The University of Minnesota Libraries EAD implementation includes encoded finding aids from 13 different repositories, most of which fall administratively within the Libraries' Archives and Special Collections (ASC) Department. They include The Charles Babbage Institute, The Children's Literature Research Collections, The Givens Collection of African American Literature, The Immigration History Research Center, The James Ford Bell Library, The Jean-Nikolaus Tretter Collection in GLBT Studies, The Kautz Family YMCA Archives, The Literary Manuscripts Collection, The Northwest Architectural Archives, The Performing Arts Archives, The Social Welfare History Archives, Special Collections and Rare Books, and The University Archives.
Finding aids are delivered via an online database powered by DLXS. Some collections are also cataloged in MARC and with links to XML or HTML instances of the finding aid in the catalog records. In the coming months we will be generating corresponding MARC records for all finding aids currently available in EAD with links to the EAD finding aid in the DLXS database.
The bulk of retrospective encoding was accomplished during a year-long project (2004-2005) funded by an internal grant. Project staff primarily used XMetaL along with a template developed to encode all finding aids. A number of basic finding aids were created from existing MARC records by the Libraries' Technical Services staff using a macro developed in-house. To encode new finding aids, staff are using a combination of approaches, including converting from Access and Filemaker databases and Excel spreadsheets, as well as the XMetaL template. Details on the progress of the encoding can be found in the reports and other documentation available at http://wiki.lib.umn.edu/Staff/FindingAidsInEAD