I’m please to announce that a forum entitled
“Envisioning a Rhode Island EAD finding aid collaboration” was held
in March (read more
details of the forum in the publicity release below).
There is now a small group representing 5 repositories in the state working to
write grant applications for a
Rhode Island EAD pilot project:
Brown University (lead
institution)
Rhode
Island Historical Society
Rhode
Island State Archives
University of Rhode
Island
Westerly
Public Library
Sarah J. Shaw
Digital Initiatives
Librarian
Brown University
Library
Box A Providence, RI 02912
TEL: 401 863-1508
FAX: 401 863-1272
PUBLICITY RELEASE
Submitted by: Sarah Shaw,
Digital Initiatives Librarian, Brown University ([log in to unmask])
Rhode Island EAD finding aid collaboration forum
Brown University Library’s
Center for Digital Initiatives hosted an all-day forum on March 28, 2006
entitled “Envisioning a Rhode Island EAD finding aid
collaboration”. To open this dialogue, Brown invited 20 participants representing a
cross-section of Rhode Island universities, public libraries,
historical societies, and state-level agencies/consortiums/networks to discuss
the feasibility of forming a Rhode Island
consortium to create a union database of guides to archival and manuscript
collections throughout the state.
The finding aids would be encoded in EAD (Encoded
Archival Description), a data structure standard endorsed by the Society of
American Archivists and the Library of Congress, which allows searching across
collections and institutions, and retains the hierarchical nature of each
collection.
In the morning, CDI staff at Brown (Sarah Shaw, Jennifer
Betts, and Patrick Yott) demonstrated consortial finding aid sites developed
for other states and regions, and gave an overview of EAD. Kelcy
Shepherd (Five College Project Archivist)
was invited to speak on “Working within an EAD consortium & an update
on the Archivists’ Toolkit”.
This was followed by demonstrations of three existing Rhode
Island finding aid websites at the Rhode
Island Historical Society, Naval War College, and University of Rhode
Island.
After lunch, the group discussed opportunities for
collaboration and how a plan for effective collaboration might be
developed. A smaller group was
formed to carry the work forward and seek funding for a pilot project to encode
a sample of finding aids to be posted on a consortial website entitled
“Rhode Island Archival & Manuscript Collections Online
(RIAMCO)”. Sarah Shaw
(Digital Initiatives Librarian, Brown University) will
facilitate meetings of the pilot project group.