Spreadsheets of unusual size: Using technology to transform and ingest congressional collection metadata
Abstract
This paper provides an overview of a two-year project designed by archivists and librarians at Johns Hopkins University to transform and import collection metadata for the Barbara A. Mikulski papers into ArchivesSpace using Python and the ArchivesSpace application programming interface. The authors describe the challenges of managing a large volume of unformatted archival description and the resulting workflow to create metadata compliant with a designated collection management system. The paper analyses how archivists can incorporate new technology into processing workflows, arguing that archivists should take metadata import into consideration throughout processing projects to maximise their time and facilitate access. This article is also included in The Business & Management Collection which can be accessed at http:// hstalks/business.
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Author's Biography
Jenelle Clark is the Accessioning Archivist at the Johns Hopkins University Sheridan Libraries. She previously worked at the Sheridan Libraries as a project archivist processing the congressional papers of Barbara Mikulski and Paul Sarbanes. She holds an MLIS degree from the University of Maryland.
Kristen Diehl is the Processing Archivist at the Johns Hopkins University Sheridan Libraries. Her interests include developing processing workflows for digitised and born-digital records and pursuing reparative acquisition, description and access to archival collections. She holds an MLIS degree from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Michelle Janowiecki is the Digital Content Metadata Specialist at the Johns Hopkins University Sheridan Libraries. She works on digital collections, bulk metadata remediation and ingest, and enjoys working with application programming interfaces and Python. She holds an MLIS degree from Simmons University.
