<daofind>
Digitalisiertes Archivgut in Online-Findbüchern / Digitized Archives in Online Finding Aids
Ein Projekt des Bundesarchivs mit Unterstützung der Andrew W. Mellon-Foundation, New York
This is a short English version of the German language pages with a resumée of the main information.
The software MEX (MidosaEditor for XML-Standards) developed by the projects <daofind> and <daofind+> can now be downloaded from SourceForge. In the wiki some information in PDF format can be downlaoded including a quickstart guide. A German language manual with screen shots is available from there too.
The software is available in English and German for MAC as well as for Windows and can be downloaded in five configurations for different working situations when creating online finding aids. They include a METS editor that allows combining images into digital archival objects and linking them to EAD finding aids. The HTML presentation of the finding aid with all images can be generated in one step.
Examples for finding aids produced with MEX are:
The record group NS 8 - Kanzlei Rosenberg 1918-1945 ->
The record group Nationaler Verteidungsrat der DDR 1960-1989 ->
The finging aids are presented in a structured form with the table of content used for navigation and a full text search function. The images are linked to each title of descritive units on the lowest level (the files). The image presentation is opened with the link "Akte einsehen" underneath each title. The English version of MEX includes an English language user interface for the online finding aids and the presentation of the images. There is no fulltext search function accross the images for the moment.
Five different configurations were to be developed for:
The project was finished in December 2007 and the products are delivered as open source software with the Mozilla licence via SourceForge.
The grant proposal of the <daofind+> Project ->
(fortsetzungsantrag.pdf)
With the support of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, New York, the first Bundesarchiv <daofind> Project developed a new and innovative prototype software for web presentations of textual archives. The project showed the feasability of the idea how to group images of archival units into digital archival objects (with METS) and how to link these digital objects to descriptive information contained in online finding aids (using EAD). And it showed the feasability to use Eclipse as a basis and to create MEX as a plug in with its own user interfaces.
The grant proposal of the <daofind> Project ->
(projektantrag_englisch.pdf)
The final report of the <daofind> Project ->
(finalreport.pdf)
Presentations and papers given at the INSTADA conference (International Standards for Archival Descrition - Berlin, April 24-26, 2007) during the Greman presidency of the EU ->
Report and papers of an international workshop on the use of EAD, EAC and METS organised by the <daofind> project team in Berlin from May 24-26th 2005 ->
Report on the workshop in the Bulletin sur la DTD EAD no 20, juin 2005 ->
First examples of online finding aids with integrated images created with the help of the <daofind> prototype:
These sample online finding aids contain links to files with images of the described archival units. They can be opened by activating the link “Akte einsehen” (= “View file content”) placed below the title of a unit of description.
Digitization Strategy of the Bundesarchiv ->
The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation ->
