- Navigate to the finding aids website.
- Click on the finding aid in question, and then view source. Save this xml as a txt file in your Python folder.
- Run the following Python script on the txt file you just saved, making sure to first edit the file name in the first line of the script to match the file name of your text file:
Expand to see scriptf = open('findingaid.txt','r', encoding='utf-8')
lines = f.readlines()
f.close()
item=""
newItem=False
titles = []
callnos = []
dates = []
descs = []
#extents = []
#watermarks = []
start=0
end=0
i=0
for line in lines:
if "<c" and "level=\"item\"" in line:
newItem=True
elif "</c>" in line:
newItem=False
if newItem==True:
item=item+line
elif newItem==False and len(item)>0:
#get title
start=item.find("<unittitle>")
if start != -1:
start+=11
end=item.find("</unittitle>")
title=item[start:end]
title=title.replace("<persname>","")
title=title.replace("</persname>","")
title=title.replace("<famname>","")
title=title.replace("</famname>","")
title=title.replace("<corpname>","")
title=title.replace("</corpname>","")
title=title.replace("<p>","")
title=title.replace("</p>","")
title=title.replace("<title render=\"italic\">","")
title=title.replace("</title>","")
title=' '.join(title.split())
titles.append(title)
else:
titles.append("null")
start=0
end=0
#get callno
start=item.find("<unitid>")
if start != -1:
start+=8
end=item.find("</unitid>")
callno=item[start:end]
callnos.append(callno)
else:
callnos.append("null")
start=0
end=0
#get date
start=item.find("<unitdate>")
if start != -1:
start+=10
end=item.find("</unitdate>")
date=item[start:end]
dates.append(date)
else:
dates.append("null")
start=0
end=0
#get extents
#start=item.find("<extent>")
#if start != -1:
#start+=8
#end=item.find("</extent>")
#extent=item[start:end]
#extents.append(extent)
#else:
#extents.append("null")
#start=0
#end=0
#get watermarks
#start=item.find("<physfacet>")
#if start != -1:
# start+=11
# end=item.find("</physfacet>")
# watermark=item[start:end]
# watermarks.append(watermark)
#else:
# watermarks.append("null")
#start=0
#end=0
#minimize to just scope contents note; get descs
start=item.find("<scopecontent")
if start != -1:
item=item[start:]
start=0
start=item.find("<p>")
if start != -1:
start+=3
end=item.find("</scopecontent>")
item=item[start:end]
item=item.strip()
item=item.replace("</p>","")
item=item.replace("<p>"," ")
desc=' '.join(item.split())
desc=desc.replace("<persname>","")
desc=desc.replace("</persname>","")
desc=desc.replace("<famname>","")
desc=desc.replace("</famname>","")
desc=desc.replace("<corpname>","")
desc=desc.replace("</corpname>","")
''.join(desc.splitlines())
descs.append(desc)
else:
descs.append("null")
else:
descs.append("null")
start=0
end=0
item=""
titlefile = open('FAtitles.txt','w', encoding='utf-8')
callnofile = open('FAcallnos.txt','w', encoding='utf-8')
datefile = open('FAdates.txt','w', encoding='utf-8')
descfile = open('FAdescs.txt','w', encoding='utf-8')
#extentfile = open('FAextents.txt','w', encoding='utf-8')
#watermarkfile = open('FAwatermarks.txt','w', encoding='utf-8')
for title in titles:
titlefile.write("%s\n" % title)
for callno in callnos:
callnofile.write("%s\n" % callno)
for date in dates:
datefile.write("%s\n" % date)
for desc in descs:
descfile.write("%s\n" % desc)
#for extent in extents:
#extentfile.write("%s\n" % extent)
- After running this script, you will find 4 text files in your Python folder: FAcallnos.txt, FAdates.txt, FAdescs.txt, and FAtitles.txt; these text files contain the extracted finding aid metadata, and will be used in the following step.