View/Open - WCSU Libraries
Contents
1. I have found the Toolkit to be a good accessions database and it was very useful for Page 15 maintaining and linking names and subjects to my accession records The application allows plenty of flexibility for the creation of accession numbers and has more than enough fields to fit my needs The Toolkit also provides fields that can be defined by the user to give more flexibility for accessions data Once I got started it occurred to me that it might also be better to also create my locations before I created any accessions so that links could be made as the records were being created I will discuss the Locations later but while I find Locations to be the cleverest part of the application it may be a bit tough to figure out while still getting acquainted with the application I ended up creating 30 or so accession records while creating and linking to subjects and names I took a break and moved to adding some names subjects and locations It should also be said that there are mapping and formatting instructions for import an existing accessions database into the Toolkit Authorities Subjects and Names While it does not seem to me that Subjects and Names on the same order of magnitude as resources and accessions the Subjects and Names functional areas are listed among the main functional areas of the Toolkit The Names functional area is more complicated than Subjects but once the fie2. BOARD OF DIRECTORS Welcome New Members T EE President The following individuals have joined the Archivists Round Table of Metropolitan New York since December 2007 Vanessa Cameron Columbia University Vice President Lauren Barach William Johnson Larry Weimer Calder Foundation Pratt Institute Rutgers University Treasurer Gustavo Braga Liz Larson Mary Manning American Museum of Natural Pratt Institute School of Adelphi University History Information and Library Sciences Secretary A Chris Lacinak Larissa Brookes Barbara Martire AudioVisual Preservation Solutions Friars of the Atonement Co ordinator Education Committee Karen Cooper San Jose State University CA Heather Mitchell Rebecca Altermatt Co ordinator Communications amp Roberts amp Holland LLP Outreach Committee Emma Curtis Angie Park Aviva Gray Leslie DiRusso Brooklyn Museum Federal Reserve Bank of New York Co ordinator Lesley Espenship Kevin Savell Meeting amp Nominating Committee Arnell Group Tessa Fallon Webmasters C W Post Gregory Tavormina Daniel Sokolow Graduate School of Library amp North Shore LIJ Health System Theodore Grunewald Information Studies Queens Quadriga Art Inc College Brian R Stevens Western Connecticut State Alan Houston Amanda Timolat University s Haas Library Rye Free Reading Room What can you do to contribute o ART NY s success Start by contributing to one of these Editor in Chief Rachel Chat
3. Bay Coordinate 3 Repository Figure 2 al Administration Floor Basement Basement Basement Basement Basement Basement Basement Basement Basement Basement Basement Basement Basement Basement Basement Basement Basement Basement Basement Basement Basement Basement Basement Basement Basement Batch Add Add Record Room Archives storage Archives storage Archives storage Archives storage Archives storage Archives storage Archives storage Archives storage Archives storage Archives storage Archives storage Archives storage Archives storage Archives storage Archives storage Archives storage Archives storage Archives storage Archives storage Archives storage Archives storage Archives storage Archives storage Archives storage Archives storage Batch Location Creation Location Management Coordinates Row 10 Bay 1 Shelf 1 Row 10 f Bay 1 Shelf 2 Row 10 Bay 1 Shelf 3 Row 10 Bay 1 Shelf 4 Row 10 Bay 1 Shelf 5 Row 10 Bay 2 Shelf 1 Row 10 Bay 2 Shelf 2 Row 10 Bay 2 i Shelf 3 Row 10 Bay 2 Shelf 4 Row 10 Bay 2 i Shelf 5 Row 10 Bay 3 Shelf 1 Row 10 Bay 3 Shelf 2 Row 10 Bay 3 Shelf 3 Row 10 Bay 3 Shelf 4 Row 10 f Bay 3 Shelf 5 Row 10 Bay 4 Shelf 1 Row 10 Bay 4 Shelf 2 Row 10 Bay 4 Shelf 3 Row 10 Bay 4 Shelf 4 Row 10 Bay 4 Shelf 5 Row 10 Bay 5 Shelf 1 Row 10 Bay 5 j Shelf 2 Row 10 Bay 5 f Shelf 3 Row 10 Bay 5 Shelf 4 Row 10
4. searching The one rather significant drawback being that one can not simply throw a keyword at the Toolkit and get back all the occurrences of that term but more about searching later The interface shown in figure 1 is laid out with the main functional areas listed on the left side of the screen data in those functional areas listed on the right and buttons and menus for manipulating the data on the top Data is displayed in an 1Tunes like fashion where the order of the display may be manipulated by clicking the field labels at the top of the display Export EAD FS Export MARC M im g Resource Identifier DRG 1 1 DRG 1 DRG 2 Ms 003 Ms O06 ms O08 ms 009 Mms 014 Ms O16 his 019 Ms O21 Ms O22 Ms O24 Ms 025 Ms 034 MS 038 Ms O41 Ms MS O43 ms O44 OH O01 OH Digital 1 Roe ARGS Ro 4 RAGS Ra Extent Measurement 11 lz 13 16 3 18 Zl 24 Linear Feet 2r z9 15 T 22 Linear Feet z3 19 31 Linear Feet 3 17 20 zo 10 25 4 continued on next page continued from previous page The interface in general is utilitarian and I find it fairly easy to follow Is the Toolkit stable and reliable The Toolkit is not without little glitches but I have not experienced any major failure of the system It appears from the listserv http mailman ucsd edu pipermail atug l that most major issues occur prior to any implementation in the installation of the client and database These issues usually involve th
5. the Toolkit MARCXML output which I send to technical services who in turn load it into our OPAC We have found the MARCXML export to work pretty well however headers need to be altered Records often need to be shortened of some of their notes and the creator fields need to be cleaned up For example the following is what the Toolkit outputs for the 100 field of a finding aid in MARCXML lt datafield tag 100 ind2 ind1 1 gt lt subfield code a gt Smedley Frederic C lt subfield gt lt subfield code e gt creator lt subfield gt lt datafield gt I remove the subfield e designation of creator as the 100 field has that implication already My hesitation to fully commit to the Toolkit s Resource description may change as my comfort level increases with the application and as the future of the Archivists Toolkit project becomes clearer For now I am comfortable with my level of implementation I will need to make some alterations to my style sheet and establish a workflow that takes full advantage of the Toolkit and some of the data entry work arounds that I continued on next page Page 20 continued from previous page have already discovered I have not utilized the Toolkit for a digitization project but I fully expect to try it however entry of description into the Toolkit will likely be an issue for this piece as well It may be that it will be more expedi
6. will not need to concern themselves too much with what 1s under the hood it is helpful to know some basic things about what makes the Toolkit go Essentially the Toolkit operates as the combination of two distinct applications the interface aka the client which is a Java application and a database to hold the data The database is separate from and is not technically part of the Toolkit however the two Page 13 are inextricably bound together The Toolkit client comes with a fairly simple application that will configure the database but one should know that the client and database must be installed in order for the Toolkit to work The Toolkit can work with MySql Oracle and MS SQL databases Once the client and database are installed and configured one will not have to deal with database unless there is a significant upgrade to the client in which case one need simply to run the configuration application again To Un Toolhkit As stated earlier there are various XML exports that can be made from the Toolkit For me XML exports provide the most portability One would be able to export the data from the Resources area in XML structures like EAD MODS MARCXML METS etc but not so with the other functional areas For that data which also tends to be a bit flatter than what is stored in Resources one might be able to reconstruct something from the tables in the database or write a report using iReports
7. Bay 5 j Shelf 5 Archivists Toolkit Figure 2 shows all that I needed to enter to establish locations for my compact shelving using the batch add function After pushing Generate the prompt that is presented is shown in Figure 3 continued on next page Page 17 continued from previous page A slight annoyance is that it sorts Row 10 first This is not a significant problem but even when one creates a range starting from 001 010 the rows are ordered 1 10 2 3 This ordering problem does not occur when creating locations one at time because you can choose numeric or alpha numeric coordinates All the same it took only seconds to create 250 locations for which I remain grateful Accessions Record 1 of 1 Title Marjorie Echols Local Artists Collection Basic Information Accession Notes User defined fields Names amp Subjects Acknowledgements Restrictions amp Processing Tasks Accession Date 10 17 2006 Date Resources Linked to this accession Begin Ft End Pt Bulk Dates Deaccessions Deaccession Date Extent Extent Measurement Accession 2007 003 Resource Identifier Resource Title Resource Type Collection Title Marjorie Echols Local Artists Collection Locations Location Note Haas Library Basement Archives storage 4 Extent Container Summary Add Location General Accession Note Missing watercolors Not listed on inventory Transferred from Institut
8. al drive and configure the database to be open to other machines accessing the data however in my shop PCs are routinely swapped out for newer machines and I did not like the prospect of having to migrate my data to a new machine every couple of years or so when I was upgraded The library server was also routinely backed up and was sufficiently protected The technical support I had made it possible to put the database on our library s server but this meant that I could not get the Toolkit started on my own For databases we decided to use MySql as a database It has a free download and feels to be more in the spirit of the open source Toolkit client Fortunately for me the technical staff was obliging and successful in installing and configuring my MySql database instance Prior to installing anything it 1s probably a good idea to read through the Toolkits documentation especially Chapter 8 http archiviststoolkit org ATUserManuar l 1_1 Chapter 2038 pdf This chapter lays out some basic info that will also give one an idea whether or not the Toolkit is going to work for you both in terms of complication and function Note on installation For those who have never dealt with a data base server before installation may seem daunting not in small part because of some the jargon that gets tossed around and some of the assumptions of user expertise in the documentation Following the one machine one user installation it is fai
9. albash Guggenheim Museum Features Editor Celia Hartmann MEMBERS OLD amp NE wa committees New York Historical Society Calendar Review Contributions Solicit Photographs Book Review Editor Contact secretary nycarchivists org Kristen Nyitray Fundraising Take part in coordinating efforts to meet ART s Fundraising Goals Stony Brook Special Collections and Contact president nycarchivists org University Archives Programming Assist in selecting locations topics and speakers Contact education nycarchivists org Layout Editor Communications and Outreach Write for the Newsletter Design Brochures Bonnie Marie Sauer and Invitations Contact outreach nycarchivists org NARA Northeast Region New York Membership amp Nominations Membership Directory Monthly Meetings Mailings Award Recipients Selection for Annual Awards Contact membership nycarchivists org www nycarchivists org Page 11 Experiences and Reactions A trial implementation of the Archivists Toolkit By Brian R Stevens As one of the two Archivist Analysts involved with the development of the open source Archivists Toolkit v 1 0 from 2004 2006 we at first had to imagine hypothetical situations to determine the Toolkit s needed functionality and then with its prototypes whether or not it actually possessed that functionality Now in my current role as a head archivist I can test the Toolkit in the type of archive that
10. ame data into those systems That system also had to be stable reliable easy to install and maintain and simple enough for me to use and to train students and staff I had a hefty head start in terms of how to use Toolkit but I still needed to train staff to use it Then beyond this automation I needed that computer based data to be portable Portability can be measured in terms of the data s adherence to established standard structures and content This makes the data sharable with other institutions and discovery tools Portability can also be measured in terms of the ease which that standardized data may be extracted Book conservation and data bases are similar in this way it is good to avoid doing anything that can not be undone In terms of data it is good to avoid putting data into something that can not also be extracted in a useful format This is as true for open source applications as it is for MS Access or PastPerfect Therefore deciding on whether to implement the Toolkit or any software solution is part a consideration of what the software does both in terms of its stability and its functionality and part a consideration of how easy it will be to back out of it or move data into something else as systems evolve Unfortunately a software solution may provide the computer based systems required for streamlining however one s data may be marooned in an impenetrable data structure and l
11. e configuration of the database for new versions or in the import of data To date I have not seen documentation of users losing large amounts of data or system failures Stability may also be measured in terms of how long the software will be supported and maintained According to their website in the Overview section the Toolkit staff are in the midst of a 24 month development cycle that began in February 2007 where they will f ormulate and implement a business plan in collaboration with an expert business consultant This business plan lljikely will include implementing a community governance model for the application developing a user community and establishing an effective process for supporting use and development of the application as well a sufficient staffing model The word likely might make one a bit wary but that doubt may be balanced out by the fact that the business consultant will be an expert Regardless it appears that the Toolkit staff has been diligent in responding to issues as they arise and seem to resolve most issues and that can be heartening when deciding to implement Currently there are around 3600 total downloads of v 1 0 and 1 1 and there are around a total of 850 postings to their listserv for the 2 versions that are in large part reporting issues with the software there are also project announcements and other miscellaneous postings How does it work While one
12. eave one stuck with their software and not a solution What does the Toolkit do The Toolkit provides a means of introducing electronic description and collection management data systems in an archive with potentially low technical overhead more about technical overhead later It is made up of 6 main functions Names Subjects Accessions Resources Search Locations and Import Export The current version of the Toolkit provides a single interface that captures this descriptive and collection continued on next page Page 12 continued from previous page management data and streamlines entry of that data by 1 allowing linking of the description of an accession transaction with the formal description of a collection expressed in a finding aid and 2 by providing a database of locations names and subjects which may be linked to an accession or a collection s description In addition to storing this data the Toolkit offers exports XML of the descriptive data in EAD MARCXML and METS w DC or MODS as nested descriptive metadata There are also a number of prefabricated reports one may use to output much of the data stored in the Toolkit Likely the most attractive aspect of the Toolkit to less technically inclined archivists is that one can enter or import data into a simple interface and output an EAD finding aid without having to concern themselves with XML encoding In addition the collection managem
13. ent pieces allow recording and assigning materials to locations maintaining accession information and Buttons and menus for manipulation of data Main functional areas Data display al Archivists Toolkit 1 1 0 File Import Setup Reports Help Me Search E List All t Names Subjects Accessions a Resources New Record Reports Delete f leit Resources Title Extent Number Resource Id Danbury Garon Bates Ju Danbury Town of Records Records of the city of D Connecticut Woman Sur James Furman Papers Alfred Geddes Papers June Goodman Collection walter Gordon Merritt C Mooney Billings Case Col Hamilton Orgelman Papers Caroline Randolph Diary Frederic Cole Smedley C Reform of Insane sylu Jennie warner Papers Ralph Carlton Jenkins Pa Danbury Ephemera Colle Dr Elen Rosenberg s Re Segregation Photoprints Helen Parkhurst Asian 4r Journals of Horace Purdy Danbury Remembers T Imigration amp Memory Or WSL Office of the Pre University Governance R Division of Finance amp 4d Division of Student AFFai WSL Academic Progra Figure 1 Archivists Toolkit establishment of a name and subject authority database for controlled access terms The Toolkit provides the ability to search across its data Though it will likely be necessary to glance at the user manual to figure out how searches work and how to output the results it provides some good faceted
14. ent account This step will require some forethought but it is not difficult to reconfigure a repository and user structure once the Toolkit has been set up Accessions I had only paper systems and word processed finding aids I also had 30 years worth of paper accession forms which seemed for me a good place to start However I would recommend creating some basic name and subject records that will figure in to the accession records For example I needed Universities and colleges Administration and its more specific forms as subjects for many of the accessions One can create these subjects and names on the fly but it is easier to pick them from a list if they are already established in the Toolkit For the uninitiated creating some subjects and names will also help acquaint one with the look and feel of the application My paper accession forms contained very basic data and so data entry was fairly limited however my attempts to train a student to enter accession records was unsuccessful for two reasons the data on the accession forms was often sketchy and needed to be interpreted and because this was the first data to be entered in the Toolkit names and subjects had to created for most of the new records and this was not something that the student account had permissions for and it was data I wanted to keep fairly clean This makes a good argument for populating the Toolkit with a few names and subjects first
15. ent to create my data outside of the Toolkit and import Conclusion There are many more nuances and functionality in the Toolkit that are not touched on here and its important to know that it has lot of depth to it On the whole I am quite satisfied with the Toolkit s performance and how it fits my needs It has provided me with streamlining that it would have been much harder and expensive to achieve otherwise I also do not feel like my data is trapped in the application Furthermore it speaks well for the application that one can use it with different levels of implementation The software would benefit from some clearer installation instructions with perhaps some suggested installation scenarios It is likely that some archivists who decide to try the Toolkit will not be able to do so without the assistance of technical staff and or a workshop and efforts should be made to address this It would seem contrary to the original mission of the Toolkit for one to need to hire a programmer and to pay to attend a workshop 1n order to work with it However with the exception of the installation instructions the manual is good for descriptions of the functional areas though I would find much of it much more helpful if it were incorporated into a help system One is also not currently able to search through the entire manual one must open each chapter s pdf and search it and there are many chapters The Toolkit documentation would a
16. f ART s web site committee which recently renovated ART s site Stevens also is a frequent consultant for archives migrating data into EAD Footnotes Archivists Toolkit Overview 2007 Archivists Toolkit 14 Apr 2008 lt http www archiviststoolkit org overview phasel shtml gt The Andrew W Mellon Foundation has awarded 847 000 00 to the UCSD Libraries the NYU Libraries and the Five College Libraries to support development and implementation of a software application to support archival processing and the management of archival information Key objectives of the application are to increase archival processing efficiencies and lower processing costs including costs for specialized training reduce the need for locally built tools and promote standardization When completed the application will support collection accessioning and description location tracking and provenance registration as well as outputs for the EAD and METS standards Archivists Toolkit 2007 Archivists Toolkit 14 Apr 2008 lt http www archiviststoolkit org index php gt gt Archivists Toolkit Overview 2007 Archivists Toolkit 14 Apr 2008 lt http www archiviststoolkit org overview phasel shtml gt Archivists Toolkit Overview 2007 Archivists Toolkit 14 Apr 2008 lt http www archiviststoolkit org overview phasel shtml gt gt The ATUG L Archives The ATUG L Archives 2008 A
17. ional Advancement 10 17 2006 Repository WCSU Archives Beis B First Previous Next Last Reports Cancel Created Oct 1 2007 by brian Modified Oct 3 2007 by brian Record Number 8 Figure 4 Archivists Toolkit Figure 4 shows how a location may be linked to an accession record One may print out a report which shows all the accessions and resources at your locations Search Once mastered Search has some good functionality but there are some key limitations For example I discovered if one wants to search titles of components in a resource a common search parameter one must first configure the Search function to include titles of components According to the documentation one must then find the table in the database that holds that data choose the field click a box that says include in search and then the Search function will allow searching of titles of resource components I am not sure how easily the uninitiated will be able to find the right table that their field can be found but for this example the field I needed was found in ResourcesComponents continued on next page Page 18 continued from previous page al Fal Configure Application Database Fields Record 22 of 22 Field Name title Data Type java lang String Return Screen Order Definition REQUIRED FIELD if date is not used The title assigned to the resource see DACS 2 3 Examples First Previous Next Last Ca
18. it was originally designed to serve a small to medium sized archive with limited technical support The promise that implementation of the Toolkit presents for smaller repositories is to streamline workflows encourage standardization and unify disparate silos of data maintained by an archive with free software What the Toolkit promised to deliver is basically what the archive I had been given the opportunity to oversee needed What follows are some of my experiences and reactions with a trial implementation of the Toolkit with the hope that this may help others in their decision to implement or use this new tool First I assessed the Toolkit in terms of what I needed and what it did I looked at whether it was a safe and portable place to store my data then I looked at how well it performed in its prescribed tasks and how I have ended up using it I approached the application as a highly trained but objective user and I purposely didn t involve or interview persons currently involved with the Toolkit I have strove to approach my assessment from the standpoint of someone with only publicly available documentation Integrated support for the management of archives Streamlining workflows in my archive meant first moving from paper based systems to electronic computer based systems For the transition from paper to electronic to be really useful the electronic solution had to minimize the keying in of the s
19. ld definitions are understood there are pop ups that provide definitions when a field name is moused over it operates fairly intuitively I found that it captured all the data I needed to maintain even for donors Once one starts to use these authorities oriented functional areas it is easy to see the streamlining benefits to using the Toolkit A name can be linked to an accession or resource as a subject creator or source that 1s donor and while for most names one will not need contact information for donor names one likely will Being able to maintain accessions and a donor database in the same application is a great benefit Clean up of data can be accomplished by merging data together that is if one has Smith Rob and Smith Robert and the Smith Robert is the preferred form then one can merge Smith Rob into it Records that were previously linked to two forms of that name can then automatically be linked to just the preferred form continued on next page Page 16 continued from previous page Locations I would think that Locations would listed among the main functional areas of the Toolkit but once found tucked away under the setup menu it is a great feature As stated earlier it is a bit complicated so read the documentation but it is easy to start all over if mistakes are made af Project Management Building Floor Room Greg Coordinate 1 Row Coordinate 2
20. lso benefit from some basic instructions on building customized reports using 1Reports with the Toolkit Training staff to use the Toolkit is an additional issue for me but the more the staff work with it the more I hope their comfort level increases According to the plan for Phase 2 the Toolkit will also have new functionality including support for user registration use tracking rights management appraisal and making the AT application interoperable with user authentication systems and digital repository applications All these will be positive additions particularly the user registration and use tracking which would really streamline data entry and management It will be interesting to see how the archives community responds to what is a remarkable new software tool in the next year or so and how support of the application evolves 1t would be my hope that it continues to be an application created and maintained by archivists for archivists in the non proprietary open source and collaborative spirit in which it was created Brian Stevens is currently the archivist and special collections librarian at Western Connecticut State University s Haas Library in Danbury CT Previously he served as a project archivist for NYU s special collections and as NYU s analyst archivist for the Archivists Toolkit project He has served on the Board of the Archivists Roundtable of Metro NY and is currently chair o
21. lter the style sheet I had been using in order to make the switch to Toolkit EAD which meant more work My willingness to commit to this piece of the Toolkit also hinged on this key issue my willingness to surrender the EAD finding aid s status as the document of record and transfer that status to the data that resides in the Toolkit Page 19 I found that when I needed to give an inventory a major face lift particularly changing box and folder numbers it has been easier and quicker to do it outside the Toolkit and import it than to perform the same operation inside the Toolkit Because of this I was ending up with EAD finding aids remaining as documents of record and the Toolkit resources serving as my collections list Additionally I needed to have faceted searching of my finding aids both for library and archives staff and also for patrons As mentioned earlier the Toolkit was not going to provide this kind of searching at this point and I had the functionality with my EADs outside the Toolkit My current workflow for Resources is I convert the Word finding aid into EAD check it correct technical and content problems upload the EAD to my server for public view and to be indexed by our search application import the EAD into the Toolkit and assign a location at the collection or top level If I need to update the finding aid I update my EAD delete the record in the Toolkit and import the EAD again I also use
22. ncel Figure 5 Archivists Toolkit However as shown in figure 5 there is no check one enters archival collection object descriptions box to include it in the search I may be missing The Toolkit essentially uses an EAD model for something but I now assumed that the Toolkit its descriptive fields and for the most part those would not preempt a need to have a search are the only fields I track for real world object application outside the Toolkit for me to have description faceted searching of my finding aids Using the Resources functional area is the most complicated piece of the Toolkit but it is Resources fairly intuitive A quick look at the documentation Resources were the last piece I tackled will help I had 60 finding aids in MS Word at and am still wrestling with them various levels of adherence to standard practice The Toolkit s Resources area is where continued on next page continued from previous page which represented 500 linear feet of materials Being already familiar with how the Resources functional area worked I had to decide how I was to utilize it I needed 3 things EAD output MARC output and search capability I needed EAD to publish the finding aids on the Web I needed MARC to have my finding aids represented in the OPAC and I need to be able to search effectively in those collections I also needed quick entry of descriptive data Entry into Resources is fai
23. rchivists Toolkit 14 Apr 2008 lt http mailman ucsd edu pipermail atug l gt Archivists Toolkit List of AT Users n d Archivists Toolkit 14 Apr 2008 lt http www archiviststoolkit org support ListofATUsers htm gt 7 Phase 2 Archivists Toolkit 2007 14 Apr 2008 lt http archiviststoolkit org overview phase2 shtml gt
24. rly simple to install configure the application and database without technical assistance However I have on more than one occasion found other archivists who were interested in trying the Toolkit out but had trouble figuring out how to install and configure each part and in what order I asked our systems librarian Brian Kennison to relate to me his experience with installing the Toolkit s database on the server and his subsequent support of the installation it was not without issues Hopefully as more users come along there will be a growing pool of expertise to rely on to overcome some or the technical obstacles that can be encountered when setting the Toolkit up Unfortunately only some of those issues are truly Toolkit issues some are issues specific to the database being used and or the box that holds it Brian Kennison helped prepare these notes on getting started with the Toolkit which might help to clarify all that you will need to do in order to get the Toolkit up and running Before you begin the installation you might want to take a little time to prepare for some of the prompts that the installation will ask of you You will need to know the following the name or IP address to the machine on which the database is to be installed the name you want to use for the database examples AT Toolkit ToolitDB It does not matter what the name is aname and password for the databa
25. rly user friendly but based on what happened with the Accessions area I decided not to push the more complicated Resources area on the assistant archivist and students until I was convinced that I was staying with the Toolkit Being already familiar with EAD and converting word processed finding aids into it I knew could import the EADs I created outside the Toolkit rather than entering data by hand into the Toolkit It made sense to see if it was more expedient to create EAD and import it or enter data directly into it I conducted a test using two finding aids of similar length and type I keyed in one by hand into the Toolkit and the other I converted into EAD from a MS Word finding aid using an old template I had developed Using my template it took me lhr and 40 minutes to get the finding aid into EAD and a few seconds more to import the EAD into the Toolkit in contrast entering data into the Toolkit I went as long a 2 hours and was barely 2 5ths finished I then decided that I would import EAD into the Toolkit but I needed to see the EAD coming out The output of the Toolkit EAD was really close to what went in but my EAD was validated against the old DTD and the Toolkit s against the schema I should also say that I had a style sheet that I liked very much for rendering my home made and DTD validated EADs Because I was not crazy about the PDF output of the finding aid that the Toolkit provides I would have to a
26. se administator superuser ATadmin ToolkitAdmin a proper name for your archive Cookie Corner Archive ashort name for your archive CC Archives One should download the database server first go to the following link https wikis nyu edu lm1394 ArchivistsToolkit index php InitDB DownloadServer to install it go to https wtkis nyu edu lm1894 ArchivistsToolkit index php InitDB InstallingDatabaseServer for directions then go to https wtkis nyu edu lm1394 ArchivistsToolkit index php InitDB CreatingBlankDatabase for directions on how to create a blank database install the Toolkit client from archiviststoolkit org follow the directions at http archiviststoolkit org ATUserManuarl 1_1 Chapter 202 20Rev pdf and after continued on next page continued from previous page the client is installed locate the directory where it was installed and find and run the Maintenance application This will ask you the path user name and password for the blank database you created If installing the database and configuring it seems complex it is a bit Set Up Once the Toolkit is successfully installed one can create multiple repositories and assign staff to one or more repositories but I needed only one repository with 3 users The 3 users I decided on were the Class 5 or super user myself a Class 4 user the assistant archivist and a Class 2 user a generic stud
27. that structured the data the in a more desirable or portable format for migration So if the Toolkit ceased to be a viable or meaningfully supported product there are a few ways to extract data without the assistance of a programmer but the ease of that extraction and repurposing of that data would be incumbent on one s technical expertise Because I was comfortable with the technical support at my library I decided that the Toolkit possessed enough portability for me to feel safe using it To Toolkit or not The Toolkit claims to have 35 repositories that have or are in the process of implementing it Having weighed the issues delineated above I decided to join them and give the Toolkit a try and put aside my biggest reservation regarding the application s on going support Initially I had to make an assessment of what sort of implementation I would need would I need to have the Toolkit and Database installed on one machine s hard drive for one user install it ona local drive but configure the database for multiple machine access or install the database on our server for multiple machine access I could or continued on next page Page 14 continued from previous page would optimally have 2 3 persons logged on to the Toolkit at any given time so I wanted to open the database to a network I thought that the safest bet was to have it installed on the library s server I originally was going to install it on a loc
Download Pdf Manuals
Related Search