XML to ArchivesSpace Conversion Project

Turning a problem into an opportunity at the University of Washington Libraries Special Collections

Orbis Cascade Alliance AllCon July 2025

Who We Are

Tracy Nishimoto (she/her), processing archivist

tnishi1@uw.edu

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Elaine Speer (she/her), accessioning archivist

espeer@uw.edu

Presentation Outline

• Background on UWSC and finding aid workflows
• Project background and working with ITS
• Detailed description of the ingest project and what we have learned
• Questions

UW Libraries Special Collections (UWSC)

Over 20 miles of books, serials, papers, photographs, architectural drawings, sound recordings, moving images, digital media carriers, and artifacts documenting:

• University of Washington
• Labor Unions of the Pacific Northwest
• Jewish history in Washington State
• History of Science and Medicine
• Artist and Rare Books
• Ethnomusicology
• And more about the history of the PNW, from Alaska to Wyoming

UW Special Collections merge with Manuscripts and University Archives

A Brief History of Finding Aids in Special Collections

1958-2004: Basic Data Sheets

2001-2007: Digital finding aids pre-Archives West

2002-2003: XMetaL finding aids vs. raw XML

2013: UW adopts Archivist Toolkit

2017: UW adopts ArchivesSpace

Source: ResearchGate

Homegrown databases

Batch file left behind

The Problem

Photo by Beata Zawrzel/NurPhoto via Getty Images

The Problem

1. Adapt workflows
2. Migrate EAD to ArchivesSpace resource records

Changing the problem into an opportunity

Information Technology at University of Washington Libraries

Addressing the Problem

Additional support:

Previous attempts at migration

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Ethnomusicology joins Special Collections in 2023

Addressing the Problem

Task 1: Local formatting for resources

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Aeon

Addressing the Problem

Task 1: Local formatting for resources

Task 2: Stakeholder involvement

Task 3: Tasks divided by amount of technical vs. library skills needed

Technical Prep for working with ITS

• Doing Background Research

Technical Prep.

Examples of various UWSC EAD

Technical Prep

Shared Documentation

Technical Prep for working with ITS

• Doing Background Research
• Finding suitable examples
• Creating shared documentation
• Shared vocabulary

The Project So Far

Initial steps

• Initial shared project documentation
• Systems introductions
• ArchivesSpace sandbox
• Review past efforts

Initial steps

• Initial shared project documentation
• Systems introductions
• ArchivesSpace sandbox
• Review past efforts
• Reviewing current EAD

Central documentation to record results of import testing

1. Copy EAD from AW via API
2. Transform EAD
3. Convert to JSON
4. Ingest to ArchivesSpace via API

Tips & Tricks

Tips & Tricks

• Do lots of prep work ahead of time
• Create a DETAILED list of steps
• Explicitly define terms for your IT department
• Get a sandbox!
• Centralize documentation (GitHub, Shared folders, OneDrive)
• Define each team member’s role
• Hold regular meetings
• Contingency plan

​

Tips & Tricks

• Do lots of prep work ahead of time
• Create a DETAILED list of steps
• Explicitly define terms for your IT department
• Get a sandbox!
• Centralize documentation (GitHub, Shared folders, OneDrive)
• Define each team member’s role
• Hold regular meetings
• Contingency plan

​

Tips & Tricks

• Do lots of prep work ahead of time
• Create a DETAILED list of steps
• Explicitly define terms for your IT department
• Get a sandbox!
• Centralize documentation (GitHub, Shared folders, OneDrive)
• Define each team member’s role
• Hold regular meetings
• Contingency plan

​

Tips & Tricks

• Do lots of prep work ahead of time
• Create a DETAILED list of steps
• Explicitly define terms for your IT department
• Get a sandbox!
• Centralize documentation (GitHub, Shared folders, OneDrive)
• Define each team member’s role
• Hold regular meetings
• Contingency plan

​

Tips & Tricks

• Do lots of prep work ahead of time
• Create a DETAILED list of steps
• Explicitly define terms for your IT department
• Get a sandbox!
• Centralize documentation (GitHub, Shared folders, OneDrive)
• Define each team member’s role
• Hold regular meetings
• Contingency plan

​

Tips & Tricks

• Do lots of prep work ahead of time
• Create a DETAILED list of steps
• Explicitly define terms for your IT department
• Get a sandbox!
• Centralize documentation (GitHub, Shared folders, OneDrive)
• Define each team member’s role
• Hold regular meetings
• Contingency plan

​

Tips & Tricks

• Do lots of prep work ahead of time
• Create a DETAILED list of steps
• Explicitly define terms for your IT department
• Get a sandbox!
• Centralize documentation (GitHub, Shared folders, OneDrive)
• Define each team member’s role
• Hold regular meetings
• Contingency plan

​

Tips & Tricks

• Do lots of prep work ahead of time
• Create a DETAILED list of steps
• Explicitly define terms for your IT department
• Get a sandbox!
• Centralize documentation (GitHub, Shared folders, OneDrive)
• Define each team member’s role
• Hold regular meetings
• Contingency plan

​

Questions?

Detailed Dive into ArchivesSpace importing

Overview

How to collect your EAD on Archives West

Transforming EAD

Digital Objects

<dao> , <daogrp> , <daoloc>

<c04 level="file">

<did>

<container type="box-folder">1/3</container>

<unittitle>[Letter on Mountaineering] </unittitle>

<unitdate era="ce" calendar="gregorian">Nov. 15, 1909</unitdate>

<daogrp>

<resource label="start"> </resource>

<daoloc label="icon" role="text/html" href="http://digitalcollections.lib.washington.edu/cdm/search/searchterm/PNW01913/field/all/mode/any/conn/and/order/title"/>

<arc from="start" to="icon" show="new" actuate="onrequest"/>

</daogrp>

</did>

</c04>

​

Transforming EAD

Digital Objects cont.

<c04 level="file">

<did>

<container type="box-folder">1/3</container>

<unittitle><extref href="http://digitalcollections.lib.washington.edu/cdm/search/searchterm/PNW01913/field/all/mode/any/conn/and/order/title">[Letter on Mountaineering]</extref> </unittitle>

<unitdate era="ce" calendar="gregorian">Nov. 15, 1909</unitdate>

</did>

</c04>

Transforming EAD

Extent

“Extent values are the hall closets of archival description - all sorts of potentially-useful but super-ugly crap ends up there.”

Source: ArchivesSpace @ Yale, “Migration, step by step”

https://campuspress.yale.edu/yalearchivesspace/2015/06/14/migration-step-by-step/

Transforming EAD

Extent

<physdesc>

<extent>68.7 cubic feet </extent>

<extent> 66 boxes, including approximately 7 videocassettes, 1 audio cassette, and 8 rolls of drawings, 10 bundles of rolled drawings, 4 map tubes, 6 oversize folders, and 6 vertical files)</extent>

</physdesc>

​

Transforming EAD

Extent

<physdesc>

<extent>ca. 31.26 cubic ft</extent>

</physdesc>

​

<physdesc>

<extent>1641 photographic prints, 111 nitrate negatives</extent>

</physdesc>

​

<physdesc>

<extent>approximately 11,100 items</extent>

<extent>over 6000 audio reels, 3000 documents, 1000 audiocassettes, 500 compact discs, and 600 phonograph records</extent>

</physdesc>

​

Transforming EAD

Original file issues

• Empty elements
• Impossible normalized dates (1970/1880)
• Self-closing tags (<p/> instead of <p></p>)
• Attribute values not following controlled vocabularies
• Components without a <unittitle> or <unidate>
• Un-escaped ‘%’

Error examples

"error": {

"notes/7/subnotes/0/content": [

"Property is required but was missing"

Error examples

"error": {

"dates/0/certainty": [

"Protected read-only list #/dates/0/certainty. Invalid value 'aproximate'. Must be one of: …"

Error example

Error example

<c03 level="file">

<did>

<container type="box-folder">9/3</container>

<unitid type="uwsc"/>

<unittitle>Bob Edwards campaign finance records</unittitle>

​

Mystery Errors

Formatting Issues

Resources

• https://github.com/archivesspace-labs/ArchivesSnake
• Orbis Cascade Alliance documentation
• ArchivesSpace
• YouTube
• https://archivesspace.org/

Future and Next Steps

Next Steps

• Finishing testing phase
• Begin migration to live instance
• Future opportunities with ArchivesSpace

Questions?