AT @ Yale

This was great information! I successfully connec...

2010-10-05T15:08:12.000-07:00

This was great information! I successfully connected and grabbed data both for MSExcel (copying all accessions table data) and for MSAccess (copying ALL the tables).

This kind of functionality will make reporting and metrics much easier!

Although technically possible, I'm not sure if...

2010-07-01T09:43:56.449-07:00

Although technically possible, I'm not sure if you would want to update or alter data in the AT's MySQL database directly from Excel. I, at least, am a little weary of that. What I do is use Navicat for MySQL to query or view the AT's tables and then copy certain data into Excel for manipulation. I then either create MySQL UPDATE statements from said data to execute via Navicat's Console window or simply paste in to the table columns from Excel. Again, BE VERY CAREFUL.

2010-07-01T09:37:19.632-07:00

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I'm curious about your comment that "with...

2010-07-01T09:30:30.566-07:00

I'm curious about your comment that "with a little know-how, you can even use Excel for batch updates." It sounds like you are manipulating the database directly from Excel?

Very cool. I hope Yale will be an active participa...

2010-06-04T12:08:35.169-07:00

Very cool. I hope Yale will be an active participant in the collaborative model for ArchivesSpace development!

Follow-up to mere "thanks." It's im...

2010-02-25T16:15:18.046-08:00

Follow-up to mere "thanks."

It's important to see the amount of work and effort that is required to make data clean. The benefits will become apparent. For those of us with lots of legacy data, the improvements are more remarkable once the data is available, but they are certainly hard-earned.

So thanks for being a pioneer!

Thanks so much for sharing this with the world.

2010-02-25T16:13:13.877-08:00

Thanks so much for sharing this with the world.

Interesting post... I can see that you put a lot ...

2009-11-17T02:40:19.407-08:00

Interesting post... I can see that you put a lot of hard work on your blog. I'm sure I'd visit here more often.
George
from Magic Tricks.

Correct, inability to parse/incorporate subfields ...

2009-05-27T06:58:20.878-07:00

Correct, inability to parse/incorporate subfields is another current weakness. Though this a primarily a weakness of EAD. I'm not sure whether AT 2.0 will include a subject module rewrite.

This was a useful post, as we are considering many...

2009-05-27T06:45:27.080-07:00

This was a useful post, as we are considering many of the same issues regarding the management of subject terms.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but one thing I'm noticing about the Subjects module in AT is that if you use precoordinated subject headings like LCSH, the AT interface doesn't factor in subfields. So, you just enter the entire string in one box, which means the main field isn't privileged over the subfield.

Did this factor into your decision?

I'm not a cataloger and the whole Voyager/ILS thing is little opaque to me, so I might be misunderstanding some things here.

As a potential future user of AT, I'm very interes...

2009-05-20T08:49:52.694-07:00

As a potential future user of AT, I'm very interested in its sustainability. Over the last month, I've heard two rumors: 1. That AT will be subsumed in some way by OCLC, and therefore might become fee-based; and 2. that AT and Archon will someday merge. I'm not sure about the likelihood of either scenario; in my view, though, scenario 2 would be ideal. To combine the strengths of both systems - to have a robust AT-like infrastructure with an Archon-like user interface would be great.

AT used to crash when we were trying to load our l...

2009-05-19T08:54:00.000-07:00

AT used to crash when we were trying to load our largest finding aids (approx. 3.5 MB). After increasing the heap space from 256 to 512 MB, we did not have any more problems.

I heard there is a way to export your file to exce...

2009-05-13T16:27:00.000-07:00

I heard there is a way to export your file to excel, where you can then do search and replace commands. Then you would need to re-import the data. Not ideal, but someone told me they were doing it that way. I'm gearing up to start AT, so haven't tried this. But I thought this may be helpful so am passing it along.

It is important to note that our performance may b...

2009-04-24T10:41:00.000-07:00

It is important to note that our performance may be further impacted by two different issues as we seek to implement the AT across Yale special collections:

1. There will be an even larger base of data if we store all data in the same instance of the AT. This is the situation for the Collections Collaborative AT setup (see the previous posting for more information).

2. As the AT moves from development to production, it will most likely move away from a dedicated server to a shared server administered by the Yale Library Information Technology Office.

These performance issues will need to monitored as our development progresses.

The conclusions made here regarding ongoing centra...

2009-04-21T12:57:00.000-07:00

The conclusions made here regarding ongoing central support and administration as well as conforming a variety of existing practices to a set of agreed upon best practices is important. This is particularly important for larger, and often more de-centralized institutions. In Yale's case, there is currently no person or unit responsible for these tasks. Each repository or unit are responsible for their own tools and practices. It is my opinion however, that it is in the best interest of the organization to allocate resources to this in order to further shared goals.