CONTENTdmwithaDatabaseSusanHamburger,Ph.pptVIP

Oliver Spits Out a Finding Aid Using CONTENTdm with a Database Susan Hamburger, Ph.D. Penn State University Libraries Society of American Archivists, August 30, 2007 Background “Oliver” homegrown Oracle platform database Filemaker Pro → MS Access Rudimentary export of container list No biog/hist, scope and content narratives → SQL → Oracle Merging of five databases into one Working on exporting EAD-tagged data Finding aids created individually with XMetaL From scratch Stitch together database export of container info plus MS Word for narrative Questions for Discussion How can we automate generating EADs from Oliver? How can we provide a federated search tool for finding aids? What software is out there to use? Considerations Special Collections staff doesn’t know EAD New Processing Coordinator knows EAD Manuscripts Cataloger creates EAD finding aids Library’s Information Technology (I-Tech) staff doesn’t know EAD, barely literate with XML and XSLT Library Dean doesn’t want I-Tech to do development → find out-of-the-box solution Ease of input of finding aid: Deal breaker, Priority 1 (when we go online), Priority 2 (within two years) Task Force Finding Aid Platform working group formed 3 from I-Tech, 2 from Special Collections, Manuscripts Cataloger, 1 from Digital Libraries Technology (DLT) Charge: To find and evaluate existing products that meet our criteria and make recommendation for implementation Methodology Survey marketplace Informal queries Society of American Archivists annual meeting RLG conference Posting the question on the archives listserv Searched academic libraries’ websites The survey results consisted of five potential products: Archeon Archivists Toolkit CONTENTdm v. 4.2 DLXS v. 12 XTF Methodology Assess and evaluate the products and determine costs Create a comprehensive set of prioritized criteria for search and display and compatibility with the Library computing environment Two-member groups evaluated products against the crite