Hi Lois,

Regarding putting EADs into Sleepycat's Berkeley DB XML, I would avoid
this option.  I tried putting entire EAD files into Berkeley DB XML 1.0
and 1.1, and it was incredibly slow, even for small finding aids.  BDB
XML 2.0 is out now, and is supposed to be a bit faster, but I haven't
installed it yet to verify that claim.  I'm not sure the system as a
whole is geared toward document-centric XML like EAD.  Unless you can
find a relatively simple way to break up the EADs into very granular
levels (almost at the tag level) for BDB XML, unfortunately I'd
recommend looking at open source tools like PostgreSQL 8.0, an indexing
engine like SWISH-E or Lucene, or even the TEIpublisher than Daniel
mentioned.

Good luck,
Clay

Daniel Pitti wrote:

> Lois,
>
> I think it probably can, but it is rather complicated to install. You
> would
> need some help from systems experts, and even then they might not know
> exactly what you need.
>
> What you might consider is seeing if your library would fund a consultant
> to come in an set up a fairly straightforward open source publishing
> system
> for you. Depending on what you want, you might be able to do this for as
> little as $1000 plus travel expenses.
>
> Another option is that a very good friend of mine is now Assistant
> Dean of
> the Library for digital stuff at UM. A colleague of hers has put together
> an open source xml publishing tool called, for now, TEIpublisher. They
> are
> also using it for EAD. I'll contact her to see if she might be able to
> help
> someone on a sister campus.
>
> Daniel
>
>
> At 01:48 PM 2/8/2005, you wrote:
>
>> Truly yours,
>> Lois Peterson
>> Frederick Douglass Library
>> University of Maryland Eastern Shore
>> Princess Anne, MD  21853
>>
>>
>> Daniel,
>>
>> I still don't have much money to purchase anything like Xmetal or other
>> parsers (?), but I ran across "Sleepycat" that comes out of Berkeley and
>> an open source. Apparently it was done by Michael Olson.
>>
>> Do you think it capable of handling the EAD material easily?
>>
>> Thanks,
>> Lois Peterson
>
>
> Daniel V. Pitti, Associate Director
> Institute for Advanced Technology in the Humanities
> 319 Alderman Library
> P.O. Box 400115
> University of Virginia
> Charlottesville, Virginia 22911-4115
> 434 924-6594
> fax 434 982-2363