Encoded Archival Description EAD

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Encoded Archival Description (EAD)

• Dina M. Kellams
• Office of University Archives and Records
  Management
• Indiana University, Bloomington

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What is EAD?

• Encoded Archival Description
• Extensible Markup Language (XML)
• subset of Standard Generalized Markup Language
  (SGML)

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HTML vs. XML

• HTML is procedural
• ltcentergtltbgtDina Kellams paperslt/bgtlt/centergt
• XML is descriptive
• lttitlegtDina Kellams paperslt/titlegt

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What is a DTD?

• Document Type Definition
• A set of rules for encoding classes of documents
• A DTD names and defines all the elements
• A DTD specifies where and in what sequence
  elements may be used.

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EAD Structure

• EAD document can be divided into 2 segments
• 1st segment provides information about the
  finding aid itself and is split into 2 high-level
  elements
• lteadheadergt
• ltfrontmattergt

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EAD Structure

• lteadheadergt
• Wrapper element for bibliographic and descriptive
  information about the finding aid itself rather
  than the archival materials
• Four subelements available
• lteadidgt EAD Identifier (R)
• ltfiledescgt File Description (R)
• ltprofiledescgt Profile Description (O)
• ltrevisiondescgt Revision Description (O)

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EAD Structure

• ltfrontmattergt
• A wrapper element that focuses on the creation,
  publication, or use of the finding aid rather
  than information about the materials being
  described.

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EAD Structure

• Second segment of EAD docs provides information
  about the archival materials contained in a
  wrapper element called Archival Description
  ltarchdescgt

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ltarchdescgt
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Indiana University finding aids

• http//www.indiana.edu/libarch/Inst/165inst.html
• http//www.letrs.indiana.edu/web/f/findaid/

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Implementation considerations

• Will EAD enhance the repositorys mission and
  goals?
• Who is your audience?
• Money
• Time
• Staff expertise
• Workflow

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Implementation considerations

• Legacy finding aids
• Will you need or want to do major revisions?
• How many do you have?
• How are they currently used, how do you make them
  available to researchers?

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Implementation considerations

• What role do finding aids play in your reference
  system?
• Do MARC records and finding aids work together in
  an integrated process?

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Implementation Checklist

• http//www.loc.gov/ead/ag/agappd.html

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Benefits to your institution

• Standardization of finding aid content (even
  though EAD is not a content standard!)
• Can attract new funding sources

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Prioritization

• Which finding aids should be encoded first?
• Those collections used most often?
• Those for which the collections are stored
  off-site?
• Those with related digital collections?
• The finding aids with the least amount of
  revisions needed?

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EAD Documentation

• Tag Library for EAD2002
• http//www.loc.gov/ead/tglib/index.html
• Application Guidelines
• http//www.loc.gov/ead/ag/aghome.html
• EAD listserv
• http//www.loc.gov/ead/eadlist.html
• General EAD information
• http//www.loc.gov/ead/

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EAD Help

• http//www.archivists.org/saagroups/ead/
• Look to the Cookbook!!!
• Provides step-by-step guidelines on implementation