Archon Users Collaborative

The members of the AUC who participated either as partners in the Archon Update Project or expressed strong interest in the continuing work of the AUC met virtually on November 21, 2019. We present these notes for the benefit of all Archon users. Archon Users Collaborative Leaders Virtual Meeting November 21, 2019 Present: Anne Salsich, Ken Grossi, Michael McFarlin (Oberlin College); Tom Steman (St. Cloud U.); Nat Wilson (Carleton College); Cliff Hight (Kansas State U.); Scott Schwartz (U. of Illinois); Sasha Griffin (Denison U.); Matt Gorzalski (Southern Illinois U. Carbondale). Observing from Oberlin: Crystal Willer and Riza Miklowski. Anne Salsich, Oberlin (AS) - Opened the meeting. Invited round-robin updates, starting with those who have made changes to Archon, have adopted new finding aid delivery systems, or are developing a new product. Matt Gorzalski, Southern Illinois University Carbondale (MG) - Considered AtoM but would have needed more expertise for migrat

Archon Users Collaborative members Matt Gorzalski of Southern Illinois University Carbondale, and Scott Schwartz of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), gave a short presentation on the work of the Archon Users Collaborative (AUC) at the Collection Management Tools (CMT) Section Meeting at the 2018 Society of American Archivists conference in Washington DC. Scott announced that after thorough testing, UIUC had decided not to implement ArchivesSpace, but the university remains supportive of the project. He then introduced the AUC with emphasis on Archon Day 2018. Matt summarized the AUC’s work in 2017-18, including the PHP code update to Archon 3.21-rev3, the survey of Archon users, and the events of Archon Days 2017 and 2018. He noted that although the survey revealed strong support for maintaining Archon as a viable CMT, there was a 50-50 split of institutions willing to contribute the time and money to do so. Matt stated that the AUC felt comfortable using the current

Archon Day was held at Denison University again this year, convened and hosted by archivist Sasha Griffin, on June 29, 2018. The group comprised 10 participants from institutions in Illinois, Minnesota, Kansas, and Ohio (see list of attendees at end ). Meeting participants thanked Sasha Griffin for her service as leader for the last several years. She announced that she must step down from her time-consuming role. We agreed to work in teams to share future work. Meeting Purpose The purpose of the meeting was to discuss the future viability of Archon, the availability of alternative finding aid database software; their utility for Archon users in particular; and the Archon Users Collaborative future work in three to five years. Review of the Update and Archon Users Survey The group reviewed the results of a survey of Archon users and discussed the probable existence of other Archon users, particularly in foreign countries. We discussed our own satisfaction with the updated Archon in

Just a reminder that the Archon Day registration deadline is only a week away! Learn more about the details here: http://archonusers.blogspot.com/p/archon-day-2018.html or email me if you have any questions at <griffins@denison.edu>. Hope to see you in Granville this summer!

I've been trying to figure out a way to streamline our communication methods and the best way seems to be using a blog-type site. So, this is our new site!   The old site now has directions guiding people to this new site. The List of Archon Users is still the same link and lists the same institutions as the old site. The best feature of the new site is that you can subscribe to the news updates via email. Because of this, I will no longer be sending updates by email.  Please    subscribe to updates    to ensure that the latest updates will arrive in your email box. 

You're invited to Archon Day 2018!   The Archon Users Collaborative will be meeting at Denison University on June 29, 2018. Registration is now open: Register now! We will be discussing a number of topics in order to continue to anticipate users' needs and drive some forward movement on the future of Archon. All Archon users and interested parties are welcome to attend. Archon Day will be formatted as an unconference and the topics for discussion will be broadly formulated by the participants who are attending. For more information, visit: http://archonusers.blogspot.com/p/archon-day-2018.html