Overview of the evolution of U.S. standards for archival description, including NISTF work, NUCMC, MARC-AMC, APPM, EAD, DACS, EAC, and the Social Networks and Archival Description project.

1. EAD and the evolution
of standards for
archival description
Jackie Dooley
Program Officer
OCLC Research
Central Ohio ASIS&T
18 October 2011

2. Why is EAD important?
For the first time, a standard set
of data elements was defined for
describing archival materials.
… and this is what has made everything else possible.
EAD and the evolution of standards for archival description, CO-ASIS&T, 18 October 2011 2

3. Timeline
The olden days pre-1983
NUCMC 1959
NISTF1977
Catalog record structure (MARC) 1983 <-------
Content rules (APPM) 1983
Long pause …..
Finding aid record structure (EAD) 1998
New content rules (DACS) 2004
Authority record structure (EAC) 2010
Authority record prototype (SNAC) 2011
Integrated archival systems!! ????
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4. The olden days: Pre-1983
Special features!
• No standard data elements
• No formatting conventions
• No authority files
• No tracking of added entries
• Subject headings home-grown, if any
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5. The olden days: Pre-1983
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6. The olden days: Still good enough?
or,
Why catalog it
when you can just Google it?
“Fortunately, many of the resources still described only in the
Manuscript Card Catalog are so well known …that even
researchers who have never been here can track us down
fairly easily, especially in the Web era. If someone, for
example, were to Google “Israel Shipman Pelton Lord,” the
searcher is led to the book and [the] introduction points a
reader in turn to us.”
--Source withheld
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7. The olden days: Pre-1983
Libraries surveyed: 275
Rate of response: 61% (169)
Five membership organizations
• Association of Research Libraries
• Canadian Association of Research Libraries
• Independent Research Libraries Association
• Oberlin Group
• RLG Partnership
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8. The olden days: Metamorphosis to EAD
The McDougall correspondence, recently cataloged in MARC within
the parent archival collection.
Alexander McDougall papers, 1756-1795 (bulk 1776-1782).
Edition/Format: Archival material : English
Summary: Correspondence and papers, 1756-1795. Most of the
collection dates from the Revolutionary War, and includes
muster rolls, pay rolls, and morning reports, as well as
correspondence, accounts, and miscellaneous papers. The
material pertains to such matters as the activities of the Sons of
Liberty and Committees of Correspondence in New York …
--partial record from Worldcat.org
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9. National Union Catalog of Manuscript
Collections (NUCMC)
• Library of Congress
• First “union catalog” of mss/archival materials
• Any library/archive could contribute
• Publication history
• 1959-ongoing
• Printed volumes, 1959-1985
• RLG Union Catalog, 1983-2006
• WorldCat,1993-ongoing
• Record structure
• Remarkably like a library catalog record …
• Contributors are now only those who can’t do for
themselves
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10. NUCMC
• Library of Congress
• First “union catalog” of mss/archival materials
• Any library/archive could contribute
• Publication history
• 1959-ongoing
• Printed volumes, 1959-1985
• RLG Union Catalog, 1986-1993
• WorldCat,1993-ongoing
• Record structure
• Remarkably like a library catalog record …
• Contributors are now only those who can’t do for
themselves
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11. NUCMC
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12. National Information Standards Task Force
(NISTF)
Society of American Archivists, 1977
“Examine the issues surrounding … which
national information system (automated or not)
to support. The two most likely candidates were
NUCMC and the NHPRC's National Guide Project.
NISTF … [focused] its energies on creating the
'preconditions' for archival information
exchange.”
--from SAA Glossary
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13. Catalog Record Structure: MARC-AMC
• NISTF recommended development of an archival
component of MARC based on common data
elements identified by NISTF
• Tip of the hat to Elaine Engst, Cornell
• MARC-AMC launched in 1983
• So, what was MARC-AMC?
• A format for finding aids!
• A format for authority records!
• A format for “catalog records”? (Um, wait,
librarians make those, not archivists …)
• Central role played by RLG
• Where was OCLC? (d.o.a.)
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14. Content rules: Archives, Personal Papers
and Manuscripts (APPM)
• First content standard (“cataloging rules”) for archives
and manuscripts (i.e., AACR2 equivalent), 1983
• Author: Steve Hensen, Manuscripts Division, LC
• Developed simultaneously with MARC-AMC
• A bow to library cataloging, but many specifics for
archives/manuscripts, such as:
• Archival finding aid is “chief source of information,” but
the the record describes the collection
• No brackets for supplied data
• Dates as part of title
• Numerous narrative notes for context and description
(matched in MARC-AMC)
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15. Finding aid structure
Encoded Archival
Description (EAD)
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16. Encoded Archival Description (EAD)
First data structure for archival finding aids
• Data elements determined and defined
• Hierarchical relationships among elements
• Originally written in SGML, soon converted to XML
• Good crosswalking with MARC, DC, ISAD(G)
• Widely adopted internationally (U.S., U.K., Europe, Australia)
Who owns it?
• Society of American Archivists
• Library of Congress maintains website with all documentation
• EAD Working Group has international membership
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17. Encoded Archival Description (EAD)
Development timeline
• Began as UC Berkeley research project led by Daniel Pitti, 1993
• Commitment to develop community standard, 1994
• Mellon Research Fellowship at Univ of Michigan, 1995
• Version 1.0, 1998
• SAA EAD working group established, 1998
• Adopted as SAA standard, 1999
• Version 2002
• Schema published, 2011
Some continuing criticisms
• Too complicated
• Doesn’t improve discovery
• HTML is good enough
• No authorities component
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18. EAD and the evolution of standards for archival description, CO-ASIS&T, 18 October 2011 18

19. EAD: Basic structure and semantics
<ead>
<eadheader> describes the finding aid itself
<frontmatter> material for formally publishing finding aid
<archdesc> the description of the archival unit
</ead>
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20. EAD: Basic elements of description
<did> brief description of unit
<abstract>
<container>
<langmaterial>
<matspec>
<note>
<origination>
<physdesc>
<repository>
<unitdate>
<unitid>
<unitloc>
<unittitle>
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21. EAD: Selected free-text elements
<archdesc>
…
<accessrestrict>
<accruals>
<acqinfo>
<arrangement>
<bioghist>
<prefercite>
<relatedmaterials>
<repository>
<scopecontent>
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22. EAD: Formal access points
<controlaccess>
<corpname>
<famname>
<geogname>
<function>
<occupation>
<persname>
<subject>
<genreform>
<title>
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23. Encoded Archival Description (EAD)
Some characteristics of archival finding aids that complicate
effective discovery
• Lack of authority control of headings
• Names: too many names, too little time
• Subjects: controlled-access terms often lacking
• Description of materials at widely varying levels
• E.g., “Correspondence, A-F”
Revision (currently underway)
• Increase granularity? Or decrease it?
• Eliminate little-used elements and other features?
• Contact: <michael.rush@yale.edu>
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24. EAD-based discovery systems
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25. EAD-based discovery systems
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26. New content standard: Describing
Archives: A Content Standard (DACS)
• Published in 2004 to replace APPM
• Core concept: Multi-level description
• Intended for archival materials in any format
• Used in the U.S. only; our national standard
• Fully compatible with ISAD-G (international standard
archival description)
• Minor changes to APPM data elements
• Matches EAD elements where relevant
• Output-independent: MARC, EAD, &c.
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27. “Bibliographic records” + authority
records
= a catalog
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29. Encoded Archival Content (EAC-CPF)
• Standard for encoding archival authority
records for corporate, personal, and family
names
• Authorized name heading and
biographical/historical context for the entity
• Enables more economical description (DACS/EAD)
• Foundation for cooperative archival authority
control and system (EAD + EAC)
• Developed and maintained by an international
working group under auspices of Society of
American Archivists
• Website and schemas hosted by StaatsbibliothekZu
Berlin
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30. EAC design principles (selected)
• Archival context information [describes] circumstances under
which records … have been created and used … includes
identification and characteristics of the persons, organizations,
and families who have been the creators, users, or subjects of
records, as well as the relationships amongst them.
• … is not metadata that describes other information resources, but
information that describes entities that are part of the
environment in which [materials] have existed.
• … also can have value as an independent information resource.
• … has traditionally been embedded in catalog records, finding
aids, and other archival descriptive tools.
• The model supports the linking of descriptions of contextual entities
to digital or other surrogate representations of those entities.
Excerpted from: Toronto archival context meeting, 2001
http://www.library.yale.edu/eac/torontotenets.htm
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31. Encoded Archival Context (EAC-CPF)
• Not just names: context of creation and use
• Links to resources created by the entity, and about the
entity
• Collections (represented by EAD finding aids)
• Bibliographic resources, etc.
• Preceded addition of new fields to MARC authorities
format in RDA context
• Associated place
• Field of activity
• Affiliation
• Occupation
• Gender
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32. Types of EAC record
• SINGLE IDENTITY: one person (or corporate body or family) with
a single identity represented in one EAC-CPF instance. (Most
common)
• MULTIPLE IDENTITY-MANY IN ONE: two or more identities
(including official identities) with each represented by distinct
descriptions within one EAC-CPF instance. (Less common though
not rare).
• MULTIPLE IDENTITY-ONE IN MANY: two or more identities
(including official identities) each represented in two or more
interrelated EAC-CPF instances. (Less common though not rare).
• COLLABORATIVE IDENTITY: a single identity shared by two or
more persons (e.g. a shared pseudonym used in creation of a
collaborative work). Use Multiple Identity-One in Many. (Rare).
--Excerpted from EAC Tag Library, 2010
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33. EAC in action: Trove and People Australia
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34. Authoritative form of name
Other forms of name
Persistent Identifier
(public, persistent and citable)
Biographies/Description
Related resources from Trove
Note EAC structure!
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35. EAC prototyping project: SNAC
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36. What is SNAC?
• Research and demonstration project funded by NEH
• Three partner organizations
• Institute for Advanced Technology in the Humanities,
University of Virginia
• School of Information, UC Berkeley
• California Digital Library
• Develop tools for extracting EAC-CPF records from existing
data (EAD finding aids/collection guides)
• Build a large test corpus of EAC-CPF records
• Create a prototype biographical resource and access system
using those records
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37. SNAC prototype
http://socialarchive.iath.virginia.edu/xtf/search
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38. SNAC record: J. Robert Oppenheimer
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40. National Archival Database of Sweden
(EAD + EAC)
• NAD is based on international archival standards
• for archival creators
• ISAAR(CPF)—International Standard Archival Authority Record for Corporate
Bodies, Persons, and Families
• EAC—Encoded Archival Context
• for archival descriptions
• ISAD(G)—General International Standard Archival Description
• EAD—Encoded Archival Description
• The NAD pages contain rules and guidelines for the application of these
international standards with regard to Swedish descriptive traditions.
The rules for creating records for persons and corporate bodies have
been developed in cooperation with the National Library. XML schemas
have been developed which define the subsets of EAC and EAC which
are supported by the system and control the use of Swedish archival
terms (xml.ra.se/EAC/).
--Source: http://nad.ra.se/static/back_eng.html
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41. EAD and the evolution of standards for archival description, CO-ASIS&T, 18 October 2011 41

42. Thank you!
Jackie Dooley
dooleyj@oclc.org
Special thanks to Daniel Pitti, Jennifer Schaffner, Brian Tingle, and Adrian
Turner for letting me pilfer from their slides.
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