NBA Archon FAQ

* * * Please note: This page is under development! * * *

These are frequently asked questions about Archon at the Niels Bohr Archive ("NBA Archon").

This Page

Q. How did the page originate?

A. The page first consisted of answers to questions that users of NBA are perceived as most likely to ask.

Q. How will the page develop?

A. The goal of the page is to answer questions that users are actually asking. Please send your questions to nba@nbi.dk. We will then try to answer them either by answering you directly or, if the question is deemed of sufficient general interest or is asked by several users, to incorporate your question and the answer into this page. Only in this way will the page become a genuine FAQ.

Archon

Q. What is Archon?

A. Archon is a software developed specifically at the University of Illinois to handle and make available information about archival material. Click here for documentation.

Q. Why was Archon chosen?

A. Archon is an open source software recommended to us by trusted colleagues in the international scientific archives community. We are presently working with the originators to streamline the software for the specific needs of the Niels Bohr Archive. Comments on its functionality and suggestions for its improvement are encouraged.

Information about collections contained in NBA Archon

Q. How has information about archival collections already previously available at the NBA website been handled?

A. Information about our archival material was previously available on our website only at the collection level. All this information has been moved to Archon. As a temporary measure the original list of collections has been retained outside Archon, in each case with links to the collection information inside Archon. One of our future projects is to establish this list within Archon itself.

Q. To what extent are Finding Aids to individual collections now available in NBA Archon?

A. Over the last several years detailed Finding Aids have been developed at the NBA in a variety of formats for staff purposes. As part of a pilot digitization project supported by means from the Danish National Lottery, Finding Aids originally in electronic form have been manipulated so as to make them compatible with the format of Archon. As a result, information about some of our most important collections -- such as the Bohr Scientific Correspondence (which exist on microfilm), a substantial supplement to this collection, the Bohr Private Correspondence and the George Hevesy Scientific Correspondence -- is now available in Archon on the document level. Since this information was originally made for internal use and since errors may furthermore have been introduced in the transfer to Archon, a substantial proof-reading effort remains. Nevertheless, it there can be no doubt that already in its present form the information will be of great use to researchers. We will be grateful to learn about whatever errors researchers may find.

Q. Which collections will be provided with Finding Aids in the future?

A. The answer to this question depends on two things: whether we can obtain funding for the work and special requests from users of the collections. To the extent that existing resources allow, we will add to Archon the remaining Finding Aids that were created previously for internal use.

Archival documents available via NBA Archon

Q. Which archival documents can now be seen in Archon?

A. The major part of the already mentioned pilot project consisted of digitizing original archival material, both for safety purposes and for making the material available to researchers directly through Archon. Since tape recordings and films were more in danger of destruction than paper, the Niels Bohr Film Collection, the Niels Bohr Sound Recordings of Lectures and Interviews and Niels Bohr on Danish Radio were chosen for digitization under the pilot project. In addition, the relatively small collection of the Niels Bohr Political Papers, which has proved of special interest to historians, was chosen as a test case for paper collections. The archival content of all these collections is now available in Archon.

Q. Which documents will be added in the future?

A. Since digitization is a work-intensive process, relatively substantial economic support is required and priorities must be made carefully. For the time being, the NBA has no special support for the purpose, and digitization can be conducted only to the extent that existing resources allow. Since our most used document collection, the Bohr Scientific Correspondence, is available on microfilm in several repositories around the world, we have deemed that the Bohr Private Correspondence and the supplement to the Bohr Scientific Correspondence have highest priority. In addition, to the extent that we can manage, we digitize documents and make them available via Archon on the request of researchers.

Q. Who have access to the archival documents in NBA Archon?

A. Whereas information about our collections is entirely open on all levels, only bona fide scholars with well-defined historical projects can access the archival material itself. Such access is obtained upon approval of an application form, which is filled out and returned to the NBA by regular mail.

Q. How are the documents digitized?

A. Paper documents are first scanned as high-quality tiff-files, which are kept on harddisk in a safe place. These files are modified to low-resolution pdf files, most often in black-and-white, to render the best possible readability. Only when absolutely necessary have pdf files been rendered in gray-scale or color. It is these pdf files that are made available in Archon. Sound and film have likewise been digitized to harddisk in high resolution and are available in Archon in lower quality.

Finding around in NBA Archon

The following questions pertains to finding around in Archon without the special search option, which is described in the followign section.

Q. How do I find a particular collection in NBA Archon?

A. For the time being, the easiest way is to link from the list of collections, which is presently placed outside Archon. Alternatively, one can choose the "Collections" option within Archon itself. This provides an alphabet, in which you can click on any of the letters, thus seeing in each case the names of which collections start with this particular letter. This is inconvenient, as the name of a collection may not be self-evident. One of our future projects is to replace the alphabet with the list of collections that is now outside Archon.

Q. How do I find a particular archival document in NBA Archon?

A. An archival document can best be found either by means of the search function (see below) or in the finding aid of the collection in which the document is expected to be. The Digital Content option should not be used, as the names of the documents supplied with this option have no obvious reference to the documents themselves and as the number of digitized documents are simply too many. The use of the Digital Content option will be omitted in future versions of NBA Archon.

Q. Are the collections indexed?

A. All collections are indexed, but only on the collection level. Therefore, the functionality of the Subjects option is limited, and in most cases it may be more useful to employ the search option (see below) instead.

Q. How can I learn about the creator of one or more collections?

A. A brief biography of a creator can always be seen in the main information of the relevant collection. The creators are also listed separately, and can be accessed by means of the Creators option in Archon. Here again one only obtains an alphabet and is compelled to guess the first letter of the name of a given creator. In future versions of NBA Archon, we expect to replace the alphabet with a full list of the creators.

Q. Are the collections organized by types (e.g., paper, sound, etc)?

A. Yes, they are, and this may be the most convenient way of searching for collections within Archon itself. Browsing by Record Group gives access to all collections according to a predefined system of categories.

The Search Option

The following questions and answers refer to use of Archon's specific search function (on the top left of every page), which allows the user to search for metadata in the database.

Q. What is searched for when I enter a single term?

A. The search engine looks for terms containing or consisting of the combination of letters submitted.

Q. What is searched for when I enter more than one term?

A. The search engine looks for records containing all letter combinations you submit.

Q. How do I search for an exact phrase containing more than one term?

A. Enclose the phrase in quotation marks.

Q. How do I search for a result not containing a specific term or phrase?

A. Use a minus sign before it (e.g. 'Bohr -Niels' finds all Bohrs except Niels Bohr (assuming that the first name is explicitly provided).

Q. Can I otherwise limit my search?

A. You can limit your searches to specific collections, subjects, creators or classifications.