Hello TARO members!

We made it to May! If you are feeling like me, then you are ready for summer too and some R&R. I am ecstatic to see folks again in person at SSA in Houston. It has been far too long. Here are a few updates and announcements:

April Statistics are now available and can be viewed/downloaded from our Wiki page.

The time has come for our final NEH update. Please report the number of new and edited EAD finding aids you’ve uploaded to TARO each month in our tracking document (link below). If you aren’t able to provide monthly numbers but know the total number uploaded since the last time you reported, just enter that total number as your May 2022 entry. These numbers necessary for our next NEH grant report to cover November 2021-April May 2022, so please catch up with your entries when you can.

• Here’s how:

1. • Open this Google Sheet, https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1PGrqXwtoi4ybn3WTQ9qZ1_rUFH7mBmH2p-1DFydBOWc/edit?usp=sharing.
   • Find the row for your repository.
   • Enter your numbers for new and edited EAD finding aids per month. If you had no new or no edited finding aids for a particular month, please enter zero (“0”) in those cells so we’ll know that you’ve reported the number.
   • After April 2022, be sure to keep scrolling over to add numbers to May 2022 (Bonus Round). Thanks to an extension we are able to contribute numbers for an additional month.

• • Fixing typos and broken links doesn’t fall under our definition of an “edited finding aid,” but these edits do count:
    • adding links to digitized materials or other enhanced discoverability edits
    • any inventory additions (not just “major” ones, however that might be defined)
    • revising for DACS and index terms

Work continues on TXarchives.org thanks to additional funding from the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (ARPA). Work has been done on improving search results and several updates are expected to go live this month; stay tuned!

Help wanted! We are hoping to provide assistance to repositories in implementing the common subject terms from TARO 2.0 as part of this work.  Please reach out to smdodd@smu.edu if you have metadata and bulk edit or scripting experience and would be interested in short term, hourly work focused on any of the following:

• Work to refine subject heading / access term recommendations
• Assist in implementation of unified controlled access terms with member repositories
• Provide training on techniques for subject remediation
• Provide hands-on assistance for repositories where necessary

Join us for the annual TARO Brown Bag lunch at the Society of Southwest Archivists annual meeting in Houston, Thursday, May 19^th; 11:30am-1:00pm. As a reminder this is a bring-your-own lunch event, so be sure to grab some grub before; there are some food options listed on the conference website.

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 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.

Thanks, and stay safe and healthy! See you in Houston!

Good morning TARO folks!

Hard to believe that we are already 2 months into 2022; time seems to fly by and yet, pandemically stand still. I hope this update finds you, your staff, your repositories, family and friends all well. I wanted to take a moment to give you a TARO update, and share some exciting coming events and news with you.

Stats are available for January! Bookmark the wiki page for the latest statistics from TARO2.0.

Next up, TARO2.0 development wrapped up in December. Many thanks to all of our amazing Valkyrie Squad members who put in extraordinary work last year. Thank you to everyone who completed surveys and did usability testing on the website. Steering and Web/Tech collected that information, and passed it along to the team down in Austin. And finally, thank you to everyone who worked on remediating their finding aids. I know it was a tremendous undertaking on the part of all repositories and staff on top of countless other projects and workloads.

Now for the amazing news: with the support of the Texas State Records Advisory Board (THRAB), the TARO steering Committee submitted an application for funding from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) last December. We were awarded $98,000 to continue the development of the new TARO2 website! *And the crowd goes wild*. So what does this mean? We will be continuing to work on the website, incorporating feedback from the usability surveys and responses, so you may begin to notice changes to the site. Thanks to these ARPA fund we are able to bring in some additional folks, including a subject remediation specialist, and work to establish workflows for incorporating contributions from outside of the core UTL Valkyrie team in the event that opportunities like this arise in the future. This funding will allow us to continue working through the end of September 2022! Thanks to Jelain Chubb and THRAB for their continued support and advocacy for TARO.

Now for even more great news: in person TARO trainings and online webinars are coming soon! We have a variety of upcoming events I invite you to check out. Whether you are new to TARO, new to the profession, or just want a refresher, there is something for everyone. Be sure to mark your calendars and hope to see you soon.

 Introduction to TARO2.0 (Webinar)

Tuesday, March 15^th, 2022

10:00am-11:00am

Welcome to TARO2.0! Get a guided tour of the new website and all its features. Topics will include: logging in (authenticator / email methods), uploading new finding aids, compliance checking, editing and deleting finding aids. We will also demo the search, advanced search, and browse features of the site as well as analytics. Join us live for a Q&A following the presentation. The webinar will be recorded and added to our training video library.

TARO and ArchivesSpace Open Forum (Webinar)

Tuesday, March 29th, 2022

10:00am-11:00am

Are you an ArchivesSpace user and a member of TARO? Join us for an open forum on TARO2.0. Hear from other ASpace repositories on their workflows, tips, and tricks for exporting XML files and uploading them to TARO. Hear from members of the Texas State Library and Archives, Rice University, and the Briscoe Center. Do you have a process you can share? All are welcome to share their workarounds and best practices for working with ArchivesSpace and TARO. The webinar will be recorded and added to our training video library.

Introduction to TARO: Encoding and Submitting Finding Aids (In-Person)

San Marcos, Texas State University

Friday, April 1^st, 2022

10:00am-4:00pm

This workshop will serve anyone learning how to encode archival finding aids using the Encoded Archival Description (EAD) standard in XML, but is focused on the local guidelines and participation logistics for the state consortium for finding aids, Texas Archival Resources Online (TARO).  The morning session will provide basic information on EAD and the standards used with it, as well as background on TARO. The afternoon session will include hands-on time using an XML editor (or alternatively, using ArchivesSpace) to build a valid EAD XML finding aid file and seeing how to upload it to TARO. In 2020-2021, TARO underwent significant changes and upgrades, which this workshop will address, so it will be useful even to those who are familiar with the previous version of TARO. This includes required tags and attributes, suggested subject browsing terms, and a new way of uploading and managing files. Participants will learn how XML tags work, what the EAD tags are, how to validate an XML file, how to use the TARO Best Practices Guidelines, and how to upload files to TARO. Detailed handouts and sample files will allow participants to continue their practice after the workshop. Trainers Amy Bowman and Amanda Focke will lead this hands on workshop.

Workshop is free to participants. Limited spaces available; registration required. Click here to register.

TARO and Access Terms (Webinar)

Tuesday, April 19^th, 2022

10:00am-11:00am

Join us for a conversation with our subject term remediation specialist. Learn more about TARO2.0’s browse and advanced terms list, and how you can optimize your finding aids for discoverability.

Introduction to TARO: Encoding and Submitting Finding Aids (In-Person)

Dallas, Southern Methodist University

Wednesday, April 27^th, 2022

10:00am-4:00pm

This workshop will serve anyone learning how to encode archival finding aids using the Encoded Archival Description (EAD) standard in XML, but is focused on the local guidelines and participation logistics for the state consortium for finding aids, Texas Archival Resources Online (TARO).  The morning session will provide basic information on EAD and the standards used with it, as well as background on TARO. The afternoon session will include hands-on time using an XML editor (or alternatively, using ArchivesSpace) to build a valid EAD XML finding aid file and seeing how to upload it to TARO. In 2020-2021, TARO underwent significant changes and upgrades, which this workshop will address, so it will be useful even to those who are familiar with the previous version of TARO. This includes required tags and attributes, suggested subject browsing terms, and a new way of uploading and managing files. Participants will learn how XML tags work, what the EAD tags are, how validate an XML file, how to use the TARO Best Practices Guidelines, and how to upload files to TARO. Detailed handouts and sample files will allow participants to continue their practice after the workshop. Trainers Amy Bowman and Robert Weaver will lead this hands on workshop.

Workshop is free to participants. Limited spaces available; registration required. Click here to register.

Introduction to TARO: Encoding and Submitting Finding Aids (In-Person)

Houston, Society of Southwest Archivists Annual Meeting

Wednesday, May 18^th, 2022

10:00am-4:00pm

This workshop will serve anyone learning how to encode archival finding aids using the Encoded Archival Description (EAD) standard in XML, but is focused on the local guidelines and participation logistics for the state consortium for finding aids, Texas Archival Resources Online (TARO).  The morning session will provide basic information on EAD and the standards used with it, as well as background on TARO. The afternoon session will include hands-on time using an XML editor (or alternatively, using ArchivesSpace) to build a valid EAD XML finding aid file and seeing how to upload it to TARO. In 2020-2021, TARO underwent significant changes and upgrades, which this workshop will address, so it will be useful even to those who are familiar with the previous version of TARO. This includes required tags and attributes, suggested subject browsing terms, and a new way of uploading and managing files. Participants will learn how XML tags work, what the EAD tags are, how validate an XML file, how to use the TARO Best Practices Guidelines, and how to upload files to TARO. Detailed handouts and sample files will allow participants to continue their practice after the workshop. Trainers Robert Weaver and Amanda Focke will lead this hands on workshop.

Workshop is free to participants. Limited spaces available; registration required. Registration will take place through SSA and the annual meeting registration site. Click here to receive more information.

Sponsored by the Texas Historical Records Advisory Board with funding provided by the National Historical Publications and Records Commission.

Whew! I think that is all the news I have for now. Thank you all again for the work you do. Here’s to TARO2 in 2022.

Best wishes and Happy Valentine’s Day!

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