Convergence of Practice Merging library, archive, and museum collections management within EMu

1. Convergence of PracticeMerging library, archive, and museum collections management within EMu KE EMu User Conference, 17 October 2012 Pooja Budhraja, Brian Wilson – The Henry Ford

2. History and Operation • Dedicated in 1929; opened to public in 1933 • Five primary units: • Museum and Village • Imax Theater and Assembly Plant Tour • Benson Ford Research Center • Houses the Archives and Library • 1.5M onsite visitors per year • 1200-1500 employees and 650 volunteers • $50M yearly operating budget • Archives and Library • 9 FT and 4 PT staff; 6-10 volunteers • 2500 onsite researchers per year • 2500 remote reference requests per year

3. Collections • Museum and Village • Rosa Parks Bus; Wright Cycle Shop • Archives • Over 18,000 cu. ft. (6400 linear ft.) • Ford Motor Co. records, 1903-1950s • Henry Ford personal papers • Trade Catalog collection • Institutional records • Library • Over 43,000 book titles • Over 2000 periodical titles • Open to public; non-circulating

4. Making Connections

5. Working Together

6. Digital LAM Project • Three Phases • Establish broad “wants/needs” • Create/import archival description within EMu • Revise delivery interfaces • Representation from Program Management, Registrars, IT, and Archives • Place archival items in collection context • Reduce initial amount of individual description required • Provide information about collections without digitized content • Enable public search across store of archival description • Increase velocity of digitization

7. Internal Users External Users Firewall EMu

8. Progress to Date • Converted 900+ hardcopy inventories to pdf format • Work done under prior external grant • Established core project team • Implemented EMu Test environment • Created local Archivists’ Toolkit instance • Constructed Metadata and Field cross-walks • In process of resolving shared fields • Tested EAD import and XSLT • Modified EAD template and customized XSLT • Begun creation of example archival collection in EMu

9. Record Structure and EAD Import Accession manual Collection Series I <c01> ead import Series II <c01> File <c02> File <c02> Item <c03> template or csv import Item <c03> Multimedia csv import Parent/Child Attachment Multimedia

10. Accession 232, World’s Fair Photograph series

11. Accession 232, World’s Fair Photograph series • Created using EAD import, record templates, and csv file imports • 5516 records • Collection level: 1 • Component level: 202 • Item level: 1771 • Multimedia: 3542 • Not fully digitized (~40%) • Complete archival description

12. Ford Motor Company Records Structure FMC Collection Industrial Relations RG RG No. 2 through No. 19 Photographs RG Engineering Photographic FMC Archives • Photographs RG: • 16 accessions • ~ 500,000 photographs • ~ 1M digital images Photographic Department Accession 232, World’s Fair series General series Plant Construction series Renovated Assembly Plants series Northern MI Operations series Ford Rotunda series Ford News Bureau series Photographic Library series

13. What We Are Finding • Differing professional practices • Local practices of The Henry Ford • EMu practices and implementation

14. Differing Professional Practices • Archival provenance, context, and collection • Description at an aggregate level – “Are things findable?” • Granularization of data – removal of context • Terminology – common / disparate terms • Archival hierarchy - Similar to Village/Districts/Buildings/Rooms? • Location – Intellectual and physical • EAD and CDWA (metadata) relative to DACS and CCO (description) • Archivist use of multiple date ranges for single entity • Example: Inclusive and Bulk Date ranges for collection • Differing EAD best practices • <unitdate> within <unittitle> or separated

15. Local Practices of The Henry Ford • Terminology and Meaning • “Item-Level Cataloging” • Content versus Structure – Defining title field versus form of title • Object ID requirement for object records • Application to archival intellectual-level components • Added “-X” suffix to collection ID for <c>’s • Location • Granularity of data – Collection shelf range and/or specific box/folder • ObjectType field • Defines item or catalog record? Or both? • Using cross-walks to define “shared” fields • Title defined in Main Title field as concat of <unittitle> and <unitdate> • Extent written to Measurements tab • Dates captured on Creation/Date tab

16. Date Example: Ford Motorsports Records, 1957-1968 (bulk 1963-1967) Creation/Date tab [EAD] Component tab Bulk dates entered as additional dates here to commonize with Registrars practice. Inclusive dates only written to fields here.

17. EMu Practices and Implementation • Handling of multiple date ranges for single item/entity • No bulk date field(s) • Lack of container field • Writing box/folder data to Physical Facet field temporarily • Function of Archives “Tree” • Visibility; drag/drop; position control • Subject / Controlled Access term import • Tied to Parties Module; creation of duplicate records • Other Parties Module fields • Accession, Finding Aid Author, Revision By, etc. • Duplicate fields across multiple tabs • Suppress/hide three of seven tabs • Mixing of data about collection and data about collection description

18. What’s Next • Short Term • Continue build-out of sample archival collection within EMu • Focus on resolving shared fields such as Title and Date • Develop output formats • Finding aid form and EAD XML • Handling of Library collection data – Discovery not management • Reuse/transform/import existing MARC record data • Use of Related Objects to connect collections and items • Long Term • Public and internal facing website redesigns • Explore potential use of narratives module • Collection level description (scope, bioghist, etc.) • Review of item-level metadata • Can we define a “light” record for publication?

19. Thank You. Contact: