ArchivesSpace Local Practices Manual for UHM Archives Staff: Resources

1. Basic Information

• Title
• Identifier
• Level of Description
• Language
• Restrictions?

2. Dates

• General Usage Notes
• Label
• Expression
• Type
• Begin & End

3. Extents

• General Usage Notes
• Portion
• Number
• Type
• Container Summary

4. Agent Links

5. Notes

• General Instructions
• Conditions Governing Access and/or Conditions Governing Use
• Scope and Contents
• Physical Location

6. Instances

• Overview
• Digital Object Instances
• Container Instances

7. Classifications

• Managing department info

0. General Usage Note

1. Basic Information

• Resource Type

2. Finding Aid Data

• Finding Aid Author
• Description Rules
• Sponsor
• Finding Aid Status

3. Notes

• Abstract
• Biographical / Historical
• Custodial History and/or Immediate Source of Acquisition
• Existence and Location of Copies
• Language of Materials
• Other Finding Aids
• Preferred Citation
• Processing Information (also see #5, Collection Management)
• Related Materials

4. External Documents

5. Related Accessions

6. Collection Management

1. Subjects

2. Notes: Index

3. Rights Statement

4. User Defined

0. Overview

1. Manual Method

2. Rapid Data Entry (RDE)

3. CSV -> EAD Import

• Entering data using the Steady template
• Transforming the .csv file to EAD
• Importing the EAD into ArchivesSpace
• Double-checking the import and manually adding omitted fields

Enter the collection’s title. Generally, a collection’s title consists of a name segment and a term indicating the nature of the collection being described. The name segment provides the name(s) of the person(s), family (families), or organization(s) primarily responsible for creating, assembling, or maintaining the materials. Names should be recorded in the form by which the creator is generally known.

The segment of the title indicating the nature of the archival unit can take several forms:

• “Papers” refers to the personal papers of an individual or family. For example, a group of materials (in a variety of formats) created by Severus Snape would be titled “Severus Snape papers.” A group of materials created by several members of the Snape family would be titled “Snape family papers.”
• “Records” refers to the papers of an organization or corporation. For example, a group of business‐related pieces (including correspondence, ledger books, and receipts) from the Duff Brewery would be titled “Duff Brewery records.”
• “Collection” refers to a group of materials brought together to create a non‐organic grouping. For example, if John Redcorn collects a variety of materials regarding Carl Hayden and donates them to our Library, they would be titled “John Redcorn collection regarding Carl Hayden."
• If only one or two forms of material are present, use those form(s). For example, a set of diaries and letters created by Malcolm Reynolds would be titled “Malcolm Reynolds diaries and letters.”
• If more than three forms of material are present but one or two forms predominate, use these forms followed by “and other materials.” For example, a group of materials created by Dean Winchester consisting primarily of photographs would be titled “Dean Winchester photographs and other materials.”

At the UHM Library, a unique identifier (resource number) is assigned to all archival and manuscript collections. Our resource numbers consist of two parts: MANUSCRIPT prefix and alpha-numeric code. The MANUSCRIPT prefix is used for all resource numbers. The second part consists of one-, two-, or four-letter alpha code representing the managing department (see below) and five-digit numbers. Each department maintains its own sequence numbers.

Enter 'MANUSCRIPT' in the first box, and an alpha-numeric code in the next box.

Alpha codes:

• A - Asia Collection
• H - Hawaiian Collection
• P - Pacific Collection
• CAHA - Charlot, Archives of Hawai'i Artists, & related collections
• UA - University Archives
• HCPC - Hawai'i Congressional Papers Collection
• M - Non-University, non-HCPC collections in UA&M

For example, “MANUSCRIPT UA00015” is a number assigned to one of the University Archives collections. There may be “MANUSCRIPT H00015” - a resource number for a collection managed by Hawaiian Collection. 

For a top-level description, choose Collection from the controlled value list.

For components within a multi-level description, choose Series, Sub-series or File as appropriate.

Choose the primary language of the materials in the collection from the controlled value list.

For more nuance, you can also add a Language of Materials Note.

Check if there are any restrictions from deed of gift or applicable regulations (excluding copyright law). If checked, additional description should be recorded in Conditions Governing Access and/or Conditions Governing Use Notes.

Click the ‘Add Date’ button to get started.

The Dates section as a whole can be repeated; multiple Dates sections can be used to describe the entire collection in different ways, for example to give both ‘bulk’ and ‘inclusive’ dates in machine-readable form, or to list other types of dates in addition to ‘Creation’ dates (e.g. ‘Publication’, ‘Copyright’, or ‘Broadcast’ dates).

Nevertheless, don’t use multiple collection-level Dates sections to describe different portions of the collection; instead, add component-specific Dates section(s) to each individual component you wish to describe.

Choose the term that best characterizes the date from the controlled value list. ('Creation' is generally the most common.)

This field is required if Dates > Begin and Dates > End are empty. Enter a natural‐language expression of the date range. Follow the guidelines (and also see the instructions for the Dates > Type field, below):

• Type = 'Single' (year): All materials fall within one year.
  • Example: 1965
• Type = 'Single' (day): All materials fall within a certain day. Follow a year‐month‐day pattern.
  • Example: 1906 March 17
• Type = 'Inclusive Dates' (contiguous): A single date range spanning the earliest and latest dates of the materials.
  • Examples: 1849‐1851; 1920 January‐1955 June 20
• Type = 'Inclusive Dates' (non-contiguous): Two or more time spans with significant gaps between them, so a large gap exists and date ranges or bulk dates would be misleading.
  • Example: "1850, 1934‐1949"
• Type = 'Bulk Dates': The bulk of the materials fall into a smaller portion of the overall date range
  • Example: 1951‐1990 (bulk 1980‐1990)
• Estimated date ranges: When date ranges can be reasonably estimated. Use “circa” or “approximately.” Do not abbreviate (no “ca.” or “approx.”; instead use "circa 1980 March" or "approximately 1870‐1879")
• No dates: Use “Undated” to indicate that the date is unknown. Do not use “unknown,” “n.d.” or other term. Be sure that you capitalize the word “Undated.” If at all possible, try to estimate a date range for the materials and avoid using “Undated.”
  • In general, if the date can be narrowed down to within a three-decade range, it’s better to use a circa or approximate date than to list it as undated.
• Expression is not a searchable (i.e. machine-readable) field, so if you want the resource to come up in date searches use the Begin and End fields either instead of or in conjunction with the Expression field.

Indicate if the date is for Single, Bulk, or Inclusive Date(s) from the controlled value list, using the above examples as guidelines.

These fields are for normalized (i.e. searchable) dates, and are required if the Dates > Expression field is empty. The field(s) will appear when you choose a value for Dates > Type. Enter values in a YYYY, YYYY-MM, or a YYYY-MM-DD format.

Click the ‘Add Extent’ button to get started.

Note that ‘Portion’, ‘Number’, and ‘Type’ are mandatory for each Extents section you add.

If all the material in the collection has been assigned (via container instances) to Top Containers that have Container Profiles attached, then the Extents Section's ‘Calculate Extent’ button can be used to create a draft extent.  This usually will not be the case, and should be double-checked even if it is.

Indicate in Portion if the extent statement characterizes the entire resource (Whole) or part of the resource (Part). One extent statement for the whole resource is required, and one or more extent statements for parts of the resource may be recorded.

Record the number for the extent measurement, e.g., 3.75.

Select the type of extent from the controlled value list, e.g., linear feet. The UHM Library has not come up with a standardized method to record the extent information, but “linear foot” has been usually used for tangible records. Below are linear footages for some standard archival containers:

• 1 record center box filled with legal-length folders = 1.0 linear foot
• 1 record center box filled with letter-length folders = 1.25 linear feet
• 1 half size records center box (either way) = .5 linear feet
• 1 document box = 5 inches = .42 linear feet
• 1 half size document box = 2 inches = .21 linear feet

Note that the ‘standard’ box extents have changed from earlier versions of these instructions! 

Also note that they measure the inside of boxes, i.e. the actual extent of folders in a box.  The Container Profiles linked to via Top Container records measure the outside of boxes, and are usually between ¼” and ½” larger than the interior measurements in each direction.

Note for Digital materials: Only create extents in terms of Tera-, Giga-, Mega-, or Kilobytes.  Don’t create extents for the containers (e.g. discs, floppies, etc.)  Instead, list those in the Container Summary field.

Additionally, usage of ‘discs’ and ‘disc’ as the ‘Type’ should be reserved for audio materials (including vinyl records and audio CDs); do not use them as the ‘Type’ for files on computer discs like CD-ROMs or DVDs.  (Commercial video DVDs are a borderline case.)

Give a parenthetical listing of the number and type of containers if it's not obvious from the 'Number' and 'Type' fields.

• E.g.: “(20 records cartons, 5 oversize flat boxes, and 1 rolled tube)”, or “(Twelve 5¼-inch floppy diskettes)”.

Names of entities (e.g., persons, families, or corporate entities) that have played a significant role in creating, using, and maintaining the archival materials are considered the creator(s) of the materials. DACS requires you to record the creator information, if known. In ArchivesSpace, you can do so by linking Agent records to your Resource description.

Click the Add Agent Link button to get started.

Next to Role, click the drop-down list button, and select Creator. Next to Agents, either start typing to see if the desired agent already exists, or click on the drop-down list and select Browse to browse existing Agent records. In some cases no Agent record exists for the creator you would like to link to.  In that event, see the instructions for creating Agent records, and have the Agent record you create double-checked by a cataloger familiar with ArchivesSpace (as of Fall 2017, Margaret Joyce).

DO NOT add Agent links with ‘Role’ = 'Subject' unless you are a cataloger!  (And have been asked to add subjects to the record.)

Click on ‘Add Note’ to bring up the Notes fields.  The allowable notes are listed in the ‘Note Type’ drop down in alphabetical order, however each new note added to a Resource Record is appended to the bottom of the list of existing notes.

As neither alphabetical order nor data-entry order is necessarily logical, be sure to click on the ‘Apply Standard Note Order’ button at the top of the Notes Section before saving and exiting the Resource Record.

EXCEPTION!:

For access restrictions that are caused by the need for specific software, hardware, or playback equipment, use a ‘Technical Specifications / Requirements’ Note (DACS 4.3) instead of a ‘Conditions Governing Access’ note.

Access vs. Use:

Access restrictions: use to describe issues involving materials’ physical condition, donor agreements, potential for containing sensitive information, licensing conditions, and/or intellectual property rights that prevent patrons from reading/viewing/listening to them, e.g.:

• “Records are closed, per agreement with the creating office, for fifteen years after the date of their creation unless otherwise stated”
• “Material with personal information may be redacted by the Archives staff”
• “Copyrighted AV materials not available for streaming, and must be accessed on-site” 
• “Some fragile items may need to be handled by the staff only”

Use restrictions: use to describe issues involving materials’ licensing conditions, donor agreements, and/or intellectual property rights that prevent patrons from citing/copying/creating derivative works from them, e.g.:

• “Quoting materials from this collection requires permission from the donor’s estate” 
• “No photographs or other reproductions allowed” 
• “Visual materials in this collection were created with a CC-BY-NC-SA license”

Note Creation and Usage:

To create these notes, set note's Type to Conditions Governing Access or Conditions Governing Use and enter your text in the Content box that appears as a Sub Note.

In the ‘Text’ Sub Note, give information about any restrictions on access to the collection--whole or part--being described as a result of the nature of the information therein or statutory/contractual requirements.  For best DACS compliance, all collections should have a ‘Conditions Governing Access’ note; if there are no access restrictions on the collection, state that fact.

You can assign these notes at any level of description, but because people don’t always think to look for notes at the file level it’s best to include them at higher levels (collection-level, and possibly series-level if material within a series has different restrictions than the collection overall).

In both Use and Access notes, You can give date information (by filling out the 'Restriction Begin' and 'Restriction End' fields).  In Access notes, you may further identify the restriction by assigning one or more Local Access Restriction Type(s) as appropriate.

• Adding Restriction Begin/End dates potentially makes the restrictions machine-actionable, in that ASpace or other systems, if programmed to do so, may automatically impose/lift restrictions on material based on the dates supplied.
• As of Fall 2017, it is unknown whether or not our instance of ASpace actually does this, or if it is just making room for future functionality. While Yale’s manual (pp60-61) describes how their instance of ArchivesSpace implements restrict dates (e.g. associating them with Top Containers and passing the restrictions on to any lower-level components), Yale has customized their ASpace considerably more than we have, and so this might be a feature they’ve added on their own. 

There can be multiple Sub Notes within a single ‘Conditions Governing Access’ or ‘Conditions Governing Use’ note.  This could be used to offer two versions of a note for a single restriction, for example one that is published/public and a second that is unpublished/internal-only and has more detail about the restriction and/or the material restricted.

There can also be multiple ‘Conditions Governing Access’ and/or ‘Conditions Governing Use’ notes.  This could be used to describe multiple different types of restrictions (e.g. a set of material that was restricted both because of its physical condition and because the donor imposed an access restriction) and/or restrictions with differing end dates (e.g. no reproductions at all during the donor’s lifetime, and reproductions/quoting only with permission of the estate thereafter).

Make sure to check all the ‘Publish?’ boxes for anything you want to be made public—both the parent notes and the sub-notes have them—and conversely make sure that anything you want to be internal-only has the ‘Publish?’ box un-checked. 

To create this note, set Note Type to Scope and Contents and enter your text in the Content box that appears as a Sub Note. This note should provide information about the nature of the materials and activities reflected in the unit being described so that researchers can judge its potential relevance. This may include information about any or all of the following, as appropriate:

• The function(s), activity(ies), transaction(s), and process(es) that generated the materials being described
• The documentary form(s) or intellectual characteristics of the records being described (e.g., minutes, diaries, reports, watercolors, documentaries)
• The content dates, that is, the time period(s) covered by the intellectual content or subject of the unit being described
• Geographic area(s) and places to which the records pertain
• Subject matter to which the records pertain, such as topics, events, people, and organizations
• Any other information that assists the user in evaluating the relevance of the materials, such as completeness, changes in location, ownership and custody while still in the possession of the creator, and so on

For long notes, separate paragraphs by wrapping each paragraph in <p> </p> tags  (Carriage returns don’t always register as line breaks in ASpace.)

As with most Note types, there can be multiple Sub Notes within a single ‘Scope and Contents’ note.  This could be used to offer two versions of a note, one that is published/public and a second that is unpublished/internal-only. (E.g. to note the specific location of visually-interesting materials suitable for exhibits or show-and-tell presentations.)

Similarly, make sure to check all the ‘Publish?’ boxes for anything you want to be made public—both the parent notes and the sub-notes have them—and conversely make sure that anything you want to be internal-only has the ‘Publish?’ box un-checked.

To create this note, set the note’s ‘Type’ to ‘Physical Location’ and enter your text in the Content box. This note should provide information about the physical location of the materials, overall. 

Unlike the location information in the ‘Instances’ section—which requires material to be linked to a specific top container, and then links that top container to a specific location—the information in this note is more freeform. 

(Leilani will not fault anyone for using this note instead of using ‘Instances’, but it’s better practice to use both.)

Overview

An ‘Instance’ is a physical or digital instantiation of materials. Choose whether you’re adding container instances (for physical items, including both original materials, and microfilm, photocopies, or other analog reproductions) or digital object instances (for born-digital materials within a mixed collection and/or for digitized versions of analog material).

• Also see pp 69-77 of the Yale manual

Click on either the ‘Add Container Instance’ button or the 'Add Digital Object' button to get started.

Digital Object Instances

To link to an existing Digital Object record, either type a few letters into a search bar or click on the downward-pointing triangle to browse.

If there isn’t already a Digital Object record for your material, follow the instructions for creating Digital Object records, and then return to the Resource Record and link to it.

If there is more than one digital version of an item—e.g. master, mezzanine, thumbnail, etc.—each should have its own Digital Object Instance. 

• Clicking ‘Make Representative’ designates a specific file version / instance as the one that should be highlighted on a resource / component page in the public view. 

Container Instances

'Type’

• Choose the appropriate genre/format term for the material being described. 
  • ‘Mixed Materials’ is most common for archival material, but there may be cases where one of the other choices is more apt.
  • (Because of database weirdness, some terms are listed twice; in these cases go with the capitalized version of the term.)

 ‘Top Container’

Unlike previous versions of ArchivesSpace, it’s no longer possible to have a physical Instance without attaching it to a specific Top Container. 

• So, for any collection larger than a single box, the only way to add shelf location information for the collection as a whole is to use a ‘Physical Location’ note. 
  • (Because to do it through ‘Instances’ would require the creation of a Top Container that held the entire collection.  It is technically possible to do this within ArchivesSpace, but please don’t. Things would get very messy if some, but not all, of the collection was moved to a different location.)

Containers, Locations, and Top Containers: If it moves and/or can get paged, it’s a Container.   If it’s stationary, it’s a Location.   If it’s a container that is not contained within any other container, it’s a Top Container.

• So, folders are top containers when they’re in map case drawers—which don’t get paged—but not when they’re in boxes, which do. (See the instructions for creating new top container records for more detail.)
• Similarly, objects, items, A/V reels, etc. that are not in boxes but are instead placed directly on shelves or in drawers should be listed as top containers (even though they don’t technically contain anything, but are just themselves).

To link to an existing top container—for example when adding an accrual to an existing collection, or adding either a very small collection or a few folders of oversized materials to a multi-collection box—either type a few letters into a search bar or click on the downward-pointing triangle to browse.

• It is possible to search by keywords in addition to the container title, but this is considerably less helpful than it sounds, because the results don’t recognize quotes in phrases. So, for example, searching for “Box 3” brings up all the containers with both ‘Box’ and ‘3’ in their records.  
  • Also, a maximum of 10 records show up in the search list.
• Browsing takes you to a pop-up screen, and is much more helpful, acting is some ways like an advanced search.

To create a new Top Container record directly from the Resource Instance section, click on the downward-pointing triangle and choose ‘Create’.

• If possible, use a Container Profile to help standardize things.
  • Because of a couple of bugs in ASpace 1.5.4, as of Fall 2017 only sysadmins—in effect, only Leilani—can create container profiles.
  • (The Archives Subcommittee needs to discuss whether or not this permission will be expanded to other categories of users once we upgrade to 2.2.x.)
  • Note on dimensions in container profiles: the dimensions in the profile’s Container Title are the stated dimensions of the boxes (usually the interior dimensions), while the ones in the Dimensions fields are the actual average outside dimensions, including lids.
• ‘Container Type’
  • ‘Box’ is the most common type for top containers, but occasionally some of the others are appropriate
  • Ignore the container types of ‘map-case’ and ‘drawer’!  Treat these as locations, not as containers. (Leilani will periodically check to see if any records use either of these as container types and doing what is necessary to delete them as options.)   If you by some odd chance have drawers that can be removed and paged—like natural history specimen drawers in museums—ask Leilani what to do instead.
• ‘Indicator’
  • Give the indicator for the box or other container, usually a number.  As noted above, please DO NOT enter a range.  If you are going to use instances, then give each box or other top container its own instance.
• ‘Barcode’
  • Enter the container’s barcode if your department barcodes containers.
• ‘Location’ Fields
  • First, click ‘Add Location’; this brings up the other fields.  ‘Status’, ‘Start Date’, and ‘Location’ are required; ‘Note’ can be helpful.
  • ‘Status:’ Choose ‘Current’ unless you really care about tracking items’ past locations
  • ‘Location’: either type a few letters into a search bar or click on the downward-pointing triangle to browse.
    • ‘Find with Space Calculator’ probably won’t work until we have more locations linked to location profiles (and may not work at all unless the instance / container being created is linked to a Container Profile).
    • To create a new Location, click on the downward-pointing triangle and choose ‘Create’; this opens a pop-up with the same fields as a regular individual Location record, so see that section for instructions.
• Click ‘Create and Link to Top Container’ when done.

For folders or other child/grandchild containers within a box or other Top Container:

• After you’ve defined your top container, use these fields for interior containers, e.g. folders within boxes.
• Choose the Type of the child/grandchild.
  • ‘Folder’ will be most common, but at times others may be more apt.
• Choose the Indicator for the child/grandchild
  • Usually this will be a number (e.g. ‘1’ for the first folder in a box), but can be a brief alphanumeric string.  Ranges are also acceptable for child/grandchild containers (e.g. 4-6). 

Click on the Add Classification button to get started.

Start typing a department/collection name to select from the drop-down list, or click on the triangle by the search box to bring up the full list. Use a code that starts with “DE.” Those with “RG” are reserved for collections in the University Archives.

• (If working with a University Archives Collection, add two classifications, one that starts with ‘DE’ for the managing department, and one for that starts with ‘RG’ for the Record Group classification.)

To link the Classification to the Resource Record:

• If using the search box, simply click on the correct classification
• If using the browse interface click on the correct classification to select it, and then click on the blue ‘Link to Classifications’ button to create the link.

If the department/collection you are looking for doesn’t appear in the full list of  Classifications, save the resource record and follow the instructions for creating a new Classification. 

Click on Save Resource again.

All Resource Record fields besides those listed above in the 'Required' section and below in the ‘Do Not Use’ section are optional.   However, those mentioned here are among the more commonly-used ones.

• Choose ‘Records’ for materials created by a corporate entity / organization / institution in the course of its work.
• Choose ‘Papers’ for materials created by an individual or a family in his/her/their everyday life/lives.
• Choose ‘Publications’ for accessions consisting of only published print materials. 
• Choose ‘Collection’ for anything else, but especially for materials collected/compiled by one person/family/corporate entity but created by (an)other(s).

Enter the name of the person or people who wrote the finding aid.

Choose ‘DACS’ from the drop down menu, unless the finding aid was specifically created according to a different set of rules.

Enter information on any funding the material received (e.g. for processing, supplies, conservation treatment, etc.).

Indicate whether the finding aid is complete, in progress, or under revision.  If more nuance is needed, enter a brief narrative in the ‘Finding Aid Note’ field immediately below the ‘Finding Aid Status’ field.  

Note that this field refers strictly to the status of the finding aid itself.  In order to indicate the status of the resource being described, use the ‘Processing Status’ field in the ‘Collection Management’ section.

Can be used to give a brief overview of the collection; usually created from one or two sentences summarizing the Biographical/Historical Note plus one or two sentences summarizing the Scope and Contents Note.

Enter the abstract into the ‘Content’ field, and be sure to check the ‘Publish?’ checkbox for both the note and the sub note.

This note is used to provide information about the creator(s) of the materials that the resource record describes.  Rather than being full histories or biographies of the creators, the note should focus on the aspects that help contextualize the resource and the conditions under which it was created.

Create the note by selecting the Note Type ‘Biographical/Historical’.

• In the ‘Label’ field, enter ‘Biography’ if the resource record is for the papers of a person or a family, or ‘History’ if it’s for the records of a corporate entity.
• Enter the text of the note into the ‘Content’ box in the default ‘Text’ sub note.
  • For long notes, separate paragraphs by wrapping each paragraph in <p> </p> tags.  (Carriage returns don’t always register as line breaks in ASpace.)

As with most Note types, each of these Notes allows for multiple Sub Notes.

• Multiple sub notes of type ‘Text’ can be used to describe multiple creators.
  • In this case, it may be helpful to use each of the sub-notes' individual ‘Label’ fields to specifically name who or what is being described, e.g. ‘Biography of Paul F. Hooper’ vs. ‘Biography of William L. Holland’ vs. ‘History of the Institute of Pacific Relations’ in the “Hooper/Holland Supplement to the Records of the IPR” collection. 
• Sub notes of types other than 'Text' may be used to add semi-structured information to biographies/histories, notably data formatted as chronologies or other types of lists.
  • To add a Chronology, Defined List, or Ordered List, click on the ‘Add Sub Note’ button and then change the new sub note’s Note Type to the appropriate option. 
  • All three types of lists have an optional ‘Title’ field; Ordered Lists also give the option of choosing what sort of enumeration is used in the list (i.e. Arabic numerals, lowercase or uppercase  Roman numerals, or lowercase or uppercase alphabetical letters). 
  • Defined Lists and Ordered Lists have ‘Add Item’ buttons; Chronologies have ‘Add Event’ buttons.
    • Items in all three types of lists can be rearranged by clicking on the three grey bars to the upper left of an item to be moved and dragging it to the desired position.
  • In Chronologies, dates (which can be as specific or as broad as desired) are matched with one or more events that took place on or within that date. 
  • For Defined Lists, each item has a Label and a Value
    • For example, in an index to correspondents, each correspondent’s name would be entered as a separate item, with the name going into the ‘Label’ field and some indication of the locations of that correspondent’s documents (box/folder numbers, folder titles/dates, letter book page numbers, etc.) going in the ‘Value’ field.

Make sure to check all the ‘Publish?’ boxes for anything you want to be made public—both the parent notes and the sub-notes have them—and conversely make sure that anything you want to be internal-only has its ‘Publish?’ box un-checked. 

One or both of these fields may be used to describe how the material came into the Library’s possession.  ‘Custodial History’ tends to be used for longer, more involved chain of custody information than ‘Immediate Source of Acquisition’. 

For long notes, separate paragraphs by wrapping each paragraph in <p> </p> tags.  (Carriage returns don’t always register as line breaks in ASpace.)

As with most Note types, each of these Notes allows for multiple Sub Notes.  This could be used to offer two versions of provenance information, one that is published/public and a second that is unpublished/internal-only.

Make sure to check all the ‘Publish?’ boxes for anything you want to be made public—both the parent notes and the sub-notes have them—and conversely make sure that anything you want to be internal-only has the ‘Publish?’ box un-checked. 

Used to note analog materials that have been microfilmed or digitized, A/V that has been transferred to alternate formats, etc.

Enter the information about any copies into the ‘Content’ field—if desired, multiple sub notes can be used to describe copies of different sets of material—and be sure to check the ‘Publish?’ checkbox for both the note and any sub notes that should be visible to the public.

If there is significant material—judged by either volume or importance—in a language other than the one listed in the ‘Language’ field in the ‘Basic Information’ section, then use this note to describe the other language(s) in the material(s). 

Enter the information into the ‘Content’ field, and be sure to check the ‘Publish?’ checkbox for both the note and the sub note if it should be visible to the public.

Can be used to indicate the existence (and location) of additional information about the collection that has been created but not entered into ASpace, for example card catalogs, detailed inventories, indexes of items or correspondents, etc. 

Enter the information about any other finding aids into the ‘Content’ field, and be sure to check the ‘Publish?’ checkbox for both the note and the sub note if it should be visible to the public.

Enter the preferred citation for the resource, usually something along the lines of: “[Item identification]. {Resource Title}.  {Resource ID}. {Managing Department}, {Repository Information}.” For example:

• [Item], [Date]. Hiro Higuchi Papers, 1937-1947. MANUSCRIPT M00031. University Archives & Manuscripts Department, University of Hawai'i at Mānoa Library.

Enter the citation into the ‘Content’ field, and be sure to check the ‘Publish?’ checkbox for both the note and the sub note.

Note: Also see the fields in the (also optional) 'Collection Management' section. 

Both the ‘Processing Information’ Note and the fields in the ‘Collection Management’ section can be used to describe information about the process of processing itself. 

The main differences between the two are that, in comparison with the ‘Processing Information’ note, the ‘Collection Management’ section fields 1) allow for much finer parsing of data into individual elements, and 2) are never visible to the public (there is no option for publishing them).

For this reason, any information about the process of processing that may help researchers navigate the materials should go in a ‘Processing Information’ note, either instead of or in addition to being entered somewhere in the ‘Collection Management’ section.  

• DACS 7.1.8 gives several examples of different ways to use ‘Processing Information’ notes in this manner, e.g. to indicate:
  • actions taken by the creator or intermediate custodians that affect the arrangement or description of the materials;
  • conventions used in the finding aid;
  • changes in the collection arrangement or finding aid inventory due to additions, deaccessions, or other reprocessing;
  • etc. 

Enter the information into the ‘Content’ field, and be sure to check the ‘Publish?’ checkbox for both the note and the sub note if it should be visible to the public.

For long notes, separate paragraphs by wrapping each paragraph in <p> </p> tags.  (Carriage returns don’t always register as line breaks in ASpace.)

Can be used to indicate materials that are closely related to those described by the resource record. 

• It doesn’t matter whether the related materials are located in the same department and/or repository or in a different department and/or repository, as long as the location is indicated. 
• The materials may be related by provenance, topic, sphere of activity, etc., but the manner of the relationship should be indicated if it’s not obvious.

Enter the information on the related materials into the ‘Content’ field, and be sure to check the ‘Publish?’ checkbox for both the note and the sub note if it should be visible to the public.

The 'External Documents' section provides the titles and locations of associated documents that are not part of the collection, and can be used for any of the following (among other things):

• Biographical items (ranging from brief death notices to detailed monographs) or administrative histories that were published by outside sources and/or that go into more depth than is appropriate for the Biographical/Historical Note
• Alternate versions of the resource record (for example pdf finding aids exported from ArchivesSpace and posted to a website)
  • But note that finding aid type information that isn't in ArchivesSpace should be listed in an 'Other Finding Aids' note instead
• Lists of items from the collection used in past exhibits
• For collections related to people (or entities) with significant bodies of creative or scholarly works, lists of publications, discographies, lists of gallery showings/exhibitions, etc.
  • Alternatively, these could go directly into the Resource Record in a 'General' Note with a sub-note type of 'Ordered List'.  

Click the 'Add External Document' button to get started.  Give the document's title (or filename) in the 'Title' field, and its physical location, full server filepath, or URL/URI in the 'Location' field. 

Be sure to click the 'Publish?' checkbox if the document should be visible to the public, or to leave it unchecked if it should be internal-only.

The ‘Related Accessions’ section allows the Resource Record to be linked to one or more accession record(s). 

• (While it is technically possible to link to any accession, resource records should only be linked to the accession records for the accessions that comprise the materials in the resource being described.)

Click the ‘Add Related Accession’ button to get started.

‘Accession’

• To search for the accession to link, start typing its name/title into the ‘Accession’ field.
  • Once you see the accession you want to link in the list that shows up, click on it to link it to the resource.
• If the accession didn’t show up in the list of search results, or if the accessions that did show up in the list were named too similarly and weren’t easily distinguishable, then click on the triangle to the right of the search box and select ‘Browse’.
  • This brings up the browse interface pop-up; the browse list can be filtered by creator, subject, accession date, or selected text, as well as sorted by relevance, title, identifier, date created, or date modified. 
  • Click on an accession’s row to select it, and then click the blue ‘Link to Accessions’ button to create the link. 
• Repeat the process to add multiple accession links.

Most of the fields in the section are fairly self-explanatory.  Some overlap with information that could be entered into the ‘Finding Aid Data’ section and/or various Notes, particularly the 'Processing Information' Note. However, information in the ‘Finding Aid Data’ section is always public if the Resource Record is published, while information in the ‘Collection Management’ section is never public, even if the Resource Record is published.   (And the visibility of Notes is controlled separately for each individual Note or sub note.)

‘Processing Plan’

• Can either be used for direct data entry (if the processing plan is relatively brief) or to indicate the location (filename and path, url, etc.) of a longer, detailed processing plan. 

‘Funding Source’

• Note that this overlaps with the ‘Sponsor’ field in the ‘Finding Aid Data’ section.

‘Processing Status’

• Unlike the ‘Finding Aid Status’ field in the ‘Finding Aid Data’ section, this field is used to indicate the status of the collection materials.

Do Not add Subject links unless you are a cataloger!  (And have been asked to do so.)

The Archives Subcommittee of the CDMC—which manages the Library’s ArchivesSpace installation—includes a cataloger as a standing member (as of Fall 2017, Margaret Joyce).  To get subjects added to a finished Resource record, have your department’s Subcommittee member ask her to analyze your record and add subject links. 

The index created by this note isn’t used for indexes to collection materials. 

• Instead, it is only used in very long finding aids, for references within the finding aid itself. 

If you have an index for some or all of the collection (e.g. an alphabetical index to correspondents within a series arranged chronologically), then instead create that as a Note with ‘Note Type’ = ‘General’.

Click on the ‘Add Sub Note’ button, and in the ‘Note Type’ drop down that appears, choose ‘Defined List’

Enter the title of your index in the ‘Title’ field, and then add individual index items by clicking on the ‘Add Item’ button.

• In the correspondents example, each correspondent’s name would go into the ‘Label’ field, and the ‘Value’ fields would list where that correspondent’s letters could be found.
• The order in which Items appear in the list can be rearranged by clicking on the three light grey bars in the upper left corner of an item and then dragging that item to its proper place in the list. 

The data model that ArchivesSpace uses for Rights Statements changes significantly between version 1.5 and version 2.0.  So, since we plan to upgrade relatively soon, it makes more sense in the meantime to not use Rights Statements.

For now, use the 'Restrictions?' checkbox along with the 'Conditions Governing Access' and/or 'Conditions Governing Use' Notes instead of Rights Statements to describe rights and related issues.

Do not use any ‘User Defined’ fields without first bringing the suggested use and purpose of those fields to the Archives Subcommittee—we don’t want people using the same fields in different ways!

Records for lower-level collection components—i.e. series, subseries, files, and items—can be added 1) entirely by hand, 2) in a somewhat expedited manner via Rapid Data Entry [RDE], or 3) in a mostly automated fashion via EAD import.

Best For: Entering information about series and subseries, which tend to have more need for notes and less data that is the same from one series/subseries to the next.

To add a child component to a collection (or other top-level) Resource Record:

First make sure that the parent record has been saved at least once.  (ASpace won’t let you add child components until the parent resource has been officially created.)

• Click the ‘Add Child’ button on the upper left above the collection tree; this will load up the ‘Archival Object’ data entry screen. 
• At a minimum, complete the ‘Title’, ‘Level of Description’, and ‘Dates’ fields, as well the ‘Publish?’ and ‘Restrictions Apply?’ checkboxes if they apply. 
  • ‘Title’: Enter the name of the series, subseries, or other child component
  • ‘Level of Description’: Choose ‘Series’, ‘Sub-Series’, ‘File’, ‘Item’, or ‘Other Level’, as appropriate.
  • ‘Publish?’: Checking this box won’t publish the child component until and unless the parent resource is also published, so if the child should be publically available, check it now.
  • ‘Restrictions Apply?’: If there are either access or use restrictions that apply only to materials in the child component—i.e., they differ from or otherwise haven’t already been accounted for in a higher-level Restrictions note—then check this box and be sure to add a ‘Conditions Governing Access’ and/or ‘Conditions Governing Use’ note to explain the restriction.
  • ‘Dates’: This section works the same as in the overall collection description.
• For Series/Subseries-level components:
  • Also be sure to complete the 'Component Unique Identifier' field by entering the number / order of the series/subseries, e. g. '3' for the third series in a collection.  (Don't include 'Series' or 'Subseries' in this field: when printing or exporting, ASpace adds the value of the Level of Description field as the preface / label for the contents of the 'Component Unique Identifier' field.  So, entering it here leads to redundancies like 'Series Series 2'.)
  • ‘Extents’ fields may also be added; the section works the same as in the overall collection description with the exception that, in the ‘Portion’ field, ‘Whole’ refers to the whole Series or Subseries, not the whole resource.
  • Series-level ‘Scope and Contents’ notes should be added; Sub-series level ‘Scope and Contents’ notes are optional.
  • Several other notes may also be appropriate if the information would differ from the corresponding note in the overall collection description, notably: ‘Conditions Governing Access’, ‘Conditions Governing Use’, ‘Materials Specific Details’, and ‘Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements’.
• For File/Item-level components: 
  • ‘Instances’ fields should also be added; the section works the same as in the overall collection description.

Clicking the blue ‘Save Archival Object’ button the first time creates the object (and later saves any updates); this is required before moving back to the parent record or on to any other components.

• Clicking the blue ‘+1’ button creates/saves the current component record and opens up a new set of data entry fields for a new Archival Object. 

Rearranging components:

• Siblings may be reordered by clicking on them in the hierarchical collection tree (above the descriptive fields for the Collection or Archival Object currently being viewed).
• In order to promote or demote an Archival object, first change the value of its ‘Level of Description’ field to the proper choice.
  • For demotions, e.g. making a component that was accidentally created as a series into a sub-series, go to the collection tree and drag and drop the component to be demoted onto the component that should be its parent.
  • For promotions, e.g. making a component that was accidentally created as sub-series into a series, go to the collection tree and drag and drop the component to be promoted in between the two components that should be its siblings.  (Alternatively, drag it on top of the higher-level component that should be its parent, and then place it in its proper order among its siblings.)

Best For:  Entering file-level information for relatively small collections (under a couple of hundred files), where the effort of creating a separate Excel spreadsheet & transforming it to EAD would be more trouble than it would be worth.

In collections with series and/or subseries, first create the series (and subseries) components by hand.

• Then, in the collection tree, click on whichever series (or subseries) will be the parent for the child components being created.
• Click on the ‘Rapid Data Entry’ button; this will bring up the RDE interface with all the default columns (i.e. fields) visible and one component row ready to be filled in.
• To hide fields or otherwise change which fields/columns are visible, click on the ‘Columns’ button in the top menu bar.

The RDE interface has various auto-fill capabilities, including the ability to replicate data from the top row into all subsequent rows, the ability to fill a column with a single value, and the ability to fill a column with a numerical or alphabetical sequence. 

• To replicate data entered in the top row into subsequent rows, first complete the top row’s fields before adding any additional rows. 
  • Then, decide which fields/columns should replicate: these should be highlighted in light blue, and any fields/columns you don’t want to replicate should be left light grey. 
  • Click on the field names to switch the ‘stickiness’ on or off.
  • More details on and nuances of Sticky Columns appear at the bottom of the RDE screen.
• To fill a column with a single value, first add rows (as described below), and then click the ‘Fill Column’ button in the top menu bar.
  • Make sure ‘Basic’ is chosen, not ‘Sequence’.
  • Select which column you wish to fill from the ‘Column’ drop-down menu.
  • Enter the value to be auto-filled in the ‘Fill Value’ field, and click the ‘Apply Fill’ button.
• To fill a column with a sequence, first add rows (as described below), and then click the ‘Fill Column’ button in the top menu bar.
  • Make sure ‘Sequence’ is chosen, not ‘Basic’.
  • Select which column you wish to fill from the ‘Column’ drop-down menu.
  • Enter the range of values to be auto-filled in the center two ‘Fill Value’ fields. (The outer ‘Prefix’ and ‘Suffix’ fields can be used to create more complicated fill values that include both static and sequential parts.)
  • Click the ‘Preview Sequence Values’ button to ensure they appear as you intend; if everything is fine, click the ‘Apply Fill’ button.

To add rows/components, click on the down-ward pointing arrow on the right side of the green ‘Add Row’ button.

• Choose how many rows you want to enter, and then click ‘Add Rows’.
• To subtract/remove a row, click on the white ‘×’ button at the far right of the row.

Presuming file-level components, ensure that each row’s ‘Level of Description’, ‘Publish?’, and ‘Title’ fields are all completed; it’s also good practice to complete the ‘Dates’ and ‘Instances’ fields.

Up to three sets of Notes fields may be entered via RDE, but it’s better to add any necessary Notes by hand since the interface makes it awkward.   

• Also, only the fields for the Note’s Type, Label, and main Text Sub-Note are included.  The ‘Publish?’ check box and any additional Sub-Notes would need to be added by hand regardless.

Additionally, Digital Object Instances cannot be created in the RDE interface, only Container Instances.  (Digital Object Instances would need to be added by hand).

After entering all the component data click the ‘Validate Rows’ button to make sure they have each been filled in correctly.  (Note that this does not check for completeness in fields not required by ASpace, for example it won’t check to see that you have entered data into the ‘Title’ field.)

After validation, click the ‘Save Rows’ button to create the components and add them to the record.

Once saved and added to the Resource Record, components can be rearranged in the same way as described in the Manual Method section.