Maximizing the use and exposure of archival authority data

Abstract

In the library profession, we have become increasingly aware of the benefits of creating and sharing authority data. More specifically, archivists have identified the need to have a standard structure that would make it possible to record and exchange information related to creators of archival materials. A group was formed to address this issue, and as a result the EAC-CPF standard emerged. EAC-CPF, an XML Schema, encodes contextual information about persons, corporate bodies, and families related to archival materials and is the basis for a new discovery system called SNAC (Social Networks & Archival Context). SNAC aims to provide a platform where resources from cultural heritage institutions around the world can be aggregated, which would make it easier to locate and discover archival materials. Having this unified access will be beneficial not only to participating institutions, but also to researchers because it will provide a global social network connecting the past to the present. With the idea of sharing archival data on a global scale, the Remixing Archival Metadata Project (RAMP) was developed. RAMP allows users to generate enhanced authority records for creators of archival collections and publish their content to the English Wikipedia through its API. By creating a Wikipedia entry using curated archival metadata, it is possible to actively shape the online encyclopedia with reliable information.

This presentation will focus on how archival authority data is being used to build the SNAC discovery system and how librarians/archivists are actively taking advantage of their curated data to shape Wikipedia, one of the most used sites on the web.