Basic Encoded Archival Description METRO New York Library Council Workshop Presented by Lara Nicosia December 9, 2011 New York, NY

What is EAD? Image Source: Syracuse University Special Collections Research Center

Timeline  1993 – University of California, Berkeley Started with SGML, FINDAID DTD (1995)  1995 – Finding Aids Conference  1996 – “Beta” version of EAD DTD (Sep)  1998 – EAD DTD 1.0 released  2002 – EAD DTD 2002  2013 – EAD DTD revision

What is EAD?  International standard  XML-based  Platform-neutral  Intellectual content, not presentation  Compatible with a variety of formats  Increased usability

Alphabet Soup Data Content What to include… Describing Archives: A Content Standard (DACS) International Standard for Archival Description (ISAD) FGDC-STD (geospatial metadata) ISO-999 (content, organization, and presentation of indexes) Data Values Prescribe specific terms… LCSH – subject headings LCNAF – personal and corporate names MeSH – subject headings AAT – genres and forms ISO – languages ISO-8601 – nominalized dates How it is expressed or stored… EAD – finding aids EAC – persons, corporations, families MARC – OPAC records METS – metadata for digital library objects MODS – bibliographic metadata Data Structure

Markup Language Basic Encoded Archival Description Metro NY Library Council Lara Nicosia Rochester Institute of Technology Basic Encoded Archival Description Metro NY Library Council Lara Nicosia Rochester Institute of Technology

Markup Language  XML = Extensible Markup Language  Tag structure: Elements and attributes ElementAttribute

Element Structure John Steinbeck ElementStart TagEnd Tag OR

Nesting Elements 2 linear feet

Basic Rules of XML  Elements must have a closing tag OR  Tags are case sensitive NOT  Elements must be nested properly  Attribute values must be quoted

Alphabet Soup Data Content What to include… Describing Archives: A Content Standard (DACS) International Standard for Archival Description (ISAD) FGDC-STD (geospatial metadata) ISO-999 (content, organization, and presentation of indexes) Data Values Prescribe specific terms… LCSH – subject headings LCNAF – personal and corporate names MeSH – subject headings AAT – genres and forms ISO – languages ISO-8601 – nominalized dates How it is expressed or stored… EAD – finding aids EAC – persons, corporations, families MARC – OPAC records METS – metadata for digital library objects MODS – bibliographic metadata Data Structure

Alphabet Soup DACS  Date ISO-8601  Normalize (i.e. 1910/1940) EAD  unitdate Smith, John DACS  Creator LCNAF  Controlled value (i.e. Smith, John) EAD  persname

Parts of an XML Document  Declaration  Version of XML  Document Type Declaration  Constraints of the document  Root element

Root Element -  Sole parent element of all other elements Contains all other elements  Can only be one instance per document  Must be present

Sample Document Structure all other tags…

Parts of an EAD Document  - Information about the finding aid (e.g data encoded, title, etc.)  - Information about the collection (e.g. scope, inventory, etc.) - collection-level description - detailed inventory of the contents (i.e. box, folder, or item-level description)

EAD Structure (finding aid) (collection) Access points such as subject headings Inventorty list of collection materials

 - unique code for EAD document (e.g. rit0001)  - wraps bibliographic information about finding aid - wraps information about finding aid title and author  - finding aid title (e.g. Guide to the Susan Bevier papers)

 - wraps core information about materials - caption/title for the finding aid section - party responsible for creation of collection - title of described materials - information about appearance of described materials (e.g. 2 linear feet) - body providing intellectual access - brief summary of described materials

Style Sheets  Determine presentation  Enhance readability  Display/hide information Check out some of the free style sheets available on the web!

Inventory List  Component, level 1 (c01) Level information (did)  Title of series (unittitle) Component, level 2 (c02)  Level information (did) Title of subseries (unittitle)  Component, level 3 (c03) Level of information (did)  Title of box, folder, materials(unittitle)  Date of materials (unitdate)  Container number (i.e. box, folder) (container)

Inventory List

Getting Started  Develop a plan  Start with what you already have  Use resources that are already available  Recruit talent  Establish a workflow

Sample Workflow

Maintaining a Standard  Establish Best Practice Guidelines  Create a detailed manual  Develop a template Use comments to add notes and document changes  Train other staff members Professional staff, paraprofessionals, interns, students, volunteers…