Introduction to Managing Archives in Arctos
Channel: ARCTOS
Date: 2022-10-11

Presenter: Michelle Koo (Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, UC Berkeley)

Abstract:
Natural History Museums have long recognized the importance of journals, field notes, correspondence, annotated maps and photos as critical to the data quality for specimen collections. These materials are usually managed as physical archives and in archival databases if a museum has dedicated archival collection. At the MVZ, after assessing the needs of the archival database and the urgency to migrate from its deprecated software (Archivist Toolkit), we concluded that Arctos fit all the functional requirements. Not only can the MVZ Archives be managed and all its uses tracked in Arctos as a cultural collection, but Arctos can dynamically link related specimens and archival media together. The MVZ Archives is currently in the process of migrating to Arctos and creating a manual for this workflow, while finding new issues to tackle between the domains of archival and natural history curation. This webinar will outline the basics of how we are using Arctos for archives and invite discussion about the differences and similarities between these domains. This project is still a work in progress so feedback and ideas are most welcomed.

When: Tuesday, October 11, 2022 at 3:00 pm ET/1:00 pm MT/12:00 pm PT (19:00 UTC)