Amy-
Have you heard anything from anyone involved in the Virginia Heritage
Project? The URL for the project is: http://www.lib.virginia.edu/vhp/
Since I have started coordinating this project, I have noticed that very few
of the large, experienced organizations provide helpful responses on the
listserv. Many don't reply at all, and others just say "check the EAD Sites
Annotated" or "use the Cookbook." I've found this to be a little
frustrating, since it seems that those of us in the second wave are having
to partially reinvent the wheel. Don't get me wrong, I realize that there
are many more tools out there than were available for the early projects,
but for me the additional sources seem to generate more questions than
answers. Whoops! Didn't intend to start ranting.
University of Tulsa has been doing a survey that you may be aware of, about
the implementation of EAD in small institutions. I think that one of the
goals of the project is to produce a best practices document for small
insitutions to implement EAD. That may be helpful. One of the things I would
really like to do is make any tools that we develop here available to other
insitutions. Of course, we first have to develop tools (hopefully an
EAD-to-MARC conversion script, and perhaps some scripts for automating
conversion of container lists, possibly also web-based forms that will
produce EAD).
We haven't made a final decision about encoding procedures yet, but when we
do I will let you know. Right now we are working on creating standards for
the project - both in terms of content and encoding decisions. We have
decided not to put all of the old finding aids online "as-is" because many
of them are very sparse. We are developing a set of "minimal elements" -
basic things that we think each finding aid should have. For example, we
will not put up just a container list. We think even a short biographical
paragraph and basic scope and contents note is necessary for someone to use
the finding aid online, without the intervention of an archivist. This will
obviously create more work, and may decrease the number of finding aids we
can include in the project, but we think it will improve the final product.
For the next few months we will be encoding a small set of finding aids and
creating stylesheets to present them on the web. That way we can test the
standards we've created and make sure that they display the way we want them
to. At the same time, we are continuing to explore encoding options and will
be developing some of the tools I referred to earlier and establishing
workflow at each institution.
Well, that's the update. I will definitely let you know when we've set up an
encoding option and keep you posted as the rest of the project progresses.
Say hello to the big sky for me (the woods out here get a little confining
sometimes)
Kelcy
----- Original Message -----
From: Amy Cooper <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Wednesday, March 07, 2001 9:43 AM
Subject: Re: Encoding Consortial Arrangements
> Thanks much, Kelcy. I do have your response and I appreciate your help.
> I haven't had responses from many people at all. I wonder if there are
> that many people using consortial arrangements for EAD encoding? If
> they are primarily large shops with a lot of tech support who therefore
> don't need to consider this kind of arrangement, or are very small shops
> like mine who haven't implemented yet.... it's interesting.
>
> Best,
> Amy
>
> *************************************************
> Assistant Professor Amy Cooper
> Archivist/Special Collections Librarian
> I. D. Weeks Library
> The University of South Dakota
>
> Phone: 605-677-8867 E-Mail: [log in to unmask]
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Kelcy Shepherd <[log in to unmask]>
> Date: Wednesday, March 7, 2001 8:34 am
> Subject: Re: Encoding Consortial Arrangements
>
> > Amy-
> > Since we've already been in contact about the Five Colleges EAD
> > project, I
> > won't repeat what I've already told you. If you have specific
> > questions that
> > aren't being answered by others on the listserv, contact me
> > directly and I
> > will be happy to help in whatever way I can.
> >
> > Kelcy
> >
> > __________________________________________________
> > Kelcy Shepherd
> > Director, Five College On-Line Finding Aids Access Project
> > Special Collections & Archives
> > W. E. B. Du Bois Library
> > University of Massachusetts Amherst
> > Amherst, MA 01003-9275
> > Phone: 413.545.6844
> >
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: Amy Cooper <[log in to unmask]>
> > To: <[log in to unmask]>
> > Sent: Monday, February 26, 2001 12:47 PM
> > Subject: Encoding Consortial Arrangements
> >
> >
> > > Hello All -- In the process of researching our use of EAD, I've
> > heard> from a few people who used consortial arrangements to help
> > them encode
> > > Finding Aids, rather than re-invent the wheel at their own small
> > > institutions. I'd be interested in hearing from people in
> > institutions> who have used consortial arrangments for encoding.
> > Specifically, I'd
> > > like to know if smaller institutions have found it valuable, and
> > if they
> > > have, where they've gone.
> > >
> > > The contents for SAA's 2000 session, "Everything but Encoding:
> > Costs and
> > > Benefits of EAD Consortia" have been very helpful, and I've been
> > > directed to Bibliographic Center for Research (and Pacific Data
> > > Conversion Corp.); but any recommendations for readings or contacts
> > > would be much appreciated.
> > >
> > > Thanks for all the help that I've received so far from the
> > membership of
> > > this list, and thanks in advance for more information.
> > >
> > > Regards,
> > > Amy Cooper
> > >
> > > *************************************************
> > > Assistant Professor Amy Cooper
> > > Archivist/Special Collections Librarian
> > > I. D. Weeks Library
> > > The University of South Dakota
> > >
> > > Phone: 605-677-8867 E-Mail: [log in to unmask]
> > >
> >
>
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