Archival Description in Figgy

Owned by Jennifer Baxmeyer
Last updated: Feb 24, 2021 by Esmé Cowles
2 min read

Status

Approved by DSSG on  

Archival Description in Figgy Working Group Report

In response to our charge from the Discovery Systems Steering Group (DSSG), the working group met to discuss potential use cases for archival description living only in Figgy and unanimously concluded that the canonical version of metadata should always live in EAD, as opposed to only in Figgy.

Historically, some archival description has been moved into Figgy as opposed to EAD because of a concern over performance issues with the current finding aids site when loading large, flat EAD files with several thousand item-level components. Since we are currently planning a project to move to a new finding aids system that should be better equipped to handle large, flat finding aids, moving forward, canonical metadata for archival material should live in the EAD finding aid in all cases. Having all description in one system is the most user-friendly solution since all archival materials will be discoverable through a central search portal (the finding aids site), and will allow for more efficient and streamlined management of metadata on the backend.

For collections that currently have additional metadata in Figgy that is not reflected in EAD finding aids, we would recommend data reconciliation projects to update EADs as needed. An example of an EAD that has already been migrated at the item-level is AC067.

Collections in Figgy that may require some sort of data cleanup work include:

  • Interborough Subway Transit Posters (MC085): not described in finding aid or database we can find
  • Middle Eastern Film Posters Initiative: No finding aid found but live in DUPL;  might be out of scope if it is not a part of Special Collections
  • Western American Collection - item-level description in finding aid and links to PUDL. Figgy is not attached to finding aid. Figgy should be converted to use finding aid instead of MODS for metadata
  • Grounds and Buildings (AC111): collection has finding aid but figgy records don’t have a reference to AC111