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What is ArcLight?

ArcLight is an open-source platform for archival discovery, originally developed by Stanford University as part of the Lighting the Way project.  The application is built on Blacklight, which serves as the foundation for discovery interfaces like Harvard Geospatial Library and CURIOSity.   ArcLight is currently in use by many special collections libraries and consortia.

ArcLight was selected for review by Harvard’s Library Technology Services (LTS) and Harvard Library and assessed through the/wiki/spaces/librarymeetings/pages/40344142.  The Project found that, with some development work to meet Harvard’s requirements, ArcLight could serve as the successor to the ArchivesSpace Public User Interface (PUI). The gap analysis and requirements for development are available as part of the Project’s final report.

Why are we moving to ArcLight?

Sustainability – Harvard’s implementation of the PUI is very heavily customized, which made it very difficult to maintain.  Harvard was solely responsible for maintaining the PUI – enhancements made by LYRASIS often had to be re-integrated into our customizations by LTS and exhaustively tested by staff.  Implementing a minimally-customized community-maintained platform like ArcLight relieves this burden on staff.  Additionally, Blacklight is very well-supported by both Harvard and libraries worldwide; developers (both in LTS and outside of Harvard) are familiar with improving and maintaining it.

Performance – The PUI and staff interface of ArchivesSpace were both part of one large application.  Since they were so closely joined, any issues in one would lead to outages in the other.  The two sides of ArchivesSpace would also compete for hardware resources, leading to poor performance overall.  Splitting one very large application into two separate, smaller ones will improve stability and performance.

Community – Having a custom PUI meant that it was challenging for Harvard to take part in discovery advances across the archival profession.  With ArcLight, we can participate in cross-institutional initiatives, such as the IMLS grant to rethink digital object access in archival collections.  Additionally, by joining a collaborative network of users and maintainers, Harvard can both contribute to and benefit from community enhancements to the application.

What will ArcLight be like?

Harvard’s initial implementation of ArcLight will be based on version 1.4.0, which includes many enhancements over version 0.5 used during Phase 1.  ArcLight will retain many features currently available in the PUI, including:

• Requesting via Aeon

• Automated publication of finding aids

• Navigation to Harvard platforms like HOLLIS 

• Providing PDF and CSV files of finding aids

• Browsing and searching by repository

Additionally, ArcLight will support new features, including:

• Embedded digital content in finding aids

• Ability to group search results by collection

Will this impact the ArchivesSpace staff interface and Aeon?

Harvard will continue to use the ArchivesSpace staff interface for creating/managing archival and collection management metadata, and Aeon for creating/managing requests. As separate systems from ArcLight, any changes to accommodate the new platform will be minimal.

What will implementation look like?

Harvard contracted Software Services by Scientist.com (SoftServ) to implement many of the requirements identified in Phase I.  This project period is expected to run for eight weeks of intensive development and testing, starting in late September and ending in early December.  During this period, the /wiki/spaces/librarymeetings/pages/40349015 will test the application and provide feedback on new features.  Following the completion of requirements development, there will be a beta testing period, at which point both the staff and public are invited to use ArcLight, update guides and documentation, and provide feedback.  Production launch is anticipated for 2025, at which point the PUI will be retired.

The implementation team consists of:

Will links to HOLLIS for Archival Discovery continue to work?

URNs that point to the PUI will be re-routed to ArcLight.  Non-URN links to finding aids may no longer resolve, and may need to be updated.

The ArcLight interface will continue to use the HOLLIS for Archival Discovery name and URL (hollisarchives.lib.harvard.edu).

How can I learn more?

All interested staff members are invited to join the ARCLIGHT-USERS mailing list for announcements and discussion.  To register, either visit the linked page or email arclight-users-join@calists.harvard.edu with a subject of “subscribe”.

An open meeting, which included a presentation and demo, was held on December 11, 2024. The notes and recording are available here.