Hi all,

As a part of our EAD implementation, we are struggling with how to provide
access to the tens of thousands of item catalog cards that were generated in
the good old days before efficiency and collection level description caught
on.  Right now there is almost no access available to them and inputting
them into our online catalog is not an option because it would ruin search
relevancy to have so many records pop up when all one needs is the marc
record for the collection.

However, one of the possible solutions being considered is to create a MARC
database separate from our catalog, just containing item level descriptions.
Another possible solution being considered is using a database (such as
FileMaker) to normalize the data and extracting it to EAD.

My question is this:  Is it possible to extract, and/or is anyone already
extracting data from MARC records to be included in item level components of
EAD documents?

Thanks,

Mike
____________________________________
Michael Rush - Manuscript Processor
Massachusetts Historical Society
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