Moravian Archives Special Project Fund for Technology

Realizing the need to upgrade our outdated technology, the Archives Commission created a Technology Fund in 2019 with an initial goal of $20,000 by June 30, 2020. As of March 2021, that goal was not only met but exceeded. We extend a hearty “thank you” to all donors and especially to the generous donor whose recent gift took us to our goal. Many thanks also to Sallie Greenfield who, through her Greenfield Ministries Fund, matched dollar for dollar the first $5000 given to this Fund. Your donations help us fill the growing gap in our expenses and income.

Though the initial campaign has concluded, the new Archivist has identified additional needs, and we will continue to accept donations to the Technology Fund. We invite you to make your gift today! It will provide us the tools to better serve the digital needs of the next generation of church members, families, and researchers looking to discover the resources at our Moravian Archives. To get more information contact the Archives at sparchives@mcsp.org. To make a contribution to the Fund, click on the button below.

Here’s what your gift to the Fund has made possible:

Software

Note: The special tech fund will be used for the first year of these fees and subscriptions with the intention of building these costs into the Archives regular operating budget moving forward. Additional monies contributed to the tech fund will go toward extra hardware needed and resources for digitizing collections.

ArchivesSpace – Year 1 hosting fees (via Lyrasis) plus one-time setup fee – $10,020

This is the software that will allow for online, keyword searchable finding aids for all of our archival holdings. The Archivist is currently working to create online finding aids from the “gray binder” inventories that will be hosted in this system.

DSpace – Year 1 hosting fees (via Lyrasis) plus one-time setup fee – $4,876

This is the software that will serve as the hub for born digital and digitized collection material. Looking for a scan of a memoir? This is the software that will support that portal on the website! The Archivist is currently working to ingest and describe existing digital resources into this digital repository. This will replace the “guest” networked drive previously accessed on the Reading Room computers.

Ancestry Library Edition – Year 1 subscription – $735

Moravian records are excellent for doing genealogy research, and we wanted to provide a robust supplemental resource to help you when looking into your family’s origins and connections.

Lyrasis Membership – Year 1 – $268 – Lyrasis membership saves us nearly $1,400 per year in hosting fees for ArchivesSpace and DSpace and gets us a significant discount on archival supplies.

Airtable – Year 1 subscription – $286.03

Zoom – Year 1 subscription – $150

Hardware

Office computer and accessories for Archivist: $3,120.94

Future Purchases

OCLC – Year 1 subscription – $1,430.66 quoted
Adobe Pro – Year 1 subscription – $239.88 estimated
ArchivesSpace Membership – Year 1 – $300 estimated

TOTAL TECH FUND BUDGET: $21,426.51
TOTAL TECH FUND ASK GOAL: $20,000
TOTAL TECH FUND AS OF SEPTEMBER 2022: $21,704

Other Needs Not Yet Met

Computer for Lower Level work station – $1000 estimated
Office computer and accessories for Assistant Archivist – $3000 estimated

TOTAL EXTRA NEEDED: $5,000

Other Changes Made

Originally, a major need and motivation for starting the technology fund campaign was to upgrade the computers in the Reading Room, which were still running Windows XP. Because most patrons will either bring their devices or will no longer need a device as a result of the software purchases described above, we instead decided to decommission both of the computers in the Reading Room and repurpose more modern hardware already held by the Archives to create one modern workstation in the Reading Room.

Additionally, the original “Upgrades Needed” list included Microsoft Office charges and Adobe Creative Cloud charges. The Province moved to a new IT company October 1, 2022, and the entire Province, including the Archives, was upgrade to Microsoft Office 365. Any charge to the Archives will come from the regular operations budget. The Archivist may move forward with a subscription to Adobe Pro but does not desire a subscription to the entire Creative Cloud Suite.

Finally, the Commission envisioned (1) a scanning station computer, (2) a computer image server station with onsite storage backup, and (3) display screens throughout the building. These needs will still be met in various ways but were deemed to not be as immediate as other items listed above.