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Making Content Available in the Portal

This page provides instructions to expose member content in the portal, including metadata and digital content.  It is a work-in-progress and will be updated as new strategies for ingesting various forms of member content are identified.

1. Metadata Records

1.1 Making MARC and EAD Records Available in the Portal: Steps in the Process

The Catholic Portal is comprised of relevant metadata records from its members. Members send their metadata to CRRA using secure FTP, allowing records to be added to the Portal. The steps below describe the process for members to identify and make metadata records destined for the Portal available for harvesting by the CRRA.

Please note: MarcEdit is a freely available, easy to use, metadata  editing software suite used primarily to create and manipulate MARC records. Institutions who do not subscribe to OCLC services may find MarcEdit to be a simple solution to create MARC records and share them via the CRRA's Catholic Portal and other discovery systems.

Learn more about MarcEdit and download a free copy.

1.2 How to Make MARC and EAD Files Available

At its core, the "Portal" is an index -- a list of pointers to content items. After members share their MARC records and/or EAD files, it is easy to harvest the metadata, integrate it into the Portal's index, and provide access to the content items. The balance of this document describes how to make MARC and EAD files available for harvesting.

1.3 Creating EAD Records Using the CRRA EAD Template

This Windows program will allow you to generate a minimal EAD finding aid that can be uploaded locally and/or to the Catholic Portal. 

2. Digital Content

2.1 Making CONTENTdm Collections Available for Harvesting

Describes and demonstrates the steps to making CONTENTdm collections available for harvesting to the Portal. Processes may vary from institution to institution.