Workshop 3: International Council on Archives

(ICA) AtoM Wednesday 9 September 1:00pm – 2:30pm

Presenter: Anna Monson

Purpose: Explore the feasibility of a case study/proof of concept for basic implementation of ICA’s AtoM in a Pacific Island country

25 minutes on:• Background Information about AtoM• Virtual overview of AtoM – online demo

1 hour on:• Readiness Assessment Session

Outline for workshop

• Web-based archival description software

• Based on ICA standards

AtoM = Access to Memory

What is AtoM?

• Web-based application

• Open source application

• Built around the ICA’s descriptive standards

• Multi-lingual

• Supports multi-repository collections

Benefits of the software

• Access to the internet

• Web browser

Dependencies: Reliance on "client-side" JavaScript

Technical requirements

ICA-AtoM2.2 requires as a minimum of:

• A dual-core CPU (Central Processing Unit)

• 2 Gigabytes of RAM

• At least 100 Gigabytes of disk space for the basic install

• Extra disk space if you’re uploading images

Hardware requirements

An IT person will need to be able to install:

• A web server (Apache HTTPD)

• PHP

• A MySQL database

• ICA-AtoM itself

• Java and Elastic search (https://www.elastic.co/)

Initial technical support

Think of the software as a plant

Possible options:

• Hire an IT person

• Learn enough to become your own IT person

Ongoing technical support

• City of Vancouver Archives (Vancouver, Canada): 2012.

• Australian National University Archives (Canberra, Australia): 2013

• Slovenian Office for Slovenians Abroad (Slovenia): 2014

• City of Coquitlam Archives (British Columbia, Canada): 2014

• State Records Office of Western Australia (Perth, Australia): 2015

Archival institutions who have adopted ICA’s AtoM

Login to the demo version of ICA AtoM: http://demo.ica-atom.org/

Login: demo@example.com

Password: demo

Online demonstration of AtoM

Participants to work in groups to discuss and fill in A3 sized ‘Readiness Assessment’ sheets, that will assess the following four categories based on your archive/institution:

• Listings/Catalogues of Archival Items

• Digitisation Advancement/Capability

• Hardware and Technical Support and Capability

• Funding/Support from Management in Human Resources

Readiness assessment session

1. Organise yourself into a group – based on cards given out at the start

2. Designate a ‘recorder’ in the group

3. Designate a ‘reporter’ in the group

4. Discuss and fill in the A3 ‘Readiness Assessment Sheets’ – There is one A3 sheet for each of the four categories

Timings: You will be given 10 minutes to discuss and fill in each A3 sheet for each category. At the end of the 10 minutes, we will do a 5 minute ‘round the group’ session to hear feedback

Instructions of what to do

What have we covered today?

We’ve provided you with

• Background information about ICA’s AtoM• Virtual overview of item – online demo

You have completed a ‘Readiness Assessment’ and in the process ranked the capability of your archive/institution

How will this help?

This information will help with putting together a potential case study/proof of concept for a basic implementation of ICA’s AtoM in a Pacific Island country and how it could be supported by a potential funding bid in the future

Wrap up of workshop

Contacts:

Anna via: PARBICA.Secretariat@dia.govt.nz

References for content:

https://www.ica-atom.org/ Accessed by Anna on 26/08/2015https://wiki.ica-atom.org/ Access by Anna on 26/08/2015

First-hand experience content provided to Anna by Kylie Moloney – Pacific Manuscripts Bureau Representative

Contacts and references