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Lindsay Greene, NYU to make archive software, Washington Square News, September 22, 2004. Excerpt: "NYU's library system has announced plans to develop software for an intercollegiate database that will make archival processing more efficient, a library official said. The system, called 'The Archivists' Toolkit,' will allow universities and other research institutions to compile their archives into a online database, making the scholarship available worldwide....NYU, which is developing the project with assistance from the University of California at San Diego, decided to pursue the project after several researchers expressed an interest in a more accessible archive, Dean of Libraries Carol Mandel said. 'Our archivists were frustrated with the lack of software available, so they got together and kind of said "let's do this,"' she said. The archivists went to the Andrew W. Mellon foundation where they were paired up with the University of California. Both universities received a collaborative, two-year grant for $847,000. The project is expected to last from two to four years, and NYU hopes to renew the grant, Mandel said." (PS: The article doesn't say so, but the toolkit web site makes clear that the software will be both OAI-compliant and open-source. However, I'm still curious about what the project leaders found deficient in the nine existing systems of OAI-compliant, open-source archiving software.)Posted by Peter Suberhttp://www.earlham.edu/~peters/fos/2004_09_19_fosblogarchive.html#a109603392024520142An explanation might be that archiving software for eprint archives is not the same as archival software used by archivists for cataloging archival records.Excerpt from the toolkit's website:The objective is a digital tool set, primarily database incharacter, that will:• satisfy and integrate key functions in the archival descriptive cycle, includingaccessioning, provenance, authority, locating, finding aid construction andencoding, and, digital surrogate / single item description;• allow small to medium-sized archives and special collections to ingest metadataabout collections into a centralized repository, along with digital assetmanagement, accession, reference, and workflow information;• use a relational database management system with a Web-based user interfaceto support all aspects and functions of archival administration and description,(including components for digital- and media-asset tracking and management);and• be deployable in a range of archival repositories from historical societies, collegearchives, museum archives, commercial archives, and other archivesspecializing in non-textual materials (sound or video archives, for example) onthe one hand, and, on the other, in archives with a single staff member or inmulti-repository consortia such as the Five Colleges, Inc. or the Online Archive ofCalifornia.Updatehttps://mx2.arl.org/Lists/SPARC-OAForum/Message/1087.html