[Archivesspace_Users_Group] Instances

[Maureen Callahan]

Hi Joan,

The only thing I would add to what Christie said is that I think that you
have the right instinct to model each of the boxes separately (so that you
can assign barcodes, track locations, etc.), and in addition, it may indeed
be useful to researchers to see each individual box in the finding aid.
This way, they can request boxes 1 and 2 in your circulation system on
Monday, and then request box 3 when they're ready on Tuesday.

One other point -- with all things systems, it's always possible to
*display* this differently than it's encoded and it's almost always a bad
idea to encode *for* display. It might be worth requesting a change in the
ASpace public interface so that boxes are each represented in the database
(there's a top container record for each of them) and it just says "1-4" in
the display in the public interface (or if you're making XML EADs, you can
make your XSLT stylesheet do this for you).

Thanks,
Maureen

On Wed, May 10, 2017 at 11:01 AM, Peterson, Christie <
cspeterson at email.gwu.edu> wrote:

> Hi Joan,
>
> You're asking a really good question, and thinking about this with all the
> right principles. There just isn't a single right answer.
>
> It may look weird to have four instances attached to a single description,
> but that's how we do it in most cases. It allows you to assign barcodes and
> track locations for each box independently.
>
> The example where you feel like you're doing folder level description is a
> useful model if you can make a meaningful distinction between the content
> in each box and want to save archivists and researchers the bother of
> pulling and looking at all of them to determine which they want. In your
> example above, it looks like each box has a different set of dates attached
> to it, so that would be a good reason to use this method. As a side note,
> we use other level = box to indicate when we're actually describing a whole
> box and not a folder. **trigger debate on that practice now**
>
> Cheers,
>
> Christie
>
> On Wed, May 10, 2017 at 10:45 AM, Joan Curbow <CurbowJ at bvu.edu> wrote:
>
>> Dear all,
>>
>>
>>
>> Description and instantiation are different things. Describing the
>> content is not equal to what boxes the content ends up in. Correct? But
>> something isn’t making sense to me.
>>
>>
>>
>> I wanted to describe a collection at the series level, so in the
>> instances, I chose my top container, but I have four boxes for my first
>> series, so my container type is “Box” and I put 1-4 for my indicators, but
>> this doesn’t calculate four document cases, does it? Doesn’t it only
>> calculate 1?
>>
>>
>>
>> But if I make four instances, that looks stupid. See below.
>>
>>
>>
>> It also results in a finding aid that looks like this:
>>
>>
>>
>> If I do this:
>>
>>
>>
>> I’m really describing at a file level, which I don’t want to do.
>>
>>
>>
>> What am I not understanding?
>>
>>
>>
>> Sincerely,
>>
>>
>>
>> *Joan Curbow*
>>
>> Reference Librarian and Archivist
>>
>> Buena Vista University Library
>>
>> Buena Vista University
>>
>> 610 West Fourth Street
>>
>> Storm Lake, Iowa  50588
>>
>> 712.749.2094 <(712)%20749-2094>
>>
>> www.library.bvu.edu​​
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
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>>
>>
>
>
> --
> Christie S. Peterson
>
> University Archivist
> George Washington University Libraries
> 704H Gelman Library
> cspeterson at gwu.edu
> 202.994.3925 <(202)%20994-3925>
>
> _______________________________________________
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>
>


-- 
Maureen Callahan
Sophia Smith Collection Archivist
Smith College Special Collections
Northampton, Massachusetts 01063
T. 413 585 2981 C. 215.863.1860
mcallahan at smith.edu

Pronouns: she/her/hers

Smith College Special Collections will be closed from May 22 to September
4, 2017 as we move to our interim location and Neilson Library begins
renovations. Although we cannot serve researchers onsite during that time,
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