THE ELLA WINTER PAPERS: USING EAD

AND WEB 2.0 TOOLS TO ENHANCE

ONLINE DISCOVERY

By Ryan McComas

LIS 698 – Practicum

Dean Giannini

Pratt Institute

PROJECT IDENTIFICATION

Gain practical experience in an archive

Encode a finding aid with EAD to strengthen online

discovery through searches

Conceptualize the use of Web 2.0 tools for Archives

2.0

NATURE OF THE WORK

Primary goal: to act as a processing intern and

complete a finding aid to the addition of the Ella

Winter Papers

It is starting to become common practice in

archives to use something like EAD, particularly the

larger ones like RBML.

I began to think about the implications of things like

twitter, blogs, podcasts, and wikis on an archive.

NATURE OF THE WORK

FINDING AIDS

It progressively describes parts of an individual collection, summarizes the overall scope of the material, conveys details about the individuals, and organizations involved, and notes the conditions under which the collection may be accessed

ANALYSIS

I was to encode my finding aid with EAD, allowing for interoperability, strong online discovery, and high searching capabilities.

With the use of EAD, links can be provided to the catalog and related digitized content when available, like images of correspondence, photographs or even audio.

ANALYSIS

Digitized collections

are useful for

researchers who are

unable to physically

see the collection.

ANALYSIS

ANALYSIS

EAD will make it

possible to have better

access, along with still

providing the

hierarchical structure

provided by a paper

finding aid

ANALYSIS

The information in the finding aid is organized in a

hierarchical manner through component elements:

<eadheader> : Bibliographic and descriptive

information about the finding aid

<frontmatter>: Information on the creation,

publication or use of the encoded finding aid

<archdesc>: Description of the content, context and

extent of the materials in the collection

ANALYSIS

ANALYSIS

Archivists can use EAD to make their finding aids accessible in an online environment, but how can they bring more interaction with users?

Web 2.0 tools:

One must wonder what the role of archivists and librarians is now that we are entering an age of Web 2.0 that includes applications like wikis, blogs, and podcasts.

ANALYSIS

Archives 2.0: The

concept is not based

on specifically the tools

integrated into online

finding aids, but rather

a change in thought

and procedure in how

we approach users and

how we provide

archival content. Ukoln

ANALYSIS

Finding Aid 2.0?

Better navigation, more interoperability

Will knowledgeable researchers make contributions to

online finding aids?

Researchers can form connections with archivists,

curators, and other researchers, forming a mutually

beneficial relationship

ANALYSIS

How is the RBML

working towards an

Archive 2.0?

ANALYSIS

ANALYSIS

The RBML is working towards this goal by creating

blogs for processing a certain collection. Users can

comment and share the process through different

social media outlets.

The interaction with users is still low, by the count of

comments on the blogs. Users may be consuming

the information, but are not actually engaging with

the archivists on it

THE FUTURE

Archivists need to interact with users more in the

digital environment. This will mean the

democratization of archival control and letting

archival data be re-appropriated across new

contexts outside the current online finding aid.

Promotion of the digital collections

FINDING AID 2.0?

The goal of the project is

‘to expand the capability

of EAD, make the

archival and research

experience collaborative

and participatory, and

challenge the traditional

finding aid structure.’

The two most notable

Web 2.0 features are

commenting and

recommendations.

CONCLUSION

• Regardless of thoughts on Web 2.0 tools,

archives must be open, transparent, user-

centered, a facilitator to access, and attract

new users

• Archives must use shared standards like

EAD and DACS, be innovative and flexible,

and keep abreast of new technologies, which

may or may not include Web 2.0 applications

CONCLUSION

•The Rare Book and Manuscript Library at

Columbia is taking steps towards becoming

an Archives 2.0 by utilizing blogs and Twitter

to interact with users.

• While I am simply encoding my finding aid

with EAD (one step towards making it

discoverable in an online environment), I am

also utilizing the blog format to talk about

my experiences and research for anyone to

see