Archive Management System update

Milestones and project extension 

The AMS project team achieved some key milestones in May. 262,872 records from five University Library Cantab databases were successfully migrated to the live ArchivesSpace system during the month. The migration process involves opportunities for archivists/database owners to check and review how their data will look on ArchivesSpace prior to final migration. We’re delighted to report that the first migrations ran very smoothly with no surprises either for archivists or the tech team. Catalogue records for major archival collections held by the University Library (the University Archives, Royal Greenwich Observatory, Royal Commonwealth Society, Maps Departments and Bible Society) have been published on ArchiveSearch, the public user interface of the Archive Management System. In addition, the system continues to be used for live cataloguing and during lockdown sustained progress is also being made on retrospective conversion of legacy catalogues (from typed, word-processed and hand-written catalogues). The system now holds 268,357 records, over 5,000 of which are newly created (i.e. have not been migrated automatically). The amount of data on the system is set to increase substantially over coming months as other legacy datasets are migrated.  

The Archive Management System Project has been extended for 6 months and is now scheduled to finish at the end of April 2021. 

Data protection 

A data protection review of the archive management system has been carried out and a set of FAQs about data protection has been added to the documentation available for partners in the AMS.   

ArchivesSpace online forum 

Natalie was invited to introduce the Cambridge instance of ArchivesSpace as part of a ‘Show us your implementation’ session with the Bodleian Library and University of Edinburgh, at the recent ArchivesSpace online forum. The forum lasted for four days and included many tips, updates and demonstrations which will be useful to the project.  

 
Katrina Dean and Natalie Adams (ams@lib.cam.ac.uk)