EAD: A Technical Introduction Julie Hardesty, Metadata Analyst June 3, 2014

In the beginning… Dyson, E.

This is also possible Porter, D. (2012). S603 EAD Workshop.

Options for online access HTML – Structures text, but can’t describe physical contents Word/PDF/text document – Technically searchable but not very use-able – Searchable online but not always easy to read online or aggregate (multiple finding aids as a repository with common themes)

Using XML XML allows users (communities of users) to create their own tag sets Separates content from display Facilitates moving data from one location to another while ensuring structure is maintained Software independent

Used in variety of standards Encoded Archival Description (EAD) Math Markup Language (MathML) Extensible HyperText Markup Language (XHTML) Text Encoding Initiative (TEI)

How EAD Helps Online access and discoverability – Structural divisions – Physical divisions – Administrative and descriptive information

Founding principles for describing archives for online sharing/access Show all the details Keep it in order Set it up so details don’t have to be repeated Make it possible to jump around Index at all levels so you can search at all levels

Separation of form and content EAD enables structure and content identification and leaves display for separate step (like HTML only specific for this type of encoding) Content markup allows for computation in addition to display Separating form and content makes re-use more flexible Allows easy change in presentation across multiple documents

EAD markup

EAD markup displayed in browser

Take a deep breath… And open Oxygen (XML Editor) Download files we’ll be using (wiki) Download files we’ll be using Open our finding aid (VAD2046.xml) Follow along!

Elements (tags) content Summary Information 1320 East Tenth Street

Attributes content IUCAT © 2013

Schema Managed by TS-EAD (SAA subcommittee) Rules for specific set of XML elements and attributes Rules describe – What attributes go on which elements – Where elements can be used (e.g., nesting) – How many times elements can be used – What content is allowed in which elements – What values are allowed on which attributes NOTE: XML does not require a schema!

EAD Online Info EAD 2002 Official Site – – EAD Tag Library – EAD Elements by Tag Name RLG Best Practice Guidelines for EAD

XML Basics: well-formed vs. valid Well-formed – Document follows XML syntax Valid – Document follows XML syntax and conforms to a schema – XML can be well-formed but not valid – If XML is valid, it must also be well-formed

Well-formed rules Every open tag must have a corresponding close tag Summary Information Attributes must be double-quoted IUCAT Attributes of same type may only appear once within a tag hello not hello

Well-formed rules Elements must be nested properly content Empty elements must be closed or

Well-formed rules Only one root element is allowed … XML is case sensitive is not the same as is not the same as

Take another breath… What is status of VAD2046.xml? – Well-formed? – Valid? What about featured_3x4.xml? What about template_archives.xml?

Relationships in XML It’s all in the family Parent/child content Sibling content Ancestor content

Parts of EAD Follow along! –

Delivering EAD eXtensible Stylesheet Language Transformation (XSL/T) – XML document, like EAD – Used for identifying processing instructions instead of encoding, not like EAD Namespaces (xmlns) – Define elements sets to keep tags from being ambiguous Examine attributes on VAD2046.xml

Exercise 1 In Oxygen with VAD2046.xml: – CTRL + click > Plugins > XTF Preview – Select “IU Finding Aids, Integrated” from repository list What happens if you do the same steps for featured_3x4.xml?

Connecting our finding aid Collection description still needed Digitized items will be connected – Photos/slides – Documents Where does this finding aid live/how do we provide access?

Connecting to Scholars’ Commons How to use finding aids/Archives Online If a research collection might benefit from a finding aid (collection becoming part of IU) When a researcher needs help with: – Oxygen – XML – EAD – Other XML standards