At this moment, EAD encoded finding aids created by the staff of the five institution that constitute Center for Jewish History are delivered to the user in HTML that is created on-the-fly from XML on the server using XSLT stylesheet. Eventually, all master XML files will be ingested into DigiTool DAMS and in this way users will be able to search across all of the finding aids.
The printed versions of the HTML files are usually used in the reading room.
Most of the collections, which have been encoded at the Center for Jewish History so far, were legacy finding aids; some of them existed only in hand-written or typewritten form. These were either keyed directly into XML in XMetal 2.0 or in to MS Word when substantial descriptive information had to be added. Some of the finding aids reside in WordPerfect or InMagic databases. These files were usually converted into MS Word where the descriptions and data formats were polished and modified, so they would comply with DA:CS or APPM, LC NAF, LC-ALA transliteration tables, and other standards. XML files are created in XMetal 2.0. and Altova XML Spy 2005 Home edition and increasingly in NoteTab using customized clip library file provided by Chris Prom.