[Archivesspace_Users_Group] Revised Proposal for Container Management Enhancements - Call for Community Input

[Rachel Aileen Searcy]

Hi Robin,

We wanted to provide some comments to this proposal for enhancements to
ArchivesSpace’s container management functionality. We’d like to thank
Harvard for their efforts to put this together to make ArchivesSpace a more
useful system for the broader community. We are also a large,
multi-repository institution with a single ArchivesSpace instance, and have
encountered many of the challenges outlined in this document, although we
do operate slightly differently (for example, our locations are shared
across our repositories to make the best use of the space we have).

We too have found it difficult to browse, filter, and sort through our
large number of location records, especially when linking top containers to
locations, and support the improvements specified in this document to more
efficiently perform these tasks. We would appreciate the ability to return
to an existing top container search, but would not want to sacrifice
overall system performance for this feature. While the ability to merge
locations would be useful in cleaning up obsolete or duplicate locations,
we wonder if the logic required to create this functionality might be more
complicated than other merging in the system, as there are currently
measures in place to ensure that locations cannot be deleted while holdings
are linked to them. We think this logic should remain in place to prevent
deleting important data.

We might not use many of the proposed enhancements (e.g., barcodes for
container children, repositories for container profiles) but as long as
they are optional and unobtrusive to users who do not employ them, we do
not have strong feelings. We do have concerns about the proposal to add a
Note field to the Top Container record, especially without a compelling use
case to justify its inclusion, as there is such a high likelihood of this
field being misused to record information about the contents of a box (as
opposed to the container itself) more appropriate for specific EAD fields.
It reminds us of boxes that have labels with crucial information about the
materials inside that is not documented anywhere else, and we wouldn’t want
to encourage that type of practice. If there are compelling use cases for
this field, we’d prefer values to be controlled so that they can be
structured, queried, and used somewhat consistently.

Again, thank you for developing this proposal and continuing the
conversation. We’re eager to see how this work continues.

Best wishes,

Rachel

On Tue, Dec 10, 2019 at 1:19 PM Wendler, Robin King <
robin_wendler at harvard.edu> wrote:

> Dear ArchivesSpace Community,
>
> The Harvard Library has been reviewing container and location management
> functionality in ArchivesSpace and we are proposing to make enhancements to
> this functionality that we would like to contribute to the core code. With
> these enhancements, we hope to make finding, viewing, and updating
> information related to containers and locations in the staff interface more
> efficient and effective.
>
>
>
> Some of you may remember a proposal we distributed this time last year. A
> variety of factors delayed the work, so we have significantly revised the
> proposal based on the valuable feedback provided by the ArchivesSpace
> community and informed by Harvard archivists’ increasing experience with
> container management in ArchivesSpace. Some proposals have been removed,
> while others have been added or altered.
>
>
>
> Additions include
>
>    - Return to Top Container search results from viewing an individual
>    Top Container record
>    - Bulk or batch function to create new Top Containers, associate
>    existing Locations with them, and link them to multiple existing archival
>    objects.
>    - Bulk operation to delete barcodes from Top Containers
>    - File-upload function to add Locations to Top Containers
>    - Ability to merge Location records
>
>
>
> The most significant changes to previous proposals include the following:
>
>    - The proposed additional indicator fields and ILS Bibliographic
>    Record ID field in Top Containers have been removed.
>    - The proposed Note field and Inactive checkbox for Locations, along
>    with all functionality associated with inactive status, have been removed.
>    - Automatic scoping of Container Profiles, Locations, and Location
>    Profiles by repository appears to be too complex, given the community
>    request to make repositories repeatable and the desire for it to be an
>    installation configuration option. In lieu of that, the revised proposal
>    adds a repeatable, optional repository field to container profiles and adds
>    a facet for filtering by repository to browse results for Container
>    Profiles and Locations.
>    - Proposed functionality around Location status has been removed
>
>
>
> The revised draft proposal is attached to this email and we are asking for
> community review and feedback. The proposal includes the rationale for the
> changes, a list of database fields to be added, user stories describing the
> specific changes we are proposing, and mockups of the related updates to
> the staff interface. Please note that the proposal represents a superset of
> the work we may be able to complete in the next couple of months, and that
> not all the proposed changes will be addressed at this time. Another
> caveat: some of the desiderata require further technical design that will
> determine what approach will be taken. These will be investigated in
> consultation with Lyrasis ArchivesSpace staff.
>
>
>
> If you have questions or feedback, please email me at
> robin_wendler at harvard.edu. *We will be accepting comments through
> Wednesday, December 18, 2019.*
>
>
>
> We look forward to receiving community input.
>
>
>
> Best,
>
> Robin
>
>
>
> Robin Wendler
>
> Library Technology Services
>
> Harvard University
>
> 90 Mt. Auburn St.
>
> Cambridge, MA 02138
>
> 617-998-5457
>
> 617-495-3724
>
> r_wendler at harvard.edu
>
>
>
>
>
> Robin Wendler
>
> Library Technology Services
>
> Harvard University
>
> 90 Mt. Auburn St.
>
> Cambridge, MA 02138
>
> 617-998-5457
>
> 617-495-3724
>
> r_wendler at harvard.edu
>
>
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-- 
Rachel Searcy
Accessioning Archivist, Archival Collections Management
New York University Libraries
212.998.2539 | rachel.searcy at nyu.edu
My pronouns are she/her
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