This past week, I’ve been working on getting some open-source software installed on my site. There are loads of open-source programs for the archival community, and more in development. It’s great to see developers really work with archivists and focus on the needs of the archival community. I found that the experience of installing the software I was working with varied widely, so I thought I’d share some of those experiences.

I had been playing with Archivists’ Toolkit on my laptop, and I really like it. The data entry screen is large and intuitive and there are logical buttons for adding additional repository information, accession information, donor information, or other contextual information. I made some attempts to get it on my server, but I gave up because my host had some upload requirements that made it a pain. It’s a great program, but not on my site right now. I’m not actually sure it’s meant to reside on a server; there was chatter on the Archivists’ Toolkit User Group Email List about problems with trying this right around the time I first tried to upload it, and when the announcement was made that Archivists’ Toolkit was going to be integrated with Archon, another open-source archival software suite, people started asking about whether it would be web-based.

Anyway, after getting frustrated with that, I turned my attention to Archon. Archon was developed by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. It allows the end-user to enter archival descriptions and the software will format and publish the descriptions in searchable, user-friendly finding aids on your website. Sounds great, but I couldn’t get the installation to work. I created a MySQL database for the software and then I tried the manual installation. The manual installation sounded simple: extract the zip file onto your server, add the database configuration settings to a small php file and then run through a web-based installer. I added the correct configuration info (server type, database name, login info, etc.) to the file, but I kept receiving error messages when I tried to go through the web-based installer. The forums had many posts about installation problems, but none that seemed to directly address what was happening to me. Sigh.

I started over and tried to use Archon’s installer.exe that comes with the zip file. This launches a neat little window to add database configuration settings (the same info that you could manually add to the php file) and settings to connect to your server via FTP. This was even worse. I kept receiving error messages that the a connection to the database could not be made. When I tried to FTP the files anyway, I got an error message saying an FTP connection could not be made. Chatting with my host’s just support confirmed that I was entering the correct information.

At this point I was frustrated and basically gave up. Software should not be that difficult to install.

So I moved on. Another open-source archiving program in development is the International Council on Archives’ A to M. A to M stands for Access to Memory. The software is multi-lingual and supports multi-repository collections, meaning it can handle archival collections that are distributed across various archives.

The installation could not have been easier. The installation documentation is actually for a program called Qubit which is an open-source program designed for archives and libraries. It was a little confusing at first, but the documentation was very clear. I downloaded the software and its web-based installer and uploaded it to my server. After I extracted the file, all I had to do was point my web browser to the folder and the installer did the rest. After checking my system, it prompted me to create a MySQL database (all I had to do was provide a database name). The installer finished its work and brought me to the homepage of my new installation of A-to-M.

As the administrator, I can create new accounts, build collections, add repositories, and enter keywords/authority terms to improve the search. The search has several limiters, including subject, media type, material type, name, place, archival description, and archival institution. The application uses the ICA’s international descriptive standards:

• General International Standard Archival Description: ISAD(G)
• International Standard Archival Authority Record for Corporate Bodies, Persons, and Families: ISAAR(CPF)
• Interational Standard for Describing Institutions with Archival Holdings: ISDIAH

A-to-M can also work with other standards, such as the Rules for Archival Description (RAD) or Describing Archives: A Content Standard (DACS), so it is quite flexible.

I can also access the CSS files on my server to customize the look and feel of the interface. I haven’t added anything yet, but I’m looking forward to playing around with it.

While I was reading about Qubit and A-to-M, I came across another open-source program called Digital Collections Builder. DCB is also build on the Qubit platform and was also really easy to install. It was designed by Canadiana.org in partnership with a host of sponsors. I installed it here, and haven’t done much with it either. DCB uses Dublin Core as its core standard and some of the search limiters are different, but that seems to be the only difference. The homepage looks nearly identical to A-to-M’s.

Anyway, I’m glad I finally got some software working. I’ll probably start entering some descriptions of the Helen Creighton materials I’ve been working with, and I’m curious about the description import/export features. I’ll be sure to keep updating on how it goes.