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Since the advent of the Internet, access to information about primary sources has improved. Archivists have been early adopters of Internet technologies, first mounting archival inventories on gophers, later employing HTML and most recently using XML, specifically Encoded Archival Description (EAD), to display finding aids online. Despite the transition from paper to electronic form, online finding aids retain much of the look and functionality of their paper counterparts and make only minimal use of available technologies, usually for browsing and searching. Document genres need to evolve in response to changing technological environments and social cultures.

New online collaborative technologies, such as filtering and recommender systems, allow for new methods of interacting with and experiencing primary sources. Using diverse metadata sources and drawing inspiration from social technologies used in websites such as Amazon and Wikipedia, the Next Generation Finding Aids research group at the University of Michigan has developed an archival access system that combines existing archival practice (EAD) with" Web 2.0" features, namely involving user input through social software and collaborative filtering. This article describes a pilot project to reenvision the display and functionality of archival inventories using the" Polar Bear Expedition Digital Collections" as a test collection [1].