1. Archivists' Toolkit - SAA Annual Meeting, August 20, 2005 Archivists’ Toolkit Towards Streamlined Archival Workflow Lee Mandell Kelcy Shepherd Brian Stevens Brad Westbrook

2. Archivists' Toolkit - SAA Annual Meeting, August 20, 2005 Overview Project Update –Project Objective and Staff –First year efforts –Goals for second year –Prospects beyond the grant period AT Software Specification –Specification Framework –Specification Modules –Application architecture and technology –Demonstration example

3. Archivists' Toolkit - SAA Annual Meeting, August 20, 2005 Project Objectives Digital tools to support archival processing in a manner that promotes efficiency and standardization Focus on core archives functions of accessioning, resource description, subject and name management and application, and resource location Support outputs such as EAD, EAC, METS, and various administrative reports

4. Archivists' Toolkit - SAA Annual Meeting, August 20, 2005 Project Team Brian Schottlaender, UCSD, Co-Principal Investigator Carol Mandel, NYU, Co-Principal Investigator Brad Westbrook, Proj. Mgr & Spec Team Leader Lee Mandell, NYU, Design Team Mgr Kelcy Shepherd, Analyst Brian Stevens, Analyst Luc Declerck, UCSD, and David Ackerman, NYU, Administrative Oversight

5. Archivists' Toolkit - SAA Annual Meeting, August 20, 2005 Project Advisory Board Robin Chandler, CDL Michael Fox, MHS Merrilee Proffitt, RLG Richard Szary, Yale Guenter Waibel, RLG Beth Yakel, U Mich

6. Archivists' Toolkit - SAA Annual Meeting, August 20, 2005 Project Partners Bates College Five Colleges: Amherst College Archives and Special Collections, Hampshire College Archives, Mount Holyoke College Archives and Special Collections, Smith College Archives & Sophia Smith Collection, & UMass-Amherst, Special Collections and Archives NYC: The American Museum of Natural History, The Brooklyn Museum of Art, Carnegie Hall, The Center for Jewish History, & Manhattan College NYU: Fales Library, Tamiment Library, University Archives UCSD: Mandeville Special Collections & SIO Archives

7. Archivists' Toolkit - SAA Annual Meeting, August 20, 2005 First Year Accomplishments Functional Requirements Identified Application Specification Composed Design Team Manager Hired

8. Archivists' Toolkit - SAA Annual Meeting, August 20, 2005 Goals for Second Year Build Prototype from AT Specification –Interface Design Compose User Documentation –User Manual –Application Help Module –Installation Scripts Test Application and Documentation –Functional Testing –Usability Testing Formulate Business Plan Release Tested Application

9. Archivists' Toolkit - SAA Annual Meeting, August 20, 2005 Prospects Beyond the Grant Period Modular Design Architecture in Open Source Software Possible Extensions include –More Robust Collection Management Module –Additional Tools to Support Ingest of Local Data –Extended Digital Object (Surrogate) Module –User Registration / Resource Use Module Shared Development

10. Archivists' Toolkit - SAA Annual Meeting, August 20, 2005 Application Overview Brian Stevens New York University

11. Archivists' Toolkit - SAA Annual Meeting, August 20, 2005 –General Description –Product context –Software system –Context diagram –Application diagram –Software system attributes –Installation requirements –Performance requirements –Design constraints –Other requirements –User characteristics –Task list –Data flow diagram –Data dictionary Pieces Included in the Specification Overview

12. Archivists' Toolkit - SAA Annual Meeting, August 20, 2005 General Description Problem Statement Purpose of the Software Specification Scope of the Archivists’ Toolkit Glossary Data Dictionary References Acknowledgements

13. Archivists' Toolkit - SAA Annual Meeting, August 20, 2005 The Toolkit Functions integrate key functions in the archival descriptive cycle ingest extant metadata about collections in the form of EAD finding aids and MARC records use a relational database management system with Java Swing client user interface be deployable in a range of archival repositories

14. Archivists' Toolkit - SAA Annual Meeting, August 20, 2005 Design Overview Administration/Project Management Ingest Accession Location Names Subjects Audit Search Description

15. Archivists' Toolkit - SAA Annual Meeting, August 20, 2005 Task List Prerequisites Installation Application / Project Management Manage Records Audit Trail Record Navigation Generate Report Search Database

16. Archivists' Toolkit - SAA Annual Meeting, August 20, 2005 Application Software System Software system attributes Installation requirements Performance requirements Design constraints Other requirements

17. Archivists' Toolkit - SAA Annual Meeting, August 20, 2005

20. Functional Modules Kelcy Shepherd Five Colleges

21. Archivists' Toolkit - SAA Annual Meeting, August 20, 2005 Establish repository record Manage users Customize default fields, required fields, input forms Create project definitions Application/Project Management

22. Archivists' Toolkit - SAA Annual Meeting, August 20, 2005 Ingest Module EAD version 1.0 and 2002 (XML) MARC XML

23. Archivists' Toolkit - SAA Annual Meeting, August 20, 2005 Accession Module Preliminary descriptive information Some collection management fields Descriptive and administrative outputs: –Accession record –Accession receipt –Acquisitions report –Processing reports –More…

25. Archivists' Toolkit - SAA Annual Meeting, August 20, 2005 Description Module Archival resources and surrogates Inputs based on DACS, ISAD(G) Outputs: EAD METS Dublin Core Collections guide MARC XML MODS Printed finding aids More…

26. Archivists' Toolkit - SAA Annual Meeting, August 20, 2005 Location Module For tracking “permanent” locations Accommodate a range of practice Outputs: –Location record –Shelf list –List of all locations for a resource

27. Archivists' Toolkit - SAA Annual Meeting, August 20, 2005 Names Module Authority control for names (personal, family, and corporate/conference) Includes fields for contact information, biographical/historical note Supports see also and see references Outputs: –Source record –Sources list –EAC record

28. Archivists' Toolkit - SAA Annual Meeting, August 20, 2005 Subject Module Basic authority control for subjects Can create records in advance or on an as- needed basis Outputs: –Repository subject guide

29. Archivists' Toolkit - SAA Annual Meeting, August 20, 2005 Uniquely identifies each record Allows repository to track creation and editing of records Audit Tracking

30. Archivists' Toolkit - SAA Annual Meeting, August 20, 2005 Search Module For moderated use in reference setting Features: –Search for resource by resource ID, title, creator, or subject –Search for resources, resource components, surrogates, and surrogate components by keywords in title –Search for locations by resource ID

31. Archivists' Toolkit - SAA Annual Meeting, August 20, 2005 Archivists’ Toolkit: Application Architecture and Technology Lee Mandell, Design Team Manager

32. Archivists' Toolkit - SAA Annual Meeting, August 20, 2005 Back End (database) Developed with mySQL Will work with many SQL databases both open source and commercial –Partial list: DB2, PostgreSQL, MySQL, Oracle, Sybase, Microsoft SQL Server, Informix, Ingres... Why SQL and not other technologies like xml and object databases? –Maturity of SQL databases –Likelihood of local IT departments having SQL expertise –Many existing open source projects to integrate into the projects.

33. Archivists' Toolkit - SAA Annual Meeting, August 20, 2005 Front End (Client) Needs: Cross platform (Mac OSX, Windows 98+, Linux), open source, sophisticated user interface capabilities Solution: Java desktop client –Many more user interface options than a web based client –Will run on any computer with Java 5 (1.5) installed Client and database can be installed on the same computer or on different computers. –Single machine configuration –Local network configuration –Wide area network configuration

34. Archivists' Toolkit - SAA Annual Meeting, August 20, 2005 Open Source SourceForge –Project will be listed by the end of the year. –Source code will be available in an early alpha version early next year for viewing only –When we enter beta testing we will be open to other developers joining the effort Anyone will be able to download the source code and use it as they wish. We hope a developer community will grow out of the project

35. Archivists' Toolkit - SAA Annual Meeting, August 20, 2005 The Great Divide or in technical terms The Paradigm Mismatch Java Object Oriented Programming Language SQL Relational Database

36. Archivists' Toolkit - SAA Annual Meeting, August 20, 2005 Hibernate A persistence layer An open source project to bridge the differences between Java and relational databases Saves us from rolling our own Allows easy swapping of back end databases

37. Archivists' Toolkit - SAA Annual Meeting, August 20, 2005 A Live Demonstration

38. Archivists' Toolkit - SAA Annual Meeting, August 20, 2005 http://archiviststoolkit.org/