Looking Beyond the Archive: Utilizing Encoded Archival Context in a Broader Societal Context

Abstract

The eScholarship Research Centre (ESRC) has produced EAC-CPF XML outputs from web resources for many years. Using the Find & Connect web resource project as a case study, this article explores the uses that the ESRC has developed for EAC-CPF data, including online presentation of descriptive contextual information, as the basis of online search services, as a system-independent and preservable copy of research datasets, and as a harvestable data source for interoperability with other datasets. Also covered are expanded uses of the EAC-CPF schema for describing a wider range of contextual entities beyond corporate bodies, persons and families.

KEYWORDS:

• EAC-CPF
• XML
• interoperability
• archives
• context
• search
• communities
• preservation
• online presentation

Notes

¹Gavan McCarthy, “Heritage and the Internet—Encoding Context Objects: Using Knowledge to Reduce Risks,” Australian Society of Archivists 1999 Conference (1999), via the Internet Archive, Wayback Machine October 30, 2013, at http://web.archive.org/web/20081006105606/http://www.archivists.org.au/events/conf99/mccarthy.html.

²“Our History,” eScholarship Research Centre, accessed November 28, 2013, http://www.esrc.unimelb.edu.au/about-us/our-history/.

³Gavan McCarthy, Guide to the Archives of Science in Australia: Records of Individuals, (Port Melbourne: D.W. Thorpe in Association with Australian Science Archives Project & National Centre for Australian Studies, 1991).

⁴Gavan McCarthy, “Review of National Library of Australia's Reference Services” (1998), via the Internet Archive, Wayback Machine, March 13, 2014, http://web.archive.org/web/20081123034658/http://www.library.yale.edu/∼rszary/Authority/gavan1.html.

⁵Gavan McCarthy and Joanne Evans, “Mapping the Socio-technical Complexity of Australian Science: from Archival Authorities to Networks of Contextual Information,” Journal of Archival Organization 5, no. 1–2 (2008): 164.

⁶Ibid.

⁷Sue McKemmish, Barbara Reed, and Michael Piggott, “Chapter 7: The Archives.” In Archives: Recordkeeping in Society, eds. Sue McKemmish, Michael Piggott, Barbara Reed and Frank Upward (Wagga Wagga: Centre for Information Studies, Charles Sturt University, 2005): 159–195; Peter Scott, “The Record Group Concept: A Case for Abandonment,” The American Archivist 29, no. 4 (1966): 493–504.

⁸Richard V. Szary, “Encoded Archival Context (EAC) and Archival Description: Rationale and Background,” Journal of Archival Organization 3, no. 2–3 (2006): 220.

⁹McCarthy, “Heritage and the Internet.”

¹⁰Eric Miller, “An Introduction to the Resource Description Framework,” D-Lib Magazine, (May 1998), accessed March 14, 2014, http://www.dlib.org/dlib/may98/miller/05miller.html.

¹¹Gavan McCarthy, “Engineering Utility: A Visionary Role for Encoded Archival Authority Information in Managing Virtual and Physical Resources,” AusWeb99, the Fifth Australian World Wide Web Conference (1999), accessed October 30, 2013, http://ausweb.scu.edu.au/aw99/papers/mccarthy/.

¹²McCarthy and Evans, “Mapping the Socio-Technical Complexity of Australian Science,” 166.

¹³Daniel V. Pitti, “Creator Description—Encoded Archival Context,” Co-published simultaneously in Cataloging & Classification Quarterly 38, no. 3–4 (2004): 201–226; and: Authority Control in Organizing and Accessing Information: Definition and International Experience, eds. Arlene G. Taylor and Barbara B. Tillett, (The Haworth Information Press, an imprint of The Haworth Press, Inc.: 2004), 201–226, accessed December 20, 2013, http://www.columbia.edu/cu/libraries/inside/units/bibcontrol/osmc/pittieac.pdf.

¹⁴McCarthy, “Heritage and the Internet.”

¹⁵Trove, National Library of Australia, accessed November 25, 2013, http://trove.nla.gov.au/.

¹⁶Humanities Networked Infrastructure website, accessed November 25, 2013, available at http://huni.net.au/.

¹⁷McCarthy, “Heritage and the Internet.”

¹⁸Basil Dewhurst, “People Australia: A Topic-based Approach to Resource Discovery”, VALA2008 14th Biennial Conference and Exhibition (2008), available at http://www.valaconf.org.au/vala2008/papers2008/116_Dewhurst_Final.pdf.

¹⁹Ibid., 1–2.

²⁰McKemmish, Reed, Piggott, “Chapter 7: The Archives,” 159.

²¹Dewhurst, “People Australia,” 2.

²²Dewhurst, “People Australia.”

²³Encyclopedia of Australian Science, eScholarship Research Centre, accessed November 25, 2013, http://www.eoas.info/.

²⁴Humanities Networked Infrastructure website.

²⁵McKemmish, Reed, Piggott, “Chapter 7: The Archives,” 168.

²⁶Sue McKemmish, “Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow: A Continuum of Responsibility,” first published in Proceedings of the Records Management Association of Australia 14th National Convention, 15–17 September 1997, accessed December 3, 2013, http://www.infotech.monash.edu.au/research/groups/rcrg/publications/recordscontinuum-smckp2.html.

²⁷“Saulwick Polls and Social Research,” The University of Melbourne, accessed November 25, 2013, http://www.saulwick.info/.

²⁸“Australian Trade Union Archives,” eScholarship Research Centre, accessed November 25, 2013, http://www.atua.org.au/.

²⁹“Find & Connect,” Find & Connect Web Resource Project for the Commonwealth of Australia, accessed November 25, 2013, http://www.findandconnect.gov.au.

³⁰“Adoption Act 1984,” Find & Connect web resource, accessed December 20, 2013, http://www.findandconnect.gov.au/ref/vic/eac/E000422.xml.

³¹Cate O’Neill and Nell Musgrove, “The “Who Am I?” Project (2009–2012),” Find & Connect (2013), accessed November 28, 2013, http://www.findandconnect.gov.au/ref/vic/biogs/E000123b.htm.

³²“Pathways,” Who Am I? Project, eScholarship Research Centre, via the Internet Archive, Wayback Machine, accessed December 20, 2013, http://web.archive.org/web/20091227051326/http://www.pathwaysvictoria.info/.

³³Gavan J. McCarthy and Joanne Evans, “Principles for Archival Information Services in the Public Domain,” Archives and Manuscripts 40, no. 1 (2012): 55.

³⁴Gavan J. McCarthy, Shurlee Swain, and Cate O’Neill, “Archives, Identity and Survivors of Out-of-Home Care,” Archives and Manuscripts 40, no. 1 (2012): 2.

³⁵McCarthy and Evans, “Principles for Archival Information Services,” 55.

³⁶A. Elliott and T. Smith, “Find and Connect Service Scoping Study,” Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs, Commonwealth of Australia (September 2010): 32, accessed November 28, 2013, http://www.dss.gov.au/sites/default/files/documents/find_connect_scoping_study.pdf.

³⁷McCarthy and Evans, “Principles for Archival Information Services,” 57.

³⁸Internal project report by Roger Hudson, “Find and Connect—Usability Evaluation Report. V1,” Web Usability (June 30, 2012), 1.

³⁹Ibid., 8–11.

⁴⁰“Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting,” accessed December 20, 2013, http://www.openarchives.org/pmh/.

⁴¹“Ballarat Orphanage,” Find & Connect web resource, accessed December 20, 2013, http://www.findandconnect.gov.au/guide/vic/E000031.

⁴²“Ballarat Orphanage,” Find & Connect web resource, accessed December 20, 2013, http://www.findandconnect.gov.au/ref/vic/biogs/E000031b.htm.

⁴³“Browse Find & Connect—Search Results,” Find & Connect web resource, accessed December 20, 2013, http://www.findandconnect.gov.au/browse/search-results/#/q=*:*&rows=10&fl=*&json.wrf=JSON_CALLBACK&wt=json.