Post No. 1 ARCHIVISTS TOOLKIT-THE WEBSITE

If we are going to look at Archivist’s Toolkit then we should probably start with its home website http://archiviststoolkit.org/.

The Archivist’s Toolkit is a collaborative project involving the New York University Libraries, the University of California San Diego Libraries, and the Five Colleges, Inc. Libraries. The project is funded by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. The group is constantly improving the product and there have been at least five new versions of the program since its inception in 2006. The most recent version (2.0) was released in September of this year. According to their website Archivists Toolkit will be merging with Archon, another open source archival management program (created by the University of Illinois) sometime in the near future.

Everything you want to know about Archivists Toolkit can be found on their website. There is a section titled “frequently asked questions” which includes some details such as system requirements and other questions that might relate to installation problems. There is also a discussion forum where users can post questions about the program. The website also includes a list of current users. The list is “self identifying” meaning that the users themselves place themselves on the list. The list is organized by state and in some cases contains contact information. The website also contains a fifteen chapter user manual however it should be noted that the most recent manual was released in conjunction with version 1.5 and there does not appear to be a manual for version 2.0 as of yet.

Perhaps the best thing about this website is the “sandbox” option allowing the potential new user to download the most current version in an experimental mode with example collections. The sandbox allows potentially new users to experiment with the program and explore it to see if it is really something they want to use.


(n.d.). Retrieved October 15, 2009, from Archivists's Toolkit: http://www.archiviststoolkit.org/