CollectiveAccess
Software for describing and cataloguing museum and archival collections
CollectiveAccess is free, open-source software for cataloguing and publishing museum and archival collections. It lets institutions create catalogues that conform to their needs without custom programming, addressing the challenge of describing diverse collections while supporting both internal data management and public access.
Version 2.0 consists of Providence, a core cataloguing and data management application, and Pawtucket2, an optional public web-access application. Providence supports configurable metadata fields, workflows, and reports, with pre-loaded standards including DACS, Dublin Core, and VRA Core. It offers batch importing and exporting from formats like Excel, CSV, XML, and MARC, data validation, integrated information services such as Library of Congress and Getty vocabularies, multilingual cataloguing, and PDF or spreadsheet report generation. Pawtucket2 provides a customizable public-facing website with browse filtering, advanced search, galleries, timelines, maps, and options for public commenting, tagging, and ratings. Media handling includes in-browser viewing of images, video, audio, PDFs, and 3D scans, with derivative creation and annotation tools. Access controls allow granular field-level permissions, multi-level restrictions, and LDAP authentication. Digital preservation features include MD5 fixity checks and BagIt integration.
CollectiveAccess is maintained by Whirl-i-Gig and the open-source community, with documentation, a demonstration sandbox, a support forum, and live chat available. Custom development and hosting services can be arranged separately.
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