Hi MCN'ers, I would like to invite you to a session that will be held at the MCN conference in Ottowa (session blurb is below). I was late in getting it submitted, so it did not appear in the preliminary program, which is why I wanted to mention it here, but it will probably be in the final program. The MCN conference organizers were kind enough to facilitate its entry at the last minute; my thanks to you Kerridwen and Gail! It will be held on Friday, November 1st from 1:30-3:00pm, see final program for location.
I would also like to offer this session to MCN members (including our SIG members!) as an activity of the MCN Standards SIG. I hope you'll consider stopping by. Richard Rinehart | Berkeley Art Museum / Pacific Film Archive Systems Manager & Education | University of California at Berkeley Technology Specialist | 2625 Durant, Berkeley, CA 94720-2250 rineh...@uclink2.berkeley.edu | http://www.bampfa.berkeley.edu/ --------------------------------------------------------------- Access to Collections in Context: the EAD in Museums & Archives --------------------------------------------------------------- Panel discussion/presentation: Moderator and panelist: Richard Rinehart, Information Systems Manager, UC Berkeley Art Museum/Pacific Film Archive & Chair MCN Standards SIG. Other panelists: Anne J. Gilliland-Swetland, Ph.D., Assistant Professor Department of Library & Information Science University of California at Los Angeles & Society of American Archivists Working Group for EAD Development, ...... The Encoded Archival Description (an implementation of SGML) is being used by the archival and museum communities to provide collection-level access to collections along with object-level access. This has technical implications for integrating specific and contextual information, but more importantly has the potential to enhance intellectual and educational access, since a museum's collections can be delivered in an envelope of history and ideas, which compliments the specific object information. This method uses the SGML standard which helps ensure the longevity of collections information, as well as sharing of that information with larger information structures (i.e.. Library of Congress systems). The EAD can be used to compliment a collections database, or as a starting point for museums which don't yet have complete item cataloging, but want to provide broad access to their collections. It is especially suited to represent hard-to-catalog collections, such as conceptual art collections, or collections which include objects and manuscripts - collections that demand a context to be understood. Lastly, the EAD demonstrates a successful collaboration and sharing of methods between the library, archive, and museum communities. The panelists will discuss how their organizations are using or developing the EAD, and what the benefits and obstacles are.
