Assistance needed with daguerreotype collection

[nate....@gmail.com]

Just decided to start a project of cataloging old daguerreotype collection, over 100 items with detailed records. Should I go with (free, open source) collections management software or atom archive software? What’s the difference?

I want to put all daguerreotype data in large excel spreadsheet then upload it, then add photos. Can I add custom fields? Like, for example, a field for clothing etc.

How does sharing final atom work?

Thanks in advance.

[Dan Gillean]

Hi Nate, 

I will include some general links below to help you learn more about the AtoM project and determine if it will meet your needs. First I'll try to answer your questions. 

AtoM is kind of a collections management system - and it is released under an open source (A-GPLv3) license. We also release all other supporting materials (such as our documentation, wiki content, slides, etc) under open CC-BY-SA licenses as well. Its differences stem mainly from the project history and focus. AtoM was originally developed in collaboration with the International Council on Archives (ICA) - in fact, early releases were called ICA-AtoM - and the original goal of the project was to provide a free and open source application for small and medium archives to get their holdings described using ICA standards and available online. You can read more about the early project history on our wiki here. 

These days we have users both big and small, but the focus of the project remains the same. Consequently, there is a lot of archival terminology and assumptions made about how arrangement and description take place in AtoM. Many of the user interface labels and menus can be easily customized via the settings, but the templates for description are all still based on national and international archival description standards. See here for more information on the standards supported in AtoM. So: while it shares many of the same features as a collections management system, its focus is oriented to archives. 

Because the goals of the project are centered around standards-based description, there is no method to add custom fields to AtoM - without custom development. In fact, we generally recommend against people adding custom fields, as it can make it more difficult to maintain and migrate your data in the future - for more on this (as well as some developer resource links if you do want to develop your own fields), please see this user forum post. 

AtoM is designed to act as both an internal edit site for archivists performing arrangement and description, and also a public access catalogue - so once you have AtoM properly installed on a server with a domain certificate in place, there's very little else you have to do to make your descriptions publicly available. AtoM does have a publication status for descriptions - a description set to Draft will not be available to public users, and a description set to Published can be seen by anyone who can access the public front-end of your site. You can read more about publishing descriptions in the documentation here. 

One final note: if you do decide to use AtoM, we don't recommend working with Excel to prepare your data for import! AtoM needs CSV imports to use UTF-8 character encoding (a common standard used in web browsers and mail applications for representing text). Unfortunately, Microsoft rarely uses well-established standards, and instead prefers to create its own custom versions of things - including a custom character encoding (WinLatin) and custom line ending characters (invisible characters in a CSV that tell an application when a new row begins). These can cause all sorts of problems during import into AtoM - including strange glyphs, and even adding thousands of blank descriptions to your import! 

Instead, we generally recommend that people use LibreOffice Calc - it's an open source spreadsheet application that lets you set important parameters such as character encoding every time you open a CSV: 

If you do decide to use AtoM, you can find copies of our CSV import templates on our wiki, here: 

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

I hope this helps - let me know if you have more questions, and check out the links below for more information about AtoM! 

General project links and community: 

You can find all of the AtoM project documentation here: 

• https://www.accesstomemory.org/docs/latest/

We also have a detailed introductory information sheet on AtoM on the Artefactual website, here: 

• https://www.artefactual.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/AtoM-information-sheet-final.pdf

If you would like to explore some publicly accessible AtoM sites that are being used in production by other institutions, you might find our example Users list on the AtoM wiki useful: 

• https://wiki.accesstomemory.org/Community/Users

Many of these sites have added their own custom themes - some developed by Artefactual, some created in-house - so this is also a great way to get a sense of how you can customize AtoM’s look and feel to match your institution’s home page. You might also find the following slide deck of interest - it outlines some community AtoM sites who are using AtoM in interesting ways. See: 

• https://www.slideshare.net/accesstomemory/atom-implementations 

You'll find a number of other slide decks from past AtoM Camps, conference presentations, or webinars, on our SlideShare account. 

The easiest way to get a sense of what you can do with AtoM is to play around with it yourself - why not take a look at our public demo site? See: 

• https://demo.accesstomemory.org

The login credentials are listed right on the homepage. The site is loaded with sample data, and you are free to make whatever modifications you like - the site’s contents will automatically reset on an hourly basis. Please note that for security purposes, all uploads and imports have been disabled. 

If you would like a way to set up your own test instance on a local computer or laptop, we do have a Vagrant box available, which can be installed with minimal technical knowledge. For more information, see: 

• Docs: https://www.accesstomemory.org/docs/latest/dev-manual/env/vagrant/ 

• Slides: https://www.slideshare.net/accesstomemory/atom-and-vagrant-installing-and-configuring-the-atom-vagrant-box-for-local-testing-and-development 

Please keep in mind that the Vagrant box is NOT intended to be used in production, or as a permanent installation. AtoM is designed to be installed on a server, not a local computer - for full installation instructions, see here in our documentation.

Finally, to learn more about the history of the AtoM project, as well as our development approach and Artefactual’s business model for sustaining the project, please see the following wiki page: 

• https://wiki.accesstomemory.org/Development/Philosophy 

Cheers, 

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

@accesstomemory

he / him

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[nate....@gmail.com]

Hi Dan, thanks for all the information about Atom. I tried to download atom thinking it would look like PastPerfect (which I’ve used before). Are atom and pastperfect the same type of software? What free open source program online is similar to PP? Thanks, Nate

[Dan Gillean]

Hi Nate, 

I'm not very familiar with PastPerfect, but I believe it's more oriented to museums, while AtoM's focus is primarily on archives. 

If you're looking for web-based museum collection management applications, you might want to check out CollectionSpace: 

• https://www.collectionspace.org/  
  

Collective Access is another open source alternative, that has modules for archives and museums: 

• https://collectiveaccess.org/
  

Omeka is more general but its focus is on ease of use: 

• https://omeka.org/  
  

And remember, an easy way to get a sense of AtoM without having to download and install it is to try out our online demo site: 

• https://demo.accesstomemory.org

Credentials to log in are listed right on the homepage. The site resets every hour, so feel free to make changes (and be aware that they will eventually be overwritten, and that other users may also make changes in the site). Note as well that all uploads are disabled in the demo site for security purposes. 

Cheers, 

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

@accesstomemory

he / him

On Thu, Apr 2, 2020 at 6:26 PM <nate....@gmail.com> wrote:

Hi Dan, thanks for all the information about Atom. I tried to download atom thinking it would look like PastPerfect (which I’ve used before). Are atom and pastperfect the same type of software? What free open source program online is similar to PP? Thanks, Nate

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