FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Lisa Schiff
California Digital Library
University of California, Office of the President
415 20th St., 4th Floor
Oakland, CA 94612
(510) 987-0881
http://xtf.cdlib.org
California Digital Library Announces Release of XTF Version 3.1
Oakland, CA, August 6, 2012 - The California Digital Library (CDL) is pleased to announce the release of version 3.1 of
XTF (http://xtf.cdlib.org/), an open source, highly flexible software application that supports the search, browse and display of heterogeneous digital content. XTF provides efficient and practical methods for creating customized
end-user interfaces for distinct digital content collections and is used by institutions worldwide.
Major features in the 3.1 release include:
·
Improved schema handling for EAD finding aids. In addition to EAD 2002 DTD, XTF now provides support for search and display of:
o
EAD 2002 schema and EAD 2002 RelaxNG finding aids
o
Output from Archivists’ Toolkit and Archon
See the
3.1 change log (http://xtf.cdlib.org/documentation/changelog/#3.1) for further details.
XTF is a combination of Java and XSLT 2.0 that indexes, queries, and displays digital objects and is based on open source software (e.g. Lucene and Saxon). XTF can be downloaded from the
XTF website (http://xtf.cdlib.org/download/) or from the
XTF Project page on SourceForge (http://sourceforge.net/projects/xtf/), where the source code can also be found.
The XTF website also provides a
self-guided tutorial and a sample of the
default installation (http://xtf.cdlib.org:8080/xtf/search), demonstrating the capabilities of the tool out-of-the-box. Both of these resources provide a quick view of the capabilities of XTF prior to download.
Offering a suite of customizable features that support diverse intellectual access to content, XTF interfaces can be designed to support the distinct tools and presentations that are useful and meaningful to specific audiences. In addition,
XTF offers the following core features:
These basic features can be tuned and modified. For instance, the same bookbag feature that allows users to store links to entire books can also store links to citable elements of an object, such as a note or other
reference.
Examples of XTF-based applications both within and outside of the CDL include:
·
SNAC: The Social Networks and Archival Context Project (prototype) (http://socialarchive.iath.virginia.edu/xtf/search),
linking together descriptions of people from finding aids using the new standard Encoded Archival Context-Corporate Bodies, Persons, and Families (EAC-CPF), developed by
IATH, University of Virginia (http://socialarchive.iath.virginia.edu/staff.html#iath ), the CDL and the
UC Berkeley School of Information (http://socialarchive.iath.virginia.edu/staff.html#ucbsi).