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I think the biggest barrier, in small-staffed shops, is that the finding aids need to be in fairly good shape to be entered into EAD.   We found that many of our older collections have very incomplete or partial finding aids while we stumbled on others that had nothing but just a list of boxes.   All of these went into our need-to-be-reprocessed-and-a-new-finding-aid-created pile ... and given the staffing and demand here, I am not exuberant about that happening.    We do have most of our finding aids typed into electronic form and can search and read them (e.g. think of the difference between class notes and nicely-prepared outlines).
 
Dean


 
On Tue, Mar 2, 2010 at 10:26 AM, LESLIE WILLIS <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
Greetings...
 
Many of my colleagues are curious as to what folks see as the greatest single barrier here to generating more EAD finding aids than have been done to-date? By done – meaning either done originally for EAD or done some time ago as “traditional” finding aids that were then later redone into EAD....  Is it staffing & time, or is it a need for more training to use templates and other tools, or is the biggest barrier that we collectively have not settled into a use of an EAD generating (and MARC exporting) system or tool like Archon or Archivists’ Toolkit?  Let me know your thoughts.
 
Thanx, Leslie


On Mon, Mar 1, 2010 at 6:02 PM, Proffitt,Merrilee <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

I’m pleased to announce the release of a new report from OCLC Research and the RLG Partnership:

 

Over, Under, Around, and Through: Getting Around Barriers to EAD Implementation

 

This report (.pdf) frames obstacles that archivists have experienced adopting Encoded Archival Description. It also suggests pathways to help you get out of the ruts, around the roadblocks, and on the road to success. The objective of the report is to communicate EAD’s value as a key element of successful archival information systems and help you overcome potential barriers to its implementation. This work is an output of the Barriers to Using EAD project undertaken by OCLC Research and the RLG Partnership.

 

If you are a member of the RLG Partnership, we will be holding a webinar on Thursday March 4th from 4-5 EST. Please contact me off list for details. I’ll pass along a link to the webinar for general consumption after the fact.

 

Best,

 

Merrilee

 

 

Merrilee Proffitt, Senior Program Officer

OCLC Research

777 Mariners Island Blvd Suite 550

Mountain View, CA 94404 USA

+1-650-287-2136

 

Merrilee blogs at hangingtogether.org

Follow me on Twitter @merrileeiam

 




--
Leslie Willis-Lowry
Archivist
Charles L. Blockson Afro-American Collection
1st Floor, Sullivan Hall
1330 West Berks Mall (007-00)
Philadelphia, PA  19122
phone -- 215-204-5379
fax -- 215-204-5197
email -- [log in to unmask]
http://library.temple.edu/blockson




--
Dean DeBolt, University Librarian
Special Collections
University of West Florida Library
11000 University Parkway
Pensacola, FL  32514-5750
[log in to unmask];   850-474-2213