Accessing our archival and manuscript heritage Progress report and content specification Steering group meeting Feb 2005 Richard Butterworth

Accessing our archival and manuscript heritage Overview... Recap what I said I would do Show what I have done Discuss what’s next

Accessing our archival and manuscript heritage Recap... Christmas 2004 Prototype tutorials, finish backend system, finish digitisation system Prototype tutorials: very briefly Finish backend system: nearly Finish digitisation system: overtaken by events

Accessing our archival and manuscript heritage Recap Backend system Stores site structure, and page information as XML pages These are converted into browser independent web pages Maintainers are automatically informed of problems

Accessing our archival and manuscript heritage Shmml Site system (Senate House Maintainable Markup Language) Shmml Site Glossary Shmml Glossary HTML Editor user interface

Accessing our archival and manuscript heritage Hiding the technology...

Accessing our archival and manuscript heritage function showMenu( menu_id ) { var mymenu = document.getElementById( "menu" + menu_id + "drop" ); mymenu.style.visibility = 'visible'; } function hideMenu( menu_id ) { var mymenu = document.getElementById( "menu" + menu_id + "drop" ); mymenu.style.visibility = 'hidden'; } var topRefs = [ 'index.html', 'about.html', 'staff.html', 'news.html', 'stakeholders.html', 'links.html', 'documents.html' ]; var menus = [ [ 'Home' ], [ 'About', 'Introduction', 'Aims', 'Objectives', 'Workplans' ], [ 'Staff' ], [ 'News', '9 Aug 04' ], [ 'Stakeholders' ], [ 'Links' ], [ 'Documents', 'AAMH 1.3', 'AAMH 2', 'AAMH 3', 'AAMH 4' ] ]; var menuRefs = [ [ 'index.html' ], [ 'about.html', 'intro.html', 'aims.html', 'objectives.html', 'workplans.html' ], [ 'staff.html' ], [ 'news.html', 'news.html#9aug04' ], [ 'stakeholders.html' ], [ 'links.html' ], [ 'documents.html', 'AAMH1.3.pdf', 'AAMH2.pdf', 'AAMH3.pdf', 'AAMH4.pdf' ] ]; var drops = [ 0, 1, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0 ]; function writeMenu( menu_num ) { var DOMCapable; if( document.getElementById ) DOMmenu( ); else preDOMmenu( ); } function preDOMmenu( menu_num ) { document.writeln( ' ' ); for( var i = 0; i < menus.length; i++ ) { document.writeln( ' ' ); for( var j = 0; j < menus[i].length; j++ ) { if( j == 0) document.writeln( '<a style="font-size: small" href="' + menuRefs[i][j] + '">' + menus[i][j] + ' ' ); else document.writeln( ' <a style="font-size: small; font-weight: normal"' + 'href="' + menuRefs[i][j] + '">' + menus[i][j] + ' ' ); } document.writeln( ' ' ); } document.writeln( ' ' ); }

Accessing our archival and manuscript heritage Shmml About Introduction Aims Objectives Workplans

Accessing our archival and manuscript heritage Shmml Site.

Accessing our archival and manuscript heritage The maintainer’s interface... Shmml Site Editor home.xml about.xml aims.xml objectives.xml wps.xml staff.xml news.xml links.xml Save New page Add page Home page Generate menus

Accessing our archival and manuscript heritage Backend system... 3 XML formats implemented Glossary Shmml ShmmlSite All documented using ‘XML Schemas’ (W3C standard) Converter implemented HTML4 Nearly MSIE6, pre Document Object Model

Accessing our archival and manuscript heritage Editor... ShmmlSite editor working fully Shmml editor nearly finished Needs a general tidy up

Accessing our archival and manuscript heritage What’s still to do... MSIE6 compatibility, tidy up editor Port converter to unix (should be easy) Will install linux on the project laptop to test Install converter on ULCC server Evaluation Install editor on Mura’s machine, so she can use it in anger Bug reports and corrections for remainder of project

Accessing our archival and manuscript heritage Liaison Links established with: Camden Local History Society (visit to SHL and presentation to meeting) West Middlesex Family History Society (visit to SHL and to present to their AGM in March) London Archive User’s Forum (visit to SHL and another planned) Heraldry society Two interviews with users, some volunteers for focus group

Accessing our archival and manuscript heritage Content specification Primary specification from AAMH2 Target user groups: local and family history groups Produce one site aimed at both groups If we expand target groups then maybe one site per group Beginners: tutorials Not beginners: questions to archives examples

Accessing our archival and manuscript heritage Primary specification (AAMH2) Example driven tutorials Interactive discussion boards Database of questions and archives Annotated links Searchable catalogue Digitised resources

Accessing our archival and manuscript heritage Content specification... Home page Tutorials Archive tutorials What are archives? What can I use archives for? How do I get access to archives? Which archives should I use? How do I find what I’m looking for? Research tutorials Why should I do research? What is a research question? What is my research question? Family history research questions Local history research questions From collecting facts to deeper understanding Publishing your research Identifying archives Family history archives Local history archives Discussion groups Family history discussion Local history discussion Ask the expert Links and other resources Family history sites Local history sites Other tutorials and guides Palaeography and transcription Translation Senate House Library resources Contextual help

Accessing our archival and manuscript heritage What’s next... Proactive liaison Chase up all contacts Keep chasing... Write tutorials Based on our liaison Stealing good ideas from elsewhere Compile question to archive examples Discussion group software Digital content based on collection strengths (AAMH7)