Online Finding Aids with BASYS-Fox in the Bundesarchiv, Germany

Abstract

SUMMARY This article discusses the process for the production of online finding aids with BASYS-Fox system and it describes the scope of application of EAD in the Bundesarchiv. In 2000, the project “Presentation of Online Finding Aids with the EAD system” was started at Bundesarchiv. The project was promoted by the German Science Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft). The objectives were, first, to examine whether EAD could be applied to German archives, especially to the federal archives. Second, the possibilities for software development were to be assessed. BASYS-Fox is the result of this software development. Fox is an acronym for “Finding aids Online with XML.” The production of finding aids with BASYS-Fox starts with an XML export from the archive database of the federal archives (BASYS-S). After the XML file is imported into the BASYS-Fox system, different elements, which at present are not available in the database, have to be added to the file. After the completion of these additions, the finding aid is published with BASYS-Fox. Publishing in this context means the production of XML files according to EAD and to the local BArch DTD, which are saved in a file system. Access to these online finding aids is made possible by the classification scheme and via the Lucene search engine. At present there are about 200 online finding aids (list of Fox-Finding aids: http://www.bundesarchiv.de/foxpublic/index.html).