Levels of description from Archivematica

[ombric...@gmail.com]

Hi everybody,

I'm currently working with Archivematica 1.7.1 and AtoM 2.4.

I focused on this interesting Tip on AtoM documentation:

**For users wishing to include multiple individual images as “views” of a single item, AtoM now includes “Part” as a level of description included at installation.**

I've tried to achieve this result manually importing digital objects in AtoM at File level starting from an Archival Description created by importing an EAD and it worked.

But what if I would like to obtain the same result uploding DIPs from Archivematica? Where should I give the information "Part" in my Transfer? in the CSV file? Using a Structmap?

Is it possible to attach (Always Uploading the DIP from Archivematica) one or multiple digital objects to a File level without AtoM to create an additional level "Item" for each digital object?

In sumption I have tree different cases:

1- One File level of description/ One digital Object

2- Multiple pages of the same document at File level (the description is the one already uploaded through the EAD and it's the same for all the digital objects)

3- Multiple objects are different documents (each is a "Part" level) with a different description attached to an Item level created with the EAD import.

I hope I've been clear enough and hope to hear some similar cases!!

Thank you,

Giò.

[Dan Gillean]

Hi there Giò,

A couple of things here. First, you can use the Arrange SIP from Backlog functionality in Archivematica to fetch AtoM's levels of description and arrange your SIP prior to DIP upload. See: 

• https://www.archivematica.org/docs/archivematica-1.7/user-manual/ingest/ingest/#arranging-a-sip-for-atom
  

You may want to read the whole page (i.e. the parts above this section as well) for context. 

Unfortunately however, I think that currently Archivematica will always create a new intermediary information object (AKA description) when uploading DIP objects, even when using this method. At present, the only path around this is development to add new functionality. 

Regarding your question about digital object upload - there is currently no way to attach more than 1 digital object to a description, and this is unlikely to change in AtoM 2. 

In AtoM data model, there is a 1:1 relationship between a digital object (e.g. a digital file, like an image, PDF, sound or video file, etc. that you upload), and an information object (a generic word for an archival description in AtoM). This means that only 1 digital object can ever be attached to a description at a time. 

We maintain this 1:1 relationship because in the current data model, we only associate technical metadata with the digital object itself - information such as original filename, size in MB, date uploaded, type of file, etc. All descriptive metadata (such as a title, a description, an extent statement, etc) is always kept with the descriptive record - AKA the information object. All this to say, there is no way to attach 2 or more images to the same description. What you CAN do instead is create lower levels of description - AtoM places no restrictions on how deep a hierarchy you arrange, and the levels of description are maintained in a user-editable taxonomy of terms, so you can edit them, delete ones you don't need, or add new ones as you need. If you need to associate multiple files (say, images) with a single item-level description (let's say photos of different sides of a single physical object), you can create lower-level descriptions below the item, and give them a custom level of description. This is why we include "Part" as an example level of description you can use as a sub-item level (for example, individually scanned pages of a book), but you could create others - for example, you might use "View" if you are showing off images showing different sides of a single physical object.

We'd love to be able to enhance the arrange from backlog functionality, and make it possible to attach a DIP object directly to an existing description (without creating a new lower-level description), but as I said, this would likely require either community development contributed back to the public project, or sponsorship so we at Artefactual can develop these enhancements and include them in a public release. If you are interested in the latter, please feel free to contact me off-list, and we can discuss next steps. 

Regards, 

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

@accesstomemory

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