Hi Ryan --
Michele
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Michele Combs.
Librarian for
Manuscripts and Archives Processing.
Special Collections Research
Center.
Syracuse University Library.
222 Waverly Avenue.
Syracuse,
NY 13244
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Hi all,
This is my first posting to this list.
I am a new hire with a little EAD experience who has been
asked to implement encoding finding aids in EAD. EAD exists in a very
simplified form currently, but it is only created in a simple database that is
tied to the MARC record that supposedly can be exported into EAD, but we would
like to do more. The problem is that most of the staff here have little to
no experience in XML, and much of the work of processing and creating finding
aids is done by volunteers who have little to no experience with XML or
technology in general. Both parties also seem to suffer from a bit of
techniphobia. I am need of ideas to sort of break down this barrier
and bridge the technology gap.
My question is: Does anybody have experience in training volunteers
or technphobes in EAD? Any success stories? Are there tools out
there that make it so you can do EAD without having to know XML, or where you
don't have to use an XML editor? I know about the Archivist's Toolkit and
a couple other similar software programs, but I don't know enough about them to
see if they fit our needs. In general, are there any ideas out there from
past experience for making EAD easier to learn and more intuitive without making
it too simplified?
In my EAD experience, we had a template and guidelines to follow, but we
had to do the encoding in an XML editor and had to know a little about XML in
order to be successful. I am trying to make it as painless as possible
without compromising too much. Is that possible?
Thank you for any answers to these questions that you can provide.
Ryan
Ryan K. Lee
Metadata Specialist
LDS Church History Dept.
50 E.
North Temple Rm. 289E
Salt Lake City, UT 84150
(801) 240-2173
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