Issue 2: March 2023

Supporting Access to Memory: A newsletter for AtoM clients

What's in this issue:

1. Welcome!
2. What's new in 2.7
   
3. 2.7 feature videos
4. FAQ: digital object storage and upload limits
5. Upcoming point release 2.7.2

Hello again!

It's been awhile since our last newsletter in 2020, but we have been busy here at Artefactual. In our first major release since July 2020, AtoM 2.7 was made available to the public December 21, 2022. This new release is packed with new features from the CSV import validation tool to the ability to use Bootstrap 5 for your AtoM theme.

New features in AtoM 2.7

Upgrades are currently underway for hosted and on-premise clients to version 2.7. Some of you will already be upgraded and some of you will have taken part in user testing before our wide release. In anticipation of these upgrades, you can familiarize yourself with a number of new features and fixes. There are numerous improvements to Accessions, finding aids, CSV import, Bootstrap and more, including:

1. An updated version of Bootstrap so both BS5 and BS2 are supported in 2.7;
2. The ability to use Central Authentication Service (CAS) for single sign on;
3. Enhanced Archivematica integration with the ability to download AIP and preservation files directly from AtoM;
4. Improved digital object metadata display area for view preservation and access copies; and
5. Introduction of a validation tool for CSV imports via the user interface.

For more details, check the 2.7 release notes and 2.7.1 release notes. A big thank you to all of the sponsors of features and fixes!

Feature videos

Interested in some of the features in 2.7 listed above? Watch our short videos that demonstrate new features on our YouTube channel.

1. CSV validation tool
2. Digital object metadata changes
3. Digital object downloads
4. Adding Events to Accessions

FAQs: Your questions answered

Every newsletter we'll put in an FAQ that seeks to answer some of the common queries we've been receiving in the past few months.

Q: Why am I unable to upload digital objects to AtoM? I have done so in the past.

A: There are generally two common reasons for this:

1. You have tried to upload a file greater than the default limit of 64MB; or
2. You have used the digital object space available on your AtoM site and you need to purchase more in order to continue to upload digital objects.

If it is because you want to upload a digital object more than 64MB in size, then there are a few things to consider. First of all, are you uploading an access version of your file (or files)? An access version is generally smaller in size due to compression and the file type when compared with the original file. For example, if you have digitized a document into a number of TIFF files, you might make an access copy by combining the pages into a single PDF.  AtoM is not a preservation system, so this allows you to keep your digitized masters in a more appropriate location, while still providing meaningful access to end users.

However, we recognise that files in general have gotten bigger and this includes access files. In this case, your upload limit can be reconfigured by Support. But there are caps to how far this limit can be increased, especially in shared infrastructure.  And keep in mind that this might cause you to run into issue two: using all of your storage space in AtoM. This will fail any future digital object uploads. 

Depending on your AtoM implementation, you will have storage size limits. You can can have a user with Administrator rights confirm this. Navigate to ADMIN>SETTINGS in the Navigation Bar. When the left-hand menu appears, select UPLOADS. The first entry will show your usage and storage limits (see image below).

Useful links:

Digital object upload documentation

Digital object storage documentation

Uploads settings in the Admin section

Upcoming point release 2.7.2

We're currently working towards a new point release for 2.7 to address a few issues. Our new Maintainers team is hard at work developing fixes and submitting the code for release. Follow us on Twitter and on our website to find out more.

For a list of issues and status, you can review our issues tracker here. Upcoming fixes include:

• Fixing issues with moving records in full-width treeview;
• The ability to create duplicate users; and
• Challenges the community is having with upgrading.

We welcome feedback & questions! Please get in touch.