Taking the next step in online description

Taking the next step in online description

ARCHEION: a paradigm of partnership

Amanda HillHillbraith Ltd.

[ARCHEION Coordinator]

Current ARCHEION situation

• Server: old and unsupported– At risk of failure

• Software: functioning but slow– Only allows for fond/collection level

descriptions– Does not support incorporation of images– Bespoke system - lacking technical support

Toward an upgrade…

• Partnerships of various kinds– Artefactual Systems Inc.– Funding organisations (NADP, Museums

and Technology Fund, EMC Heritage Grant, Trillium Foundation)

– University of Toronto– Volunteers– ARCHEION contributors

After migration to ICA-AtoM

• Hosted on Artefactual’s servers in BC– Fully supported–Will be upgraded as necessary by

Artefactual

• Software is open source– Possible to hold full finding aids and digital

images–Widely used in Canada (including other

provincial networks) and beyond

• = Peace of mind!

Series-level description (Memory BC)

Series-level description (SAIN)

Item-level description (SAIN)

Recent activities• Extracting all live and draft descriptions from

existing server– submitted to Artefactual for migration

• Contacting existing contributors• Conducting usability testing at the University of

Toronto’s lab– Jordan Phoenix (University of Toronto) & 20 volunteers

• Creating basic ISDIAH records for each ARCHEION repository

• Building a gazetteer of Ontario place names– ARCHEION committee (Gina Coady, Anna St. Onge)

Post-test usability survey

http://artefactual.com/wiki/images/e/e4/AAO_Charts.pdf

http://artefactual.com/wiki/images/e/e4/AAO_Charts.pdf

Issues raised by test subjects…

• …and mock-ups of the ARCHEION interface which show how these would be addressed in the new software

Need an advanced search screen

http://artefactual.com/wiki/images/a/a3/AAO_UI_features_mockups_v03.pdf

Flexibility in display


Easier ways of editing particular areas


Archives Canada

• Records from ARCHEION have not been uploaded to Archives Canada for some time

• Development work on ICA-AtoM will include the ability to export records in the MARC format required by Archives Canada (and other library-based systems)

Timeline

• Developing ICA-AtoM features for ARCHEION requirements and migrating existing ARCHEION descriptions: April – August

• Setting up server for ARCHEION: July – October

• Contributor training: September - October

• ‘Soft launch’ of new ARCHEION in late November 2011

Watch out for updates…

• AAO mailing list ([email protected])• AAO website (www.aao-archivists.ca)• Off the Record• @AAO_Archeion on Twitter

• [email protected]

• www.archeion.ca