Bill Fliss Marquette University April 8, 2010

 Encourages professional standardization of archival finding aids.  Uses SGML/XML language.  Defined by a Document Type Definition (DTD).  Two major elements: and.  is a sub-element of that describes a collection’s contents list.

CONTENT (EAD.xml file) PRESENTATION (.xslt stylesheet) OUTPUT XSLT Processor

 Lack of staff  Need to re-write finding aids  Difficulty delivering EAD to web Source: Sonia Yaco, “It’s Complicated: Barriers to EAD Implementation,” The American Archivist 71, no. 2 (2008):

CONTENT (EAD.xml file) PRESENTATION (.xslt stylesheet) OUTPUT ?

Add.xml file Option to use customized thumbnail in place of default:

Option to map EAD elements to DC collection fields

3 stylesheets (.xsl) Description description_default.xsl Container list contentslist_default.xsl Full finding aid fullfindingaid_default.xsl

Obstacles:  Knowledge of XSLT recommended  Must create finding aids one at a time  Difficult to edit Opportunities:  Turnkey solution to EAD publishing  Full-text searching with highlighted results  Allows embedded linking in container list