From manuscripts to metadata: collaborative working in the Archives Hub

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• From manuscripts to metadata collaborative
  working in the Archives Hub
• Amanda Hill
• University of Manchester

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Archives Hub

• Describes archives in UK higher and further
  education institutions
• Aims to give an overview of all the archival
  collections held by each institution
• These archives include primary materials of all
  types data sets, research papers, photographs,
  diaries, stone tablets, feathers

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Technology

• EAD Encoded Archival Description XML/SGML files
• Cheshire II search and retrieval software,
  adapted for EAD by the University of Liverpool
• Online data creation form for archivists and
  librarians

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Facts Figures

• Over 13,000 archive collections, covering a broad
  range of subject areas
• More than 60 institutions taking part
• Freely available over 15,000 searches logged
  each month

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Funding

• Funded by the JISC (Joint Information Systems
  Committee)
• Further 880,000 (2 million) recently announced
  for next 3 years
• 780,000 (1.8 million) in total has been
  provided for content creation in contributing
  repositories

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Management

• Overseen by CURL (Consortium of University
  Research Libraries)
• Delivered by MIMAS at the University of
  Manchester
• Guided by Steering Committee and Contributors
  and Users Forum

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Forthcoming developments

• Moving from a centralised to a distributed model
• Investigating incorporation of name authority
  files, using Encoded Archival Context (EAC)

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Current data flow
Institutions
Archives Hub Server centralised repository of
data
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Current search interfaces
Archives Hub Server
Web
Z39.50
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New model
Data
Data
Data
Data
Data
Archives Hub Server
Data
Data
Data
Data
Hub ser interface
Data
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How it works

• Z39.50 is used to harvest the remote data and the
  indexes to the data once a day
• The indexes of the data are combined into a
  meta-index centrally, which is searchable
  through the Archives Hub web interface

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New search interfaces
Repository web interface
Hub user interface
Local Data
Combined data
Z39.50
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Spokes

• Each spoke has its own customisable web
  interface, which searches just that repositorys
  records
• Archivists/librarians are able to update and
  delete files without having to contact the
  Archives Hub team
• The software is open source free to academic
  institutions

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Search log, May 2003

• shipbuilding industry
• Shanghai Municipal Council
• phytoremediation
• lawn mowers
• cencus 1841 paisley
• Missippi
• pineapple butt rot

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Contact details

• Email
• amanda.hill_at_man.ac.uk
• archiveshub_at_mimas.ac.uk
• Tel
• (44) 161 275 6055 (direct line)
• web
• www.archiveshub.ac.uk