I wanted to let everyone know about a new effort underway in New York State to test the feasibility of a state-wide consortium for EAD finding aids. The RAC has been involved from the beginning of this project, which started with a 2011 survey of archives, special collections, historical societies and other institutions in New York State that hold unique materials to determine the level of EAD implementation at the state level. This survey found a very strong support for a finding aid consortium in the state.

A group of archivists from institutions around the state (including Cornell, Syracuse University, Vassar College, and of course the RAC) met last week in Albany to work out the details for a pilot project that will gather EAD finding aids from a variety of institutions in New York, process and load them into an XTF instance, and produce a final report that will discuss the challenges, opportunities and feasibility of continuing the project on a more long-term basis.

The six-month project is being sponsored by the NY 3Rs Association, an organization that connects library systems in New York in an effort to better share resources and improve collaboration. I’m very excited to see how this develops in the next few months, and will continue to provide updates on this project.