ArchivEra Repository Profile: Southern Illinois University Carbondale

Question responses were provided via the Repository Profile Form by Matthew Gorzalski, University Archivist at Southern Illinois University Carbondale, on November 15, 2024.

Questions

Tool and version, if applicable

ArchivEra

Type of archives or special collection library?

Academic

How did your institution select this archival collection management tool?

We selected ArchivEra because it is highly customizable and we configured it to look and behave similarly to our predecessor tool, Archon.  We tested ArchivesSpace and AtoM as well.

When and why did you adopt this tool? What system did it replace (if any)?

We adopted ArchivEra in 2019-2020.  We continued using Archon after it was no longer supported, but security vulnerabilities and concern from campus IT motivated us to implement a new tool.  We tested ArchivesSpace, but the public interface at the time did not meet our staff and patron needs.  We also had trouble migrating into ArchivesSpace, despite there being a migration tool developed specifically for this purpose.  As I recall, the migration process would get hung up on orphaned, not readily visible, Archon database records, which prevented collection hierarchies from being rebuilt.  There was a process to check for problematic records pre-migration, which we did many, many times.  It was frustrating when the process would surface problem records that we’d delete, thinking that we discarded everything, only to have more surface after executing the process subsequent times.  We looked into AtoM as well, but Artefactual’s quote for migrating our data was beyond our budget.  (We were looking for outside help to migrate due to limited staff and time

Briefly explain how this tool functions at your institution (e.g. do you only use it for accessioning, or does it fill all the functions from accessioning to public access?)

ArchivEra is a primary public access portal to finding aids/archival description.  There are also some instances of digitized material being available.

What pre-installation/migration preparations were taken to facilitate implementation of this tool?

While experimenting with ArchivesSpace and AtoM, we learned that our limited staff and time practically necessitated outside help in migrating to a new tool.  The Lucidea staff (ArchivEra’s parent company) did the bulk of the migration work on our behalf for a more affordable price than Artefactual’s quote.  Our data had already been cleaned up to a great extent after attempts to migrate into ArchivesSpace.

What degree of IT support was needed to implement and migrate into this tool?

High

Is your collection management tool hosted on-site and in-house or off-site by a vendor?

Off-site by a vendor

Please describe significant post-implementation challenges using the administrative and/or public interfaces.

A few issues here, none of them too major.  First, migrating from Archon to ArchivEra was a basic one-to-one process, but the migration DID NOT rebuild the collection hierarchies (as the Archon to ArchivesSpace tool does).  Therefore, the Lucidea staff devised a way for us to rebuild our collection hierarchies which was tedious and time consuming, but fairly easy and straightforward as well.  The second issue is that although ArchivEra is highly customizable, doing that work is not easy or self-evident.  Nearly all of our customization and post-migration tweaking was done by Lucidea staff upon request.  Lesson learned: if you go with ArchivEra, make good use of their tech support.  In our experience, they are very responsive and friendly to work with.

Is your institution integrating this tool with other automated request, preservation, or digital asset management systems?

ArchivEra has a built-in requests system which we use.  Other than that, we do not integrate it with other systems.

In what ways has using this tool been an improvement over your previous tool or finding aid access strategy?

ArchivEra's reference request system gives us good data on collections use.  It also handles access to digitized content better than Archon.  

What is your most favorite feature of this tool?

Probably it's customizability.

What is your least favorite feature of this tool? 

Certain aspects of the public interface should be redesigned to be less static and more dynamic.  I have submitted enhancement requests that have, to a large extent, been implemented.  But one in particular needs a little work, which would improve user navigability throughout a collection hierarchy.  I asked for a tree-like view of collection hierarchies that (I’m told) is being worked on and should be ready next year (2025).  

Part of our customization was to simplify the admin/back end.  For example, you are given the universe of all metadata fields for each level of a hierarchy.  Many of these are irrelevant when creating a series and file contents list.  So we removed them to only display the essential metadata fields appropriate for a hierarchical level lower than collection level.

On the public end, we added a “hierarchy” field within search results so that users could see, up front, what collection a given file was in.

Lessons Learned, or tip for prospective users? What is your least favorite feature of this tool?

As stated, make good use of Lucidea's tech support.  They are easy to work with and they take your enhancement requests seriously.

What features would you want to see added to this tool in the future?

A less static, more dynamic public interface with easier navigability throughout a collection's hierarchy.