Hi Jenn

I'm the developer working with Jane on this problem. What you suggest
would be an elegant solution for a single database. However the Archives
Hub is a distributed aggregate catalogue - many of the EAD files
(including most of the larger ones) are hosted remotely by the
repositories responsible for them.

We do already split the description up for display purposes, providing
both linear and hierarchical navigation through the description. However
doing this requires the entire finding aid in the EAD schema, so we have
to transport the whole thing across the web in one go - at least to
begin with.

The Archives Hub also has machine-to-machine gateways (SRU, OAI, Z39.50
etc.), allowing it to become part of larger meta-search networks. The
AJAX solution only holds up in a browser environment for human users.

John


On Mon, 2008-05-19 at 16:34 -0400, Riley, Jenn wrote:
> Hi Jane,
> 
> What about doing this at display time rather than within the encoding itself, that is, encode the fullest form of the description but only display some subset of it, and provide a link to the end user that uses Ajax-y style interaction to automatically expand the description? I'm starting to get out of my area of expertise with that last step, but surely there's a way to set something up that didn't require all 4-5MB to be preloaded in the browser?
> 
> Jenn
> 
> ========================
> Jenn Riley
> Metadata Librarian
> Digital Library Program
> Indiana University - Bloomington
> Wells Library W501
> (812) 856-5759
> www.dlib.indiana.edu
> 
> Inquiring Librarian blog: www.inquiringlibrarian.blogspot.com
> 
> 
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Encoded Archival Description List [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
> > On Behalf Of Jane E. Stevenson
> > Sent: Monday, May 19, 2008 12:03 PM
> > To: [log in to unmask]
> > Subject: Linking to sections of an EAD finding aid
> >
> > Hi there,
> >
> > At the UK Archives Hub we are thinking about breaking up long
> > descriptions in order to make them easier to navigate through
> > and to address the problem of huge files (sometimes 4-5 Mb and over).
> >
> > The idea is that a link within the EAD record could take the
> > user to a more detailed description - for example a
> > description of a component within <dsc> or a description of a
> > child record. This type of link would use <archref> but it
> > would be useful for us to find out if any other repositories
> > have linked to fuller descriptions in this way and how they
> > have used <archref> attributes to do this.
> >
> > Many thanks,
> > Jane.
> >
-- 
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             '  `  '  '         University of Liverpool Library
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