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Online Archive of California: OAC 3.0 Release

February 10, 2005 Author: CDLCategories:

The CDL and the OAC Operations Group are pleased to announce the release of the Online Archive of California, Version 3.0 at http://www.oac.cdlib.org.

OAC 3.0 represents two primary changes from previous systems:

  • Use of a new software platform developed by the CDL, the eXtensible Text Framework (XTF), for the search, browse, and delivery of Encoded Archival Description (EAD)-formatted finding aids and Text Encoding Initiative (TEI)-formatted textual documents. For more information about XTF, see http://xtf.cdlib.org/.
  • Support for EAD Version 2002, the current version of the EAD encoding standard maintained by the Society of American Archivists.

OAC 3.0 does not significantly depart from the previous OAC system in terms of look-and-feel.  However, the CDL utilized the opportunity to upgrade legacy style sheets for EAD and TEI search results and views.  The new style sheets are a product of iterative development, incorporating feedback received from the OAC community.

FEATURES

OAC 3.0 includes the following new features:

  • Delivery of EAD Version 2002 finding aids.
  • Updated style sheets for EAD and TEI search results and views, including linked search terms in context.
  • EAD and TEI searching with wild cards: an asterisk will find from one to many characters within a word; a question mark will find only one character within a word.
  • Sorting of EAD and TEI search results by relevance, title, date, and publisher/institution.
  • Searching text within EAD and TEI views (includes navigating between occurrences of search terms in context).
  • Searching objects within EAD views.
  • New EAD style sheet for printing.

CONTEXT

Developed and maintained by the CDL using open source software, the XTF platform underlying OAC 3.0 provides for even greater long-term functionality and flexibility for the search and delivery of a wide range of document types, including EAD finding aids and TEI texts.

For more information about the OAC 3.0 project, see http://www.cdlib.org/inside/projects/oac/news/.

We encourage you to visit the enhanced site, and we welcome your feedback for both big picture issues and details.  The CDL will be implementing incremental enhancements to the OAC resource, and your input will help us prioritize improvements.