Case study: Accessioning and describing digital archival acquisitions using encoded archival description crosswalks

Abstract

In 2021, the University of Southern California (USC) Libraries migrated to a new digital asset management system, Orange DAM, to administer its digital collections. The USC Libraries used this migration as an opportunity to improve its workflows for describing and enabling access to born-digital archival acquisitions. This case study examines the strengths and weaknesses of the USC Libraries’ past and current workflows for accessioning born-digital archival material. The case study focuses on the Libraries’ current workflow, which uses an Orange DAM export feature in conjunction with ArchivesSpace — an archives management application — to create and link the description of born-digital archival collections across USC’s discovery systems. The current workflow, created by the USC Libraries’ accessioning archivist in 2023, involves exporting metadata in an Encoded Archival Description (EAD) format from Orange DAM, editing the EAD using regular expressions, and then importing the description into an ArchivesSpace finding aid. While the current workflow prioritises expedited access over detailed description, it significantly improves the discoverability of new acquisitions of digital archives compared with previous workflows. Despite some duplication issues arising from the lack of built-in system integrations, this workflow strikes a balance between process efficiency and descriptive detail, aligning with the USC Libraries’ current operational limitations for managing digital archives.