importing an ArchivesSpace repo into an existing ArchivesSpace that has some duplicate global records

[Christine Di Bella]

Hello everyone,

Someone recently asked me a question that I thought I’d put out for the collective wisdom of the list since I have to think there are people out there encountering the same challenge and I’m curious about the approaches being taken.

Use case: 

They need to export one or more repositories from one instance of ArchivesSpace and import those entire repositories into another instance of ArchivesSpace that already has one or more active repositories in it.

They have successfully used an older tool created by Hudson Molonglo (https://github.com/lyrasis/aspace-repo-move-tools) to export a repository from one instance of ArchivesSpace and import it into a different, EMPTY instance of ArchivesSpace. 

However, when the target ArchivesSpace instance is not empty, this existing tool cannot complete the transfer if it runs into any records with global scope in the import that already exist in the target ArchivesSpace (based on uniqueness constraints set on the record type being imported).  (e.g. Both have a container profile with name “Banker Box”)

Is there another community-created tool out there to do this? If someone has gone through this process, what did you do to resolve the conflicts?

Thanks for any and all thoughts,

Christine

Christine Di Bella

ArchivesSpace Senior Program Manager

christin...@lyrasis.org

 

[Brian Thomas]

Hi Mike,

I’d be interested in taking a look if it is on github or something. A reason we haven’t pursued this yet was waiting on getting 3^rd party hosting for Aspace, and that the Preservica sync function would mean that a highly hierarchical structure like you get with state government would get flattened out. What you created doesn’t appear to work that way, I’m not sure whether it’ll be a good fit, but one never knows until they investigate.

Thanks,

 

Brian Thomas

Electronic Records Archivist | Archives and Information Services Division

Texas State Library and Archives Commission

512-475-3374 | www.tsl.texas.gov

 

From: 'Saunders, Mike' via Archivesspace_Users_Group <Archivesspac...@lyrasislists.org>
Sent: Wednesday, March 11, 2026 12:27 PM
To: ArchivesSpace Users Group <Archivesspac...@lyrasislists.org>
Subject: [ArchivesSpace Users Group] preservica plugin for aspace

 

Hi all, we've had a trial for preservica, and one of my main questions is how does the plugin for archivesspace work - from previously asking on this list (and seeing a couple of examples in the wild), it seems to just link out to the digital object in archivesspace. (I don't actually know how the two things are synced yet).

 

During our trial i've been working on tighter integration for the PUI, with the assumption that the user might not care to move between different user interfaces. Which has resulted in a (very, very early) prototype of a plugin that i've got running in a local aspace docker, pulling data from our preservica trial instance. Here's a bit of how it works so far:

 

• If an aspace record has a digital object that links to preservica:

 

 

• We can click through and see the preservica folder in a page within aspace rather than going out to the preservica ui

 

 

• You can click into all these folders, view the subfolders, and view the access copy from preservica - it will load in-page (if there's a way to render it)

 

 

• It can also search the full text of items (where this has been extracted by preservica) within that digital collection

 

 

I can't work on it any more at the moment because a) our trial ends today and b) we still have to evaluate and go through a procurement process to see where we might land for a digital archive storage solution.

 

If others might be interested in a plugin like this, (when i've had a bit more time to work on it) i'll open the github repo and would be really interested in others thoughts and edits.

 

As I said it's very much in prototype and subject to a lot of change, but happy to talk to anyone on/off list who wants a bit more detail - or if you've been working on anything similar, or if there's a reason this is a misjudged idea.

 

Cheers!

 

Mike Saunders (he/him)

Library Systems
National Library of Scotland

m.sau...@nls.uk

 

 

 

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[Charlow, Aurora]

I thought I'd chime in from the Preservica side as someone currently working on this integration. 

The provided integration for Preservica is powered on the Preservica side, and in addition to linking digital objects as was already covered, it mirrors the hierarchy of arrangement from ArchivesSpace into Preservica. This does come with some drawbacks as Brian mentioned - if you've got a more in-depth hierarchy on the Preservica side, you'd have to emulate that in ArchivesSpace to keep it. 

This looks pretty cool!

	Aurora Charlow, she/they DIGITAL ARCHIVIST
	UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES MAHN CENTER FOR ARCHIVES AND SPECIAL COLLECTIONS, PRESERVATION & DIGITAL INITIATIVES
	EMAIL char...@ohio.edu PHONE 740.593.0055

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From: archivesspac...@lyrasislists.org <archivesspac...@lyrasislists.org> on behalf of Brian Thomas <bth...@tsl.texas.gov>
Sent: Wednesday, March 11, 2026 01:46 PM
To: Saunders, Mike <m.sau...@NLS.UK>; ArchivesSpace Users Group <Archivesspac...@lyrasislists.org>
Subject: [External] [ArchivesSpace Users Group] RE: preservica plugin for aspace

 

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[Tessa Wakefield]

Hello all,

This discussion is very timely for my institution as we're in the early stages of thinking about this integration and trying to conceptualize it. While I can't currently contribute much to the conversation, I'm interested in learning more about these integration efforts and would always be happy to brainstorm!

Thank you,

Tessa

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Tessa Wakefield (she/her)

University Archivist & Special Collections Coordinator

University of Northern Iowa

Rod Library

319-273-2132

LIB 341  /  Cedar Falls, IA 50614

uni.edu  /  #1UNI

To schedule an appointment, please visit LibCal.

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/a/lyrasislists.org/d/msgid/Archivesspace_Users_Group/DS2PR01MB994181C9BBF7702ABB735AADB7AC47A%40DS2PR01MB994181.prod.exchangelabs.com.

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Tessa Wakefield (she/her)

University Archivist & Special Collections Coordinator

University of Northern Iowa

Rod Library

319-273-2132

LIB 341  /  Cedar Falls, IA 50614

uni.edu  /  #1UNI

To schedule an appointment, please visit LibCal.

 

[Shaun Trujillo]

Hi all, 

I just want to throw my hat in the ring and say Mike's work is very interesting and timely for the Special Collections at Smith. I am managing an instance of Preservica and we are using the ASpace sync module. We have an additional digital collections system (Islandora), but embedding digital content in AS finding aids would be ideal and we have been looking into some of the WIP around leveraging IIIF to make this possible.

I would really appreciate the opportunity to take a look at the work you've done, Mike, and would be happy to answer questions about our use of Preservica.

Thank you, 

Shaun

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[James Truitt]

Hi all,

Just chiming in to ask if there's any synergy between this work and the ongoing ArcLight Integration Project (https://archives.albany.edu/arclight_integration/), which is also interested in serving digital objects in finding aids.

Best,

James