Doing EAD Locally

Section 2. Setting up an EAD "Shop"

See sections below:

• 2.1. Researching Your Options for EAD Authoring and Validation
• 2.2. Encode New Finding Aids or Prepare Existing Finding Aids for Encoding, if Necessary

See also:

• 1. Establishing Your EAD Goals
• 3. Encoding Strategies and Tools

This chapter describes some of the initial steps involved in creating EAD finding aids. Ideally, you should not envision this process as a one time encoding task, but as the incorporation of a sustainable encoding process within your archival description system. As a result, documenting your activities and decisions becomes crucial. As you implement the following steps, pay attention to:

• Process, to obtain a record of how you have accomplished various tasks, guidelines for staff's reference, a manual for training, and information from which to start refining and improving production.
• Time documentation, to facilitate the creation of realistic projections and goals when a project or grant opportunity arises.

2.1. Researching Your Options for EAD Authoring and Validation

• A good first step is to contact colleagues that have experience working with EAD.
• To participate in a broader EAD discussion, subscribe to the EAD Listserv. You can also search the list's archives for any past topics that may be applicable to your questions.
• The EAD AG and EAD TL are the official documentation for EAD. In particular, Chapters 1, 2, and 4 of the EAD AG provide an excellent general introduction to EAD, in addition to discussions of administrative and EAD authoring considerations. See the Selected Resources: General EAD Resources page for references.
• Three main EAD sites provide a wealth of information about EAD documentation, tools, and training:
  • Official EAD Version 2002 Website (through the Library of Congress). Contains a repository of EAD source files, including the EAD DTD. It also has information about the EAD Listserv, including subscribing and archived messages.
  • EAD Help Pages (through the University of Virginia). Includes the EAD Cookbook (see "Encoding Your Finding Aids," below); information about XML; EAD Sites Annotated section, with description of methods, tools, and resources used by other repositories to encode finding aids; and information on training and funding opportunities.
  • Society of American Archivists (SAA) Website. Includes information on SAA EAD training and ordering EAD related publications.

2.2. Encode New Finding Aids or Prepare Existing Finding Aids for Encoding, if Necessary

• Determine an appropriate set of encoding strategies and tools to encode new EAD finding aids directly, or prepare existing finding aids for encoding, if necessary. Encoding strategies and tools are covered in Section 3 of this document.
• For existing print finding aids, you can either rekey the contents locally, scan the document using Optimal Character Recognition (OCR) software, or outsource to a transcription service. OCR would work best for finding aids with consistently formatted container lists and a clear, modern typeface. Otherwise, rekeying might be a better option. Rekeyed and scanned documents should be edited for accuracy.
• For existing electronic documents may need to have some formatting removed or standardized, and "nonstandard" characters should be replaced with appropriate ASCII text or UTF-8 Unicode hexadecimal character references, or encoded using EAD formatting tags. You should be able to should be convert your electronic documents into simple ASCII text without degradation, in order to be encoded in EAD.
• The following kinds of characters and special formatting by most non-XML authoring software (e.g., MS Word, etc.) will not be rendered properly:
• Smart quotes (i.e., hooked quotes), super- and subscripts, and small fraction signs. Replace these characters with simple ASCII text.
• Bulleted and numbered lists. Use the EAD <list> tag with TYPE attribute set accordingly, and nested <item> tags within <list> (see EAD TL for more information).
  
  
  Example:
  
  <list type=marked>
  
  <item>Smart quotes (i.e. hooked quotes), super- and subscripts, and small fraction signs.</item>
  
  <item>Bulleted and numbered lists.</item>
  
  [etc.]
  
  </list>
• Bold, underline, and italic formatting. Use the EAD <emph> tag with RENDER attribute set accordingly (see EAD TL for more information).
  
  
  Example:
  
  ... see the EAD <emph render="italic">Tag Library</emph> for more information....
• Special symbols, graphics, characters with diacritics, and non-Latin characters.
• Encode directly in UTF-8 Unicode or use Unicode decimal or hexadecimal character references (for hexadecimal character references, see Unicode Website code charts).
• Note that all decimal character references should begin with an ampersand and pound sign, and end with a semicolon (use the syntax "&#D;", where D is a decimal number). Note that all hexadecimal character references should begin with an ampersand, pound sign, and lower- or uppercase "x", and end with a semicolon (use the syntax "&#xH;" or "&#XH;", where H is a hexadecimal number).

  Example:

  ... The papers are especially rich on problems of high school and university education among Russian &#x00E9;migr&#x00E9;s...

  [NOTE: "&#x00E9;" UTF-8 Unicode hexadecimal character reference used to encode the letter "é" in the word "émigrés," derived from the Unicode Website's Latin-1 Supplement code chart]

• Ampersands and left and right angle brackets. These characters are reserved for XML markup delimiters and need to be replaced with the following character entities:

  Ampersand (&) = &amp;
  Left angle bracket (<) = &lt;
  Right angle bracket (>) = &gt;

  Example:

  ... the Contributing Members Benefits &amp; Obligations Statement contains information for OAC affiliates...

  [NOTE: "&amp;" character entity used to replace ampersand in "Contributing Members Benefits & Obligations Statement"]