The Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies aims to foster an appreciation of mountain culture by preserving, providing access to, exhibiting and interpreting materials related to the mountain cultural and heritage of Western Canada. Their collections include:

An Art Collection that spans the early 1800's to the present day and includes regionally created and related works by Canadian and international artists.

A Heritage Collection of artifacts that help tell the stories of Indigenous Peoples, artists, immigrants, guides and outfitters, climbers, surveyors, hikers, explorers, adventurers, skiers and residents of the town and area.

An Archives of over 800 fonds with approximately 350 metres of textual records, more than 700,000 photographs, and over 1,500 sound recordings, motion pictures and videos. Dating from the mid-19th century to the 21st century, these records document not only the people who created them, but also the broader social, political, and economic history of the Canadian Rocky Mountains.

A Library of over 8,500 books, rare maps, periodicals and newsletters film documentaries, clipping files, and complete collections of newspapers from Banff and Canmore. Since 1971, the Archives and Library has also been the custodian of the Alpine Club of Canada Library, which contains over 4,000 books and periodicals documenting the mountain cultures of the world from the mid-1600s to current.

This wealth of resources is available for online searching at https://archives.whyte.org and powered by our Andornot Discovery Interface. The sophisticated algorithms and relevancy-ranked results in the search engine help users quickly find items of interest from the almost 100,000 records in the site.

Unique to this site is a quick and easy online ordering system that allows users to order images for personal or commercial use and pay online instantly by PayPal, with high resolution images supplied by the museum for specific needs.

Underlying this site are databases managed with both Filemaker and Inmagic DB/TextWorks, the latter with our Starter Kits for Libraries and Archives for a consistent interface and fields across several databases.

Andornot has hosted the Canadian Jewish Heritage Network website and search engine since its inception in 2011. CJHN brings together archival and genealogical resources from seven Jewish archives across Canada, in a single, easy to use search engine. Both archival and genealogical resources searchable together, despite each having quite different data schemas and fields.

CJHN was one of the first sites to use our Andornot Discovery Interface (AnDI), and one of our first mobile-friendly sites too, but has just been upgraded to the latest version of AnDI. Some of the key aspects of the site include:

• Sophisticated search options with relevancy-scores results of 145,000 records.
• Over 20,000 photographs available in traditional list views as well as a gallery style display.
• An embedded YouTube video player allows streaming of the site’s 73 audio and video recordings.
• A bilingual English-French interface expands access.
• While searching, users can add items to a temporary list, then email, save or print the list, as well as submit a request for more information about any of the items in the list directly to any one of the individual member repositories.

The 2019 upgrade eliminated a separate Umbraco-powered content management system and frames-based embedding of search results in favour of a single web application (AnDI) with a small number of static content pages to describe the site and its contents and partners.

"We are thrilled with the new face of cjhn.ca. Everyone who has used it since the re-launch comments on how refreshed and clear it looks. The staff at the Canadian Jewish Archives, and all our actively contributing site partners are very pleased with the new interface's enhanced navigation features and the way that mobile access has been improved across all platforms. Getting rid of the frames-based structure is a particularly notable asset, as we no longer have to expect our users to rappel up a pair of ever-receding scroll bars in order to reach the top of a page and move to the next. We love the colours, too!"

— Janice Rosen, Archives Director, Alex Dworkin Canadian Jewish Archives

Earlier Andornot Blog Posts about CJHN

Canadian Jewish Heritage Network Launches

Canadian Jewish Heritage Network Launches Enhanced Search and Mobile Interface

Canadian Jewish Heritage Network Now Offering a Single Search Across Multiple Data Sources

The California State Railroad Museum (CSRM) offers researchers, rail fans and the public a search interface to its many separate collections using the Andornot Discovery Interface, at https://csrm.andornot.com

The collections include historic photographs, railroad menus, employee timetables, maps and technical drawings, books and other publications, archival finding aids, and more.

CSRM previously had a separate search interface to each database, without features users have come to expect, such as spelling corrections, search suggestions, and relevancy-ranked results. Now users can search the combined collection and find related records across all these sources with ease.

Search results are presented in both a list view for quick scanning of metadata and a gallery view (shown above) for a more visual appearance, with the option to expand records for complete information, stream videos, open PDFs with search words pre-highlighted, save and share records on social media, and other features that make the site a pleasure to use.

Behind the scenes, most of the data is managed in a series of Inmagic DB/TextWorks databases. CSRM creates archival finding aids  which are contributed to the Online Archive of California, and their audio visual materials are uploaded to the Internet Archive. Andornot developed procedures to regularly harvest resources from these two sources, as well as to index the contents of the DB/TextWorks databases.

The graphic design of the site uses the standard layout of the Andornot Discovery Interface, customized to match the main CSRM website for a seamless transition from one to the other.

The site is hosted by Andornot as part of our Managed Hosting Service.

The Canadian Lesbian and Gay Archives has both a new name, the ArQuives, and a new search engine for their collections, at https://arquives.andornot.com

Since 1973, The ArQuives has been acquiring and preserving material documenting LGBTQ2+ history. They provide public access to information and materials, in any medium, by and about LGBTQ2+ people, primarily produced in or concerning Canada.

Last year the ArQuives approached Andornot to work with them on a grant application to improve their 15 separate databases and create a public search interface. There was no consistency in field naming, and most of the databases only had basic query and edit screens and no reports.

A major concern for staff was that the records should eventually conform to appropriate descriptive standards for each type of material. After analysing the databases we were able to consolidate the 15 databases into 7, with the bulk of the records being added to the descriptions database from our Andornot Starter Kit for Archives.

Creating a public digital space was an important goal for The ArQuives team, as they work toward making their collection as accessible as possible to LGBTQ2+ communities throughout Canada and internationally.

To meet this goal, Andornot developed and hosts an instance of our Andornot Discovery Interface for the ArQuives, featuring their extensive library, archive, and artifact collections. Books, periodicals, audio and visual collections, posters, photographs, artwork, artifacts, personal, and organizational records are all available online to inspire and inform.

Features such as spelling corrections, relevancy-ranked results and the ability to quickly narrow results by Name, Place, Material Type, Decade, Archival Description Level and other key facets help users find resources quickly. The nearly 4,000 images of artifacts, artworks, book covers, buttons and more add visual appeal to the site, as well as quickly illustrate archival holdings.

More Information

The ArQuives has more information on this project from their perspective in this news post on their website. After reading that, be sure to check out our various blog posts discussing options for cleaning up your databases or ask us to help you.

Learn more about Andornot's solutions for Archives and Museums, our Andornot Discovery Interface search engine, and our managed hosting service, then contact us to discuss your project!

The Galt Museum and Archives in Lethbridge, Alberta has launched a new search engine for their cultural collections at https://collections.galtmuseum.com 

This new site is powered by our Andornot Discovery Interface. This modern search engine provides features that users have come to expect, including spelling corrections, "did you mean" search suggestions, results ranked by relevancy, and facets to help narrow down the results further, such as by name, topic and date.

Previously, users were only able to search the archives, museum artifacts and library collections through three separate searches. Now, with the Andornot Discovery Interface, researchers can search all materials at once and discover related records quickly and easily. Over eighty percent of the resources in the site include photographs, especially of artifacts in the museum, making for a visually engaging experience researching the history of Lethbridge and surrounding area.

Once results are found, a user can save them for later review, share them on Pinterest, Google+ and other social media, or request more information from the museum and archives.

The graphic design of the site was adapted from the fonts, colours and layout of the main museum website, for a seamless transition between the two. The bright colours add to the fun factor when using the site, without detracting from the resources and the many historic photos in search results.

Like many museums and archives, the Galt has for many years managed their collections with Inmagic software. A series of DB/TextWorks databases continue to be home to metadata about the archives, museum artifacts, and a small library. The museum is running the latest version, so has access to many new features, but still within the familiar and easy-to-use interface they are used to.

"This is a big step forward in terms of both appeal and usability, and the integrated search -- across archives, collections and library databases -- is the feature that we long wished for."

Andrew Chernevych
Archivist, Galt Museum & Archives

Contact Andornot to discuss options for better management and searching of your cultural collections.