Hi,

I apologize for any duplicate postings for those of you who have seen this
message before on another list. If you have not, and you may be attending
the conference of the Museum Computer Network in October
[http://world.std.com/~mcn/mcnconf96.html], I'd like to invite you to the
following session (blurb below). I'm sending an email because of my own
lateness in getting the submission in, this session was not able to be
listed in the preliminary program for the conference. It should be in the
final program with the location. It will be on Friday, Nov. 1 at 1:30pm.

Drop by if you plan to be there!


Richard Rinehart              | Berkeley Art Museum / Pacific Film Archive
Systems Manager & Education   | University of California
Technology Specialist         | 2625 Durant, Berkeley, CA 94720-2250
[log in to unmask] | http://www.bampfa.berkeley.edu/



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session blurb
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Access to Collections in Context: the EAD in Museums & Archives

Panel discussion/presentation:
Moderator and panelist: Richard Rinehart, Information Systems Manager,
UC Berkeley Art Museum/Pacific Film Archive. Chair, MCN Standards SIG.
Other panelists: Anne J. Gilliland-Swetland, Ph.D., Assistant Professor
Department of Library & Information Science
University of California at Los Angeles, EAD Working Group, Society of
American Archivists; ......

The Encoded Archival Description (an implementation of SGML) is being used
by the archival and museum communities to provide collection-level access
to collections along with object-level access. This has technical
implications for integrating detailed and contextual information, but more
importantly has the potential to enhance intellectual and educational
access, since a museum's collections can be delivered in an envelope of
history and ideas, which compliments the specific object information. This
method uses the SGML standard which helps ensure the longevity of
collections information, as well as sharing of that information with larger
information structures (i.e.. Library of Congress systems). The EAD can be
used to compliment a collections database, or as a starting point for
museums which don't yet have complete item cataloging, but want to provide
broad access to their collections. It is especially suited to represent
hard-to-catalog collections, such as conceptual art collections, or
collections which include objects and manuscripts - collections that demand
a context to be understood. Lastly, the EAD demonstrates a successful
collaboration and sharing of methods between the library, archive, and
museum communities. The panelists will discuss how their organizations are
using or developing the EAD, and what the benefits and obstacles are.

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