Yale AT plug-in development: status report

This post provides an update on MSSA's plug-in development efforts.

1. Revised Analog Instance module/view
   
   To increase the AT's collections management functionality and usability MSSA has asked for user-defined fields (two strings, two booleans) to be added to the Analog Instance table/module in version 1.7. We will use these fields to facilitate interaction with our ILS (Voyager), using them to capture Voyager Bib and Holdings numbers, box type, and flags for item-level restrictions and tracking of exported items. Here is a screenshot of the revised Analog Instance view our plug-in presents when an individual instance is clicked in the main Resource module.


Status: design finished; user-defined fields will be present in version 1.7 release.


2. Assign Container Information plug-in
   
   A second functional improvement MSSA is contributing is enhanced batch container information assignment via an Assign Container Information plug-in.

Much more efficient than data entry via RDE, which requires assignment one instance at a time, the Assign Container Information plug-in allows batch box type, restriction flag, and ILS export assignment to selected instances all at once.


Additionally, we've designed a Rapid Barcode Entry module to allow use of barcode scanners to quickly wand in barcodes for containers.


The Rapid Barcode Entry interface allows you to either select a specific container or an arbitrary number of containers. If you select one container then it will be the starting point, allowing you to progress numerically through the boxes until finished. If several containers are selected, then that will be the group that the interface will assign barcodes to. Setting your barcode scanner to include a return/break will allow you to input barcodes as fast as you can scan them.

Status: design finished; should be ready for use with release of version 1.7.


3. EAD export plug-in
   
   Yale EAD instances validate against a Yale-specific RNG schema informed by Yale's EAD best practices guidelines. Because this schema differs from the EAD 2002 schema, we need to develop an EAD export plug-in to modify data in the AT to validate against the Yale schema for easy ingest into our finding aids database. Such a plug-in will allow others to modify their data to meet their various output needs.
   
   Status: not yet started.
   
   
4. Partial EAD import plug-in
   
   Because MSSA accessions several hundred additions to collections each year, many coming in with inventories and EAD ready to paste into a finding, deleting and re-importing finding aids (and corresponding instance info)--the only way currently to input EAD aside from direct entry into the AT, is impractical for us. Hence, we will be developing a partial EAD importer, allowing import of new addition/accession EAD (e.g. ...) to append to an existing AT resource.
   
   Status: not yet started.
   
   
5. Lookup/read-only plug-in
   
   To facilitate collections management and public services activities in MSSA, we have need to develop a quick look-up or browse plug-in that will allow us to select specific data fields (e.g. accession number) to retrieve certain information (e.g. barcode) without the need to build the entire resource, accession, or digital object record.
   
   Status: not yet started.



6. Export to ILS plug-in
   
   To facilitate easy export from the AT to an ILS we will be developing a text file export plug-in. The plug-in will allow you to format data entered into the AT for easy export/ingest into an ILS. Because we are one of I believe two institutions with a Voyager import API, in our case the plug-in will export the text file to an intermediary application that will in turn ingest the AT data into Voyager.
   
Status: not yet started.



7. Revised Digital Object Instance module/view
   
   To facilitate batch digital object creation we plan to modify the Digital Object Instance module in a similar fashion as we have done with analog instances, allowing bulk creation and metadata assignment. Specifically, we want the ability to create and assign metadata for an arbitrary number of items via a '+ n' button, which allows you to enter the number of items you want to create with assigned values.
   
   Status: not yet started.