The Function of EAD
There are lots of them. 146 separate Elements
http://www.loc.gov/ead/
is the official website.
As an XML DTD, EAD is structured via a series of nested
tags, creating hierarchical metadata.
It serves to encode archival finding aids
Think the Archival equivalent of Union Catalogs.
Intended to create interoperable, universal encoding
principles to allow similar cooperation as MaRC-encoded union catalogs do for
libraries.
EAD vs MaRC
·
both are encoding standards to provide
descriptive and structural metadata to collections of information or materials.
·
Both enable interoperability and unionization of
searchable databases.
·
MaRC-encoded union catalogs tend to be organized
based principally upon the item level of organization, as it is both the
initial level with which the cataloger applying the standard interacts, and
because it is the principle goal of most MaRC users.
·
EAD finding aids tend to approach materials from
the opposite end of the scale. Archives tend to interact with materials from a
many-to-few perspective, and many archival users interact with the archives
starting at the collection level and narrowing it down only after that.
All these posts are EAD are very helpful! They are all a great resource for those of us interested in archival work. Thank you!
ReplyDeleteI know, that's why I'm putting them up here. I could've just linked to the EAD tag cloud's page, but actually going through there to cull and process the information to post it here has helped a lot with learning what exactly the various Best Practices guides were talking about. I wasn't joking that I'll likely be continuing this series over the summer, either until I finish it (you know, part 146) or until I can't stand to look at another XML tag.
ReplyDelete