Making Finding Aids for the WWW

..or Adventures in extracting HTML from Microsoft Access

1. Introduction

These pages contain some hints for generating WWW finding aids out of a Microsoft Access database. I make no grand claims about the information contained herein. It's really just a collection of notes and reflections gathered over several years working near the intersection of archives and the WWW. The orientation is very much practical, perhaps to the point of being trivial. In any case, I hope that these pages will be of some assistance to those of you seeking to develop finding aids for use on the WWW. If you have any comments, suggestions, or additional hints please feel free to contact me. Of course, if you require detailed assistance or advice you can always contact discontents for a quotation!

I use the term "finding-aid" fairly broadly to include things like Bright Sparcs and the Directory of Archives in Australia. The point being that such resources have many similarities with your traditional archival finding aid - offering some exciting possibilities for integration within the WWW environment. In any case, the techniques that I describe for generating HTML out of databases can have a wide range of applications. I use them for maintaining the WWW Virtual Library for the History of Science, Technology and Medicine, amongst other things. However, I have to admit that I am an intuitive rather than informed programmer, no doubt there are easier/neater ways to accomplish some of these tasks, all I can say is that it works.

You might also like to have a look at a few of my conference and workshop papers in which I've discussed various issues relating to archives and the WWW. They're getting out of date now, but some of the issues are still current.

I'm currently working with members of ASAP's soon-to-be-closed Canberra Office to prepare a paper on Bright Sparcs and related issues for the 'Working with Knowledge' conference. This will also cover some issues relating to the development of finding-aids, and I'll post a link here as soon as it's available on the WWW.

Next section - 2. Why use databases?

1. Introduction
2. Why use databases?
3. Exporting your files to databases
4. Producing HTML from databases
4.1 Export to rtf method
4.2 The module method
4.2.1 Contents page
4.2.2 Item listings
4.2.3 The results

Screen capture of Bright Spatcs
Bright Sparcs.
Uses the 'Export to RTF' method.

Screen capture of WWWVL-HSTM

WWWVL-HSTM.
Uses the 'module' method.

Created by Tim Sherratt (Tim.Sherratt@asap.unimelb.edu.au)
Last modified: 16 March 1998