Contributors' Workshop: Introduction to the Archives Hub 2010

The Archives HubAn introduction

Contributor Workshops 2010

Archives Hub Workshop 2010

JISC-funded service based at Mimas,

The University of Manchester

In service since 2000

Over 23,000 collection descriptions

180 repositories

Management and service team at

Manchester

Development team at Liverpool

Cheshire software

Distributed system

The Hub in a Nutshell


Strategic aim: build and enhance

content

Meeting the needs of the UK

research community

Meeting the needs of the wider

community

Archives for education and

research


Content and contributors

The success of the Hub is a reflection of the rich content available from Hub contributors

Higher/Further Education

Consortium contributions

Institutions with a research agenda

Others on a case-by-case basis

We encourage institutions to contact

us


Current contributors

John Rylands Library, Manchester

Originally funded for collection-level but

always multi-level

Software/searches effective with both

Complimentary approaches

Researchers ask for detail


Collection or lower-level…?

Flickr cc licence: soylentgreen23’s photostream

The browser provides a human user interface

Machine interfaces provide ways for

machines to interact with the data

Enables more exposure and flexible access

The Hub has:◦ SRU

◦ Z39.50

◦ OAI-PMH


Machine oriented interfaces


A bit about standards

EAD is XML for archives

We have EAD2002 (DTD)

Cheshire search engine searches and

retrieves EAD descriptions

EAD is ISAD(G) compliant

The Hub is distributed (Spokes)


Hub Data Flow

UKAD: part of the UK Archives Discovery Network

Genesis: exploratory project to share data

AIM25: collaboration to improve interoperability

TNA: plans to create links from the NRA

Copac: have links from the Hub to Copac records

CALM/Adlib


Collaboration & Sharing

Open data Standards Name authorities Reduction of cataloguing backlogs Retro-conversion of hard-copy catalogues Access to digitized and digital archives Collaboration to promote archives discovery


UKAD Network aims:

Hub hosts data

Genesis searches the Hub using SRU

Works by using ‘women’ as an index term

Benefit of one store of data with different access

options.


Pilot project for SRU: Genesis portal for Women’s Studies


National Archive Network

All Hub descriptions have their own identifiers – a

unique reference

Gives them their own web address

Enables bookmarking of content

Facilitates linking, e.g. from NRA

Enables exposure to Google


Persistent Identifiers

Understanding our users

Encouraging item-level descriptions

Encouraging images/links to content

Changes in technology

Perceptions of relevancy

Understanding Impact

Sustainability


Challenges

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Increasing content and contributors

Working on basic Hub operations – search speeds

and relevancy

More engagement with users

Exploring user generated content

Continuing to be standards-based, open and

interoperable


Moving Forward