Hi Helen
I manage Exploring 20th century London
http://www.20thcenturylondon.org.uk/ which seems to be a similar model
for what you have in mind.
We've solved, worked through or at least worked around a number of the
issues you talk about. For instance. we 'solve' the multiple schema
issue by transforming all the different DB schemas into a single one for
the project. This is awkward but does mean that we have a single
consistent dataset to use for the website. We are currently looking at
ways to improve and streamline this in the future.
Happy to talk more off list, drop me an email. You might also want to
talk to Linda Ellis who has just done the excellent 'Black Country
History' Website http://blackcountryhistory.org/ .
Cheers.
Jason Webber
Web Manager
Exploring 20th Century London
Tel: 020 7814 5596
www.20thcenturylondon.org.uk <http://www.20thcenturylondon.org.uk>
Jason Webber
Web Manager, Exploring 20th Centuy London, Information Resources Section
Museum of London
150 London Wall
London. EC2Y 5HN
Tel: 020 7814 5596
Fax: 020 7600 1058
Email: [log in to unmask]
www.museumoflondon.org.uk
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-----Original Message-----
From: Museums Computer Group [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of
Bleck, Helen
Sent: 06 December 2010 13:07
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Briefing for a 'portal' tender ... any tips?
Dear all,
Here at East Lothian Council the heritage services (Archaeology,
Archives, Museums and Local History) are teaming up in a new centre
currently being built in Haddington - the John Gray Centre. We'd like to
be able to make their individual databases (Historic Environment Record,
CALM catalogue, open source database and various small databases, some
on Access, respectively) all searchable online through a single 'portal'
or gateway, and we'd like users to be able to choose an individual
database to search, or to search all simultaneously. I've recently
joined the Museums team to try and help make the portal happen, and I'm
looking for any advice or tips from others who've done something
similar.
We've seen some examples online - Exploring Surrey's Past, Norfolk
Heritage Explorer, Highland Historic Environment, Cambridgeshire and
University of Stirling CALM archive searches, and many more. They all
look very impressive.
If anyone has a brief/spec that they've used with some success for this
type of thing and wouldn't mind sharing it, could I have a look? At the
moment, our brief bears some resemblance to a long letter to Santa, and
we really need to refine it down into the essentials of what we really
need, what's less essential for the first stage, and what we'd
ultimately like to be able to achieve - but also to focus it more on the
procurement process, and what potential tenderers really need to know.
It would be helpful to hear people's experience of user-generated
content with this kind of project too - how useful is it, is it
difficult or time-consuming to moderate, etc. Has anyone come across
something they've tried to add to this kind of gateway that really
didn't work or caused tremendous headaches? Or found something that
worked really well?
One of our main concerns is that the databases and their tables/fields
are all quite different, and the different services have over time used
different thesauri for classifying content - it will take some fairly
sophisticated search methods to search them all effectively.
Other issues we're thinking about are:
- where is the portal to sit - on a bells&whistles website for the John
Gray Centre (one of the things on our ultimate wishlist), or on its own
simple site, with the main JGC website separate? We plan to build up the
JGC site gradually over time and eventually to make it quite an
interactive, lively site, so will need a good base for it from the
start, whether it's home to the portal or not;
- what are the pros and cons of internal/external hosting (Council is
happy to explore either, and we'll ask potential tenderers their
options);
- we do plan to use regularly updated copies of our active databases for
the portal, and need to consider how we upload the data (it needs to be
straightforward and not too slow).
I hope some of you can help! I'll be very interested to read your
responses.
Kind regards,
Helen
Helen Bleck
John Gray Centre Heritage Resources Development Officer
East Lothian Council Museums Service
Library and Museums HQ
Dunbar Road
Haddington
EH41 3PJ
Tel: 01620 828210
Fax: 01620 828201
Visit the East Lothian Museums blog at
http://www.eastlothianmuseums.org/wp/
Find us on Facebook - 'East Lothian Council Museum Service'
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