History

ArchivesSpace dates from June 2009 when representatives of New York University, the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, the University of California San Diego, and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation agreed to integrate the Archivists' Toolkit and Archon into a single application in order to increase overall functionality within a single application and to optimize sustainability of the application.  The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation provided generous funding for the first two phases of the ArchivesSpace program.  A planning phase ran from January 2010 to June 2011, during which functional specifications were drafted, a business plan was formulated, and an organizational home was secured.  A development phase ran from July 2011 to September 2013, culminating in the release of ArchivesSpace 1.0 on September 30, 2013.

ArchivesSpace continues to evolve and grow as an application and as a community. There have been over a dozen releases of the ArchivesSpace application since the 1.0 release, all of which have served to both advance the integration of the Archivists' Toolkit and Archon and to introduce new functionality not present in either of those precursor applications.

Program Timeline

June 2009
New York University Library, University of California San Diego Library, and University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Library agree to merge Archivists’ Toolkit (AT) and Archon archives information management applications. Andrew W. Mellon offers funding to support the endeavor.

September 30, 2009
AT and Archon stop development but continue user support and fixing of reported bugs

October 2009 - December 2009
High-level functional requirements established
Name of ArchivesSpace adopted for product derived from the integration of AT and Archon

January 2010
Funding for project planning phase by Andrew W. Mellon Foundation

January 2010 - June 2011
Business modeling and planning

January 2010 - June 2012
Functional specifications drafted and vetted by community

June 2010
Technical architecture report issued

July 2011
Funding for project design and implementation phase awarded by Andrew W. Mellon Foundation
ArchivesSpace teams formed; Technical Architect and Development Manager hired

August 2011
Community update at Archivists’ Toolkit/Archon Roundtable Meeting at SAA

August 2011 - June 2012
Development planning and analysis

September - October 2011
Requests for proposals for software development distributed

October 2011
Technical planning meeting at UC San Diego

May 2012
LYRASIS identified as organizational home

June 2012
Software development vendor selected
Functional specifications finalized

July 2012
Hudson Molonglo awarded development sub-contract

July 2012 - July 2013
Application development

September 2012
Usability and build/release testing begins

September 2012 - October 2013
Testing of tools and resources for migrating AT and Archon implementations

December 2012
Launch marketing, communication and outreach plan
Begin drafting user documentation
Plan AT and Archon migration services

January 2013
Operational support plan identified and selected

April 2013 - July 2013
ArchivesSpace Charter Membership drive

May 2013
Beta testing and rollout started

June 2013
Brad Westbrook hired as Program Manager

July 2013 - August 2013
Development of XSLT stylesheets
54 Charter Members enrolled

September 2013
Enrollment of general members begins
AT and Archon stop providing user support and bug fixing.  Code, documents, and websites remain accessible
ArchivesSpace Mellon-funded development project concludes
ArchivesSpace version 1.0 released

October 2013
ArchivesSpace Board of Trustees elected
Funding to support transition process awarded by Andrew W. Mellon Foundation

November 2013
Development part of the Mellon-funded transition grant commences
Archivists' Toolkit to ArchivesSpace migration tool released to Charter members

December 2013
Chris Fitzpatrick hired as Developer
Board of Trustees approves new member category for Educational Programs teaching ArchivesSpace application

January 2014
ArchivesSpace surpasses 100 members
Appointments made to ArchivesSpace Technical and User Advisory councils
Archon to ArchivesSpace migration tool released to Charter Members

February 2014
Archivists' Toolkit to ArchivesSpace migration tool released to all ArchivesSpace members

March 2014
ArchivesSpace versions 1.0.7 and 1.0.7.1 released

May 2014
ArchivesSpace versoin 1.0.9 released
First group ArchivesSpace training session offered

October 2014
ArchivesSpace version 1.1.0 released

November 2014
Christine Di Bella begins as Program Assistant

January 2015
ArchivesSpace versions 1.1.1 and 1.1.2 released
Additional ArchivesSpace Developer hired

March 2015
ArchivesSpace version 1.2.0 released
ArchivesSpace surpasses 200 members

April 2015
Christine Di Bella begins as Community Outreach and Support Manager
First round of development prioritization voting is opened to members.

June 2015
ArchivesSpace 1.3.0 released.

August 2015
First ArchivesSpace Members Forum held in conjunction with the Society of American Archivists annual conference in Cleveland, Ohio.

September 2015
ArchivesSpace 1.4.0 released

October 2015
ArchivesSpace 1.4.1 and 1.4.2 released.

November 2015
ArchivesSpace surpasses 250 members.
Refactored Archon migration tool released.
Keystone Library Network enrolls as a Registered Service Provider.

December 2015
Atlas Systems enrolls as a Registered Service Provider.

March-May 2016
ArchivesSpace trainer corps works with Registered Service Provider Keystone Library Network to provide Basics and Digital Objects training via webinar. Recordings from the sessions are subsequently made available to all ArchivesSpace members.

July 2016
ArchivesSpace 1.5.0 and 1.5.1 released.

August 2016
Second annual ArchivesSpace Member Forum held at the Robert W. Woodruff Library of member institution Atlanta University Center, in conjunction with the Society of American Archivists annual conference in Atlanta, Georgia.
ArchivesSpace surpasses 300 members.

October 2016
Development partnership with Hudson Molonglo announced.

November 2016
Founding Program Manager Brad Westbrook retires from the program.

December 2016
ArchivesSpace 1.5.2 released.
Technical Lead hired (to begin in January 2017).

January 2017
Christine Di Bella named new ArchivesSpace Program Manager
Laney McGlohon begins as ArchivesSpace Technical Lead

February 2017
ArchivesSpace 1.5.3 released

March 2017
ArchivesSpace 1.5.4 released

April 2017
ArchivesSpace 2.0.0 released

May 2017
ArchivesSpace 2.0.1 released

June 2017
Inaugural Core Committers group announced

July 2017
Christine Kim begins as ArchivesSpace Community Engagement Coordinator
ArchivesSpace 2.1.0 released, including new version of the public user interface.
Third annual ArchivesSpace Member Forum held at Portland State University, in conjunction with the Society of American Archivists annual conference in Portland, Oregon.

August 2017
ArchivesSpace 2.1.1 released
First ArchivesSpace annual report published.

September 2017
ArchivesSpace 2.1.2 released

October 2017
ArchivesSpace 2.2.0 released

November 2017
ArchivesSpace 2.2.1 released
First open community call held on Zoom to bring distributed ArchivesSpace members together. Continues as a recurring quarterly conversation.

December 2017
ArchivesSpace 2.2.2 released
New ArchivesSpace Technology & Development Roadmap format and views published; roadmap updated following each version release.

January 2018
Lora Woodford begins as DevOps Specialist for LYRASIS.
ArchivesSpace surpasses 350 members.

February 2018
ArchivesSpace 2.3.0 and 2.3.1 released.

March 2018
ArchivesSpace 2.3.2 released

May 2018
First ArchivesSpace Regional Forum held at Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts.

June 2018
Second ArchivesSpace Regional Forum held at University of California, Irvine in Irvine California.
ArchivesSpace v2.4.0 released.

August 2018
Fourth annual ArchivesSpace Member Forum held at Josephine Butler Parks Center, in conjunction with the Society of American Archivists annual conference in Washington, DC.
ArchivesSpace v2.5.0 released.

November 2018
ArchivesSpace v2.5.1 released.
Third ArchivesSpace Regional Forum held at the Midwest Genealogy Center in Kansas City, Missouri.
Lora Woodford transitions to Junior Developer.

January 2019
ArchivesSpace v2.5.2 released

March 2019
First ArchivesSpace Online Forum

April 2019
Jessica Crouch begins as Community Engagement Coordinator

May 2019
ArchivesSpace v2.6.0 released

August 2019
Fifth annual ArchivesSpace Member Forum held at University of Texas - Austin, in conjunction with the Society of American Archivists annual conference in Austin, Texas.

September 2019
ArchivesSpace surpasses 400 members

October 2019
ArchivesSpace v2.7.0 released

November 2019
Fourth ArchivesSpace Regional Forum held at the University of South Carolina in Columbia, SC

February 2020
ArchivesSpace v2.7.1 released

May 2020
Second ArchivesSpace Online Forum

July 2020
ArchivesSpace v2.8.0 released

August 2020
Sixth ArchivesSpace Member Forum held virtually in conjunction with Society of American Archivists annual meeting

November 2020
ArchivesSpace v2.8.1 released

February 2021
Brian Hoffman begins as Technical Lead

March 2021
ArchivesSpace v3.0 released
Third ArchivesSpace Online Forum

August 2021
Seventh ArchivesSpace Member Forum held virtually in conjunction with the Society of American Archivists annual meeting

September 2021
ArchivesSpace v3.1 released

October 2021
ArchivesSpace surpasses 450 members

November 2021
ArchivesSpace v3.1.1 released

February 2022
ArchivesSpace v3.2 released

March 2022
Casey Rhodes begins as Developer for ArchivesSpace
Fourth ArchivesSpace Online Forum

July 2022
Donald Smith begins as Developer for ArchivesSpace

August 2022
Eighth ArchivesSpace Member Forum held virtually in conjunction with the Society of American Archivists annual meeting

September 2022
ArchivesSpace v3.3 released
Brian Zelip begins as ArchivesSpace Front end developer

April 2023
ArchivesSpace Virtual Member Forum

May 2023
ArchivesSpace v3.4 released