Dear list members,



Over the last few years, the Archives Hub team at Jisc has been working on a major project to update the Archives Hub service. We have set up a new system, with a new website and a whole new approach to data ingest and data processing. Our website displays collapsible hierarchical trees together with our new ‘mini map’ which helps users unfamiliar with hierarchical descriptions; summary and expanded hit lists; an interactive map to show where collections are located; more filtering of results; a new repository search and a new ‘themed collection’ search to surface archives, particularly digital archives, that form part of an online theme based resource. 



In terms of the ingest of descriptions, our aim is to ensure that data can be processed quickly and in an automated way, and we are often able to ‘normalise’ the data, to ensure that it meets Hub standards and becomes more interoperable. This has enabled us to set up harvesting from the Archives Portal Europe, so that all Archives Hub descriptions are also on APE (https://www.archivesportaleurope.net/)



One way of contributing is using our ‘EAD Editor’ as a cataloguing tool. It has been completely re-written and updated so that it creates interoperable Hub EAD descriptions. It has features such as links to VIAF and controlled lists of levels and languages, checks for uniqueness of identifiers and formatting of dates, and it allows for structured index terms, including events. We are working to incorporate templates as well. 



We have also been working towards taking exports from archival management systems. We have now taken in Calm descriptions from several institutions, often completely replacing older descriptions so that we are completely up to date in reflecting the holdings of an institution. This has been a challenging area of work, as we have found that cataloguing practices vary considerably, and institutions have different requirements, but we have gradually worked through the variations and issues we come across, so that we are in a good position to start to expand this ingest of exported descriptions. Part of the work has involved creating a new export template, which we can provide for you to use.  The process may involve you in some manual work to deal with things like duplicate references, but we can assist with this, and it means the data is improved for the institution as well as for the Hub. 



Work is also proceeding with AdLib and AtoM, so that we can also take in data from these systems. 



If you have an interest in contributing, whether it be from Calm or another system, or using our own EAD Editor to create descriptions, then please do request to be put onto our contributors’ mailing list, so that we can keep you up-to-date with what is going on.  We are also very interested in gauging interest in workshops on exporting EAD from your system, and we will let you know more about this via our mailing list. 



Please email us at [log in to unmask] if you have any questions or want to be on our mailing list. 



With kind regards,

The Archives Hub team. 



Website: http://archiveshub.jisc.ac.uk

EAD Editor: https://archiveshub.jisc.ac.uk/eadeditor/

Exporting from Archival Systems: https://archiveshub.jisc.ac.uk/archivesystemexport/

EAD for the Hub: https://archiveshub.jisc.ac.uk/eadforthehub/



Contributors Email:  [log in to unmask]



twitter.com/archiveshub

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Jisc Services Limited is a wholly owned Jisc subsidiary and a company limited by guarantee which is registered in England under company number 2881024, VAT number GB 197 0632 86. The registered office is: One Castle Park, Tower Hill, Bristol BS2 0JA. T 0203 697 5800.  



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