5
edits
Changes
added proposal from New York Public Library
Features to be discussed include improving the display of quasi-FRBRized records in search results through subtracting metadata here and adding metadata there, adding a 'did-you-mean' option in an attempt to steer users toward using Boolean operators in the way the system demands, adding fine-grained event tracking with Google Analytics, and porting existing add-ons like special collection requests, augmented stacks locations, and demand-driven acquisitions requests from our last-generation OPAC.
== EAD without XSLT: A Practical New Approach to Web-Based Finding Aids ==
* Trevor Thornton, New York Public Library, trevorthornton@nypl.org
The New York Public Library is reengineering its system for delivering archival finding aids on the Web. The foundation of this system is a data management application, written in Rails, within which collections and their components are managed as associated model instances, and descriptive data is stored natively as JSON and HTML. Front-end applications interact with the back-end via a flexible API that is capable of returning any part of the description at any level. This approach provides a number of benefits over the traditional XML/XSLT approach:
* Data is stored natively in the format in which it is needed by the front-end application, making rendering much faster
* Finding aid data can be lazy-loaded via AJAX requests
* Enables presentation of the archival description beyond the traditional finding aid structure (alternate arrangements, visualizations, etc.)
* Links to digital assets can be maintained independently of archival description
* Data cleanup and normalization can be accomplished during and/or after ingest of original data into the system, ensuring data quality and consistency
* Data is stored in a schema-neutral format, enabling easy transformation into other formats as required (e.g. RDF for semantic web applications, future version(s) of EAD schema for harvesting, etc.)
In this session I will describe the architecture of this system and its data model, and discuss the challenges presented in the design process.
[[Category:Code4Lib2013]]
