Adapting Archives to EMu

Corporate Records Excavation Records Personal Papers Byzantine Research Fund Archive Art Collection Exhibitions

The Byzantine Research Fund Archive was one of the Access databases migrated into EMu as part of our pilot project BRF Catalogued on an item level but lacked upper tier structure in the archival arrangement Hierarchy was created under the Archives tab so we could easily view and manage the archival arrangement structure

Noel-Baker Personal Papers The Photo Archive Collection

The Photographic Albums are currently being catalogued in EMu Arranged at Item Level Description Digital images of pages and individual items

The family papers of the Noel-Bakers were recently acquired and are currently being catalogued The collection is arranged in Series and is being described down to Item Level It is the first collection we have directly entered into EMu

The key structural fields of an archival description proscribed by ISAD (G) are: Identity Statement area Context Area Content and structure area Notes area Description control area Which are broken down over three EMu tabs: ISAD (G) Identity Content Allied Materials

Gives digital dimension Allows for multiple access points Framework for cataloguing standards Hierarchies in Archive Tab and Relationship Tab allow easy access to view structure as its being created Links to other commonalities of Departments Allows flexibility for collections out of standardized Archive remit, in our case the Art Collection and Exhibition, to be catalogued under that department.

Work flow procedures difficult to establish ISAD (G) has specifically numbered fields which should be noted in the tabs or in the help windows; e.g. Reference code is 3.1.1, Title is 3.1.2, etc.

For the BRF Archive we selected fields that could be searched and presented through the public interface but the way they are displayed is not clear. For example, the summary data displayed above the image is a mass of information that would be confusing to a researcher and only duplicates certain fields shown below; also, for a field, such as ‘Creator’ the distinction between multiple names is also not clear

As with the ISAD (G) tabs the work flow of what will be exported for a EAD framework is not clear. An archival finding aid to be appropriately displayed through EAD should have interlinked pages in the web interface showing the hierarchy.

1. Collection List 2. ISDAD(G) Identity Statement

3. Brief List of Series 4. Item Level Display

A more clearly laid out workflow with exact correspondence to ISAD (G) and EAD terminology will consolidate the information structure and will contribute significantly to the organization of client archives The restructuring of the web interface to properly display collections will open up the access points to external users and allow linking into other archives leading to other institutional alliances.