Archive Search Room Software

Archives, repositories and museum stores can now greatly increase their Search Room efficiency and customer experience with CollectionsBase : Reader and Order Management.

Developed in conjunction with East Sussex County Council for The Keep, and licensed with their approval for new customers our Software as a Service is a UK first in fully integrating both a real-time view of spaces available within the search room alongside document advance ordering and movement control. This software has been developed specifically for the needs of Archives, Museum stores and Local History Centres, and works in harmony with both Axiell CALM, ICA AccessToMemory (both local and cloud hosted) and Archivists’ Toolkit / ArchivesSpace. It uses at its core our Digital Heritage specific CollectionsBase aggregation and indexing platform, with reference, keyword, date range, boolean, fuzzy and proximity search functionality.

Reader Software Functional Overview

• Dynamic seat allocation with session time rules. Seat amounts can be altered if blocking, or some kept spare for walk ins.
• Reader advance ordering quota, with per Reader quota adjustment system
• Dynamic in session management with no ordering after a preset minimum session / search room closing time
• Fully Automatic availability checking: a Reader cannot order a document that another Reader has already ordered for a session on a specific day
• On the day at a glance allocation status for Readers, with real time order production tracking (inventory management , stock control : document movement tracking) with optional use of Hand Held Terminals and barcodes.
• Fully automated picking and fulfillment if containers are barcoded
• Semi-automated if you currently don’t have barcoded containers
• Document and item acclimatisation rules, with required document path e.g. : Home to Production, Cold Store to Acclimatisation
• Portable wish list – Reader selection at home, wishlist available on terminals upon arrival
• Reader registration, with front desk Reader Card creation and ID approval process and barcode scan of Reader card at issue desk
• Issue and Return can be via Hand Held Terminals – no more paper tickets
• Digital downloads and e-commerce system for selling digitised materials for Readers who cannot attend in person
• Research service and reproduction request quotation builder, with e-commerce gateway connections
• E-Commerce for downloads and quotations connects to Civica ICON Authority and Capita EPay / Pay360, in addition to WorldPay and Secure Trading commercial gateways.
• Full reporting system on movements, Orders, Issues and Returns

Reader Software Infrastructure Outline

All document search functionality is provided by CollectionsBase. All catalogues are virtualised into a common interchange so repositories can use multiple different collection management systems, or catalogues split across different databases. The virtualised catalogue can hold Archive, Museum, Library, Local History and Archaeology data sets with different ordering business logic on a per catalogue type or per partner data set basis (producible only below certain level i.e File, or discrete CanBeOrdered flags). Location management metadata is harmonised into common container fields across the differing Collection Management Systems.

Entirely Web Service SaaS based product with plug-able front end ‘carts’ and ordering for WordPress, Joomla, Drupal or any Content Management System capable of communicating over SSL secured web services. This can include mobile and touch table technologies too.

As each Archive will have different business logic please contact us for a demonstration and quotation