Guest Post by Archives Student Worker Cortney
As a student worker in the
Minnesota State University, Mankato Archives there have been many projects and
tasks we have done. One of the recent projects that was one of my personal
favorites was the Collection Guide scanning and ArchivesSpace data entry.
The collection guide scanning
process is the first step. We were each given certain collection guides from
both the Minnesota State Archives and the Southern Minnesota Historical Center.
The process begins with adding footers on the documents which state the current
date and the page numbers. Once you have inserted those footers, you print off
the documents (we chose to print more than one collection guide so we could do
more at a time). After printing off the guides on the second floor, the next
step was to scan which takes place on the third floor. The scanner we use are
single sheet scanners, where we place the papers face down and upside down, so
they scan right side up. When scanning we complete the batch and give it the
proper title (the title of the collection guide). Once the files are created,
we ingest the files into ARCH which is where all the digital collections for
MSU and the Southern Minnesota Historical Center are located. While ingesting
you are creating a page in ARCH which gives the title of the collection, date
of creation and date ingested, and finding aids. Once ingested and stapled, we
take the papers downstairs to where the hard copies are and replace the old
hard copies.
After the collection guide scanning
process is complete, we can start the second process which is the ArchivesSpace data entry. With the files ingested and the hard copies replaced we can
update the ArchivesSpace data. This process takes a little longer then the
scanning and does a more in-depth examination of the collection guides. We start
off by opening the resource record type. This is where all the data is going to
be uploaded. We oversee updating the basic information, dates, finding aid
information, revision statements, notes, and external documents. The basic
information is just the title, identifier (MSU collection/SMHC Manuscript
collection), level of description (collection), resource type (papers,
collection, records, publications), language, and if there are any
restrictions. The dates cover the label (creation/publication), expression, and
types (inclusive/single). Finding aid information talks about what the
identifier is again, the title of the document, the date it was processed, who
processed it, the description rule (describing archives: a content standard),
language, and the status of the finding aid. Revision statements are if there
were any additions to the collection or finding aid. Notes are the bulk of the
collection which includes the abstract, biographical/historical notes, scope
and contents, and the preferred citation. External documents include the two
places you can find the information which is to the page on ARCH and the link
to the page on the MSU website. After inserting the information, we save the
resource and double check on the public interface of Archives Space that all
the information is there and in the right places. This process uses a lot of
copying and pasting from on document to the resource.
I enjoyed doing this project
because it let me be in both archives' spaces in the library. It also let me
get out of the chair for the little while when walking up or down the
stairs. I also got to know more about
the websites that I can find information on and helped me understand how to navigate
the Archives sites a little better.
