Archon is an open source platform created by the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign which is designed to allow archival repositories to more easily create and publish finding aids to their collections. It was created in response to a lack of easy methods for archivists to publish finding aids online. While the archival community had previously created content and data structures, such as Encoded Archival Description, implementation of these standards was difficult for many in the profession.[1][2]
| Developer(s) | University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign |
|---|---|
| Initial release | July 2006 |
| Final release | 3.21
/ 6 July 2011 |
| Repository | |
| Written in | PHP |
| Operating system | Cross-platform |
| License | University of Illinois/NCSA Open Source License |
| Website | www |
The project staff at Archon included Assistant University Archivist and Associate Professor of Library Administration - Chris Prom, Director and Archivist - Scott Schwartz, Lead Developers - Paul Sorensen and Chris Rishel and Developers - Kyle Fox and Mamta Singh.[3]
In 2008, Archon was honoured with the Andrew Mellon Foundation Award for Technology Collaboration.[4]
Beginning in 2009, Archon and Archivists' Toolkit (a similar tool) began the process of merging the two platforms.[5] This new software, ArchivesSpace , was developed in 2012-2013 and had a 1.0 release in September 2013.[6] As of January 2014, Archon became unsupported software and the project was merged with ArchivesSpace.[7]
As of March 2017, Archon continues to have an active user base. LibraryHost continues to provide hosting services for the software and has taken a leadership role in updating the underlying PHP for existing users.[8]
References
edit- ^ Prom, Christopher; Christopher A. Rishel; Scott W. Schwartz; Kyle J. Fox (2007). "A unified platform for archival description and access". Proceedings of the 7th ACM/IEEE-CS joint conference on Digital libraries. pp. 157–166. doi:10.1145/1255175.1255205. ISBN 9781595936448. S2CID 14742743.
- ^ Yaco, Sonia (2008). "It's Complicated: Barriers to EAD Implementation" (PDF). American Archivist. 71 (2): 456–475. doi:10.17723/aarc.71.2.678t26623402p552. Retrieved 1 November 2011.
- ^ "Archon: The Simple Archival Information System". www.archon.org. Retrieved 2016-02-23.
- ^ "Library Archivists Receive Award". www.library.illinois.edu. Archived from the original on 2015-12-28. Retrieved 2016-02-23.
- ^ "UC San Diego Libraries and Partners Developing Next-Generation Archives Management System with Grant From The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation". UC San Diego. Archived from the original on 21 April 2012. Retrieved 18 May 2012.
- ^ "Program Timeline". ArchivesSpace. Archived from the original on 6 October 2014. Retrieved 7 October 2014.
- ^ "Archon™ The Simple Archival Information System". Retrieved 5 October 2014.
- ^ "LibraryHost offers Archon services". LibraryHost. Retrieved 2 March 2017.