University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign A Unified Platform for Archival Description and Access Christopher J. Prom, Christopher A. Rishel, Scott W. Schwartz, Kyle J. Fox Joint Conference on Digital Libraries Vancouver, BC, June 21, 2007 Presenter: Chris Prom Assistant University Archivist University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Overview Why does this software exist? What does it do—what is new about it? How do I implement it? (semi-technical) What have we learned/what are our next steps?

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Why Archon?—The Problem To meet a need: unified platform for description and access—A ‘good enough’ tool. To implement idea of archival provenance— grouping by function or creator To reduce or eliminate training –Typical EAD implementations undermine workflows, exacerbate backlogs, and frustrate users –Our EAD/XML experience... The target market

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Basic Characteristics Web-based –Access from any computer –Integrated access system –staff editing fully integrated with public website Output flexibility –Search –Browse (creator, title, subject/function, record group, digital object title) –EAD –MARC –Other formats can be defined (OAI, METS) in archon/styles folder Requires no knowledge of XML; integrated help system But supports all relevant archival descriptive standards (EAD, DACS)

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Browse Search Description Link to finding aid Subject links Digital object access Creator authorities Provenance/breadcrumb trail

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Provenance-Based Browsing Browse by creating office, function, or other ‘classification’ defined by repository

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Digital Archives/Library Link to collection Links to creator, subjects not shown (below fold)

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Authenticated (staff) view of public website (edit pencils)

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Staff users –Logging in –Editing –Modify collection record –Filtering/ adding subject term –Defining new creator –Content manger –Linking/uploading digital object –User permissions –Setting a new style

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Collection Manager—for ‘collection level’ description

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Filtering and linking creator authorities, subject files, etc ‘Filter and link’ method used for creators, subjects, genres, languages

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Content Manager Used to create finding aids/box and folder lists

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Other areas of description available in collection manager Listing Locations

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Implementation Requirements, Installation Uses widely-supported web technologies: –Any web server with PHP 5.0 or higher –A blank MySQL or MSSQL database with network connection –Optimized for LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP) Visual Basic install packet; define database name, login, pswd, webserver address, upload directory or FTP site; can also install manually.

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Documentation and API Illustrated System Administrator and User Manuals API fully documented via php documentor Object-oriented, correspondence between database and class/object/variable names Class ARCHON has system-level functions, to process arrays, etc. BUT... most customizations never touch the Archon API itself; few implementing institutions or developers will need to be aware of it beyond calling functions

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Database Server (MySQL & MSSQL currently supported) Database Module (translates queries to specific syntax) queries responses Application Programming Interface (PHP 5.0 scripts, objects, functions, SQL queries) Administrative Interface (collects data) Public Interface (output templates)

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Basic system administration takes place in web client User/usergroup manager Data import/export (SQL script, MARC, EAD) ‘Archon Configuration’ –Select default style, template set –Set messages –Enable provenance browsing Session killer

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Output customization –Takes place on web server –Customize output via Styles folder (will be Themes in next release) –Templates: for more complex changes Database admin takes place via standard client such as phpMyAdmin

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Use standard php and html, referencing archon objects Template modification (output customization) Sample objects: $objCollection->Scope $objCollection->Extent $objCollection-> LocationEntries $_ARCHON->Security ->isAuthenticated()

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Future Directions, 1 Archon 2.0 (Summer 2007) –‘Languages manager’/ interface customization –Cart function –New output templates, accessibility guidelines and better usability –Modularization; code divided into ‘core’ area and packages for extensibility

Future directions, 2 –Research issues User annotation system for collections and digital objects, ‘web 2.0’ type features UI improvements, based on analytics study and evaluation phases Digital preservation/curation features –Other features Integrate OAI data provider Expand digital library Libraries to enable access to external digital libraries –Building an implementer community

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign A Unified Platform for Archival Description and Access Christopher J. Prom, Christopher A. Rishel, Scott W. Schwartz, Kyle J. Fox Joint Conference on Digital Libraries Vancouver, BC, June 21, 2007 Presenter: Chris Prom Assistant University Archivist University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign