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Welcome back to the Deep Dive. Today we're opening the vault on something that's

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just

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foundational for anyone in cultural heritage. It really is. We're taking a look at

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ArchiveSpace,

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that specialized application that, well, thousands of places use to manage

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everything from archives

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to manuscripts and now more and more digital collections. Right. And if you've ever

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wondered

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how, you know, a big university or historical society keeps track of literally

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everything,

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like a box of 19th century letters and a terabyte of photos. ArchiveSpace is

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probably the answer.

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Exactly. So, our mission today is pretty simple. We just want to give you a clear,

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beginner-friendly way into this tool to understand what it does, why it even needs

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to exist,

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and how this really unique community model keeps it all going. Okay, let's unpack

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this.

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Sounds good. But first, a quick thank you to the supporter of this Deep Dive, Safe

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Server.

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Safe Server commits to hosting this software and supports you in your digital

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transformation. You

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can find more info at www.safeserver.de. Their support really does help us bring

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you these kinds

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of explorations. So, when we start talking about ArchiveSpace, I think the first

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thing to get is

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its origin. It really is the leading open-source tool for this, but it wasn't

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designed in a

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corporate boardroom somewhere. Right. It was literally built for archives by archivists.

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Which feels important. It's everything. This tool exists because the off-the-shelf

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stuff

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for libraries or museums, it just couldn't handle the complexity of archives, the

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way things are

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arranged, the hierarchy. It's just different. So, it was a necessity. A total

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necessity.

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The first version, ArchiveSpace 1.0, came out in 2013, and it was this huge

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collaboration with

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places like NYU Libraries, UC San Diego, University of Illinois, all backed by the

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Mellon Foundation,

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and with organizational help from Lyracis. It was built to be stable from day one.

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That phrase, built by archivists, that really sticks with me. Because you're right,

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a library

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might have thousands of individual books, one barcode each, but an archive, that's

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a whole

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different beast. It's millions of unique, connected things in one collection. So,

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why does that need

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its own software? What can ArchiveSpace do that, say, a really good database couldn't?

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It really boils down to two things. Maintaining what we call intellectual control

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and physical

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control, and doing both at the same time. It's a single system that supports the

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entire life cycle

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of archival work. Everything from the moment an item arrives to the moment a

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researcher finds it.

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So, let's walk through that life cycle. For someone new to this, the terms can be a

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bit

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technical. Sure. So, there are five essential stages.

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What's the first one? The first is accessioning.

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That's just the intake. The moment a collection comes through the door,

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you're recording what you got, who you got it from, the basic legal and procedural

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stuff.

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So, it's official record of arrival. Got it. What's next?

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Second is arrangement. And this is critical. Archives aren't just random piles of

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stuff.

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They have an original order, the way the creator kept them.

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Right. And that order has meaning. Exactly. So, the system lets you map out

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that hierarchy digitally so the original context isn't lost.

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Okay. That makes perfect sense. What's number three?

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Third is description. This is where you create all that crucial metadata.

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Basically, you're writing the finding aids. The roadmap for researchers.

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Precisely. The guide that tells someone what's in box three, folder six.

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An archive space helps generate those in standard formats, like EAD, so they work

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everywhere.

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So, it does the heavy lifting on those really complex documents.

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It does. Then fourth, you have preservation. This part tracks the physical side of

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things.

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Where is it located? What are the environmental conditions? Does it need

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conservation?

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All to ensure its long-term health. And the last one.

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And finally, number five is access. This is the payoff. It's the public interface

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that lets people actually search and discover all this amazing material,

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connecting all that backend work to the researcher.

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Wow. Okay. When you lay it out like that, yeah, spreadsheet just isn't going to cut

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it.

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Not even close. It really is an essential piece of

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digital infrastructure. And on the technical side, it feels just as solid. You can

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tell it's built

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to last. Yeah. I mean, we don't have to get lost in the code, but the fact that it's

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built on a

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mature language, like Ruby says a lot, this isn't some quick web app. It's a

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serious platform meant

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for the long haul. Which is what you need when you're managing history. And you see

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that reflected

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in the development activity. You can look at GitHub and see the numbers. 385 stars,

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238 forks.

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Which shows people are paying attention. Right. But the number that really tells

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the story

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is the 96 contributors. That's not just a couple of developers. That's a dedicated

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community of

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professionals putting in their own time and expertise. 96 people. That's a lot of

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brain

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power. And that kind of active dedication, that really brings us to the most

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fascinating part of

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this whole story. It really is. Because what's so interesting here is that Archive

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Space isn't just

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software you download. It's a community. In what way? I mean, it's an organized

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body of archivists,

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librarians, developers, administrators, all working together. It's community-supported

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software.

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The users aren't just customers. They're the owners. They decide where the software

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goes next.

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They fund it. They manage it. They implement it. That sounds amazing in theory, but

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how does that work in practice? I mean, are archivists expected to learn how to

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code in Ruby?

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Where does that technical skill come from? That's a great question. No, it's not

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all on the

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archivists. The development work tends to come from three main places. You have

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developers at member institutions, developers from vendor partners who host it,

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like Safe Server,

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and then the core program team, which the community's membership fees actually fund.

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So there's a professional core. A professional core guided by the community. And

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you see that

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commitment all the time. Like they just announced Martha Tenney is joining as the

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new standards and

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testing archivist. They're making sure everything stays up to professional

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standards. They're even

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planning their 2026 virtual member forum already. This is a very active, very

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organized ecosystem.

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That active engagement must be what makes it work so well in the real world. And

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here's where it gets

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really interesting when you hear from the people actually using it every day. Like

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the testimonials

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tell the whole story. I was reading what Tessa Wakefield from the University of

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Northern Iowa

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said. She mentioned that it gives her staff more autonomy. They can manage things

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more effectively

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because they aren't waiting on some outside company. They have a say in the tools

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they use.

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Exactly. They can help build the solution they need. And it's not just the archivists.

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What about

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the IT staff? Right. They're off of the forgotten piece of the puzzle. Totally. But

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Tom McNeely,

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he's IT at Western Washington University, he said it was pretty easy to install and

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upgrade. And he

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praised the technical documentation. When the IT team is happy, that saves everyone

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time and money.

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That's a huge win. Good documentation is priceless. It really is. But let's bring

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it

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back to the public, to the researchers. The impact on discovery is just massive.

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Heidi Pettit at

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Lawrence College talked about going from over a hundred separate finding aids to a

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single

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searchable collection in archive space. Can you imagine trying to do research by

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searching a

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hundred different PDFs one by one? That sounds like a nightmare. A unified system

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is a complete

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game changer for research. It's a revolutionary leap. And that all comes back to

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that community

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governance. I think Bre McLaughlin at Indiana University put it perfectly. She said

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she

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appreciates that feedback and concerns are actually heard. That feeling of having a

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real voice is so

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rare with enterprise software. Usually you just pay your fee and hope for the best.

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That's right.

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You're a customer, not a partner. Which brings us to the question that can be a

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little confusing

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for newcomers. If the software is open source, you know, free to download and use,

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then why is

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there a membership model? It feels like a paradox. It's a great point and it's the

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absolute key to

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its survival. The code is free, yes, but running a program team, offering

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professional support,

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coordinating all that development, that takes real money. So the membership model

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is for

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sustainability. Exactly. It's a collective fund to ensure the tool not only

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survives

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but continues to evolve for the good of the whole field. So it's less like buying a

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product and more

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like, I don't know, supporting public radio. You're funding a shared resource. That's

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a

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perfect analogy. And members get concrete benefits for it. Like what? Well, there

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are tangible

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things like getting technical support directly from the program team and access to

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the user manual.

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But the intangible benefit is the big one. Having a real voice in the future of the

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software.

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And a seat at the table. A seat at the table. Plus, by investing in this shared

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infrastructure,

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institutions protect themselves from being locked in by a single commercial vendor

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who could suddenly change the rules or raise prices. It keeps the power in the

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hands of the

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users. It's like an insurance policy and a way to drive standardization all at once.

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I also noticed

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how they structured the fees. Yeah, the tiered levels are important. Very. They

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have five

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different membership levels, so a huge university and a small local museum can both

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participate

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and have their voices heard. It spreads the cost fairly across everyone who

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benefits. It makes it

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accessible for everyone. It really does. So what we have is this hyper specialized

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tool that thrives

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on shared investment and, well, dagnetic governance. And it's clearly working. The

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latest release,

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V4.1.1, just came out on July 1st, 2025. It's just a fantastic model for building

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critical

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infrastructure. It really is a key example of how open source, when you back it

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with a smart funding

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and community model, can lead to real innovation and standardization. Without being

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driven by profit.

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Exactly. And think of the efficiency. Tom Adams from Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory

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pointed out

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that because so many institutions use it, they can leverage plugins and tools

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others have built.

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They don't have to spend a ton of money on in-house development.

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That shared effort saves everyone time and money. It lifts the whole sector.

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It really does.

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That is just a tremendously powerful model. So as we wrap up this deep dive, here's

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a final

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thought for you to consider. How does this model-free software sustain by a

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professional

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membership compared to the other essential digital tools you use every day, the

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ones built by massive

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companies? Does the archive space model maybe ensure a better, more focused

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response to the

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actual needs of its users, the archivists? It's something to mull over.

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Definitely something to think about.

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And that wraps up our deep dive. Thank you again to Safe Server for supporting this

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exploration.

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Remember, Safe Server takes care of the hosting of this software and supports you

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in your digital

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transformation. You can find out more at www.safeserver.de. We'll catch you next

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time for the next deep dive.