Presentation given by Jane Stevenson and Bethan Ruddock of the Archives Hub, Mimas, to MMU Library & Information Management students, Nov 2012

1. Archives Hub
archiveshub@mimas.ac.uk
@archiveshub

6.  Archives are reaching (should reach) global
audiences
 People access information online
 What does this mean for cataloguing?
The way we catalogue needs to change
The web is ubiquitous
Machines are our intermediaries..and allies

8. The original finding aid?
An archivist!
Advantages:
Expert knowledge &
interpretation
Human-readable
Disadvantages:
Limited lifespan
Not easily shared
No search function
Not machine-readable

9. Advantages:
Durable (maybe)
Human-readable
Can be kept with the
materials it describes
Doesn’t require special
technology
Disadvantages:
Not machine-readable
Not easily shared
Have to read individually
Not searchable
Handwritten, typed

10. Advantages
Human-readable
Can exchange via email,
web
Durable (maybe!)
Searchable (individually)
Disadvantages
Content not machine-
readable
Might be locked into
proprietary formats
Mark-up is about
presentation, not structure
or content
Includes word processed
documents, PDFs, HTML
documents...

11. Advantages:
Human-readable (depending
on the system)
Machine-readable
Can be exchanged and shared
Searchable
Cross-searchable
Durable
Can be standards-based
Disadvantages:
Proprietary
Badly designed
Not always flexible
Need mapping for data
integration

12. Advantages:
Human-readable (with
practice)
Machine-readable
Easily exchanged and shared
Searchable
Cross-searchable
Durable
Standards-based
Disadvantages:
Technical barriers
Understanding
Permissive standards
Lack of tools

13. We can’t share or exchange data meaningfully
without standards – they facilitate
interoperability.
EAD: encoding standard based on ISAD(G): cataloguing standard
Standards can give us a common vocabulary for
data exchange

14. Index terms provide a route into descriptions
Use standard terms taken from source/thesaurus
 Significant topics
 Drawing topics together
 Internal links for navigation
 Consistency
 Aid to discovery
UKAD indexing tutorial: http://www.ukad.org/UKAD-
Indexing-Tutorial/

15. Will your description make sense to users out
of context? Do you need to add extra
information?
Will your description make sense without you
there to explain?
Have you used
archival jargon?

16. Your descriptions are there to connect people
with the information they need.
Think about what people need to know, and
write your descriptions with a people-focus.
Don’t stick to the rules if they’re not helpful!
ISAD (G) doesn’t include some information
that’s vital for the online environment.

17. Beatrice Webb
Linked Data / Linking Data
Martha Beatrice Webb, 1858-1943,
social reformer
Martha Beatrice Webb, 1858-1943,
social reformer
http://data.archiveshub.ac.uk/id/person/webbmarthabeatrice1858
-1943socialreformer
or
http://data.archiveshub.ac.uk/id/person/345678

18. http://archiveshub.ac.uk/data/gb227msda865.w4

20. Archival
Resource
Person
Created
Subject: Archival Resource
Predicate: CreatedBy
Object: Person
Subject > Predicate > Object
CreatedBy
Triple statement

21.  If something is identified, it can be linked to
 We can then take items from one dataset
and link them to items from other datasets
BBC
VIAF
DBPedia Archives
Hub
Copac
GeoNames

22. ‘Our role in using technology is really all about
people. I often think of myself as the
middleman, between the technology (the
developers) and the audience.’
http://archiveshub.ac.uk/blog/2012/07/the-
modern-archivist-working-with-people-and-
technology/

23.  On an index card, write:
The Stanley Kubrick Archive
c.1945-2002
853 linear metres

24. ISAD(G) mandatory fields:
 3.1.1 Reference code
 3.1.3 Title
 3.2.1 Name of Creator
 3.1.3 Dates of Creation
 3.1.5 Extent of the Unit of Description
 3.1.4 Level of description

25. Look at your index card. What information
would need to be added/changed for an online
audience?

26. The Archives Hub has these additional
mandatory fields:
 Repository name
 Reference for a global environment
 Language
 Conditions governing access
 Scope & content

27. University of the Arts, London
The Stanley Kubrick Archive
GB 3184 SK
Stanley Kubrick
c1945-2002
853 linear metres
Fonds
English
This collection is open for consultation
The collection spans Kubrick's entire career from his time as a photographer in the
1940s and early 1950s until his last film in 1999 (Eyes Wide Shut). Kubrick died
during the editing of Eyes Wide Shut and some items relating to the release/finished
version were added by his staff. They have been included because they were held
with the main collection, at the creator's home, following the pattern of what he kept
and were deposited with the Archive.
The collection covers the film making process from pre until post production and
includes:…

28. Repository University of the Arts, London
Title The Stanley Kubrick Archive
Reference GB 3184 SK
Creator Stanley Kubrick
Dates c1945-2002
Extent 853 linear metres
Level Fonds
Language English

29. ‘Dublin Core is an independent international metadata
standard managed by the Dublin Core Metadata Initiative
(DCMI). The DCMI promotes interoperable metadata
standards for information discovery and in particular
maintains a core set of metadata elements. The standard has
been designed in consultation with information
professionals, including librarians, curators and archivists.
Like all metadata standards, Dublin Core consists of a set of
metadata elements that are designed to capture information
about a resource, be it electronic or physical, and allow that
information to be shared. The building blocks of Dublin Core
are the 15 simple metadata elements available at
http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. The full set of
terms is at http://dublincore.org/documents/dcmi-terms/ .’

30.  Contributor
 Coverage
 Creator
 Date
 Description
 Format
 Identifier
 Language
 Publisher
 Relation
 Rights
 Source
 Subject
 Title
 Type

31. XML is a markup that facilitates data exchange.
It is created from pairs of tags, eg:
<books>
<title>Alice in Wonderland</title>
<author>Lewis Carroll</author>
<extent>1 volume</extent>
<format>hardback</format>
</books>
Tags must be correctly nested and paired.

32. In pairs, agree tags for this data:
University of the Arts, London
The Stanley Kubrick Archive
Stanley Kubrick
c1945-2002

33. One answer:
<repository>University of the Arts, London</repository>
<title> The Stanley Kubrick Archive </title>
<originator> Stanley Kubrick </originator>
<unitdate>c1945-2002</unitdate>

34. EAD is XML for archives: it allows for the
meaningful exchange of archive descriptions,
using an agreed-upon standard.
Archivists all over the world have agreed what
the EAD terms mean. Thus we can say that
<origination> should always contain the
name/s of the creating enitity/ies.
XML is an international, interoperable format
for data exchange.

35. http://archiveshub.ac.uk
archiveshub@mimas.ac.uk
@archiveshub