Implementing EAD

A quick-start class

Amanda Focke, C.A.

Class Outline

What is EAD? What are its benefits? 1-1:30pm

Quick XML lesson 1:30-1:40

Mapping typical finding aid parts to EAD parts 1:40-2

Introducing tools 2:00-2:30

Break 2:30-2:45

Hands-on entering data 2:45-4

Review of resources, discuss how to get going at your place

4-5

What is ?

EAD stands for Encoded Archival Description, and is a non-proprietary, xml based, de facto standard for the encoding of finding aids for use in a networked (online) environment.

While the finding aids may vary somewhat in style, their common purpose is to provide detailed description of the content and intellectual organization of collections of archival materials.

EAD facilitates the standardization of collection information in finding aids within and across repositories. EAD is ONE platform instead of finding aids being in

all sorts of media such as Word, Access, Excel, typed on paper, pdf’s, even regular html web pages

Within that ONE platform, we all use the same set of “tags” – even if their labels are different.

For ex., your container list can be labeled “Container List” or “Detailed Description” but either way the tag for that is <dsc>.

More about tags and labels shortly…

What are the benefits of using EAD?

Being based on XML, it is very repurpose-able. From one xml file, you can easily make a print

version with nice headers, or a web version with active links, or part of a database-driven search interface, and so on.

It’s the best model we have for structuring our finding aids in a consistent manner.

What are the benefits of using EAD?

It’s also therefore our best hope for making it possible to search across finding aids and across repositories – which is very important to our users.

Yes, Google can do that to a degree, but it’s very sloppy!

How do people present EAD?

Typical EAD presentation is as an html web page that looks like a nice paper printout. http://library.rice.edu/collections/WRC/finding-

aids/manuscripts/0150/ Others use it like a database to make browsing

and advanced searching possible across collections PolarBear Expedition Project

http://polarbears.si.umich.edu/ ArchivesHub UK (national finding aid repository in

the UK) http://www.archiveshub.ac.uk/index.html

How do people present EAD? cont.

“Visualizing Archives” research “The development of visualization tools for

assessing information contained in electronic archival finding aids created with Encoded Archival Description (EAD)”.

Project known as “ArchivesZ: The Next Generation”

http://www.spellboundblog.com/2008/09/12/neh-digital-humanities-startup-grant-news-visualizing-archival-collections/

ArchivesZ prototype screenshots

http://www.spellboundblog.com/2007/04/08/visualizing-archival-collections/

ArchivesZ prototype screenshots

http://www.spellboundblog.com/2007/04/08/visualizing-archival-collections/

How else might EAD be used in the near future?

On-line XML can be searched and delivered on many devices, not just laptops and desktop computers, but on cell phones and cell phone-like technology which use xml as the standard data format.

How else?

Quick XML lesson: What’s xml? XML (Extensible Markup Language) is a

system for organizing and describing the content of an electronic document.

It uses tags (elements) and attributes (additional info about the tag).

EAD is one implementation of XML. Any implementation of XML, uses a

separate “rules” file called a Document Type Definition (DTD) which states how tags and attributes may be used, where and how each tag may be used, and which elements are allowed to occur within other elements (also called nesting).Source: Indiana EAD manual

pg.4

XML

EADOther xml “languages”

How is XML different from HTML?

EAD (XML) is designed to semantically identify units of information useful for archivists and researchers using primary source materials in archival collections.

HTML is strictly for physical presentation on the web – tags might say present this as big font, or this as smaller font, or this as a table or a sentence.

For example, where HTML might use: <p>Mexican War</p> to indicate a paragraph or a single line of text – it’s

only about how this text should LOOK on-line. This would not lend itself to any indexing.

EAD would use a content-related tag <subject> Mexican War </subject> -- to say the Mexican War is a

subject here. Then this info could be easily indexed for browsing a repository by subject.

EAD almost exclusively uses presentation-independent declarations.

Quick XML lesson: What does it look like?

Element (tag): An element describes the data it contains. Elements are enclosed by angle brackets. Each use of an element must include both an opening tag and a closing tag.

For example (elements are in bold): <unittitle>The Title of a Finding Aid Unit</unittitle> <unitdate>5 March 1997</unitdate> <physdesc>This collection includes 300

items.</physdesc> <processinfo>Collection processed by John

Doe.</processinfo> <persname>John Quincy Adams</persname>

Quick XML lesson: What does it look like? cont. Attribute: Attributes provide additional information about

elements. An attribute name must be followed by an equals sign (=) and the value of the attribute must be enclosed in double quotation marks (“).

For example (attributes are in bold): <container type="Box">4</container> <unitdate normal="1997-03-05">March 5, 1997</unitdate> <persname source="lcnaf" encodinganalog="600"

role="subject“ normal="Adams, John Quincy, 1767-1848">John Quincy Adams</persname>

How do I work with it?

1.) You make an ead.xml file and check that it is valid (there are various tools for this – which we will discuss)

2.) You find a stylesheet you like (edit it if necessary to add your institution logo, or change the color scheme, etc. – see resources at end of presentation)

3.) Use an xml editor to apply the stylesheet to the ead file.

4.) Voila – you have a web-ready finding aid.

Quick XML lesson (Validating the xml file with the dtd)

ead.xml file

+

ead.dtd (rules file)

=

valid ead.xml file

(or, possibly….)

an invalid ead.xml file

Your ead file needs to be checked against the rules file (dtd), so you’ll know if it’s a valid ead file or not.

So let’s see it work!

A valid ead file

plus a stylesheet to structure output

equals your desired output!

make-a-web-version.xsl

your-finding-aid.xml

Your

finding

aid

online!

your-finding-aid.html

Mapping typical finding aid parts to EAD parts

Creator / author <creator>

Title <unittitle>

Biographical sketch <bioghist>

Scope & content note <scopecontent>

See Appendix A – a Word finding aid with headings and corresponding tags

A closer look before we get into more detail: Main parts of an EAD file

<eadheader> Wrapper for description of the electronic finding aid (not of the collection itself)

<archdesc> Wrapper for the narrative description of the collection itself

<dsc> Description of subordinate components (the container list)

See Appendix B – XML doc with the color bars on the side

Break!

Hands-on: entering data to create ead

There are a number of ways to create your ead: Hand coding in notepad – yipes! Not for most people. Microsoft Word finding aid template with macros which turn it

into xml – works, apparently XML editor such as Oxygen – easy enough if you don’t mind

working directly in code/tags Web form such as the one at UK NationalArchives’ ArchivesHub

website – cool for narrative front matter but clunky for the container list part

Export it from your collection mgmt software such as Cuadra STAR or Archivists Toolkit

We will test out using the ArchivesHub web template for a jumpstart on the narrative part of the finding aid,

then cut and paste that into Oxygen and make the container list.

Go to the ArchivesHub template

http://www.archiveshub.ac.uk/template/new/eadform2.html

We’ll use this to cut and paste our front matter / narrative portion of the finding aid.

In the ArchivesHub webform:

1.) Check the box for “ Include subordinate components within this record (this record will include <dsc> and <c01> elements) “ so that it will make you a nice place to enter your container list later.

2.) Paste your info into the logical places in the form.

3.) Press the render to EAD button. 4.) Save as DunbanEADfromHub.xml into the

folder on your desktop.

Ta daaah! Instant EAD!

Now what? Open Oxygen, open a that xml document Is it valid? No! Why not?

The ArchivesHub exports valid EAD but it’s apparently the older version called EAD 1.0, you need to make it the more current version called EAD2002 and the following steps do that. (the price we pay for convenience…)

Correcting ArchivesHub output from EAD 1.0 to EAD2002 Replace the top 2 lines with the following, which you copy

from your 00253.xml file:<?xml version="1.0"?><!DOCTYPE ead PUBLIC "+//ISBN 1-931666-00-8//DTD

ead.dtd (Encoded Archival Description (EAD) Version 2002)//EN" "ead.dtd">

In the <eadid> tag, delete the “type” attribute. Delete langmaterial ="eng“ attribute from the <archdesc>

tag. Delete the admininfo tags – but not the tags contained

inside them. Delete the <add> tags. Delete the othersource=”” attribute in the <subject> tag. It should validate now…

We’re getting somewhere!

Now let’s transform it into html just to see what it looks like at this point, without the container list added.

Click the transformation (red triangle) icon and select EAD, and then click the “transform now”.

Name the file something like Dunban.html, save it to your desktop folder, and open it by double clicking it.

Now we need the container list

You could do this in the ArchivesHub webform, but it still would have to be cut and pasted here.

Also, it’s good to learn a little about working in code in case you have to troubleshoot anything later.

Container list tags / nesting

Proper nesting is important

<dsc>

<c01>Series I:Photos

<c02> Prints</c02>

<c02>Negatives</c02>

</c01>

</dsc>

Follow the example . . .

Go to your file “00253.xml” and paste the <dsc> part of the ead into your ead file – in the right place! (within the <archdesc> tag, as the last tag in it)

Is your file still valid? It should be. Practice adding more container list items.

What if you don’t know where to put a tag or what tag to use?

Use the EAD tag library Home: http://www.loc.gov/ead/tglib/ Index by element name

http://www.loc.gov/ead/tglib/appendix_d.html Crosswalks from other formats

http://www.loc.gov/ead/tglib/appendix_a.html

Transform your complete finding aid

Finished encoding? Your file is valid? Transform it into web-ready html:

Press the transform (red triangle) icon on the toolbar

Select EAD as your output Press “Transform now” Name the output file something Voila !!

Victory!!

Hooray! You did it! Or, was there a problem?

Typical problems – stylesheet not filed where the program thinks it should be, or…

Where are some other stylesheets to try?

EAD Cookbook http://www.archivists.org/saagroups/ead/ead2002cookbookhelp.html Rice uses Cookbook stylesheets (slightly

altered for color scheme) WRCeadcbs5.xsl for the frontmatter paired with dsc7.xsl for the container list

North Carolina’s NC ECHO project http://www.ncecho.org/ncead/tools/tools_home.htm

If you didn’t like the ArchivesHub webform and the subsequent tweaking…

You could use ead templates from the EAD cookbook in an XML editor such as Oxygen eadcorporate2002xm.xml

eadperson2002xm.xml

That would be fill-in-the-blanks also, but within the code.

(That’s how we created finding aids here at Rice before we started using Archivists’ Toolkit.)

Official EAD / finding aids info

EAD official website (EAD files, stylesheets, guidelines, tag library) http://www.loc.gov/ead/index.html

SAA’s EAD helper pages http://www.archivists.org/saagroups/ead/

Also 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.

DACS (Describing Archives: A Content Standard) is helpful as a content standard – how to create a title, etc.

EAD creation helper tools available on-line

Microsoft Word template & macros developed by Bentley Historical Library at Univ. of Michigan: http://bentley.umich.edu/EAD/bhlfiles.php (set this up in your instance of Word, read their manual, and in theory your Word doc is rendered into EAD code at the press of a macro button)

ArchivesHub on-line web form (fill in the blanks on-line, then cut & paste your resulting EAD code into an editor) http://www.archiveshub.ac.uk/eadform2002.html

North Carolina EAD Project Tools http://www.ncecho.org/ncead/tools/tools_home.htm (templates using the xml editor Notetab)

More EAD documentation on-line

SAA’s list of EAD implementors http://www.archivists.org/saagroups/ead/implementors.html

Indiana’s manual and general info http://www.dlib.indiana.edu/services/metadata/activities/eadDocumentation.shtml

A project to watch: X-EAD

The University of Utah has been developing a form-based tool for creating and modifying EAD documents, which they are calling X-EAD. It is a desktop application written in Java, which is designed to read, create, and update EAD documents.

The output is compliant with the minimal requirements of the Utah Manuscripts Association EAD Best Practice Guidelines, which are an adaptation of the Northwest Digital Archives specifications using the EAD 2002 Schema.

Right now they just have a placeholder on their Web site (at http://www.lib..utah.edu/digital/tools.php#xead)

Where your EAD / finding aids can be listed TARO (Texas Archival Resources Online) – freely

available on-line, free to submit info to http://www.lib.utexas.edu/taro/admin/howdoi/participate.html

OCLC's ArchiveGrid - - available to users only via subscribing libraries, free to submit info to. lhttp://archivegrid.org/web/index.jsp

Archives USA - available to users only via subscribing libraries, free to submit info to.lhttp://archives.chadwyck.com/home.do

and your repository can be listed on this webpage (free): University of Idaho’s list “Repositories of Primary Sources” lhttp://www.uidaho.edu/special-collections/Other.Repositories.html

TARO participation

Joining TARO is free but requires approval and a little set-up – see instructions at http://www.lib.utexas.edu/taro/admin/howdoi/participate.html

Send in your xml files, tagged according to TARO’s guidelines: http://www.lib.utexas.edu/taro/admin/howdoi/2002tagguidelines.html

TARO takes your xml and posts it as an html web page.

Vendors who create EAD from your finding aids

Apex CoVantage http://www.apexcovantage.com/ ArchProteus

http://members.shaw.ca/ArchProteus/index.htm ByteManagers http://www.bytemanagers.com/ Techbooks (Aptara) http://www.techbooks.com/

Note: You still need some understanding of EAD in order to tell vendors how you want certain things handled and to be able to troubleshoot your completed files. You can use the TARO guidelines as general “instructions” for the vendor.

One last thing – EAD schema

The EAD schema will eventually replace the dtd, because in general XML files “in the future” will be validated by schema rather than by dtd.

There is a nice stylesheet on the official EAD website to transform your dtd-compliant EAD into schema-compliant EAD.

Why not start using the EAD schema now? There are virtually no stylesheets out there for it TARO doesn’t accept schema-compliant files yet.

Thanks!

Call or e-mail with questions as you get going in your repository.

Amanda Fockeafocke@rice.edu

713-348-2124