Building A Webbased University Archive

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Building A Web-based University Archive

• Sharon Yang (yangs_at_rider.edu)
• Rider University
• and
• Robert J.Congleton (rcongleton_at_rider.edu)
• Rider University

2
Introduction

• 1. Problems with Accessing Archives
• A. Traditional problems with Accessing Archive
  Material
• 1. Material is not usually cataloged or
  available online
• 2. Access to material is restricted
• 3. Most inhouse databases have limited search
  ability and are dependent on what information has
  been included in the record.
• B. Problems with the two Access Databases used in
  Riders Archives
• 1. Having two different databases is a problem by
  itself.

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Problems with First Access Database 10,100
items, first six columns (14 total columns)
What is this communiqué?
Wrong document title
To what does status refer?
4
Problems with first Access Database last six
columns
No Date Acknowledged information
Many records have no location information
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Problems with 2nd Access Database, 1650
items,first five columns (thirteen columns
overall)
No details about the lectures in this series
Not an archive item
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Problems with 2nd Access Database, 1650
items,last eight columns
More items have location information, but many
have no box no.
This item is actually in a different Special
Collection, and is not archival
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Summary of problems with Riders two Access
Databases

• Not easy to use by Archives staff
• Not available to the public
• Limited search ability
• Contained many errors or blank fields
• Links to digitized images were not available

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We needed a better database for the Archives
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A Web-based Archive

• On the Internet and web-based
• Searchable
• Links to images or text
• Data import capability
• Easy to learn and use by staff

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Links SQL

• Latest version 3.0.4 release July 2005
• Front end A Perl script
• Back end MySQL
• Visit www.gossamer-threads.com for more
  information about this program

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Perl Scripts

• Most popular web programming language
• Runs in Operating systems such as Unix and
  Windows and others
• Free or open source under GNU General Public
  License (GPL)
• Visit Perl web site at www.perl.org

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MySQL

• Free database management tool under free
  software/open source GNU General Public License
  (GPL)
• Latest release MySQL 5.0
• Visit www.mysql.org or www.mysql.com

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Links SQL

• Life Long Support and Upgrade
• Admin Panel and Web-Based Interface
• Can Handle Images Well
• Searchable on the Web

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Requirements to Run Links SQL

• A Unix or Windows Server (or any other OS that
  can run CGI scripts)
• A Web Server such as Apache
• Software Links SQL
• A Database Management tool such as MySQL or Oracle

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Review of Links Admin Panel

• This is where data entry takes place for editing
  or adding items to the archives database.
• http//abaris.rider.edu/cgi-bin/Links/admin/admin.
  cgi

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Moving the Archives to Links

• Exporting the two Access Databases into Links
• Merging the two databases
• Exporting information to MySQL code
• Locating problem records that needed to be
  corrected or deleted
• Creating fields in Links
• Importing the information to Links

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Merging the Access Databases, with assistance
from Dave Capuano

• Task accomplished by creating a new Access
  database
• Adding fields to the new database
• Adding fields to the two old databases so that
  each database has the same number of fields in
  the same order, 15 columns in all.
• Exporting old databases to MySQL format
• Importing the two databases, one at a time, into
  the new database by mapping fields of old
  databases to the fields of the new database.

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Mapping Access fields in old databases
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Exporting to Links SQL

• Export data from new Access database to MySQL
  format
• Remove Microsoft coding from the file
• Create new fields in Links to be used for Archive
  database
• Import into Links SQL mapping information to new
  fields.

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Exported MySQL dataextracted by R.Congleton and
D. Capuano
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Default Fields in Links
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Fields We added to Links
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Mapping Fields to Links using Links MySQL import
module
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Access Database 1 record
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New Archives Database Record, Revised Record from
old Database
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New Archives Database Record, public view
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Additional Collections now in Links

• Historic Business Machines.
• This collection consists of historic
  typewriters, adding machines and computers used
  in offices during the last 140 years.
• Typewriters were photographed with a digital
  camera. The digital images were then linked to
  the Archive database in Links.
• Live demonstration http//library.rider.edu/

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Building a Web-Based Archive

• Good-Bye and Thank You.
• Any Questions?????