This page provides an overview of our project to upgrade the Online Archive of California (OAC) platform, with the goal of deploying the revamped system in June 2025. This will be a wholesale upgrade of the OAC public interface and targeted back-end improvements.

The OAC upgrade is motivated by the need to modernize the underlying infrastructure with current and well-supported technologies. At the same time, we are embracing this as an opportunity both to streamline finding aid submissions/publications processes and to ensure that the public interface meets web accessibility standards. Throughout this development and transition period, we intend to support seamless continuity of service for contributors and researchers alike.

Once this upgrade is complete, we will be positioned to make continual, incremental improvements to the service, including the submissions process and the public interface.

Please review this page for additional details. We will continue to provide updated information as our project progresses. We will also share regular updates through our contributor mailing list.

About the OAC system upgrade

Transition strategy

National Finding Aid Network (NAFAN) research project

About the OAC system upgrade

What is the timeline for the OAC upgrade?

We are planning to release a "Minimum Viable Product" (MVP) of the upgraded OAC system in June 2025. We intend to support seamless continuity of service with no downtime in functionality. This includes a migration of all published finding aids into the new system.

The MVP will be a production-level service that can be elaborated on and expanded in subsequent iterations. As part of our transition into the upgraded system before June 2025, we will share previews and welcome your feedback to help us improve the MVP.

What is the scope of the OAC upgrade?

Our goal with the upgrade is to modernize the OAC infrastructure. The high-level features and functions include:

An open and centralized public interface, providing discovery and access to finding aids and profiles of archival organizations across California

  • A modernized public interface that is mobile device-responsive and complies with Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) version 2.2.
  • Options to search and browse across all finding aids, search and browse finding aids limited to individual institutions, and search within individual finding aids.
  • Landing pages for individual institutions, including institution profile, contact information, and profile photo or logo.
  • Full and detailed finding aid displays, with options to add links to associated digital objects.
  • Integration of finding aids with Aeon, a researcher request management system.

"Self-serve" finding aid submission and publication process

  • Access to an updated OAC Contributor Dashboard, which you can use to manage information about your institution’s profile published in OAC and track information about the finding aids that you’ve published.
  • A more streamlined finding aid submission and publication process that you can use on a self-serve basis, accessible via the OAC Contributor Dashboard.
  • Support for multiple finding aid formats, including: Encoded Archival Description (EAD, Version 2002), MARC, and supplemental PDF finding aid formats.
  • Ongoing access to RecordEXPRESS via the OAC Contributor Dashboard – a simple web-based form that you can use to quickly and easily publish information about your collections, in the form of an EAD finding aid (and optionally, supplemental PDFs).

After the initial June 2025 cutover, we will prioritize and scope the implementation of additional features, such as:

  • Streamlined ArchivesSpace publication workflows: We will explore the implementation of an automated pipeline from contributors' ArchivesSpace platforms to OAC (e.g., using ArchivesSnake).
  • "Self-serve" sharing of finding aids with OCLC's ArchiveGrid: OAC's optional feature for sharing finding aids with OCLC's ArchiveGrid finding aid discovery service will be re-enabled after the June 2025 upgrade is completed.
  • Browse map: the current map of all OAC contributing institutions will not be included in the June launch, but will be re-assessed for possible later incorporation.

We will be discontinuing the following features after the June 2025 cutover:

  • Publication of digital objects (originally contributed in the METS format): OAC currently includes approximately 200,000 digital objects in the METS format, which are featured in the "Items" tab of search results. Many of these items are linked from finding aids. We will be in touch with contributors to discuss strategies to harvest directly from your locally-managed digital collections platforms, in order to refresh the item metadata with the most current version of record. See What is the transition plan for digital objects in OAC?

Why are you upgrading the OAC system?

OAC is running on technologies that are nearing obsolescence. The last major infrastructure update and redesign of the entire system was in 2008-2009.

OAC is substantially based on an open-source indexing and display platform called XTF (eXtensible Text Framework), which was originally developed in-house by the CDL but is no longer actively supported. The current upgrade will transition OAC from XTF to ArcLight, an open-source framework that is optimized for the indexing and presentation of EAD finding aids – and which has been implemented by other regional finding aid aggregators and individual archives. Once we are in the upgraded OAC system in June 2025, we will be better situated to make incremental changes over time, and incorporate new features based on the needs of your archive and your researchers.

What is ArcLight?

ArcLight is an open-source indexing and discovery system designed specifically for the presentation of finding aids, developed by Stanford Libraries with partner organizations. Connecticut's Archives Online (CAO) and Empire Archival Discovery Cooperative (EADC) are two reference models of ArcLight implementations within state/regional finding aid aggregation contexts.

ArcLight is built on the Blacklight code base, which is currently and actively maintained through community-based code contributions by Stanford University Libraries and other development partner institutions -- and stands as the most viable, tested, and durable replacement to the OAC’s current XTF system.

Transition strategy

What will change with the OAC system upgrade?

The upgraded OAC will provide a foundation for us to evolve the existing service, undergirded by a modernized infrastructure based on well-supported technologies:

  • Updated public interface: The ArcLight-based public interface will have the same branding and theming conventions as the current OAC, but the display of finding aids and search results will evolve in order to comply with web accessibility standards as well as support for mobile devices. (See What will finding aids look like on the new public interface?).
  • Streamlined submission and publication process: The upgraded OAC system will continue to support “self-serve” finding aid submission and publication workflows, but will be revamped to streamline and simplify processes.

OAC operations will continue to be supported by the same team at CDL, with the same support and helpdesk channels that you have been utilizing. We will be updating all supporting documentation on our contributor help center website, to support the transition to the upgraded OAC system in June 2025.

Please note that some features in the current OAC public interface will be discontinued in June 2025, namely the display of digital objects in the METS format (see What is the transition plan for digital objects in OAC?) and the browse map.

Do we need to do anything to prepare for the OAC upgrade?

Prior to the June 2025 cutover, we will be in touch with contributing partners to request your assistance with:

  • Creating your new user accounts: These user accounts will be used to access the updated OAC Contributor Dashboard.
  • Updating institution profiles: These institution profiles will display in the public interface, on new institution landing pages.
  • Reviewing finding aid validation errors: The new OAC system will launch with a snapshot of all published finding aids. In order to do so, CDL staff will run a bulk validation process on existing finding aids to check the EAD encoding. If any encoding issues are identified, we will provide each contributing partner with a report that summarizes errors that would result in a display issue in the public interface. We appreciate this as an opportunity to work with partners to improve the overall data quality of the OAC service.

We understand that the OAC upgrade will impact your internal documentation and public services guides. We will share previews and overviews of the workflow as soon as possible.

How will we submit and publish finding aids?

We will provide opportunities to preview the new finding aid submission and publication process as early as possible prior to the June 2025 cutover. Our aim is to streamline and simplify the process of contributing finding aids. After the June 2025 cutover, these processes will be accessible on a self-serve basis via an updated OAC Dashboard.

What will finding aids look like on the new public interface?

We are leveraging ArcLight’s display framework for presenting full finding aid views. This will include options to view the contents of a given finding aid with an associated table of contents panel to facilitate navigation of the information in the finding aid.

As with the current OAC and in order to provide researchers with a consistent user experience, we will continue to support a standardized finding aid display presentation for all finding aids.

When will we be able to view the new public interface?

We will provide a preview of the new public interface as early as possible prior to the June 2025 cutover, in tandem with overviews of the search and display functions that will be available with the new ArcLight-based system.

How can I provide feedback?

As we share previews of the new finding aid submission/publication process and new public interface prior to the June 2025 cutover, we welcome your feedback to help us improve the MVP. We will also be seeking your feedback -- as well as researcher feedback -- post-June 2025, to inform further improvements to the system.

What is the transition plan for digital objects in OAC?

The OAC currently includes approximately 200,000 digital objects in the METS (Metadata and Encoding Transmission Standard) format, which are featured in the "Items" tab of search results. These legacy OAC objects were created and published in OAC between 10–20 years ago, without a direct pathway for collection stewards to update or maintain the objects. The same set of legacy OAC objects are currently discoverable in Calisphere, which is the CDL’s service supporting digital collections discovery.

After June 2025, these legacy OAC objects will no longer be part of the OAC public interface. Discovery of these objects will continue to be supported by Calisphere. Please note that options to edit or update the metadata in the Calisphere records will be limited.

We will be in touch with contributors who have legacy OAC objects with details on our METS decommission strategy, which includes the following:

  • As many of these objects are linked within finding aids (example), we will bulk update the legacy OAC object links in your finding aids to instead point to their Calisphere versions. This will ensure that any published finding aids with links to legacy OAC objects do not break after the cutover.
  • We also welcome the opportunity to discuss establishing a harvesting pipeline with your locally-managed digital collections platform and coordinating on replacing legacy OAC objects with the most current version of record.
  • If desired, we can provide you with copies of the legacy OAC objects (metadata records and associated digital files).

National Finding Aid Network (NAFAN) research project

How does the OAC system upgrade relate to the national finding aid network research project?

For the past 5 years, we have been actively exploring the viability of a national-level finding aid network, which could supersede the OAC in scope, coverage, and function. The CDL is committed to facilitating the creation of a broad coalition, to continue towards realizing the vision of a national network. However, we anticipate that any development work to establish a national network is on a longer-term 5-year horizon. The current technology underpinning OAC is too outdated to keep in place for that amount of time. So, until a national network can be realized, we are committed to ensuring the ongoing support and maintenance of the OAC service as a California statewide aggregation.