From the “about” page:
The Einstein Archives Online Website provides the first online access to Albert Einstein’s scientific and non-scientific manuscripts held by the Albert Einstein Archives at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, constituting the material record of one of the most influential intellects in the modern era. It also enables access to the Einstein Archive Database, a comprehensive source of information on all items in the Albert Einstein Archives.
DIGITIZED MANUSCRIPTS
From 2003 to 2011, the site included approximately 3,000 high-quality digitized images of Einstein’s writings. This digitization of more than 900 documents written by Einstein was made possible by generous grants from the David and Fela Shapell family of Los Angeles. As of 2012, the site will enable free viewing and browsing of approximatelly 7,000 high-quality digitized images of Einstein’s writings. The digitization of close to 2,000 documents written by Einstein was produced by the Albert Einstein Archives Digitization Project and was made possible by the generous contribution of the Polonsky foundation. The digitization project will continue throughout 2012.
FINDING AID
The site enables access to the online version of the Albert Einstein Archives Finding Aid, a comprehensive description of the entire repository of Albert Einstein’s personal papers held at the Hebrew University. The Finding Aid, presented in Encoded Archival Description (EAD) format, provides the following information on the Einstein Archives: its identity, context, content, structure, conditions of access and use. It also contains a list of the folders in the Archives which will enable access to the Archival Database and to the Digitized Manuscripts.
ARCHIVAL DATABASE
From 2003 to 2011, the Archival Database included approximately 43,000 records of Einstein and Einstein-related documents. Supplementary archival holdings and databases pertaining to Einstein documents have been established at both the Einstein Papers Project and the Albert Einstein
Archives for scholarly research. As of 2012 the Archival Database allows direct access to all 80,000 records of Einstein and Einstein-related documents in the original and the supplementary archive. The records published in this online version pertain to Albert Einstein’s scientific and non-scientific writings, his professional and personal correspondence, notebooks, travel diaries, personal documents, and third-party items contained in both the original collection of Einstein’s personal papers and in the supplementary archive.
Unless you are a professional archivist, I suspect you will want to start with the Gallery. Which for some UI design reason appears at the bottom of the homepage in small type. (Hint: It really should be a logo at top left, to interest the average visitor.)
When you do reach mss. images, the zoom/navigation is quite responsive, although a slightly larger image to clue the reader in on location would be better. In fact, one that is readable and yet subject to zoom would be ideal.
Another improvement would be to display a URL to allow exchange of links to particular images, along with X/Y coordinates to the images. As presented, every reader has to re-find information in images for themselves.
Archiving material is good. Digital archives that enable wider access is better. Being able to reliably point into digital archives for commentary, comparison and other purposes is great.