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Thanks Daphne. You're right, I should contact the heritage gateway people. Next on the list! Thanks again, Helen -----Original Message----- From: Museums Computer Group [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of CHARLES, Daphne Sent: 09 December 2010 10:45 To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Re: Briefing for a 'portal' tender ... any tips? ... or you need look no further than the Heritage Gateway http://www.heritagegateway.org.uk/gateway/default.aspx which cross searches about 30 datasets, including 25 or so HERs (some via the ADS), and has a map search faclilty. Best regards Daphne Charles ________________________________________ From: Museums Computer Group [[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Kate Fernie [[log in to unmask]] Sent: 08 December 2010 10:43 To: CHARLES, Daphne Subject: Re: Briefing for a 'portal' tender ... any tips? Hello Helen, I would suggest looking at the RCAHMS Canmore service and the Archaeology Data Service catalogue. The ADS catalogue already includes 6704 records relating to Lothian, including resources from the Defence of Britain database, West Lothian HER and the RCAHMS NMR see: http://ads.ahds.ac.uk/catalogue/search/basic_r.cfm?CFID=1904942&CFTOKEN=4203 5904. It would be good to see the East Lothian HER searchable alongside these other resources in the ADS catalogue, as it is an important resource for archaeologists. The ADS can advise you on how to do this... The ADS catalogue is a fully interoperable portal, which means that it can be harvested by Culture Grid so there should be no problem there. With best wishes, Kate -----Original Message----- From: Bridget McKenzie [mailto:[log in to unmask]] Sent: 07 December 2010 10:55 Subject: Re: Briefing for a 'portal' tender ... any tips? Hello Whatever you do to create your portal, the most important thing is to feed the data into the Culture Grid. This way users can search records within each distinct collection or all of them grouped under e.g. East Lothian Heritage. They can also search alongside other heritage collections from Scotland or the UK. It also means that developers or other cultural organisations can feed your records into other services for users, due to its open API. For advice on how to do this, ask the Collections Trust about Culture Grid http://www.culturegrid.org.uk/ And for advice on how to combine feeding the Grid with creating a joint portal, ask James Grimster at OrangeLeaf on the architecture behind Black Country History http://blackcountryhistory.org/ You could consider the option of not creating a portal, but simply feed data into the Grid, group it into an East Lothian Heritage collection, then promote what users can do with the Grid via a simple webpage (e.g. Council page). You can then use social media and your email networks etc to spread the word and invite feedback. Best wishes Bridget McKenzie www.flowassociates.com On 06/12/2010 13:06, Bleck, Helen wrote: > 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' > > > > > ********************************************************************** > Email Disclaimer - East Lothian Council > This email and any files transmitted with it are confidential and > intended solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom they > are addressed. If you have received this email in error please notify > the sender and ensure it is deleted and not read copied or disclosed > to anyone else. It is your responsibility to scan this email and any > attachments for computer viruses or other defects. 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