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May 23, 2013
 
 
 
 
 

Submitting EAD Collection Guides

Institutions can contribute EAD collection guides (also known as finding aids) using our voroEAD system. voroEAD is also used to preview and publish collection guides in the OAC. Files must conform to the OAC Best Practice Guidelines for EAD (OAC BPG EAD).

Below are instructions for submitting EAD collection guides. See also our brief screencast [MP4].

Obtain a voroEAD Account

Contact us at oacops@cdlib.org to request a voroEAD account, in order to submit EAD collection guides for publication in the OAC. The account also provides administrative privileges such as access to your institution's collection usage and extent statistics. Contributing member institutions must request accounts on behalf of vendors providing EAD encoding and uploading services. Supply the following information in your request:

  • Name of each individual requesting the account
  • Complete contact information (phone, e-mail, etc.)
  • Institution name

Submit Files

1. You will need to configure your computer to connect to our server, using a WebDAV connection, through a one-time setup process. Consult the WebDAV setup and troubleshooting page.

2. Upload EAD files from your workstation to your voroEAD directories on our server, using the WebDAV connection. You have two different voroEAD directories (see voroEAD Setup Procedures for instructions on creating a WebDAV connection from your workstation to these directories):

  • voroEAD Testing Directory: Use this directory to upload in-process EAD files. Use of this directory is optional.
  • voroEAD Production Directory: Use this directory to upload completed EAD files.

3. Once you've uploaded the EAD files to a directory, process them online using the voroEAD interface associated with the directory:

  • off site linkvoroEAD Testing Interface [password-protected]:
    • Use this interface to validate and preview in-process EAD files. A file must be present in this directory to be processed.
    • Select the file to process, using the interface. The system will validate the file against the EAD DTD (if submitting DTD-based files), or validate the file against the EAD XSD schema (if submitting schema-based files), and report any errors. Note that some browsers may not display the validation errors, resulting in a "The XML page cannot be displayed" message; if you receive this message, select "View->Source" from your browser menu.
    • If there are no errors, you will be able to preview the file in the OAC display.
    • Files should not be stored in this directory for long-term management purposes. Files left in voroEAD testing for more than three weeks may be removed.
  • off site linkvoroEAD Production Interface [password-protected]:
    • Use this interface to validate and publish completed EAD files. A file be present in this directory to be processed.
    • Select the file to process, using the interface. The system will validate the file against the EAD DTD (if submitting DTD-based files), or validate the file against the EAD XSD schema (if submitting schema-based files), and report any errors. Note that some browsers may not display the validation errors, resulting in a "The XML page cannot be displayed" message; if you receive this message, select "View->Source" from your browser menu.
    • If there are no errors, the file will be automatically queued for publication. Files are generally published the following day.

Validation of Files

voroEAD validates every file for conformance to the EAD DTD or schema. After submitting a file for processing, voroEAD will send an email to your e-mail account with the subject line "voroEAD: File Processed". The body of the email will contain a URL for accessing a detailed view of the processing results log. The log will contain a list of any encoding errors. Each log entry is linked to a specific line in the EAD file, where the error appears.

All collection guides should be valid EAD instances, and conform to the EAD DTD or schema, at minimum. Files rejected by voroEAD due to errors should be corrected and resubmitted. Files should meet the following minimum requirements:

  • Be well-formed XML.
  • Successfully validate against the EAD Version 2002 Document Type Definition or schema.
  • Have a valid filename.
  • Contain a second <titleproper> with a type attribute set to "filing".
  • Contain valid attribute values in <eadheader> and <eadid>.
  • Contain ISO compliant scriptcode and langcode attributes in <language>.
  • Contain only one <unittitle> in the top-level <did>.
  • Have a valid attribute value in <archdesc>.
  • Have the top-level <unitdate>, within <did>, encoded outside of <unittitle>.
  • Contain valid repositorycode and countrycode attributes in the top-level <unitid>, within <did>.
  • If using the normal attributes in <data> or <unitdate>, they must be ISO 8601-compliant.
  • Not contain unnumbered (recursive) <c> in the <dsc>.
  • Not contain tabular markup (<drow>/<dentry>) in the <dsc>.

Consult the OAC BPG EAD for further guidance on correcting encoding errors.

Obtain Submitted Files

Your voroEAD Production Directory contains copies of your submitted EAD files. To obtain your files, simply access the directory and download copies of the files.

Removing Files from Publication

To remove a file from the publication queue once successfully submitted, contact us and supply the file name for the collection guide. The file will be placed on an indefinite voroEAD Hold List to prevent it from entering the publication queue. If at any point you would like to publish the file again, resubmit a current version of the file through voroEAD -- using the same file name -- and notify us to release the file from the hold list.

Edit, Replace, and Rename Files

Collection guides should always be edited via a replacement process, using the same procedures for submitting new files.

To replace a file, ensure that the file name for the new collection guide matches the file name for the one to be replaced. Your collection guide file name serves as a unique identifier in the voroEAD system: do not rename files when submitting replacements. (If you need to change the file names for collection guides that you've already submitted, contact us -- we will need to make the changes for you).

Last updated: December 14, 2012