ArchivesSpace Resource Records

Note:

This page is an overview of what Resource Records are and our workflows around them. To see the FULL INSTRUCTIONS, go to the Orbis Cascade Alliance: AS Manual for Resource Records

Resource Records describe our processed archival collections

The main purpose these records is to allow users to find, understand and use an archival collection. Resource Records can be in EAD format for export to other discovery platforms such as ArchivesWest. They generally contain a lot more detail about the contents of a collection that an Accession Record. A listing of contents in each box, or sometimes in each folder, is generally included in a Resource Record.

Resource Records describe the CONTENT and CONTEXT of a collection; NOT THE ACQUISITION TRANSACTION

Resource records provide background information about the creator of a collection, the context in which the collection was created, and the order of the materials within a collection. They do NOT go into detail about how and when the collection was acquired. The acquisition information is contained in separate Accession Records. In ArchivesSpace, we can link Accession Records to associated Resource Records so that there is a clear chain of provenance for all of our processed materials. Multiple Accession Records can be linked to a single Resource Record, indicating that (for example) 10 separate accessions were combined into a single processed collection. The reverse works, too: a single Accession Record can link to multiple Resource Records. This would indicate that (for example) material from 1 accession had been filed into two processed collections.

Workflow for creating a Resource Record:

Note: If you will be combining multiple accessions into one Resource Record, then you will first need to pull together all the related accessions. To search ALL the fields in your Accession Records, including Inventory and Content Description fields, you will need to use Google, because ArchivesSpace does not index all fields for searching in its interface. Search this text in Google: site:http://pacificu.libraryhost.com/repositories/2/accessions/ YOURKEYWORDHERE

• 1. Create a Collection-Level Resource Record. See: Orbis Cascade Alliance: AS Manual for Resource Records

  2. Optionally, add more detail about the contents of the collection:

  3. Create a Simple Box-and-Folder List : normally used for smaller, less complex collections

  4. Create a Series-Based Inventory : normally used for larger, more complex collections

  5. Save as an EAD file and export it to ArchivesWest