The LEADS project at Simmons College involved encoding archival finding aids in EAD using student volunteers. Over the course of a year, 21 volunteers encoded 89% of the Charity Collections finding aids. Students were recruited and trained, and encoding was done following best practices and templates. The project aims to eventually encode all archival collections at the college in EAD and integrate the process into standard archival procedures.
9. Volunteer Timeline
June 2012: Recruitment for Pilot Program begins; 10 students approached, 8
accepted
June-July 2012: Best Practice Guidelines, XML template, sample encoded finding
aid, and workflow documents created for volunteer training
July 2012: Introductory training session held; each volunteer given one finding
aid to encode; 86% of volunteers completed their encoding within one-week
August 2012: Additional students recruited for LEADS Fall semester push;
Goal by end of semester was to encode the entirety of the Charity Collections
December 2012: By end of Fall semester, 21 student volunteers had completed
89% of the finding aids; remainder completed in Jan. 2013
10. Student Volunteers
Students recruited based on
Summer/Fall combination of their interest and ability.
Recruitment Response Required to have taken LIS 440
(Archival Access & Use).
More than 60% of recruited students
became volunteers on LEADS.
91% of volunteers completed at least 1
finding aid during the semester.
40% completed 2 or more finding aids
Spring semester: additional 12
volunteers added (71% response rate)
12. Student Volunteers
<author>Machine-readable finding aid created by: Aliza
Leventhal, M.S./M.A. Candidate, Archives & History Dual
Degree, Simmons College</author>
<author>Machine-readable finding aid created by: Meghann
Wollitz, M.S. Candidate, Graduate School of Library and
Information Science, Simmons College</author>
35. The Future(s) of LEADS
Phase I: Charities Collection: Complete & To Be Unveiled!
Phase II: Manuscript Collections: In Process
Phase III: Administrative Records: In Planning
Phase Forward: Integrating LEADS into the standard operating
procedures of the College Archives and Library
Stylesheet and Implementation Guidelines will be published and
available on the Simmons College website
36. LEADS Contact Information
Jason Wood jason.wood@simmons.edu
Kathy Wisser katherine.wisser@simmons.edu
Justin Snow justin.snow@simmons.edu
Brian Shetler brian.shetler@simmons.edu