What is the new functionality related to containers and container management in 1.5.0?

Top containers replace Container 1s. Unlike Container 1s in the current version of ArchivesSpace, top containers in the upcoming version can be defined once and linked many times to various archival objects, resources, and accessions.

The ability to create container profiles and associate them with top containers. Optional container profiles allow you to track information about the containers themselves, including dimensions.

Extent calculator. In conjunction with container profiles, the new extent calculator allows you to easily see extents for accessions, resources, or resource components. Optionally, you can use the calculator to generate extent records for an accession, resource, or resource component.

Bulk operations for containers. The Manage Top Containers area provides more efficient ways to work with multiple containers, including the ability to add or edit barcodes, change locations, and delete top containers in bulk.

The ability to “share” boxes across collections in a meaningful way. You can define top containers separately from individual accessions and resources and access them from multiple accession and resource records. For example, this might be helpful for recording information about an oversize box that contains items from many collections.

The ability to store data that will help you synchronize between ArchivesSpace and item records in your ILS. If your institution creates item records in its ILS for containers, you can now record that information within ArchivesSpace as well.

The ability to store data about the restriction status of material associated with a container. You can now see at a glance whether any portion of the contents of a container is restricted.

Machine-actionable restrictions. You will now have the ability to associate begin and end dates with “conditions governing access” and “conditions governing use” Notes. You’ll also be able to associate a local restriction type for non-time-bound restrictions. This gives the ability to better manage and re-describe expiring restrictions.

For more information on using the new features, consult the user manual, particularly the new section titled Managing Containers (available late April 2016).