1. ArchivesSpace Migration
(Nearly Done)
Nicole Smeltekop
MSU Libraries

2. New librarian in a small Special Collections unit of a large academic library. Previously, an archivist for seven years
SPC was using Archon (YAY!), but too customized for the Export EAD button
We were already ASpace members and had a test instance up
University Archives administered separately, but joint ArchviesSpace instance.
So….we needed a different option.than the migration tools
Some Background

3. New Workflow Export MARC records from the Library catalog →
Transform MARC records in MarcEdit to EAD→
Create container listings and add them into the EAD file →
Import the complete EAD files into ArchivesSpace
Data wasn’t structured properly in Archon (example:container listing lived in the arrangement note with HTML formatting)
Thus, I thought I’d go to the catalog for structured data

4. Container Listings Using Mail Merge
<c02 level="file">
<did>
<container type="Box" label="Mixed Materials">1</container>
<container type="Folder">1</container>
<unittitle>South Africa Basic Facts, Extras copies, </unittitle>
</did>
</c02>
<container type="Folder">2</container>
<unittitle>Boycott and Divestiture Histories, c.1978</unittitle>
<c02 level="file"> <did> <container type="Box" label="Mixed Materials">«Box»</container> <container type="Folder">«Folder»</container> <unittitle>«Description»</unittitle> </did> </c02>
Those needing container listings….got them into excel spreadsheets - typically Box, Folder, Description
Used Microsoft Mail merge to get them into EAD
Mixed success - the less hierarchy the better this worked (and the less editing I had to do) - meaning series, and subseries
Also, Excel has an annoying habit of cutting of characters at a certain limit, so if your descriptions are long, beware!
Why not OpenRefine? For me, I didn’t have the time to take to learn it, but the problems I outlined are very good reasons to use OpenRefine instead (and it’s a tool on my list to learn).

5. So….XSLT….. MarcEdit Marc → EAD stylesheet
ArchivesSpace field mappings
Trial and Error
How I built my stylesheet
Field mapping documentation - don’t assume your EAD will import properly even if it’s properly formatted EAD

6. Cataloging Issues Records in AACR, AACRII, and RDA formats
Stylesheet also looks for “rda” in 040$e
Stylesheet looks for 260$c OR 264$c
300 field: 109$fboxes ;$c27 x 40 x 13 cm.
Removing punctuation with regular expressions
repeatable fields too! (e.g., more than one 300 field if the collection was 2 letters)
Dates field required in ASpace...not so much in MARC

7. Things that weren’t in the MARC Record
Things added to Finding Aids through MARC record
Immediate source of acquisition
Some biographical historical notes
Processing information note
Subject headings
Conservation information
Other local notes
Formatted names
Data consistent across two platforms

8. Things that went wonky 700 notes Note tag Dimensions field
Finding Aid Status field (Dear ASpace team, please add this to your mapping, kthnksbye)
700 notes - Added entry
-Means it’s an added author (i.e, agent) OR a uniform title...so we have titles as peoople in ASPace

9. Batch Import into ArchivesSpace
Batch imported records into ASpace
However...if there’s an error in any file, it fails and you have to reimport everything
(For example, collections I didn’t realize were missing a date field)
The error report does tell you which file and which data point is missing

10. Finished! (Nearly)
Still doing some data clean up, but 371 records are in!
Moving some data to fields manually (such as making the 300 field human readable)
Adding language information based on the MARC code in the 008 field (sadly, this was above my XSLT skill level to add into the stylesheet)
Processors are currently doing their finding aids in ArchivesSpace, so next steps is finishing off a manual, getting things clean, and launching when the new public interface becomes public.

11. Thanks! Nicole Smeltekop MSU Libraries nicole@mail.lib.msu.edu
XSLT Stylesheet on Github: