Transforming external legacy metadata for ArchivesSpace: A labor of love

Abstract

When the AFL-CIO collection was acquired, University of Maryland Libraries received a database export of all the metadata associated with the materials. While we already had a proven process for transforming our local metadata from our migration from The Beast (Access Database) into ArchivesSPace, this process would not apply, as the metadata in the case of AFL-CIO was given to us in a different format. In this presentation I will outline the challenges of transforming the metadata and describe the transformation workflows. Specifically, I will show the tool (Stead) that was modified and used for the majority of the transformation work, as well as review the other steps, tips, and tools I utilized to format the metadata for optimal import into ArchivesSpace.