better ways of tracking accruals/additions to existing collections  for a while now, and are still experimenting with how to best implement this in ASpace.

One of our main use-cases is linking new (and therefore unprocessed) additions to existing (processed) collections. This happens a lot with University Archives, but also with a number of external organizations whose records we hold.

We also have related accessions that don’t yet correspond to a processed collection (a Resource Record), or where there are multiple related accruals that are not yet processed into the existing collection. In those instances, we had thought to relate them as siblings, as Olivia described, but noted the same issue in that linkages A-B and B-C don’t transfer to A-C.

I’m attaching a screen shot that illustrates both cases in a single set of accessions (though, notably, the Resource record for the processed collection has not yet be created in ASpace).

We haven’t settled on the best way to move forward with this, and would welcome other thoughts.

Thanks,
Matt

Matt Richardson, Program Manager
Special Collections
University of Houston Libraries
A Carnegie-designated Tier One public research university
713-743-9229
rmrichardson at uh.edu

Web:  info.lib.uh.edu/sc
Blog:  weblogs.lib.uh.edu/speccol<http://weblogs.lib.uh.edu/speccol/>
Facebook:  facebook.com/UHSpecColl<https://www.facebook.com/UHSpecColl>

From: archivesspace_users_group-bounces at lyralists.lyrasis.org [mailto:archivesspace_users_group-bounces at lyralists.lyrasis.org] On Behalf Of Olivia S Solis
Sent: Friday, March 31, 2017 9:06 AM
To: Archivesspace Users Group
Subject: Re: [Archivesspace_Users_Group] Accruals/related accesions

Hi Kari,

Our registrar determines this, but essentially we consider an accession that has the same creator and is the same resource type as an existing collection an accrual. Sometimes this is very obvious. For instance, we are the university archives (University of Texas) and regularly receive records/papers from departments and faculty. So if we have already received an accession from a particular professor, a new accession from him or her would be an accrual. If a professor sends materials to us for the first time, the accession is not an accrual, though any subsequent accessions he/she passes on would be.

Most of the time, whether or not something is an accrual is clear to our registrar, but sometimes he has to do a little digging to see if an accession is an addition to an already existing collection.

Does that make sense?

Thanks,
Olivia

On Fri, Mar 31, 2017 at 8:32 AM, Kari R Smith <smithkr at mit.edu<mailto:smithkr at mit.edu>> wrote:
Hi Olivia,
Can you explain more about how you are distinguishing between accessions that are accruals from those that are not?

Kari R. Smith
Digital Archivist and Program Head for Born-digital Archives
Institute Archives and Special Collections
Massachusetts Institute of Technology Libraries, Cambridge, Massachusetts
617.253.5690<tel:(617)%20253-5690>   smithkr at mit.edu<http://mit.edu>   http://libraries.mit.edu/archives/  @karirene69

From: archivesspace_users_group-bounces at lyralists.lyrasis.org<mailto:archivesspace_users_group-bounces at lyralists.lyrasis.org> [mailto:archivesspace_users_group-bounces at lyralists.lyrasis.org<mailto:archivesspace_users_group-bounces at lyralists.lyrasis.org>] On Behalf Of Olivia S Solis
Sent: Thursday, March 30, 2017 2:06 PM
To: Archivesspace Users Group <archivesspace_users_group at lyralists.lyrasis.org<mailto:archivesspace_users_group at lyralists.lyrasis.org>>
Subject: [Archivesspace_Users_Group] Accruals/related accesions

Hello all,

We at the Briscoe are pretty far along the path to implementing ASpace, but have a number of unresolved issues. One being we are still figuring out how to deal with our accessions that are accruals. The Initially, we had thought to have all accessions in an accrual be related accessions with a sibling relationship. I ran a test with 3 collections: Collection 1, Collection 2, and Collection 3. Steps:

1) Link Collection 1 and Collection 2 as related accessions/siblings.
2) Link Collection 1 and Collection 3 as related accessions/siblings.

My assumption was that Collection 2 and Collection 3 would automatically be related as siblings, but this was not the case. Is this behavior a known issue or is there some logic behind this? Am I missing something? I would think that ASpace would consider all the accessions in a daisy-chained series of siblings as siblings of each other. If this is not the case, the maintenance in connecting 20 related accessions/sibling records would be enormous.

Nonetheless this led me to decide it might be better to have the first accession in the series of accruals be considered the parent and all the additional accessions be considered related accessions/forms part of the parent/first accrual. I ran another test:

1) Create Collection 4 and spawn an accession from it, Collection 5.
2) Connect the two as related accessions, with Collection 5 designated a child of Collection 4.
3) Spawn a resource from Collection 4, and check related accession.

In the spawned resource, only Collection 4 was linked as a related accession in the newly spawned resource. I would have expected Collection 5 to be linked as a related accession in the resource as well. Again, same question. Is this a known issue, or is there some logic behind this? We'd like to indicate all source accessions that are part of the accrual in the related resource records. It would seem like the related accessions should automatically funnel in as related accessions in the resource.

How are some of you representing accruals in ArchivesSpace? Have you encountered any problems with your decisions, and did what was the logic of why you decided to go the route that you did?

Thanks!!
Olivia

--
Olivia Solis, MSIS
Metadata Coordinator
Dolph Briscoe Center for American History
The University of Texas at Austin
2300 Red River St. Stop D1100
Austin TX, 78712-1426
(512) 232-8013<tel:(512)%20232-8013>

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--
Olivia Solis, MSIS
Metadata Coordinator
Dolph Briscoe Center for American History
The University of Texas at Austin
2300 Red River St. Stop D1100
Austin TX, 78712-1426
(512) 232-8013
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