The TARO Project Texas Archival Resources Online

1
The TARO ProjectTexas Archival Resources Online

• Fred Gilmore
• Sr Operating Systems Specialist
• UT Austin General Libraries
• fgilmore_at_mail.utexas.edu

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What It Is . . .

• A project to make Texas archive and manuscript
  collection finding aids available through the
  Web.
• finding aid descriptive summary and inventory
  of a material collection housed at a specific
  archive not the materials themselves.
• Currently 1500 searchable, browsable finding
  aids, 5000 hits / day

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How it came to be . . .

• Two grant funded phases
• Outsourced scanning, OCR, XML tagging of existing
  paper finding aids
• Training/hardware/software for creation of new
  finding aids
• Phase I (2000 2001) 14 participating
  repositories
• Phase II (2002 2003) additional 11
  repositories

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Participating Repositories

• Alexander Architectural Archive (UT Austin)
• Center For American History (UT Austin)
• Benson Latin America Collection (UT Austin)
• Ransom Humanities Research Center (UT Austin)
• Texas State Library
• Texas Tech Southwest Collection/University
  Archives
• University of Houston Special Collections/Universi
  ty Archives
• Rice University
• Texas AM

• Houston Public Library
• Austin History Center
• UT San Antonio
• Texas State University
• Southern Methodist University
• UT Medical Branch Galveston
• MD Anderson
• UT El Paso
• UT Pan American
• UT Arlington

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How It Came To Be . . .

• Why XML?
• Compose once, format many
• XML and related standards make data
  exchange/reuse, description easier through
  separation.

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Creating content for TARO

• Archives staff
• Edit or compose XML tagged electronic version of
  finding aid (new finding aids are created using
  text/XML editor such as Corel XMetaL)
• Submit file to UT Austin server

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. . ltunittitle label"Title" encodinganalog"245
a"gt Thomas J. Rollins Papers, ltunitdate
type"inclusive" encodinganalog"245f"
label"Dates" era"ce" calendar"gregorian"gt1875-
1997 and undatedlt/unitdategt lt/unittitlegt ltabstract
label"Abstract" encodinganalog"520a"gt The
personal papers of Thomas J. Rollins from
1875-1997 and undated. lt/abstractgt ltunitid
countrycode"us" repositorycode"TxLT-SW"
encodinganalog"099" label"Collection "gtS
1261.1lt/unitidgt ltrepository label"Repository"
encodinganalog"852a"gt ltcorpnamegt ltsubareagtSouthw
est Collection/Special Collections
Library,lt/subareagt . .
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Creating Content For TARO

• UT Austin technical staff
• XML file is moved into production, error checked,
  translated into three HTML varieties for viewing.
• HTML content is indexed for searching (keyword
  and fielded), sorted into repository lists for
  browsing

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http//www.lib.utexas.edu/taro/ttusw/00054/tsw-000
54.html
10
http//www.lib.utexas.edu/taro/ttusw/00054/tsw-000
54.html
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Advantages

• Pages picked up by Google and give content
  higher visibility.
• Multiple views of content including ability to
  customize view by running the XML document
  against a personal stylesheet.
• Processing fully automated. HTML translated
  files can be available within hours.
• DC metadata and OAI records provide additional
  access points.

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Challenges

• Relationships
• Mediating local needs with federated site
  requirements.
• Encouraging supplemental metadata creation.
• Resources
• Introducing improvements without dedicated staff
  on either end.

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Challenges

• Realities of the Web
• User education. Practically a meta-site.
  Content expectations not met.
• Finding aids can be large. Load times a problem.
• XML Unicode requirements make special characters
  tricky.

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Future Plans

• Searching search XML directly
• Content fund the creation, serving of pictures,
  sound, video
• Participation more repositories more content
• Access Open Archives, RDF metadata
• Flexibility provide stylesheet for direct XML
  browsing, PDF creation for hardcopy