TARO August 2022 News and Notes

Good Afternoon TARO folks!

Happy first day/week back to school. I cannot believe it is nearly time for fall, but I am totally ready for cooler weather, and all things pumpkin flavored. The Steering and subcommittees are working on updating TARO Today, turning it into your one-stop source for TARO related resources; a new three-year TARO strategic plan; and additional educational resources and trainings for the upcoming year. During the Society of American Archivists virtual/hybrid annual meeting, I presented on our work with the site redesign, testing, and future during the Technical Subcommittee-Encoded Archival Standards meeting, and during the Research Forum. It was wonderful to “see” hundreds of folks during those session, and there was a great response to the work we have all put into TARO. If you missed the moderated panel and discussion on encoded archival standards in the context of aggregators of archival description (e.g., Archives Portal Europe, Online Archive of California, Archives Hub, ArchiveGrid, NAFAN), you can now view the recording.

In other TARO news:

July statistics are now available and can be viewed/downloaded from our Wiki page

TARO2.0 Update

The Valkyrie Squad deployed some new TARO features at the end of July. If you missed their announcement, here is a recap of the TARO2.0 updates:

Improved phrase search functionality – When quotation marks are added around search terms/ phrases in the full text search, the list of results will be more precise;

Advanced Search Subject search boxes – The Advanced Search screen will include separate Subject search boxes for: Topic; Person; Organization.

Additional Filter Options – Filters/facets have been added for the above subjects in the search results.

Compressed inventory display – white space around inventory elements has been reduced, greatly reducing the amount of scrolling involved in scanning long finding aid inventories

Canonical header – as a next step in our ongoing efforts to improve indexing of the finding aids in search engines, a header is now being inserted designating the “canonical” URL of each finding aid

The team is working to address some known issues and are continuing to work on some additional updates to the website. Stay tuned to the list for more announcements from the Dev team.

TARO Elections 2022

We are looking for a few good folks to fill slots on the TARO Steering committee this fall. If you are interested in shaping the future of TARO, collaborating with your colleagues across the state, and leading TARO2 post 2022, then consider nominating yourself or your colleague (Just ask them first!)

Open positions for this year’s election include:

    • Vice-Chair/Chair Elect
    • Member at Large
    • Secretary

Nominations will be called for in September and the election will take place this November. Terms begin January 1, 2023.

That is all the news for now.

Happy new semester to everyone!

 

TARO July 2022 News and Updates

Greetings all!

Summer is certainly here in Texas. TARO steering members and subcommittee volunteers are hard at work on various TARO projects. The development team down in Austin is continuing work on txarchives.org thanks to the NEH and ARPA grant funds. Stay tuned to the TARO today blog and listserv for more updates.

June statistics are now available and can be viewed/downloaded from our Wiki page

Welcome to our new TARO members!

  • Texas A&M University-San Antonio Archives & Special Collections
  • The University of Texas at Dallas
  • Rothko Chapel Archives

Joining our Summerlee New Member Initiative are:

  • H. Carroll Center For Baptist Heritage & Mission
  • South Texas College of Law Houston Fred Parks Law Library
  • Dominican Sisters of Houston Archives

NAFAN Update

TARO continues its work as one of twelve finding aid aggregator partners in the Building a National Finding Aid Network initiative led by the California Digital Library. Most recent meetings partner meetings included demos of potential interfaces and uploading procedures. Registration is now open for the joint annual meeting of the Society of American Archivists Encoded Archival Standards (EAS) Section and the Technical Subcommittee on Encoded Archival Standards (TS-EAS). The meeting will be held via Zoom on Wednesday, August 3, 2022 from 11:00 AM to 1:00 PM (CT).

Captain America TARO Ad

Captain America TARO Ad

We are looking for a few good folks to fill slots on the TARO Steering committee this fall. If you are interested in shaping the future of TARO, collaborating with your colleagues across the state, and leading TARO2 post 2022, then consider nominating yourself or your colleague (Just ask them first!)

Open positions for this year’s election include:

  • Vice-Chair/Chair Elect
  • Member at Large
  • Secretary

Nominations will be called for in September and the election will take place this November. Terms begin January 1, 2023.

That is all the news for now.

Stay cool!

TARO June 2022 news and updates

Good morning all!

Hard to believe it is summer. It feels as though I blinked and nearly missed all of June. I hope all is well with you and your institutions; and that things have slowed to a nice smooth summer pace. Here are a few brief updates for June:

-May statistics are now available and can be viewed/downloaded from our Wiki page

-Welcome our new member: The University of Texas at Dallas

– Work continues on TXarchives.org thanks to additional funding from the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (ARPA). Stay tuned for more updates!

-We need subcommittee members!! If you, or someone in your institution, would be interested in serving on a subcommittee we are in need of volunteers for Outreach/Education, Authorized Terms and Web/Tech. Outreach is perfect for those who like designing training materials, guides, webinars, and participating in outreach. If you are interested in user experience (UX) studies and working with the developers on testing new site features, then Web/Tech is the place for you! Have cataloging experience or just a passion for standardized terminology? We could use your expertise on the Authorized Terms Subcommittee.

-If you are attending SAA (in person, virtual, or hybrid), be sure to watch the Encoded Archival Standards Section meeting. EAS Section and TS-EAS is hosting a moderated panel and discussion on encoded archival standards in the context of aggregators of archival description (e.g., Archives Portal Europe, Online Archive of California, Archives Hub, ArchiveGrid, etc.) both within and outside of the United States. Panel participants will include representatives and maintainers of archival aggregation sites as well as users and contributors.

That is all for now. Be well and keep cool!

Best!