On Nov. 3, the American Numismatic Society unveiled its new archival search tool, ARCHER, or Archival Electronic Resource. It provides access to the ANS collection of unique archival material through a series of simple search screens.
Like the ANS collection database, MANTIS, ARCHER’s public interface includes faceted searching and mapping of the collection.
“The society’s archives contain a rich diversity of material,” noted Deputy Director Andrew Meadows. “On the one hand there are the society’s own archival records, spanning more than 150 years of our activity since 1858. As such, the archives is one of the oldest held by any learned society in the country.”
Meadow continued, “ARCHER provides a remarkably straightforward tool both for their cataloging, and for their search by the general public.”
The search interface is built on similar technology to the society’s MANTIS database. Simple faceted searching based on personal names, places, dates, genre and Library of Congress subject headings are all provided.
ARCHER also provides a map interface, which will allow users to visualize the places on the globe with relevant ANS archival material.
The database supports a variety of export formats that will encourage exploration of the links between numismatics and other disciplines.
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ARCHER uses a technical approach called “Linked Open Data,” intended to increase future opportunities both for the ANS to integrate searches across the whole range of its collections, such as books, coins, archives and also for the rest of the web to discover and link to ANS material.
For more information about ANS or ARCHER, contact Meadows at (212) 571-4470 ext. 111, email meadows@numismatics.org, or visit www.numismatics.org.
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