February 16, 2024

Hi everyone,

Happy 2024! Following our September 2023 Archeion upgrade to AtoM version 2.7.3, Archeion news slowed down over the fall months and holidays. Things are now speeding up again, and I have a variety of Winter 2024 Archeion Updates to share with the membership and AAOlist. Please see below.

I will continue sending out Archeion Update e-blasts to the AAOlist as there is news to share with both Archeion institutions and the broader AAO community. 

As always, please email me if you need any Archeion support or have any questions.

WHY DOES ARCHEION LOOK DIFFERENT? 

On February 2nd, 2024, I upgraded the Archeion website theme to its new Bootstrap 5.x version (arArcheionB5Plugin theme). You may have noticed that Archeion looks slightly different since this upgrade. If you encounter any issues or have any questions or feedback about Archeion’s new look and feel, please email me.

Note that reverting back to Archeion’s old Bootstrap 2.x theme version is not recommended. I have included more details below if you are interested in learning about the background behind this update[1].

ARCHEION AUTHORITY RECORD IDENTIFIER VALIDATION

Now that the AtoM platform offers the ability to validate authority record identifiers, Archeion institutions who use the Authority Record Identifier field in authority records must enter unique identifiers in this field. As per the 2023 Archeion Authority Records Policy, the Authority Record Identifier field is intended for unique identifiers for the authority record (please do not include the institutional identifier or the archival description identifier in this field). Please refer to the Archeion Authority Records Policy for more instruction.

If your institution uses the Authority Record Identifier field for local identifier information you may notice a new validation error when trying to save records with a non-unique value in the Authority Record Identifier field. The error will say “Authority record identifier - value not unique”[2]. Please email me if you use the authority record identifier field for local identifiers and we will work together to find an alternate field for this data (I will assist with moving the data).

UPCOMING ARCHEION TRAINING

I am very grateful to the AAO PDC for organising the following AtoM/Archeion training in February and March. I encourage everyone within the AAO who uses AtoM to sign up for the following while spots are still available:
  • In this session the AAO is fortunate to welcome AtoM experts from Artefactual Systems. Sarah Romkey and Raven Germain will present an overview of AtoM and its entity(record) types (description records, authority records, repository records, etc.).
  • As many of you know, Artefactual Systems hosts Archeion and also maintains the AtoM platform - this is a great opportunity to hear about AtoM directly from the folks who know the system best!
  • Even if you do not use Archeion I strongly encourage you to share this session with your staff, including any reference staff who would benefit from hearing about how the AtoM platform’s search and discovery works.
  • This session will be delivered by me and will focus specifically on using AtoM through a shared instance like Archeion. 
  • Training will be broken up into the different contexts of AAO member institutions. The session is intended to be relevant to you whether you’re a lone arranger using Archeion or if you have a whole IT team running your own AtoM instance. Archeion can benefit all sizes of AAO institutional members. 
  • If you are an active AAO institutional member and do not have an Archeion login or need to reset a password for an existing login please email me before the session.

ARCHEION PARTICIPATION IN #ARCHIVESATOZ (APRIL 2024) AND OTHER PROMOTION

Plans are underway to run “Archeion AtoZ” on AAO social media in April 2024, as part of the the annual Archives of Ontario #ArchivesAtoZ social media campaign. See Danielle Manning’s listserv announcement for more details about the campaign and consider joining. I am interested to hear from you if you have any ideas or items in Archeion that you would like me to consider adding to the promotion.

Our talented web administrator, Tiffany, continues to promote Ontario archives represented in Archeion via AAO social media. Always feel free to reach out if you would like to add any of your records in Archeion to our 2024 commemorative dates for planned promotion. A reminder you can also have your institution highlighted in a #FeatureFriday by filling in this form. You can see past Feature Friday institutions on the AAO website's Archeion Features page.

NEXT PLANNED ARCHEION UPGRADE (2.8)

Archeion was upgraded to AtoM version 2.7.3 in October 2023. The newest Atom release, AtoM 2.8, came out on January 8, 2024. I am working with Artefactual to schedule testing for Archeion on version 2.8. We will likely upgrade Archeion this Spring. If your institution uses Archeion remember to watch out for upgrade news this Spring from me via the AAOlist. If you are interested, signing up for the AtoM Google Group is also a great way to receive updates about the AtoM platform and new AtoM features that will become available in Archeion.

ARCHEION PAGE VIEWS MODULE TO BE RETIRED

Artefactual Systems has let us know that the AAO sponsored Archeion Page Views module will be retired once Archeion is upgraded to AtoM version 2.9 - this will occur sometime in late 2024 or 2025. It is being retired because the Archeion Page Views module is a custom feature specific to Archeion - it is not part of the core AtoM code. The module was sponsored by AAO members and released in November of 2014 - and a 10 year lifespan is a really great support period for a customised feature in any technology platform. Thank you to all of the members who initially contributed to the creation of this module: you provided page view statistics to Archeion institutions for over 10 years!

As we plan for the retirement of the Archeion Page Views module once Archeion is scheduled for an upgrade to AtoM 2.9, please consider if your institution uses the Archeion Page Views feature. If you do use these stats and you would like to find an alternate way to collect your institution’s Archeion statistics, please consult with me. We may not be able to replicate the Page Views stats but other data is available. 

Note that Artefactual Systems have confirmed that it will not be possible to crowdfund a new project to continue the Archeion Page View stats module in future AtoM versions.

ARCHEION GOOGLE ANALYTICS

Speaking of Archeion statistics, I continue to publish Archeion’s GA4 analytics through the following Looker Studio reports if you are interested: 

Going forward I will add these to the Archeion About page for access.

All the best,

Kelli

Kelli Babcock, MLIS (she/her)
Archeion Coordinator
Archives Association of Ontario
e: [log in to unmask] 
https://www.archeion.ca

[1] The Archeion website "theme" manages the front-end design, overall appearance, and functionality of Archeion. It is important that we use a theme optimized for web accessibility and responsive (mobile) design. Luckily, Archeion hosts and AtoM maintainers Artefactual Systems have worked hard to upgrade AtoM’s core Dominion theme to a Bootstrap 5.x version. This upgrade offers AtoM repositories a base theme improved for web accessibility and responsive (mobile) design. When Archeion is upgraded to the next AtoM version, the AtoM 2.8 release, the current Bootstrap 5.x theme will become the default. This is why I have moved Archeion off of the old Bootstrap version 2.x theme - this version will be deprecated as of the future release of AtoM 2.9. 

We have moved Archeion to Bootstrap version 5.x theme to begin testing out Archeion on the upgraded Bootstrap 5.x theme. Please always feel free to submit feedback or ideas for future considerations in improving Archeion’s theme.

Image: left = old Archeion Bootstrap 2.x version; right = the new Archeion Bootstrap 5.x version, as tested on the Archeion -test site in January.

[2]

Image: you may notice this error message when attempting to update an authority record that uses a local (and possibly duplicate) Authority Record Identifier. Please email me if your institution uses the Authority Record Identifier field for local and non-unique identifiers.

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