[Archivesspace_Users_Group] Generic top container note?

[Olivia S Solis]

Hey all,

I was wondering if any other institutions out there had an interest in a
field that we have consistently found a need for: a generic note for staff
attached to top container records. Reasons have included:

   - We renamed a box. Because boxes may be part of citations or referenced
   in numerous places in internal documentation, staff sometimes goes to
   absurd lengths to keep an old box number when it is no longer relevant or
   the box really should be renamed. Having the old box # in a note that is
   indexed gets rid of that problem as there is an immediately obvious place
   to document the change. Staff and researchers often look for a box number
   they've found in citations and notes. Keeping this information in a note on
   the container record would allow us to locate the correct container through
   a key-word search.
   - We merged two boxes into one.
   - We want to document the space left in a box and ASpace currently
   allows no way to do that.
   - The box has a nonstandard size (no container profile yet)
   - The box needs some upkeep (new label, new container, it's missing a
   lid)
   - We can't find a box. It's happened. We want to document all the places
   we've looked
   - Other internal notes about the box's status, condition, barcode or
   indicator or history, restriction status.

It seems like ASpace wants us to document information about top containers
in other places including Processing Notes attached to specific archival
objects/resource records/accessions, assessments, location notes. Location
notes sometimes could work, but we have limited staff time and can't update
numerous records (all the archival objects/collections attached to a box or
assessments attached to AOs/collections) to document a single change.

A generic note attached to top containers would solve a lot of problems for
us. If you have encountered any similar issue, how have you approached them
in ASpace?

Thanks,
Olivia

-- 
Olivia Solis, MSIS (she/her)
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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