EAD Workshop readings
Susan von Salis and Kim Brookes or Melanie Wisner
Required
Please read all of the following papers:
Compare two versions of the Mildred Aldrich finding aid
from the Schlesinger Library
Read the Overview
of the EAD Structure paying special attention to the
tags used in the Aldrich finding aid in order to gain an
understanding of the structure of the DTD. Follow the links
to the various "figures," especially Figure 1 and Figure 3.
If you're curious about what the tags mean, look them up
(alphabetically) in the Tag Library.
If you wish to obtain a paper copy of the tag library to bring to the workshop, you may
purchase it directly from the Society
of American Archivists.
Visit one of these two sites:
Both of these web sites offer SGML-based searching. One
delivers in HTML, the other uses a proprietary delivery
system called DynaWeb.
Harvard Workshop Only:
Familiarize yourself with the Office
for Information Systems OASIS web site, including the
links in the lefthand navigation bar. Explore the OASIS
web site: try searching for and viewing finding aids at
Harvard that have been marked up using EAD.
Optional
Readings
- Kelcy Shepherd, "Five College Archives & Manuscript Collections: Building a Dynamic, Searchable Web Site of EAD Finding Aids" (PDF), Around and About, NEA Newsletter, January 2004, describes technical issues evaluated by the Five Colleges project, including XML vs. SGML, commercial vs. open source software, etc.
- Richard Higgins, "Standardised
Languages for Data Exchange and Storage: The Encoded
Archival Description: using SGML to create permanent
electronic handlists," contains an excellent
decription of the concerns that led to the development of
EAD and a thorough introduction to SGML and its use for
archival description.
- Edward Gaynor, "From
MARC to Markup: SGML and Online Library Systems," is
another introduction to SGML, including an overview of
the Text Encoding Initiative (TEI) and other uses for
SGML, and a good analysis of how SGML provides solutions
to problems MARC can't fix.
- For the differences between SGML and XML in terms of EAD, see "Introduction to XML," by Daniel V. Pitti
- Whether you already have EAD finding aids on paper, or you're just starting to create them, we recommend taking a look at Elizabeth Dow's Creating EAD-Compatible Finding Guides on Paper (2005). Dow's intention is to help repositories that don't yet have the resources to mount an EAD project by guiding them through the process of creating finding aids that will be easily transferable to EAD if and when the time comes. But the book is a boon to any archivist; including long-time EAD users. It is available from the Society of American Archivists or directly from Scarecrow Press.
Suggested surfing
If you are interested in seeing some EAD web sites,
follow the links available on these pages:
Other Tools: