ArchiveGrid
RLG’s ArchiveGrid, an index of the contents (or at least partial contents) of thousands of worldwide archivces, is freely accessible through May 31st to anyone who wants to use it. This access is being made available through a grant, and RLG is hopeful that if additional grants can be obtained, this resource will remain free and open. Walt Crawford has written a brief review of his own experiences with it, which mirror my own in terms of the kinds of things I found.
So, here’s my question. The Marin County Free Library has a small but very, very cool California History Room Digital Archive online with a number of full text oral history transcripts, local history essays, photo albums, etc. How does a small archive like that get included in big projects like this? I’ve run into this question before with other large archive collections or indices…and always been frustrated that the many useful small archives are completely overlooked and not welcome to contribute. Perhaps this is not the case with ArchiveGrid…I don’t know. But it would seem to me that the more participation they had, the better.
March 10th, 2006 at 5:15 am
See Contribute Your Institution’s Finding Aids on ArchiveGrid. Overlooked it may be, but it doesn’t sound unwelcome.
March 10th, 2006 at 4:07 pm
Thanks Steve. I couldn’t find that from within the site when I first visited it. I went back and looked, and see that it’s linked from a teensy link at the bottom of the page called “Include Your Finding Aids.” I guess I don’t think of original content as “finding aids,” and indeed, much of what’s in ArchiveGrid is not finding aids. Perhaps that link could be retitled? Anyway…yes. Thanks!