Brief intro EAD for NYU's MIAP Advanced Topics course, Fall 2016

1. NYU – MIAP Advanced Topics Class
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2. Outline
I. The Basics
II. Finding Aid
III. Implementation
IV. Exercises
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3. I. The Basics
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4. What are archives?
I. Basics
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“Archival collections are the natural
result of the activities of individuals and
organizations and serve as the recorded
memory thereof. This distinctive
relationship between records and the
activities that generated them
differentiates archives from other
documentary resources.” (DACS)

5. DACS
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
“rules to ensure the creation of
consistent, appropriate, and self-
explanatory descriptions of archival
material.”
I. Basics
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6. DACS
Principle 1: Records in archives possess unique
characteristics.
Principle 2: The principle of respect des fonds is the basis
of archival arrangement and description.
Principle 3: Arrangement involves the identification of
groupings within the material.
Principle 4: Description reflects arrangement.
I. Basics
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7. DACS
Principle 5: The rules of description apply to all archival
materials, regardless of form or medium.
Principle 6: The principles of archival description apply
equally to records created by corporate bodies,
individuals, or families.
Principle 7: Archival descriptions may be presented at
varying levels of detail to produce a variety of outputs.
I. Basics
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8. I. Basics
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I. Basics

9. What is EAD?
XML standard for encoding archival
description (“finding aids”)
I. Basics
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10. 10
XML standard for encoding finding aids
I. Basics - What is EAD?
XML (eXtensible Markup Language):
a set of rules for structuring data via markup

11. 11
XML standard for encoding finding aids
I. Basics - What is EAD?
Tag:
<unitdate era=“ce”>2011</unitdate>
Attribute:
<unitdate era=“ce”>2011</unitdate>
Element:
<unitdate era=“ce”>2011</unitdate>

12. Elements and attributes defined by a
Document Type Definition (DTD) or a
Schema
<bioghist> <bionote>
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I. Basics - What is EAD?
XML standard for encoding finding aids

13. <ead>
<eadheader>
<titleproper>Guide to the
Papers of Joseph Roth
</titleproper>
</eadheader>
</ead>
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XML standard for encoding finding aids
I. Basics - What is EAD?

14. XML standard for encoding finding aids
Defined set of containers for descriptive data
EAD : DACS = MARC : AACR2
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I. Basics - What is EAD?

15. XML standard for encoding finding aids
A description of records that gives the
repository physical and intellectual control over
the materials and that assists users to gain
access to and understand the materials (SAA)
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I. Basics - What is EAD?

16. What is EAD?
XML standard for encoding finding aids
I. Basics
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17. What is EAD?
EAD encoding is not a substitute for
sound archival description!
I. Basics
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18. Where does EAD fit?
MARC, MODS, DC
METS, PREMIS, JSON
I. Basics
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19. II. Finding Aid
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20. EAD Finding Aid Structure
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE ead SYSTEM "ead.dtd">
or
<ead xsi:schemaLocation="urn:isbn:1-931666-22-9
http://www.loc.gov/ead/ead.xsd">
<?xml-stylesheet type="text/xsl" href="lbi2010.xsl"?>
II. Finding Aid
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21. EAD Finding Aid Structure
<ead>
<eadheader>Information about repository and
finding aid</eadheader>
<archdesc>Description of archival
materials</archdesc>
</ead>
II. Finding Aid
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22. Common Tags <archdesc>
• Minimum required description – “high-level did”
<did>
<origination>Roth, Joseph</origination>
<unittitle>Joseph Roth Collection</unittitle>
<unitdate>undated, 1890-2005</unitdate>
<abstract>[short descriptive text]</abstract>
[…]
II. Finding Aid
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23. Common Tags <archdesc>
• Minimum required description – “high-level did”
<did>
[…]
<langmaterial>In German and English</langmaterial>
<physdesc>1 linear foot</physdesc>
<unitid>AR 10254</unitid>
<repository>Leo Baeck Institute</repository>
<physloc>V 11/2</physloc>
</did>
II. Finding Aid
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24. Common Tags <archdesc>
• Biographical information
<bioghist><p>Joseph Roth was one of the most prominent
Austrian writers of the first half of the 20th
century.</p></bioghist>
• Controlled vocabulary
<controlaccess>
<geogname encodinganalog="651$a" source="lcsh"
authfilenumber="n 79040121">Austria</geogname>
</controlaccess>
II. Finding Aid
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25. Common Tags <archdesc>
• Description of Subordinate Components
<dsc>
<c01 level="series">
<c02>Folder 1
<c03>Item 1</c03>
<c03>Item 2</c03>
</c02>
<c02>Folder 2</c02>
</c01>
II. Finding Aid
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26. Common Tags <archdesc>
• Description of Subordinate Components
A Component <c> provides information about the content,
context, and extent of a subordinate body of materials.
Each <c> element identifies an intellectually logical section
of the described materials. The physical filing
separations between components do not always
coincide with the intellectual separations.
From EAD Tag library <http://www.loc.gov/ead/tglib/elements/c.html>
II. Finding Aid
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27. Common Tags <archdesc>
• Description of Subordinate Components
<dsc>
<c01 level="series">
<did>
<unittitle id="serII">Series II: Addenda</unittitle>
<unitdate normal="1985/1996">1985-1996</unitdate>
</did>
<c02>Subordinate elements, such as folders</c02>
</c01>
II. Finding Aid
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28. Common Tags <archdesc>
• Description of Subordinate Components
<c02>
<did>
<container type="box">2</container>
<container type="folder">1</container>
<unittitle>Articles</unittitle>
<unitdate>1985-1994</unitdate>
</did>
</c02>
II. Finding Aid
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29. Common Tags <archdesc>
• Digital Archival Object (<dao>)
<c02>
<did> […]
<unittitle>Articles</unittitle>
</did>
<dao
href="http://www.archive.org/stream/josephroth_07_r
eel07#page/n218/mode/1up" actuate="onrequest"
linktype="simple" show="new"/>
</c02>
II. Finding Aid
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30. EAD Finding Aid
II. Finding Aid
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31. III. Implementation
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32. III. Implementation:
Creating EAD
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33. III. Implementation: Creating EAD
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Archivists’ Toolkit Archon
ArchivesSpace

34. III. Implementation: Creating EAD
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NoteTab Dreamweaver
EADitor Note Pad

35. My (old) Workflow
III. Implementation: Creating EAD
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36. III. Implementation:
Using EAD
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37. Now What?
III. Implementation: Using EAD
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38. XSLT
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III. Implementation: Using EAD

39. XSLT Starter Example
Original Document XSLT Stylesheet
Output Document
<book>
<title>Hello World
Book</title>
<date>1997</date>
</book>
<xsl:stylesheet>
<xsl:template match=“book”>
The title of my book is <value-of
select=“title”>.
</xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>
The title of my book is Hello World Book.
III. Implementation: Using EAD

40. EAD to HTML
III. Implementation: Using EAD
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41. EAD to HTML with microdata
III. Implementation: Using EAD
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42. EAD to PDF
III. Implementation: Using EAD
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43. EAD to MARC
III. Implementation: Using EAD
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44. Other Uses
• Integration with other standards (e.g. EAC-CPF)
• Open Archives Initiative – Protocol for Metadata
Harvesting (OAI-PMH)
• EAD consortia
• Metadata for digitized collections
III. Implementation: Using EAD
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45. Other Uses
• Flexible search and display
III. Implementation: Using EAD
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46. The Future of EAD: EAD3
III. Implementation: Using EAD
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EAD 2002: <unitdate>1905-1993</unitdate>
EAD3: <unitdatestructured>
<daterange>
<fromdate>1905</fromdate>
<todate>1993</todate>
</daterange>
</unitdatestructured>

47. The Future of EAD: EAD3
“In an ideal world, EAD and EAC-CPF would be
opaque to all but a few expert users, created when
needed as secondary outputs from efficient and
adaptable software tools with archivist-optimized
interfaces.”
Thirty Years On: SAA and Descriptive Standards
III. Implementation: Using EAD
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48. The Future of EAD: EAD3
“This next wave [of archival standards] is going to
push beyond online versions of print-based
document genres and embrace the Web as the
native format for description—dynamic, diverse,
and discoverable description.”
Thirty Years On: SAA and Descriptive Standards
III. Implementation: Using EAD
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49. Relax!
III. Implementation: Using EAD
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50. IV. Exercises
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51. Exercise Setup
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IV. Exercises
1. Start the oXygen XML Editor program
2. Open “JacobBarosin.xml” found in the
downloaded and unzipped folder

52. Exercise How To
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IV. Exercises

53. Exercise How To
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IV. Exercises

54. Exercise How To
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IV. Exercises

55. Exercise How To
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IV. Exercises

56. How does this work? XSLT!
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IV. Exercises

57. Exercise How To
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IV. Exercises
1. Make the change in the XML
2. Hit the red arrow to transform the XML to
HTML
3. Examine the HTML in the browser

58. IV. Exercises
Exercise How To - Tips
1. Be very careful with quotation marks and
angle brackets
<unitdate era="ce">2011</unitdate>
2. Copy and paste carefully - know where the
cursor is
3. O/o are not the same as 0
4. Look up while typing

59. IV. Exercises
Exercise How To - Tips
Check for
error
messages

60. Processing the
Jacob Barosin Addendum
You are the new AV archivist at the Leo Baeck
Institute in New York. You have been asked
to process an addendum to the Jacob Barosin
Collection, and to update the EAD finding aid
accordingly.
IV. Exercises
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61. Exercise 1: Housekeeping
Update the information in the <eadheader>
section to reflect your contribution.
IV. Exercises
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62. Exercise 1: Housekeeping
<ead><eadheader><filedesc><titlestmt>
<author>Processed by Kevin Schlottmann.
Addendum processed by [your name].</author>
IV. Exercises
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63. The head archivist tells you that there is an error in
the biographical information. Barosin was born in
1907, not 1906.
Fix this wherever it occurs.
IV. Exercises
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Exercise 2:
Biographical Information

64. IV. Exercises
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Exercise 2:
Biographical Information

65. The addendum you are given is a box of unsorted
obsolete AV media.
IV. Exercises
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Exercise 3:
Adding New Series

66. Series level? “Folder” level? Format level? Item
level?
IV. Exercises
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Exercise 3:
Adding New Series

67. Copy and paste an existing <c01>-level series
IV. Exercises
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Exercise 3:
Adding New Series

68. IV. Exercises
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Exercise 4:
Moving Description Around
"

69. IV. Exercises
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Exercise 4:
Moving Description Around
"

70. Update the series IV scope note reflecting the
removed items.
Update the collection–level information: extent,
dates, access information, formats, dates.
(This is where doing it manually is really painful.)
IV. Exercises
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Exercise 5:
Housekeeping

71. Series-level, collection level (high-level did), in the
arrangement note, and in the title.
IV. Exercises
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Exercise 5:
Housekeeping: Dates

72. IV. Exercises
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Questions?

73. Resources
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74. EAD Tools
Resources
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75. Tinker!
• Gentle Introduction to XML
• EAD Cookbook
• A free XML editor
• Library of Congress EAD files
Resources
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76. Download via Slideshare:
http://www.slideshare.net/archivistkevin
Thank you!
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