Archvist's Toolkit or Archon?

[Kelli]

Currently, our accession records and other information and finding aids are being kept in either an access or excel database or word. With our new digitization project we are hoping to link this information directly to the digital object. Since we have limited resources (read no money) we are looking into opensource, specifically Archivist's Toolkit and Archon. Does anyone have any experience with either of these or done any research into either to determine which will work better for a lone arranger. I have been digging around, but so far I haven't found any good place to see the differences between them. Thanks in advance.

[Michael Nagy]

This topic was done as a session at the last Society of Georgia Archivists meeting. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to go last year. Here's the program link: http://soga.org/am/2007/program.php
Did anyone else in the group happen to go?

[Jordon]

Check out Linda Clark Benedict's series of blog posts on using AT:

http://lcb48.wordpress.com/category/archivists-toolkit/

Also, check out the archives listserv. This question has been posed on several occasions.

Other than your personal preference as to the display, the only difference between the two is that Archon will build a searchable database for you and AT won't. AT is a purely back-end management tool--it manages your data, it doesn't make it look pretty for the web.

On the flipside, AT has Mellon funding while Archon was built by Illinois for their own use. So if either were to stop providing support in the future, I'd bet on AT to continue longer than Archon.

[Kelli]

Thanks Jordon. I have been leaning towards Archon for the reasons that you mentioned, but I know that AT has a lot of support and that is why I hesitate. I really just want to have a good sense of what both do so I can present them to the library/IT staff and see what people are thinking.

[Jordon]

Oh, one other nice thing about Archon is that you access it via a web browser, which means you can process collections on vacation in Acapulco.

Not to sound blase, but if you can convince the muckety mucks, the best thing to do is to have both installed and decide for yourself. I think the difference is mainly academic. Whatever floats your boat.

[Kelli]

Yeah, doing both and then deciding would be great. I don't know if I'll be able to swing it, but if I'll pitch it and see what happens.

[Alyssa Pacy]

I'm really glad you posted this. I'm going through the same processes right now with little money and little IT support. Keep posting your progress and I'll do the same. Thanks!

[Kelli]

I will definitely let you know how it goes. We have a new IR director starting in about a week and a half and he's supposed to be really into open source so I'm hoping that he will give me the support I need to get this initiative going.

[Paul Huffman]

I'm trying to convince the IT folks to let me use Archon here as well. Since it's likely to happen, once I'm up and running, I'll try to add my two cents worth to how well I like it as well. It appears as though the Archon website has some very active forums for support.

[Melinda McMartin Isler]

If you want to install the software for test purposes, Archivist's Toolkit can be installed onto your computer as a single installation, without any IT support required. Installing a test version of Archron requires either the agreement of your it to put it on a web server or for you to have the capacity to set up an outside server.

[Deana Whitney]

My company would not allow me to install Archon, since it was web accessible. (They are a private company, so everything needs to be kept private. So now I'm in the process of trying to learn AI. It's going slow.

[Érico Moraes]

Another suggestion is to use the ICA-Atom (http://ica-atom.org/), rather than Archon.
As the installation of Archon, you can install on your local computer, using other free software such as 'WAMPserver' or 'Wamp stack'.
(sorry my bad english)