Dear Mike,
in course of the European IST-Research Project COVAX
http://www.covax.org several EAD-dtd-compliant data bases have been set up
using native XML-Servers (Textml, Tamino). At
http://www.csceurope.org/covax_demo/ you have access to a demo system based
on Textml-Server - select the "BTH-EAD-Collection" (Swedish municipial
archive, a title search for "blomberg" will deliver a hit). Some
descriptions of this demo-site can be found at:
http://www.csceurope.org/covax_demo/doc/ .
Concerning card catalogues:
we did a conversion of 40.000 catalogue cards (related to a
poster-collection) within the REGNET-project (http://www.regnet.org ). On
the demo-site: http://www.digipark.at/plakat/ a "Full Text"-Search for
"usa" will deliver some results.
Our National Library has developed a methodology to do fast indexing of
catalog cards ("KatZoom"). A part of 1.5 million cards can be searched on:
http://www.digipark.at/onb/ (a "Full Text"-Search for "dachau" will deliver
a result).
Note that all demos are work in progress and based on the IXIASoft's
Textml-server http://www.ixiasoft.com/?To=text (native XML-Server) which we
consider as a very powerful content management system supporting fast
asp-based application development.
If you look into our demo-sites you will recognize that we try to base our
implementations either on domain specific (MARC21, EAD, ...) or cross
domain (DC) standards.
Any questions are welcome
Walter Koch
At 15:44 14.05.2002 -0400, you wrote:
>Hello all,
>
>I am feeling a bit intimidated by the next phase of all things EAD here at
>the Mass. Historical Society. So far I've been able to design a template
>for our finding aids, encode a few with XMetaL, and develop an XSL
>stylesheet to convert them to HTML. I'm still working on the container list
>portion of the XSL stylesheet, and anticipate sharing some questions
>regarding that soon, but I know I can figure it out.
>
>The next thing on our agenda is using EAD to provide access to item
>descriptions currently on catalog cards. We are slowly reorganizing
>hundreds of thousands of item cards by collection. Creating MARC records
>for these cards is unfeasible...it would make the online catalog entirely
>unuseable. The hope is that we will be able to deliver this item data via
>EAD.
>
>Inputting the data into a database and then extracting it into EAD seems
>like it would be the most efficient solution. It would allow data
>normalization, and could (hopefully) be done by part-time student help,
>whereas inputting the data directly into an EAD instance would create a
>greater likelihood of errors and would require the person performing the
>input to have more archival skill and experience.
>
>Seems sufficiently straight forward , but the HTML background that helped me
>get a quick handle on EAD and stylesheets doesn't help with database design
>and extraction. Starting at the EAD page at LoC I found and read several
>interesting help pages on EAD database extraction from Berkeley, but
>otherwise I've been at a loss to find anything that will point me in the
>right direction.
>
>I apologize for being long-winded, but I've struggled just figuring out what
>it is that I don't know and I needed to suss things out a bit. Here are the
>essential questions, as far as I can gather:
>
>What database software should I use? (Filemaker Pro and Access are the
>options)
>What data needs to be captured from the item cards? (I have a firm grasp on
>this one)
>What EAD tags correspond to that data? (Likewise mostly under control)
>How to design the database to best capture the data on the cards?
>How does the data get extracted?
>How does the extraction mechanism affect how the database should be set up?
>Does the hierarchical nature of EAD complicate data extraction?
>
>And most importantly: Where do I start to answer these questions?
>
>Any guidance on this matter will be greatly appreciated. I don't want to
>reinvent the wheel, but I can't seem to find any other wheels.
>
>Wishing I took a database management class in library school,
>
>Mike
>____________________________________
>Michael Rush - Manuscript Processor
>Massachusetts Historical Society
>[log in to unmask] - (617)646-0553
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