Would you be willing to share the PERL script/HTML form for others of us to
take a look at?

John D. Thiesen
Archivist and Co-director of Libraries
Mennonite Library and Archives
Bethel College
300 E. 27th St.
North Newton, KS  67117-0531
voice (316) 284-5360
fax (316) 284-5843
[log in to unmask]

At 10:48 AM 9/13/2002 -0400, you wrote:
>Hi,
>
>Currently at York University in Toronto, Ontario, we are using a PERL
>script, with an HTML form as an overlay for entering data, to encode
>fonds and collection level descriptions.  The PERL script originally
>came from ARCHEION, the Province of Ontario's Archival Information
>Network, where we submit our descriptions.  The script wraps the data in
>the correct EAD elements (which have been mapped to the appropriate RAD
>data content elements) and supplies any other required elements
>(wrappers) that do not take data directly.  We have one style sheet now
>that will create an HTML version of our high level descriptions, and we
>will be developing style sheets for generating nicely formatted print
>copies and cutting MARC records for York U's online catalogue.
>
>Right now we have a Canadian Archival Information Network (CAIN) grant
>that is funding a temporary full-time programmer and a temporary
>part-time archivist to work on extending our ability to encode lower
>levels of description.  Because many of our fonds are not intellectually
>arranged yet, we are now focusing on creating a template that will allow
>us to encode our physical file lists and leave room for intellectual
>arrangement later on.  This will give us one (!) system (right now we
>have separate word-processed files for file lists and fonds
>descriptions) that permits our student assistants to enter file level
>information after the Archivists have done the preliminary work and
>permits the Archivists to write and revise the high-level descriptions.
>This should make it easier to keep the high-level descriptions
>up-to-date.  Later on, the system should also facilitate doing
>intellectual arrangement.
>
>Like the Public Record Office, we have some enormous fonds, so we are
>planning to encode series descriptions and file lists as separate files
>of marked up information and using entity references to pull everything
>together in one complete finding aid.  We are hoping that this will
>facilitate managing the information better, particularly in cases where
>custodial histories change.  Is anyone else taking this approach?  Most
>EAD examples I have seen or heard of tend to be treated as one long EAD
>instance from start to finish, which is of course what one should end up
>with.  Would anyone be interested in sharing their experiences with
>approach I have described?
>
>Best,
>
>Ken Hernden
>
>
>--
>************************************************
>Ken Hernden, MLIS
>Adjunct Archivist
>York University Archives & Special Collections
>Scott Library, Room 305
>4700 Keele Street
>Toronto, ON M3J 1P3
>(416) 736-5442  FAX (416) 650-8039
>************************************************