Archon: Facilitating Access to Special Collections Prepared for PACSCL Conference Something New for Something Old: Innovative Approaches to Managing Archives and Special Collections Chris Prom Assistant University Archivist University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Release History and Readings Version 1.0 Fall 2006 Version 1.1 Spring 2007 –adds digital library and integrated help system Version 2.0 Winter 2008 –major rewrite, security improvements, added multilingual support for staff interface Version 2.1: April 2008 –added accession manager, improved usability (finding aid search), implemented data handling efficiencies Version 2.2: August 2008 –added digital library improvements (thumbnails), made interface XHTML and web accessibility compliant 2003: Workflow analysis : Internal Research Proposal : :
Future Plans Version 3.0 Alpha in January or February 2009 with revised user interface Annotation features Preservation assessment module Enhanced names/creator/functions linking and browsing. Add OAI data provider and bulk import/export Connections to repository software (SWORD) Hosted web services. Long term — enhance digital library to support complex objects and electronic records
Archon: Facilitating Access to Special Collections Prepared for PACSCL Conference Something New for Something Old: Innovative Approaches to Managing Archives and Special Collections Chris Prom Assistant University Archivist University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign