The Archives HubAn introduction

Contributor Workshop 2013

JISC-funded service based at Mimas,

The University of Manchester

In service since 2000

Over 27,000 collection descriptions

Over 230 repositories

Management and service team at

Manchester

Development team at Liverpool

Software: Cheshire for Archives

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

Key aim to be comprehensive!

The success of the Hub is a reflection of the

rich content available from Hub

contributors

Content and contributors

Higher/Further Education

Specialist repositories

Charities

Royal Institutions

Museums and Libraries

Business archives

Many small archives

Some local authorities

We encourage institutions to contact us

Current contributors

John Rylands Library, Manchester

Archives Hub homepage

Very flexible: collection-level through to

item-level

Software/searches effective with both

Complimentary approaches –

contributors can include summary and

detailed descriptions

Researchers ask for detail but also ask for

us to be comprehensive!

Nature of Hub content

Google Blog Twitter Key conferences and events ….better cataloguing means

better profile!

Profile

Archives Portal Europe (route to Europeana) Genesis: exploratory project to share data AIM25: collaboration to improve interoperability TNA: links from the NRA and discussions about mutually

beneficial activities UKAD: UK Archives Discovery Network Archives Wales Project Working with software providers, eg CALM/Adlib/KE/ICA

AtoM

Collaboration & Sharing

Local search/retrieve setup Very similar to the Hub interface A lightweight approach using the Hub API Template solution – minimal customisation of

design Hosted at Mimas – easy to maintain Hoping to go live early in 2014 Complex programming challenge!

Hub Micro Sites

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

Human and Machine Access…

EAD is XML for archives

We have EAD2002 (DTD)

Cheshire search engine searches and retrieves EAD

descriptions

EAD is ISAD(G) compliant

We use indexing standards and strongly encourage

contributors to add index terms

A bit about standards

Archives Hub Cataloguing &

Content

archiveshub.ac.uk/isadg

archiveshub.ac.uk/mandatoryfields

archiveshub.ac.uk/cataloguingtips

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

archiveshub.ac.uk/identifiers

Keywords and index termsKeyword search Subject search Subject browse

Hub takes your EAD descriptions and displays them using a stylesheet

We can modify the stylesheet to display different fields

EAD currently being revised (new version due 2015) so there may be some changes - but minimal disruption!

EAD Development

The Archives Hub

archiveshub.ac.ukarchiveshub@mimas.ac.uk

archiveshub.ac.uk/blogtwitter.com/archiveshub