Migrating EAD from AT or Archon to AtoM

[bryce...@gmail.com]

I am curious if anyone has any experience migrating data out of Archivists' Toolkit or Archon and into AtoM? I know that similar migrations to ArchivesSpace have been problematic - though perhaps their recent migration plugins have now made that process easier. As someone exploring switching systems and who likes the AtoM system I am wondering how difficult the process would be? I'm guessing the answer is at least somewhat dependent on how complex the current structure of AT or Archon is, but to keep it simple let's just say I wanted to move a single repository's EAD finding aids into AtoM.

Thank you,
Bryce Henry

[Sarah Romkey]

Hello Bryce,

Thanks for posting your question to the forum. I do not have any experience with AT or Archon, but I have asked our developers for some information regarding importing XML files via the command line, which I assume would be preferable to importing them one by one! I'll let you know when I hear back from them.

Cheers,

Sarah

[Dan Gillean]

Hi Bryce,

Regarding bulk import of XML (such as EAD) records into AtoM, I've recently added a response on this thread that should help point you in the right direction.

As for migrating from AT or Archon in general, I suggest that you run some test imports to see how the mapping is - what is lost, and what is kept. If adjustments need to be made to your EAD to have it conform to what AtoM expects, it might be possible to use an XSLT or some other form of transformation to manage any discrepancies.

Some resources to help you:

1) We have a crosswalk here - though it is growing out of date, as we have done further EAD fixes and improvements since the creation of this crosswalk. However, we are currently updating all our end user documentation, and one part of this is to offer a section on data entry that includes the EAD mappings for each field in our standards templates. Currently we just have the first draft for the Canadian RAD standard (here - note this is a work in progress), but soon we will be working on the ISAD(G) template, which will be of more general use to you. Once we have a new AtoM wiki set up (another work in progress, as we intend to replace the old Qubit Toolkit wiki with new, re-organized, and up-to-date information for AtoM 2), we hope to fully update our old crosswalk and host it there.

2) uploads are disabled on our demo site for security reasons, but you could always test locally on our Vagrant box - it's designed for local testing and development, and can be run on a laptop using Virtualbox - note that it is NOT scaled to be used in production! However, the Vagrant box itself is running AtoM 2.0.0 I believe, and there are a number of EAD fixes in 2.0.1, and there will be more in our upcoming 2.1 release - so again, that route will not necessarily give you the most up-to-date information. We hope to prepare a new 2.1 Vagrant box when the 2.1 release is ready, which should be in the next month or two.

3) If you wish to provide me with a sample AT/Archon EAD export file, I would be happy to try importing it into AtoM, and report the results back to you. Remember that this is a public list, and since I would like to share the results of the testing with other community members who might be interested via this thread, make sure that any files you send me are sample data and do not contain private/sensitive information.

4) Another option may be migrating via CSV import, if you have a useful means of getting your data out of AT or Archon in that manner. You can find our sample CSV templates here for the moment - I am currently working on rewriting all of our CSV import documentation, and you can see what I've completed thus far here: https://www.accesstomemory.org/docs/2.0/user-manual/import-export/csv-import/#csv-import

Regards,

Dan Gillean, MAS, MLIS
AtoM Product Manager / Systems Analyst,
Artefactual Systems, Inc.
604-527-2056

@accesstomemory

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[llobde...@gmail.com]

Are there any updates to these instructions? We are also migrating from AT to AtoM. We don't have any EAD finding aids, mostly accession records and minimal resource information. 

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[Dan Gillean]

Hi Lisa,

If the majority of your data is accessions, a CSV migration may be your best option. Does AT have any export options for Accession data?

Our CSV templates are now found on our wiki, here:

• https://wiki.accesstomemory.org/Resources/CSV_templates

If you can get your data out of AT, ideally in CSV format, then you can simply review the output against our Accessions CSV import template, and update the column headers etc to match what AtoM will expect on import. If there is no export option for your data, and you don't have too much, you could always manually prepare an Accessions CSV import. Some instructions on CSV import can be found here:

• https://www.accesstomemory.org/docs/2.2/user-manual/import-export/csv-import/

There is a specific section on that page about Accessions CSV import, but be sure to read the general sections as well, to help ensure you are preparing your CSV properly!

AT should allow you to export your descriptions as EAD, which you could try importing into AtoM. There may be some differences in implementation, so I'd suggest creating a test record in AT with all fields, trying to import it to AtoM, noting any places where data is lost, creating a similar record in AtoM, and comparing the EAD. You could then use a script to transform your AT EAD output to conform to AtoM's expectations.

I'm attaching a sort of EAD crosswalk I made in AtoM, from the ISAD(G) template. I believe I made it in a 2.2 AtoM instance - but you may want to doublecheck, as changes to our EAD implementation may have been made. Essentially, import the sample into your local AtoM instance, update any fields as needed or add data to any fields that didn't import properly, and then re-export.

Hope that helps give you some ideas on how you might proceed!

Cheers,

Dan Gillean, MAS, MLIS
AtoM Program Manager
Artefactual Systems, Inc.
604-527-2056

@accesstomemory

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[Lisa Lobdell]

Thanks for this info, Dan. We haven't found any export options for accession data. I'll forward to my IT guy and let you know if we have any further questions.

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