Access to Archival Finding Aids: Context Matters

We detail the design of a search engine for archival finding aids based on an XML database system. The resulting system shows results--which can vary in granularity from individual archival items to the whole fonds--within the context of the archive. The presentation preserves the archival structure by providing important contextual information, and all individual results can be "clicked", warping the user to the full finding aid with the selected part in focus.