At the end of 2013, the University of Edinburgh’s Library and University Collections (L&UC) became the first institution in the UK and Europe to become members of ArchivesSpace. Built for archives by archivists, ArchivesSpace is an open source archives information management application for managing and providing web access to archives, manuscripts and digital objects.

The application was developed by a partnership of universities in the United States: New York University Libraries, the University of California, San Diego Library, and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Library and had generous support from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

As the application is open source, it has been possible to test ArchivesSpace before becoming a member. The positive response of archivists and information systems developers within L&UC has led to the purchase of full membership with the aim of having catalogues online using the application towards the end of the year.

We are very pleased to be involved with ArchivesSpace and to be keeping company with many illustrious institutions in American and Australia: http://www.archivesspace.org/sites/default/files/ASpace%20Charter%20Members.pdf. Above all, we hope that the application will provide improved access to our Special Collections and Archives for staff, students and members of the public.

Next week we’ll be holding a workshop for archivists, librarians and developers in L&UC to get to grips with the system, culminating in a web-chat with the ArchivesSpace Program Co-ordinator in Atlanta.