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

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

3. 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

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

5. Alphabet Soup Data Content What to include… Describing Archives: A Content Standard (DACS) International Standard for Archival Description (ISAD) FGDC-STD-001-199 (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-639.2 – 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

6. Markup Language Basic Encoded Archival Description Metro NY Library Council Lara Nicosia Rochester Institute of Technology ldnwml@rit.edu Basic Encoded Archival Description Metro NY Library Council Lara Nicosia Rochester Institute of Technology ldnwml@rit.edu

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

8. Element Structure John Steinbeck ElementStart TagEnd Tag OR

9. Nesting Elements 2 linear feet

10. 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

11. Alphabet Soup Data Content What to include… Describing Archives: A Content Standard (DACS) International Standard for Archival Description (ISAD) FGDC-STD-001-199 (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-639.2 – 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

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

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

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

15. Sample Document Structure all other tags…

16. 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)

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

18.  - 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)

19.  - 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

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

21. 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)

22. Inventory List

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

24. Sample Workflow

25. 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…