Hello,

We provide this link too--for two reasons.  

First is because we do not want to duplicate shelf locations from the catalog in the finding aid and then when something is moved have to change the location in two places.  Second is that the finding aid covers the processed portion of the collection and many of these collections have additions received later which remain unprocessed.  The additions are described as accessions within the catalog entry.  We do not want to alter the finding aids as additions are received.  So we have adopted this standard phrase in each finding aid:

"See the catalog entry for information on possible additional materials and shelf locations."

We are very happy with this procedure but not happy with where we put it ― in <repository>.  How it came to be there was a practical decision and this will be changed in the next few month as we upgrade to Version 2002.  When we saw our records on RLG's site, we realized how terrible this placement is.  Since providing shelf location is one of our purposes for the reference, I rather like your proposal of <physloc>.  Go to http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/whsead to see examples if you wish.

We of course also put an 856 field in the catalog entry to take people to the finding aid.



Karen J. Baumann
Senior Archivist
Wisconsin Historical Society
816 State Street
Madison, WI  53706
phone: 608-264-6453
fax: 608-264-6486
email: [log in to unmask]

>>> [log in to unmask] 12/16/03 12:20:47 PM >>>
Greetings,

Our Library is putting Finding Aids on the Web.  We're including a link
to the online catalog record of the collection each finding aid is for.
We aren't sure of the best place to put this reference and I didn't find
any similar examples on EAD sites.

Here's one option we have considered:

<archdesc level="collection" type="register">
<did>
<unittitle>COLLECTION NAME</unittitle>
<physloc>Click here for the catalog record and location
information:<extptr href="http://link_to_catalog_record"/></physloc>
</did>

All suggestions and help are appreciated.

Aaron Dietz
Denver Public Library