>
> In response to Kelcy Shepherd's complaint about lack of response from the
> large institutions, and in addition to what Jackie Dooley said, here at the
> New York Public Library, the people responsible for setting up the
> consortium arrangements were generally not the people who were doing the
> encoding (the latter of which tend to be subscribed to this e-mail list).
> The people who set up arrangements tend to be administrative types.  They
> set up joint projects between institutions, fill out budget projections,
> apply for grants, spend lots of times in meetings, etc.  I can not imagine
> that they would spend time learning EAD, since that represents a tiny
> portion of their activities and responsibilities.  Hence they would not be
> subscribed to this list.
>

Harrumph. I'm one of those consortial administrator types, and I'll have you know that I
won *two* of Jackie Dooley's coveted holographic stickers at an EAD workshop!

But it's true, I don't spend any time at all coding finding aids, because I'm not an
archivist. And the observation is largely correct. Having worked with the folks in our
consortium in the initial stages of shaping the proposal and writing the grant
application, I'm largely out of the picture, although I continue to lurk on this listserv.

One of the people who might be helpful, and who I hope will put in his two cents if he's
on this listserv, is Rob Cox at the American Philosophical Society. Rob is heading up the
project team for the Philadelphia Area Consortium of Special Collections Libraries' EAD
initiative. Since the libraries involved in this project have a good range of size,
technological capabilities, etc., he may have some valuable insights to share.


Regards,
Laura Blanchard, Executive Director
Philadelphia Area Consortium of Special Collections Libraries
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