Max,
We are doing both, and using Fedora to do so.

By visiting our digital collections web page, you can get access to both
finding aids and digital images/texts.
http://www.lib.umd.edu/digital/

They are all located in our Fedora repository. So, a keyword search for
something like "Civil War" would give you hits of manuscripts, films,
finding aids, etc.

We have only recently started adding links from our finding aids to our
digital collections, for example:

At the folder level (scroll down to the box list):
http://hdl.handle.net/1903.1/1294

At the item level (scroll down to the box list):
http://hdl.handle.net/1903.1/1746

We're playing around with folder views, to see if we can live with it.
We are not using the proper <dao> to link to these at present; rather we
are using <extref>, simply because right now we have no one to help get
all of that into the style sheet. But we're being consistent and
hopefully that will work out later on.

Strengths of Fedora? Open source, flexible, the metadata we chose to use
allows for this type of cross-searchability, and potentially so much
more that we probably haven't even imagined.

Weaknesses of Fedora? Open source, therefore, requires
programmer/technical assistance for development.

But overall, my own personal feeling is that as many ways as we can make
our finding aids and digital images available, the better. We're still
in what I would call the experimentation phase. The few Humanities
scholars who I have talked with seem to really like this basic finding
aid/link to a folder set up, because it recreates the reading room
experience for them. (This is anecdotal). However, I am not sure that
an archives novice would have the same reaction. Hence the multiple
access points.

Jennie

~*~
Jennie Levine Knies
Manager, Digital Collections
2216 Hornbake Library
University of Maryland
College Park, MD 20742
(301)314-2558 TEL (301)314-2709 FAX
[log in to unmask] E-MAIL
http://www.lib.umd.edu/digital

Max Evans wrote, On 3/1/2010 4:00 PM:
> Dear Colleagues,
> I'm looking for help from the EAD community.
>
> Are any of you delivering both EAD finding aids and digital images of
> collection content? If so, can you let me know what, if any, digital
> asset management system you are using? If you have any thoughts about
> the strengths and weaknesses of each, I would appreciate those, also.
>
> Thanks,
> Max J. Evans
> LDS Church History Department
> 801-240-8538
>