This screenshot from UMass's Special Collections and University Archives is a good example of a typical online finding aid. The actual web page has a lot more information on it than the screenshot. In any case, this collection-level finding aid is set up like a printed finding aid--title, extent, historical note, scope and content, restriction on access, box inventory, subject headings, call number and more. I used this example because while it is a good finding aid, there are no linked images. So, this might be useful for pre-research, but it is not helpful for a user who wants to research solely on the web. It is simply an online version of an existing finding aid.
2) Frank M. Hohenberger Photograph Collection
Once again, this screenshot does not do this collection-level finding aid any justice. This example is from the Lilly Library at Indiana University (my alma mater). The Frank M. Hohenberger Photograph collection is entirely digitized, which makes it very appealing for researchers. As you can see below, this is not a typical finding aid (such as the UMass one)--instead, this collection is meant to be used online.
In my opinion, I think that there is an important distinction between online representations of physical finding aids, which require users to go to the physical library to see the photographs, and searchable online databases that give immediate access to the photos. In my experience, I find it much easier to browse photos from the web and then select the ones I want to see in person. However, I understand the difficulty in digitizing entire collections for online use.
My thoughts mostly revolve around the usefulness of an online finding aid for a photograph collection that has no linked/embedded images (such as the UMass example). Is it necessary to have a finding aid online just for the sake of having it online? I'm not sure. To be truly useful, I think that an online finding aid for a photograph collection should be designed for the web, with linked digital images and web 2.0 components. Once again, though, a lack of resources make creating such a system very challenging. In any case, it's just something I've been thinking about during this unit.
-Meg Campbell
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