I received a question via email asking about Archon and how it compares to Greenstone. As I look quickly at
Archon, it seems like that software is meant for creating digital finding aids. (
see also) It's stated purpose is different than
Greenstone, which "is a suite of software for building and distributing digital library collections." This
person compares Archon to the Archivists Toolkit that has also been released, which is also for finding aids. I do see Archon described as being software for a digital library, but its own web site doesn't seem to describe it that way. However, both are open source software.
So...here are the question... Is anyone using Archon? If yes, what other products did you consider (e.g., Greenstone, DSpace, etc.) ? What are you using it for (e.g., finding aids, digital objects)?
I -- and a person in Florida -- thank you for your replies!
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Greenstone
3 comments:
I've used Greenstone and I posted that comparison between Archon and AT. They're pretty different. Greenstone is for creating a user interface for searching digital content. It doesn't do much management beyond that (or at least it didn't used to); although because its a search tool, it does allow you to add metadata. It's not quite as content-management-based as something like Dspace. Archon is an archival management tool, but as far as I know, it has NO user interface, it's strictly for staff use.
Our University archives department (http://www.library.uiuc.edu/archives/archon/) uses Archon. It does have digital content within it, but it's used more heavily as an archival tool. Our archivists claim that archival researchers nationwide find Archon a very effective tool.
Actually the comment by scribe about Archon having no user interface is in error. Archon creates a portal which allows a user to search all the materials, searching by any term, and even build a "notes" file of these. We actually attached this portal to the library webpage. See http://fusionmx.lib.uwf.edu/archon/
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