4. What are archives?
I. Basics
4
“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
5
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
6
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
7
9. What is EAD?
XML standard for encoding archival
description (“finding aids”)
I. Basics
9
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>
12
I. Basics - What is EAD?
XML standard for encoding finding aids
14. XML standard for encoding finding aids
Defined set of containers for descriptive data
EAD : DACS = MARC : AACR2
14
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)
15
I. Basics - What is EAD?
16. What is EAD?
XML standard for encoding finding aids
I. Basics
16
17. What is EAD?
EAD encoding is not a substitute for
sound archival description!
I. Basics
17
18. Where does EAD fit?
MARC, MODS, DC
METS, PREMIS, JSON
I. Basics
18
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
20
21. EAD Finding Aid Structure
<ead>
<eadheader>Information about repository and
finding aid</eadheader>
<archdesc>Description of archival
materials</archdesc>
</ead>
II. Finding Aid
21
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
22
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
23
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
24
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
25
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
26
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
27
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
28
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
29
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
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
44
46. The Future of EAD: EAD3
III. Implementation: Using EAD
46
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
47
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
48
57. Exercise How To
57
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
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
60
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
63
Exercise 2:
Biographical Information
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
70
Exercise 5:
Housekeeping
71. Series-level, collection level (high-level did), in the
arrangement note, and in the title.
IV. Exercises
71
Exercise 5:
Housekeeping: Dates
http://www.flickr.com/photos/carowallis1/2314716161/sizes/m/in/photostream/
Will be available on slideshare – many links on images and in text in the later portion of the presentation
Familiar with html? Similar (tags aka mark-up), but data structure, not display
XML (eXtensible Markup Language): set of rules for structuring data via markup
DTD and schema define the buckets; the list of tags in the tag library (we’ll see later) is defined here.
Move to schema is coming; more flexible; not something you need to know right away
http://www.flickr.com/photos/linneberg/4481309196/sizes/m/in/photostream/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/johnkay/3539126525/sizes/m/in/photostream/
Note that it is hierarchical – nested. Parent elements apply to child elements.
Encoding standards are rules for defining buckets; content standards are rules for the information inside
http://www.flickr.com/photos/linneberg/4481309196/sizes/m/in/photostream/
Xml, EAD, MARC are ways to structure your data, they are not the same as the descriptive data such as the finding aid, the catalog record, etc.
An EAD-encoded finding aid is split into info about institution/FA (metametadata) and info about materials (the finding aid)
id.loc.gov
<p> to structure text
So-called “empty element” – all the data is within the tag
Looking at the real thing
Extremely unlikely you will be asked to type it all out by hand. Temples, programs, guidance.
Software is free (like kittens, not like beer)
Designed by archivists: interface is intuitive
Manages most common archival processes
Designed for metadata standards
Output – html, ead
Built on a database (MySQL)
Software is free (like kittens, not like beer)
Designed by archivists: interface is intuitive
Manages most common archival processes
Designed for metadata standards
Output – html, ead
Built on a database (MySQL)
http://www2.archivists.org/standards
XSLT (Extensible Stylesheet Language Transformations) is a declarative, XML-based language used for the transformation of XML documents.
Here, the EAD tag processinfo is converted into HTML.
Results returned a correct level of hierarchy, linking back to full finding aid.
XSLT (Extensible Stylesheet Language Transformations) is a declarative, XML-based language used for the transformation of XML documents.
Here, the EAD tag processinfo is converted into HTML.
We’ll be logically consistent, but in real world there are more things to correct and consider.