ABSTRACT
This article highlights the California Cultures Project as a case study examining the architecture and framework required to support the deployment of digital objects as virtual collections at the California Digital Library. Chronologically arranged, it describes the Online Archive of California (OAC) Working Group’s functional requirements for access to digital objects independent of parent finding aids, and the development and implementation of infrastructures supporting this vision. Discussion includes project organization and content selection 46for digitization, Web site service vision for K-12 teacher target audience, best practices for encoding, data standards, lesson plans, metadata requirements, METS creation tools, project manuals, repositories, search engines, tools enabling customizable interfaces, user assessment, and usability testing. doi:10.1300/J201v04n01_04 [Article copies available for a fee from The Haworth Document Delivery Service: 1-800-HAWORTH. E-mail address: <docdelivery@haworthpress.com> Website: <https://www.HaworthPress.com> © 2006 by The Haworth Press, Inc. All rights reserved.]
