Thought this would be of interest.
Mary W. Elings
Pictorial Archivist
The Bancroft Library
[log in to unmask]
-------------------------------
NINCH ANNOUNCEMENT
June 8, 1998
MUSEUMS AND THE ONLINE ARCHIVE OF CALIFORNIA (MOAC)
EAD Testbed for integrated access to museum/archive/library collections
<http://www.bampfa.berkeley.edu/moac/>
FEEDBACK REQUESTED
Below is the announcement of a particularly interesting testbed project to
create a "virtual museum archive" integrating standardized "finding
aids" for museum and library special collections into a single source.
This extends work already being done on the Encoded Archival Description as
a tool to integrate archival finding aids (see for example the American
Heritage Virtual Archive Project at <http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/amher/>).
It is a project conducted under the umbrella of the California Digital
Library's "Online Archive of California."
<http://sunsite.Berkeley.EDU/FindingAids/dynaweb/uc-ead/>
The prototype will work with EAD finding aids for 35,000 records and images
from 20 collections. Five California museums (the Berkeley Art
Museum/Pacific Film Archive, the Hearst Museum of Anthropology, the Oakland
Museum of California, the Grunwald Center for the Graphic Arts, and the
UCR/California Museum of Photography) will join the Bancroft Library in
developing the testbed. Two other museums (Stanford University Art Museum,
Fowler Museum of Cultural History), which will not actively participate in
the grant, will also contribute collections to the testbed.
David Green
===========
Date: Fri, 5 Jun 1998 11:54:20 -0700
>From: Richard Rinehart <[log in to unmask]>
>To: Multiple recipients of list EAD <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: new EAD project
Hello,
I'd like to introduce a new project underway to test implementation of the
EAD in a museum setting, specific issues of EAD's application to pictorial
and object collections, and integrated access to museum/archive/library
collections. This is a museum/library collaboration project under the
auspices of the California Digital Library's "Online Archive of California"
(formerly UC-EAD project), and co-managed by Tim Hoyer of the UC Berkeley
Bancroft Library and myself, Richard Rinehart of the UC Berkeley Art
Museum/Pacific Film Archive.
This testbed project involves 8 institutions of very different sizes,
collections holdings and technical expertise in order to test real-world
issues of collaboration and scalability. I would love to hear any feedback
or ideas from this group as to issues we should be addressing, related
projects we should know about, and generally any input. The project has a
website with a brief and a full project description, as well as links to
some existing instances of museum and pictorial or object collections
accesss using EAD. It's at http://www.bampfa.berkeley.edu/moac/
This description below is taken from the website:
Museums and the Online Archive of California Project (MOAC), will
investigate one of the most serious problems facing knowledge seekers
everywhere, the geographic distribution and limited access to the
collections of unique materials -- primary sources for research in all
areas of our cultural heritage -- that are held in libraries, museums, and
archives around the world. We propose to solve this problem by creating a
prototype "virtual museum archive" that integrates standardized "finding
aids" for museum and library special collections into a single source, thus
providing access to collections held by archives, museums, and libraries
throughout the state of California.
We will create this prototype within an existing online union database of
finding aids, the Online Archive of California (OAC), which is being
developed as a primary resource for the public, schools, and universities,
enabling cross-disciplinary education and research. The OAC employs Encoded
Archival Description (EAD), the standard for archival finding aids (in the
form of an SGML DTD) supported by the Society of American Archivists and
maintained by the Library of Congress, which will be evaluated for
providing collection-level access in the museum community.
The MOAC prototype within the OAC will be comprised of EAD finding aids for 20
collections, including 35,000 item records and images. Five California
museums (the Berkeley Art Museum/Pacific Film Archive, the Hearst Museum of
Anthropology, the Oakland Museum of California, the Grunwald Center for the
Graphic Arts, and the UCR/California Museum of Photography) will join the
Bancroft Library in developing the testbed. Two other museums (Stanford
University Art Museum, Fowler Museum of Cultural History), which will not
actively participate in the grant, will also contribute collections to the
testbed.
Richard Rinehart
----------------
Information Systems Manager & Education Technology Specialist
Berkeley Art Museum/Pacific Film Archive
@ University of California
http://www.bampfa.berkeley.edu/
----------------
& President-Elect, Museum Computer Network, http://www.mcn.edu/
|
