[Archivesspace_Users_Group] Empty space within a box

[McPhee, Laurel]

Hi Olivia,

If I understand your problem correctly, it may be similar to something we’ve addressed using the container profile feature.

We recently completed a survey of our map case drawers, and wanted to express each drawer as a shared top container (each drawer can contain many oversize folders, of course, from different collections). The challenge was we also wanted to find a way to communicate if a drawer was full, or had space in it for more, so someone could be at their desk using ASpace and figure out a likely location to put something new (as opposed to going on a space-hunting expedition in the stacks).

Our solution was to create our 200-or-so map case drawer top containers (the unique indicator for each one is MC-XXX, X being the drawer number) , but based on our survey, also assign a profile to each drawer that makes the “status” of the drawer explicit: the name of the profile assigned to each drawer is either “Map case drawer – AVAILABLE” or “Map case drawer – FULL”. Using the assigned profiles, we always know what has space in it, and what is stuffed, because we can search on that profile name. And if a processor fills up a drawer, they simply change the profile from AVAILABLE to FULL. I’m not sure if this is a hacky work-around, or a brilliant solution, but it works for us, and got us away from having a separate, always out-of-date spreadsheet that told us the status of our drawers. It does require a fresh survey, for which we used undergraduate workers, to give you a snapshot of your container situation.

May all your containers be half full ☺,
Laurel

From: archivesspace_users_group-bounces at lyralists.lyrasis.org <archivesspace_users_group-bounces at lyralists.lyrasis.org> On Behalf Of Olivia S Solis
Sent: Wednesday, February 27, 2019 12:46 PM
To: Archivesspace Users Group <archivesspace_users_group at lyralists.lyrasis.org>
Subject: [Archivesspace_Users_Group] Empty space within a box

Hello all,

We've been wondering if we are alone in this struggle. So we are a space-deficient archives. Our stacks are boxed to the brim and processors hunt for on-site space voraciously, particularly for collections that are just a few inches in extent. For this reason, we have a column in our spreadsheet shelf lists — which we're trying to wean off of now that we are increasingly utilizing the container management functionality of ASpace — that includes inches left in a box. There are some boxes that house 20 or so different small collections, so documenting this information at the archival object level seems, to put it mildly, inefficient.

Does anyone else have this problem? If so, have you found a way to address it in ASpace?

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
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