Encoded+Archival+Description+(EAD)

= Encoded Archival Description (EAD) = toc Encoded Archival Description (EAD) is an emerging standard used internationally in an increasing number of archives and manuscripts libraries to encode data describing corporate records and personal papers. The individual descriptions are variously called finding aids, guides, handlists, or catalogs. While archival description shares many objectives with bibliographic description, it differs from it in several essential ways. From its inception, EAD was based on SGML, and, with the release of EAD version 1.0 in 1998, it is also compliant with XML. EAD was, and continues to be, developed by the archival community. While development was initiated in the United States, international interest and contribution are increasing. EAD is currently administered and maintained jointly by the Society of American Archivists and the United States Library of Congress. Developers are currently exploring ways to internationalize the administration and maintenance of EAD to reflect and represent the expanding base of users.

History and Development
Development of the EAD DTD began with a project initiated by the University of California, Berkeley, Library in 1993. The goal of the Berkeley project was to investigate the desirability and feasibility of developing a nonproprietary encoding standard for machine-readable finding aids such as inventories, registers, indexes, and other documents created by archives, libraries, museums, and manuscript repositories to support the use of their holdings. The project directors recognized the growing role of networks in accessing information about holdings, and they were keen to include information beyond that which was provided by traditional machine-readable cataloging (MARC) records. The development of the EAD DTD was a cooperative venture from early on, with specialists at Berkeley working in consultation with experts at other institutions. Daniel Pitti, the principal investigator for the Berkeley Project, developed requirements for the encoding standard which included the following criteria: 1) ability to present extensive and interrelated descriptive information found in archival finding aids, 2) ability to preserve the hierarchical relationships existing between levels of description, 3) ability to represent descriptive information that is inherited by one hierarchical level from another, 4) ability to move within a hierarchical informational structure, and 5) support for element-specific indexing and retrieval.

Among the topics discussed by the Berkeley group were several associated with prospects for profession-wide adoption and maintenance of an encoding standard for finding aids. Recognizing that successful development of the DTD would require the participation of a broad community of archivists and archives users, the group planned to circulate widely both the Ann Arbor Accords and the revised data model based upon them. The annual meeting of the Society of American Archivists, held in late August 1995 provided an excellent forum for the presentation of concepts and ideas relating to EAD. The Society's Committee on Archival Information Exchange (CAIE) agreed to assume some responsibility for involving interested archivists. The CAIE established an EAD Working Group chaired by Bentley team member Kris Kiesling and consisting of all members of the original Bentley team (except Steven DeRose) as well as the following additional individuals: Randall Barry (Library of Congress Network Development and MARC Standards Office), Wendy Duff (University of Toronto), Ricky Erway (Research Libraries Group), Anne Gilliland-Swetland (University of California, Los Angeles), William E. Landis (University of California, Los Angeles), Eric Miller (OCLC Online Computer Library Center), Meg Sweet (Public Record Office, United Kingdom), Robert Spindler (Arizona State University), and Richard Szary (Yale University). The EAD Working Group accepted responsibility for monitoring and supporting the ongoing development of the EAD DTD, tag library, and application guidelines. Immediately following its annual meeting, the SAA Council agreed to submit a formal request to the Library of Congress Network Development and MARC Standards Office to serve as the maintenance agency for the EAD DTD.

EAD represents a very early stage in the transformation of archival description using advanced technologies. It provides a means to create machine-readable versions of traditional archival description which in turn provides the archival community with the opportunity to experience and understand new technologies. To date, most EAD implementations concentrate on display, and relatively simple indexing. While network access and full-text indexing greatly enhance access to the descriptions and, through them, to the materials described, it is clear that much more is possible. Research is needed to understand whether traditional archival description will be effective in this new medium, what may need to be changed or added, and in what ways and how to exploit fully the descriptive information.

While there are many opportunities for further research and development, there are two areas that have already generated great interest: authority control and language-specific versions of EAD. Though EAD accommodates biographical and historical information, there are clear advantages to creating and maintaining this information independent of archival description. Currently there is an international effort to develop a DTD based on ICA’s //International Standard Archival Authority Record for Corporate Bodies, Persons, and Families// (ISAAR(CPF)) that would be compatible with EAD. A DTD based on ISAAR(CPF) would facilitate building an international biographical and historical database documenting corporate bodies, individuals, and families which would serve as the gateway to archival descriptions and resources, would be an important resource in itself, and would facilitate description of dispersed and complex //fonds//.

**References**
**[|Endoded Archival Description Homepage]** **[|Best Practices Website]**
 * [|D-lib Magazine Article]**