LC EAD Practices (Version 2002)

Library of Congress

Recommended Best Practices for Encoded Archival Description Finding Aids at the Library of Congress (EAD Version 2002)

DRAFT

December 9, 2004

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Top | Introduction | Conventions | Implementing XML | Practices

List of Practices

2.1. Generic Text and Formatting Elements
 2.1.1. Heading
 2.1.2. Paragraph
 2.1.3. Note
2.2. Linking Elements
 2.2.1. Internal Linking
 2.2.2. External Linking
3.1. EAD Header
 3.1.1. Unique File Identifier
 3.1.2. File Description
 3.1.3. Profile Description
 3.1.4. Revision Description
3.2. Title Page and Prefatory Matter
3.3. Collection-Level Information (Archival Description)
 3.3.1. Basic Description: The High-Level <did>
 3.3.1.1. Title of the Unit
 3.3.1.2. Date of the Unit
 3.3.1.3. ID of the Unit
 3.3.1.4. Origination
 3.3.1.5. Physical Description
 3.3.1.6. Language of the Material
 3.3.1.7. Repository
 3.3.1.8. Abstract
 3.3.1.9. Note
 3.3.1.10. Physical Location
 3.3.1.11. Digital Archival Object Group
 3.3.2. Controlled Vocabulary Terms
 3.3.2.1. Use of Attributes in <controlaccess> Subelements
 3.3.2.2. Personal, Corporate, Family, and Geographic Names
 3.3.2.3. Form and Genre Terms
 3.3.2.4. Function and Occupation Terms
 3.3.2.5. Subjects and Titles
 3.3.2.6. Use of Grouped Controlled Vocabulary Terms
 3.3.2.7. Use of Controlled Vocabulary Outside of <controlaccess>
 3.3.3. Administrative Information
 3.3.3.1. Acquisition Information
 3.3.3.2. Custodial History
 3.3.3.3. Accruals
 3.3.3.4. Processing Information
 3.3.3.5. Appraisal
 3.3.3.6. Conditions Governing Use
 3.3.3.7. Conditions Governing Access
 3.3.3.8. Alternate Form of the Materials Available
 3.3.3.9. Preferred Citation of the Material
 3.3.4. Biographical Sketches and Agency Histories
 3.3.5. Scope and Content Note
 3.3.6. Arrangement
 3.3.7. Description of Subordinate Components
 3.3.7.1. What is a Component?
 3.3.7.2. Unnumbered Versus Numbered Components
 3.3.7.3. Basic Description of Each Component
 3.3.7.3.1. Unit Title
 3.3.7.3.2. Unit Date
 3.3.7.3.3. Physical Description
 3.3.7.3.4. Abstracts
 3.3.7.3.5. ID Numbers
 3.3.7.3.6. Physical Location Information
 3.3.7.3.7. Container Information
 3.3.7.4. Expanded Description of Components
 3.3.8. Adjunct Descriptive Data
 3.3.8.1. Bibliographies
 3.3.8.2. File Plans
 3.3.8.3. Indexes
 3.3.8.4. Other Finding Aids
 3.3.8.5. Related Material
 3.3.8.6. Separated Material
 3.3.9. Other Descriptive Data

Table of Contents

INTRODUCTION

The Library of Congress EAD Practices Working Group has drafted these proposed guidelines for the creation of EAD finding aids at the Library of Congress, a process which has included documenting current practices at the Library, examining other documented standards and practices, and addressing outstanding issues.

These guidelines are intended for use in conjunction with the EAD Tag Library Version 2002 and EAD Application Guidelines, published by the Society of American Archivists and the Library of Congress and available online at http://lcweb.loc.gov/ead/. The guidelines in this current draft accompany Chapter 3 of the Application Guidelines, "Creating Finding Aids in EAD." They also conform to the Research Library Group's "RLG Best Practice Guidelines for Encoded Archival Description" (August 2002), available online at http://www.rlg.org/rlgead/bpg.pdf.

Technical documents and other files supplementing the administration and publication of EAD finding aids at the Library of Congress are available at http://lcweb.loc.gov/ead/practices/technical/technical-ead2002.html.

The guidelines for version 1.0 of the EAD DTD were made available to the Library of Congress EAD Technical Group for review, and many suggestions for improvement have been incorporated into a final draft which is available for use by Library staff. This document has been revised in compliance with EAD 2002, and includes revision of the numbering of practices in the table of contents.

For further information about the creation or content of this document, please contact the working group at lcead@loc.gov.

LC EAD Practices Working Group:

Morgan Cundiff, Network Development and MARC Standards Office
Mike Ferrando, Music Division
Margit Kerwin, Manuscript Division
Mary Lacy, Manuscript Division (chair)
Anne Mitchell, Prints and Photographs Division
Belinda Urquiza, Automation Planning and Liaison Office

Table of Contents

Basic Conventions Used

The LC Practices guidelines are based on the EAD Application Guidelines and cite its chapter and subordinate numbers to facilitate cross-consultation. Each of the individually numbered sections described below is referred to as a "practice." Most practices here accompany Chapter 3 of the Application Guidelines, "Creating Finding Aids in EAD," although two practices from Chapter 7, "EAD Linking Elements", are included. The order of practices reflect the recommended order of elements in an EAD finding aid.

This section of the guidelines describe the contents of each section of an individual practice.

Name:

The topic of the individual practice (most often an EAD element name) given here usually matches the section heading for that table of contents number in the Application Guidelines

Table of Contents Number:

This locally assigned number follows the order recommended or required by the LC Best Practice Guidelines and the EAD DTD.

Guidelines Number:

This number matches the one given in the Application Guidelines (version 1.0). Not all the sections of Chapter 3 are found in the LC Practices document, since local practices do not need to be defined for each topic. Occasionally a topic covered by one number in the Application Guidelines (e.g. "3.5.1.4.1, Acquisition Information and Custodial History, is split into two practices, "3.5.1.4.1a, Acquisition Information" and "3.5.1.4.1b, Custodial History").

Tag:

Tag names elements under discussion are provided in the tag section. Tag names appear within angle brackets, e.g., <acqinfo>. No tag is given if the practice does not concern a specific element or elements.

Description:

The description section provides a brief summary of the content of the topic or nature of the element. Fuller descriptions are provided in the Tag Library and Application Guidelines. The second paragraph of the description usually gives LC recommended practice for the topic, for instance, that use of a particular element is required or recommended. For some practices a third paragraph, "new in EAD 2002", describes changes in the new EAD DTD.

Labels/Heads:

Suggested formulation of appropriate content for labels, which aid in clear displays, and for heads, which are important for navigation as well as displays. A particular element may use the LABEL attribute (such as <did> subelements); or, it may include <head> as a subelement, but both are never used for the same element.

Encoding Analog:

All encoding analogs used are MARC21.
A specific subfield or subfields are given only when the element for which the encoding analog is given includes only the text of that subfield (e.g., 260$c for <unitdate>).
When the element includes the entire content of the MARC field (e.g., 600 for <persname>), the examples given do not name all the subfields that are represented in that <persname>.
Indicators are given only when necessary to distinguish among elements. For instance, the encoding analog for <relatedmaterial> is 544 1, and the encoding analog for <separatedmaterial> is 544 0.
Optionally, all indicators and subfields may be given, but the cost of doing so should be weighed against probable utility and the ability to include such information accurately in a template.
Follow the examples shown below in situations where both indicators and subfield codes are given. Use a single space to separate the tag number from the indicators, and from the indicators to the subfields. Use the graphic symbol # for a blank or undefined indicator, and use the graphic symbol $ for the delimiter portion of a subfield code.

encodinganalog="222 #3 $a" (first indicator undefined; only one subfield)
encodinganalog="245 04 $abc" (both indicators have values; multiple subfields)
encodinganalog="544 1# $3abcden" (second indicator undefined; multiple subfields)

See the EAD Tag Library, Appendix A.3, for a crosswalk between MARC21 and EAD.

Other attributes:

Recommended attributes (except for ENCODINGANALOG, discussed above) for the element under discussion are listed here, sometimes with suggested values for those attributes. The Tag Library includes complete lists of all attributes and their possible content for each element, and are discussed at length in its "EAD Attributes" section.

One of these attributes, NORMAL, is recommended for all dates, both <date> and <unitdate>. This practice is new at LC. Date normalization will follow ISO 8601 in YYYYMMDD format.

Set the SCRIPTCODE attribute for <language> within <langusage> and <langmaterial> using ISO 15924 only if nonroman script needs to be noted.

The most common values for the SOURCE attribute on controlled access elements are those listed in the semiclosed list from EAD version 1.0. These values are: aat, aacr2, cdwa, dot, gmgpc, lcnaf, lcsh, lctgm, local, mesh, mim, ncarules, nmc, rad, rbgenr, tgn, ulan.

Subelements:

Subelements are listed when the practice focuses on a broader parent element. For instance, elements used within the wrapper element <eadheader> are listed as subelements. If the order in which they are listed is the recommended order in which they should be used, this is noted. If use of the subelement is either required or recommended, that practice is noted here as well.

In many cases, individual practices exist for each subelement described; where this is true, references are given to the number and name of that practice. The order of the practices associated with these subelements follows the recommended order.

Examples:

Most practices include one or more examples of recommended markup. For each tagging example, there are one or more examples of a display that could be generated from the tagging example, depending on output specifications. Note that formatting features such as bold, italics, underlining, graphics, and font sizes and colors cannot be provided in the display examples in this version of the practices manual, although they form an important part of output specifications.

Comments:

Specific recommendations and discussions pertaining to LC implementation and issues arising from the practice topic are given here. The comments usually build on the initial description and refer specifically to the numbered examples provided.

Repeatable:

If an element is repeatable (may be used multiple times in the context described), this is noted as well as if the element is recursive (may be used within itself, e.g., <controlaccess> within a broader <controlaccess>).

Order:

If the practice concerns a particular element, either a specific order is recommended ("following <userestrict> and preceding <altformavail>"), or the parent element is noted ("within <descgrp>").

Revision Date:

The date of the last revision to the individual practice provides version control to this regularly updated document.

Table of Contents

Implementing XML in EAD 2002

The Library of Congress implemented EAD version 1 as an SGML DTD. Implemention of the new EAD DTD (EAD 2002) will incorporate migration of SGML files to XML files. All new EAD finding aids will be created in XML using EAD 2002; legacy finding aids will be converted to XML and migrated to EAD 2002. The LC Practices describe encoding changes throughout the document and highlight these with the label, "New in EAD 2002". This section discusses the features of XML which differ from SGML as found in EAD finding aids; further information about XML is widely available and may be found at http://xml.coverpages.org/xml.html.

XML is Case Sensitive

Because XML is case sensitive (upper- and lower-case characters are not interchangeable), the EAD 2002 XML DTD requires that all element names, attribute names, and enumerated attribute values be in lower case.

In particular, the following must be in lower case for the document to validate:

the XML declaration (<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>)
the XML doctype declaration root element (ead) and DTD file name ("ead.dtd")
the XML entity declaration NDATA literal (file format, e.g., "jpeg")

XML Character Encoding

The default character encoding for XML is UTF-8 or UTF-16. Character encoding transformations are included in the conversion from EAD version 1 to EAD 2002. The W3C strongly discourages use of the character entity references found in SGML documents (such as é), and not all XML tools support these entity references. While valid in XML, these entity references should be replaced using the graphic character displays or numeric character references, as appropriate. For basic information on character encoding issues related to Unicode and XML, see the RLG DigiNews article on Character Sets and Character Encoding: A Brief Introduction at: http://www.rlg.org/en/page.php?Page_ID=17068&Printable=&Article ID=992

Differences between SGML Prolog and XML Prolog

1. XML declaration required: Use the following:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>

2. Public identifiers: XML syntax and values are different from the SGML public identifer. Use the following:

<!DOCTYPE ead PUBLIC "+//ISBN 1-931666-00-8//DTD ead.dtd (Encoded Archival Description (EAD) Version 2002)//EN"

3. System identifiers: XML requires the use of a system identifier. Use the following:

"http://lcweb2.loc.gov/xmlcommon/dtds/ead2002/ead.dtd"

4. Processing instructions: SGML applications such as Panorama required processing instructions such as <?ATTLINK EXTPTR HREF URI> to resolve external entities. While these are permitted in XML, they are no longer necessary and should not be added to newly encoded finding aids.

Examples of the full XML prolog may be seen in Section 2.2.2, External Linking, Examples 1 and 2.

Converting from SGML EAD Version 1

LC finding aids encoded using EAD Version 1 will be converted from SGML to XML and transformed into EAD 2002 using conversion routines available at http://lcweb2.loc.gov/music/eadmusic/eadconv12/ead2002_r.htm. In addition to converting to the new DTD, all elements, attributes, and most attribute values will be converted to lowercase. Notation of empty elements is changed into XML (e.g. line breaks are now appear as "<lb/>). SGML character entities will be converted to UTF-8 values. A few additional changes will need to be done to the XML files after they have been converted:

1. After validating the XML instance on the local PC and before uploading the file to the server change the system identifer to include the full path to the location of the DTD on the server; in other words, change

<!DOCTYPE ead PUBLIC "+//ISBN 1-931666-00-8//DTD ead.dtd (Encoded Archival Description (EAD) Version 2002)//EN" "ead.dtd">

<!DOCTYPE ead PUBLIC "+//ISBN 1-931666-00-8//DTD ead.dtd (Encoded Archival Description (EAD) Version 2002)//EN" "http://lcweb2.loc.gov/xmlcommon/dtds/ead2002/ead.dtd">

2. In Collection Summary, move <langmaterial> element from the end of the <did> to immediately follow <repository> as specified in Section 3.3.1.6, Language of the Material.

3. Look at the conversion report to make sure that all data has been migrated success; in addition, review the encoding of the finding aid to make sure that the finding aid is in major compliance with the current version of the LC Practices.

Differences Between Converted Finding Aids and New EAD 2002 Encoding:

Processing instructions: processing instructions such as <?ATTLINK EXTPTR HREF URI> which were present in the SGML finding aids have been converted to XML format, e.g. <?ATTLINK EXTPTR HREF URI?>. These may be retained in a converted XML document but should not be added to newly encoded finding aids.

Parsed entity declarations: LC Practice recommends in Section 2.2.2, External Linking, that entity declarations for external entites linked to from the finding aid appear in either the document prolog or in a separate ".ent" file in the same directory as the finding aid. In the process of document conversion, the values of the declared entities are extracted from the declarations and appear as the value of the HREF attribute, and the entity declaration is no longer present (i.e., HREF="&arendthome;") will be changed to HREF="http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/arendthtml/". This result for converted finding aids is acceptable, but newly encoded finding aids should continue to implement the practice concerning use of external entities.

Library of Congress EAD Practices

Table of Contents

Generic Text and Formatting Elements

Table of Contents Number:

2.1

EAD Guideline:

3.5.1.7 (Ver. 1.0)

Description:

Use judgment in deciding when to place punctuation in an encoded document and when to let a style sheet supply the punctuation; see the Application Guidelines for further guidance.

Remember that finding aids viewed externally using a different style sheet or HTML encoding scheme may not supply the punctuation your internal style sheet does, and determine whether this is an acceptable risk. Also remember that if some finding aids include the punctuation and others supply by style sheet, it will be difficult to program the HTML transformation consistently to avoid double punctuation where it is already present.

If container lists are created in a database, it is more logical to assume that commas don't need to be included. If the document already exists in a word processing format, the commas are already present and extra work is required to strip them out. If in doubt, omit punctuation.

Encoding Analog:

n/a

Other Attributes:

n/a

Subelements:

<head> See Section 2.1.1, Heading
See Section 2.1.2, Paragraph
<note> See Section 2.1.3, Note

Tagging Example 1.

Whitespace outside the element for inline title element

The publication of <title>A Walk in the Woods</title> in 1996 resulted in ...

Display of Tagging Example 1.

The publication of A Walk in the Woods in 1996 resulted in ...

Tagging Example 2.

Punctuation outside the element for inline emph element

On the good ship <emph render="italic">Lollipop</emph>, life was easy.

Display of Tagging Example 2.

On the good ship Lollipop, life was easy.

Tagging Example 3.

Period included at end of inline title element as required by editorial practice

Shirley Jackson is the author of <title render="doublequote">The Lottery.</title>

Display of Tagging Example 3.

Shirley Jackson is the author of "The Lottery."

Comments:

Put whitespace outside the element for inline element. See Example 1.
Put punctuation outside the element for inline element. See Example 2.
Include punctuation at end of inline element when editorial practice dictates. See Example 3.

Repeatable:

n/a

Order:

n/a

Revision Date:

05/07/03

Table of Contents

Heading

Table of Contents Number:

2.1.1

EAD Guideline:

3.5.1.7.1 (Ver. 1.0)

Tag:

<head>

Description:

Headings are used to identify blocks of text within a finding aid for display and navigation (where <head> is not available, the label attribute is used to identify text but not to aid in navigation).
Heads always appear as the first subelement within a section of text, and should be used to ensure that a direct link to that section is included in the navigator or table of contents for the finding aid.
Heads are not used within components in the <dsc>; in that instance, <unittitle> elements for components with LEVEL attribute set to "series" or "subseries" may be pulled into the navigation frame.

Labels/Heads:

n/a

Encoding Analog:

n/a

Other Attributes:

n/a

Subelements:

n/a

Tagging Example 1.

Heads provided for both Administrative Information Section and provenance paragraph

<descgrp type="admininfo">
 <head>Administrative Information</head>
 <acqinfo encodinganalog="541">
 <head>Provenance</head>
 
 The papers of Susan Q. Archivista, archivist and philanthropist, were
 given to the Library of Congress by Josiah Quincy and Sally Rae
 Archivista in 1978. An addition to the collection includes items
 purchased by the Library in 1998.
 
 </acqinfo>
</descgrp>

Display of Tagging Example 1.

Heads provided for both Administrative Information Section and provenance paragraph

Display of heads in navigator illustrated: provenance head is subordinate to that for <descgrp>

Comments:

Headings are illustrated for each element for which they are valid.

Repeatable:

Order:

first element within any section where valid

Revision Date:

05/07/03

Table of Contents

Paragraph

Table of Contents Number:

2.1.2

EAD Guideline:

3.5.1.7.2 (Ver. 1.0)

Description:

The paragraph element is an important structural element within EAD. It must be used within many elements before text can be inserted, and can be used to format text within those elements into one or multiple units. Within paragraph, many other elements are available for use within text, including reference and linking elements, formatting elements, controlled access elements, and some <did> subelements.

Labels/Heads:

n/a

Encoding Analog:

n/a

Other Attributes:

n/a

Subelements:

n/a

Tagging Example 1.

Paragraph used within <separatedmaterial>; linking and controlaccess elements available within

<separatedmaterial encodinganalog="544 0">
 An extensive collection of additional Olmsted Associates
 records, including graphic material related to this collection, is
 located at the Frederick Law Olmsted National Historical Site in
 Brookline, Massachusetts. Records for the period 1870-1910 also are
 included in the Subject File of the <archref href="&loc.mss/eadmss.ms001019;" show="new" actuate="onload"><origination>Frederick Law Olmsted</origination>
 Papers</archref> in the Library of Congress.
</separatedmaterial>

Display of Tagging Example 1.

Paragraph used within <separatedmaterial>; linking and controlaccess elements available within

An extensive collection of additional Olmsted Associates records,
including graphic material related to this collection, is located at
the Frederick Law Olmsted National Historical Site in Brookline,
Massachusetts. Records for the period 1870-1910 also are included in
the Subject File of the Frederick Law Olmsted Papers in the Library of
Congress.

Tagging Example 2.

Less detailed tagging: published titles tagged with <title> and no attribute. Single and double quotes from keyboard used rather than <title> tagging for names of poems and <emph> for Hoosier poet.

James Whitcomb Riley was born in Greenfield, Indiana, and is known as
 the "Hoosier poet." He was on the staff of the <title>Indianapolis
 Journal,</title> 1877-1885, and his contributions to that newspaper
 established his fame as a poet. Typescript poems in the papers include
 "The Name of Old Glory," "The Lisper," "The Young Old Man," and "At
 'The Literary.'"

Display of Tagging Example 2.

Display is identical with that of Example 3

James Whitcomb Riley was born in Greenfield, Indiana, and is known as
the "Hoosier poet." He was on the staff of the Indianapolis Journal,
1877-1885, and his contributions to that newspaper established his
fame as a poet. Typescript poems in the papers include "The Name of
Old Glory," "The Lisper," "The Young Old Man," and "At 'The
Literary.'"

Tagging Example 3.

More detailed tagging: published titles tagged with <title> and render attribute. Double quotes from keyboard deleted in favor of <title> tagging for names of poems and <emph> for Hoosier poet.

James Whitcomb Riley was born in Greenfield, Indiana, and is known as
 the <emph render="doublequote">Hoosier poet.</emph> He was on the staff of
 the <title render="italic">Indianapolis Journal</title>, 1877-1885,
 and his contributions to that newspaper established his fame as a
 poet. Typescript poems in the papers include <title render="doublequote">
 The Name of Old Glory,</title> <title render="doublequote">The
 Lisper,</title> <title render="doublequote">The Young Old Man,</title> and
 <title render="doublequote">At <emph render="singlequote">The Literary.</emph>
 </title>

Display of Tagging Example 3.

Display is identical with that of Example 2

Comments:

Although paragraphs can be used in many places on their own, be sure to encode the text as specifically as is appropriate for consistency in display and retrieval. For example, you may need to use <note> rather than alone.
Titles (such as titles of published works) are among the data and elements found with paragraphs. By standard practice at LC and elsewhere, an encoded <title> displays as italic unless otherwise specified. See Example 2.
Titles of unpublished works and other titles customarily given in double quotes may be handled in one of two ways: they need not be encoded as titles, and keyboarded double quotes ("") may be retained in the XML document. Single and double quotation marks may be keyboarded in rather than using the Unicode numeric character references such as ' (left single quote) and ” (right double quote.) See Example 2.
Alternately, one may explicitly encode <title render="italic"> for published titles and <title render="doublequote"> for unpublished or other quoted titles. See Example 3. Although the second alternative is most precise, it need not be considered if there is no anticipated use of the <title> tag for searching or building a browse list of titles.

Repeatable:

yes

Order:

n/a

Revision Date:

05/24/04

Table of Contents

Note

Table of Contents Number:

2.1.3

EAD Guideline:

3.5.1.7.3 (Ver. 1.0)

Tag:

<note>

Description:

The note element is available in many places as explanatory text. This element is used for supplementary data such as footnotes and should not be used when more specific elements are available.

Labels/Heads:

n/a

Encoding Analog:

500$a

Other Attributes:

Use as appropriate when notes should appear as footnotes, endnotes, or linked notes:

actuate="onload" or "onrequest"
type="footnote" or "endnote"
show="embed" or "new"

See Tag Library for full list of attributes and their values.

Subelements:

See Tag Library for full list of valid subelements.

Tagging Example 1.

Note is short explanatory text; no special display required

<c02 level="file">
 <did>
 <unittitle encodinganalog="245$a">Diary, author unknown</unittitle>
 <note encodinganalog="500">
 
 A study of this item in 1982 concluded that it came from the Shaker
 community at Union Village, Ohio, and not Pleasant Hill.
 
 </note>
 </did>
</c02>

Display of Tagging Example 1.

Note is short explanatory text; no special display required

Diary, author unknown
A study of this item in 1982 concluded that it came from the Shaker
community at Union Village, Ohio, and not Pleasant Hill.

Comments:

The display of notes as footnotes or endnotes may be controlled by use of the ACTUATE and SHOW attributes which control linking behavior. Setting the TYPE attribute as "footnote" or "endnote" may facilitate the placement of the notes by the stylesheet used for printing.

Repeatable:

yes

Order:

n/a

Revision Date:

05/07/03

Table of Contents

Linking Elements

Table of Contents Number:

2.2

EAD Guideline:

7.1.2 (Ver. 1.0)

Tag:

n/a

Description:

There are seventeen elements in EAD that can be used to establish links: fifteen manage links directly, while two (<daogrp> and <linkgrp>) are wrapper elements that consolidate multiple, related links. Linking elements are discussed here under the general categories of internal links (with the EAD document) and external links (to other documents.)

New in EAD 2002: linking elements <arc> and <resource> have been added.

Labels/Heads:

n/a

Encoding Analog:

n/a

Other Attributes:

n/a

Subelements:

<arc> See 2.2.1 Internal Linking and 2.2.2, External Linking
<archref> See 2.2.2, External Linking
<bibref> See 2.2.2, External Linking
<dao> See 2.2.2, External Linking
<daogrp> See 2.2.2, External Linking
<daoloc> See 2.2.2, External Linking
<extptr> See 2.2.2, External Linking
<extptrloc> See 2.2.2, External Linking
<extref> See 2.2.2, External Linking
<extrefloc> See 2.2.2, External Linking
<linkgrp> See 2.2.1, Internal Linking
<ptr> See 2.2.1, Internal Linking
<ptrloc> See 2.2.1, Internal Linking
<ref> See 2.2.1, Internal Linking
<refloc> See 2.2.1, Internal Linking
<resource> See 2.2.1 Internal Linking and 2.2.2, External Linking
<title> See 2.2.2, External Linking

Comments:

Extensive information about linking can be found in Chapter 7 of the EAD Application Guidelines. Remember to check the EAD 2002 Tag Library for current values of attributes.

Repeatable:

n/a

Order:

n/a

Revision Date:

05/07/03

Table of Contents

Internal Linking

Table of Contents Number:

2.2.1

EAD Guideline:

7.2 (Ver. 1.0)

Tag:

n/a

Description:

Internal linking enhances the ability to navigate a finding aid via explicit links between related information appearing in different places in the finding aid. Extensive information about linking can be found in Chapter 7 of the EAD Application Guidelines.

LC Practice requires the use of the TARGET, ACTUATE, and SHOW attributes with internal linking elements, and recommends the use of <ref> over <ptr> for internal linking.

New in EAD 2002: linking elements <arc> and <resource> have been added. Values for the ACTUATE attribute have changed.

Labels/Heads:

n/a

Encoding Analog:

n/a

Other Attributes:

target (value of id assigned to target of link) Required
actuate="onrequest" (means user needs to click on link for target to be displayed) Required
show="replace" (target is displayed in place of the text just viewed) Required

See Tag Library for full list of attributes and their values.

Subelements:

Simple linking within the finding aid:

<ref> (links with text)
<ptr> (empty links --no text) may be bundled using <ptrgrp>

Additionally, <indexentry> may be used within the index to bundle <ref>, <ptr>, or <ptrgrp>.

Extended linking within the finding aid (must be bundled using <linkgrp>)

<arc> (rules for traversal among resources in extended link)
<refloc> (locator links with text)
<ptrloc> (empty locator links --no text)
<resource> (local resource participating in extended link)

Tagging Example 1.

Cross-reference from Hart linked to target (Rodgers)

<c02 level="file">
 <did>
 <container type="box">135</container>
 <unittitle encodinganalog="245$a">Hart, Lorenz <ref show="replace" actuate="onrequest" target="rodgers176">See Container 176, Rodgers,
 Richard</ref>
 </unittitle>
 </did>
</c02>
<c02 level="file">
 <did>
 <container type="box">176</container>
 <unittitle id="rodgers176" encodinganalog="245$a">Rodgers,
 Richard, and Lorenz Hart, <title>I Married an Angel,</title>
 <unitdate encodinganalog="245$f" normal="1938" type="inclusive">[1938]</unitdate>
 </unittitle>
 </did>
</c02>

Display of Tagging Example 1.

Cross-reference from Hart linked to target (Rodgers)

Box 135 Hart, Lorenz See Container 176, Rodgers, Richard

Box 176 Rodgers, Richard, and Lorenz Hart, I Married an Angel, [1938]

Comments:

All links must have targets. Set the TARGET attribute for a reference with a brief unique alpha or alphanumeric identifier for the object of the link; id's must begin with an alphabetic character. For example, a container list cross reference, "See Container 17, Smith, Anna" might have attribute target="smith17". To make the link work, set the attribute id="smith17" for the <unittitle> in Container 17 to which the link should go. See Example 1.
See Section 3.3.8.3 for a discussion of <ptrgrp>, <ptr>, and <ref> in relation to indexes.
See the Application Guidelines, 7.2.3 for an explanation of the extended linking and elements <refloc> and <ptrloc>. Remember to check the EAD 2002 Tag Library for new elements <arc> and <resource>, and for current values of attributes for linking elements.

Repeatable:

n/a

Order:

n/a

Revision Date:

11/03/03

Table of Contents

External Linking

Table of Contents Number:

2.2.2

EAD Guideline:

7.3 (Ver. 1.0)

Tag:

n/a

Description:

External linking refers to links from a finding aid to another electronic resource, which may be another encoded finding aid, a digital archival object (<dao>), an external image or file not from the archival collection (e.g., the LC seal or an illustration), or a web page. Extensive information about linking can be found in Chapter 7 of the EAD Application Guidelines.

LC practice requires the use of the HREF, ACTUATE, and SHOW attributes with external linking elements.

New in EAD 2002: linking elements <arc> and <resource> have been added. Values for the ACTUATE attribute have changed.

Labels/Heads:

n/a

Encoding Analog:

n/a

Other Attributes:

Simple linking:

href (target of link) Required
actuate="onrequest" (means user needs to click on link for target to be displayed) or "onload" (means target displayed automatically, e.g., LC seal) Required
show="new" (target resource displayed in a new browser window) or "embed" (target resource displayed at point of link) Required

See Tag Library for full list of attributes and their values.

Extended linking (<daoloc>):

href (target of link) Required
role (MIME type of target)

See Tag Library for full list of valid attributes and their values for this and for other extended linking elements.

Subelements:

Simple linking:

use <extptr> for the LC seal (in <eadheader>) or any illustrative matter which should be displayed inline and is not from the collection described
use <extref> for external links such as to a Library web page
use <archref> to link to other archival collections. For instance, this may be another finding aid (preferably EAD), or to a web page, database, or catalog record for the archival collection.
use <bibref> to link from a bibliographic citation to an online version of the work
use <title> to link to a title to an online version of the work

Extended linking:

use <arc> to specify rules for traversal among resources in an extended link
use <daoloc> for an object within <daogrp>. <daogrp> is used as a wrapper for one or more archival objects.
rather than using <dao> for a single archival object, use <daoloc> within <daogrp> instead. This is a change in LC Practice recommended by the RLG Best Practice Guidelines.
use <extrefloc> for external reference extended references
use <extptrloc> for external pointer extended references
use <resource> to specify local resources participating in an extended link

Tagging Example 1a.

XML prolog with entity declarations, linking elements for Hannah Arendt Papers

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>

<!DOCTYPE ead PUBLIC "+//ISBN 1-931666-00-8//DTD ead.dtd (Encoded Archival Description
(EAD) Version 2002)//EN" "http://lcweb2.loc.gov/xmlcommon/dtds/ead2002/ead.dtd"

[
<!ENTITY arendthome "http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/arendthtml/">
<!ENTITY eadmss.mhafol02 "http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/arendthtml/mharendtFolderP02.html">
<!ENTITY eadmss.mhafol03 "http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/arendthtml/mharendtFolderP03.html">
<!ENTITY lcseal SYSTEM "http://lcweb2.loc.gov/xmlcommon/lcseal.jpg" NDATA jpeg>
]>

<ead>[Beginning of EAD finding aid]</ead>

Tagging Example 1b.

<daoloc> has href value as an entity declared in prolog for Arendt

<c01 level="series">
 <did>
 <unittitle id="clcorr" encodinganalog="245$a">Correspondence,
 <unitdate encodinganalog="245$f" normal="1938/1976" type="inclusive">1938-1976</unitdate>
 </unittitle>
 <daogrp>
 <daoloc href="&eadmss.mhafol02;">
 <daodesc>
 Items available online.
 </daodesc>
 </daoloc>
 </daogrp>
 </did>
</c01>

Display of Tagging Example 1b.

<daoloc> link goes to American memory presentation of series contents

Correspondence, 1938-1976
Items available online.

Tagging Example 2a.

XML prolog with entity declarations and link to external 'bell.ent' entity file for Bell papers

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8">
<!DOCTYPE ead PUBLIC "+//ISBN 1-931666-00-8//DTD ead.dtd (Encoded Archival Description
(EAD) Version 2002)//EN" "http://lcweb2.loc.gov/xmlcommon/dtds/ead2002/ead.dtd"
[

<!ENTITY lcseal SYSTEM "http://lcweb2.loc.gov/xmlcommon/lcseal.jpg" NDATA jpeg>
<!ENTITY % links SYSTEM "bell.ent">
%links;

]>

<ead>[Beginning of EAD finding aid]</ead>

Tagging Example 2b.

Partial content of external 'bell.ent' entity file; handle registered for each entity

<!ENTITY eadmss.mb003001 "http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.mss/eadmss.mb003001">
<!ENTITY eadmss.mb004001 "http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.mss/eadmss.mb004001">
<!ENTITY eadmss.mb004102 "http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.mss/eadmss.mb004102">
<!ENTITY eadmss.mb005003 "http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.mss/eadmss.mb005003">

Tagging Example 2c.

Shows <daoloc> with href value an entity declared in external entity file for Bell

<c03 level="file">
 <did>
 <unittitle encodinganalog="245$a">Family
 correspondence</unittitle>
 <daogrp>
 <daoloc href="&eadmss.mb003001;">
 <daodesc>
 Items available online.
 </daodesc>
 </daoloc>
 </daogrp>
 </did>
</c03>

Display of Tagging Example 2c.

<daoloc> link resolves via handle server to search results linking to contents of partially digitized folder

Family correspondence
Items available online.

Comments:

EAD linking elements

Use the HREF attribute to set the target of the link from each linking element.
Declare and use an entity for each link target rather than just embedding the URL in the HREF attribute of the linking element. For instance, in Example 1a, name the home page for the Hannah Arendt home page in American Memory as "arendthome". In the link from the <daoloc> in Example 1b, the name of the entity is preceded by an ampersand and followed by a semicolon. The entity declaration in the prolog (at the top of the finding aid) in Example 1a contains the information that the entity named "&arendthome;" is found at the URL "http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/arendthtml/".

XML prolog

All finding aids should have information included in the XML prolog (the portion of the document which precedes the opening <ead> tag) in order to permit external linking. This information is included in the templates, and the full text of the prolog is provided in Examples 1a and 2a.
The entity declaration, "<!ENTITY lcseal SYSTEM ...> enables linking to the LC seal, which is stored in the ITS file system and is displayed with every LC finding aid. The location of the LC seal has been revised to fit into the new ITS XML file system, and the seal has been transformed into JPEG format. This is a change in LC practice.
If links are made to nine or fewer external entities, include the entity declarations in the document prolog. If there are ten or more entities, they will comprise a separate file to be stored in the same directory as the finding aid and its helper files, named with a .ent extension. See the EAD Technical Web page for further information on file structure and helper files.

Handles and external entities:

If the target of a link is another EAD finding aid, a handle will be registered for the finding aid as part of standard procedures. See the EAD Technical Web page for an example of batch handle files for finding aids.
If the target of a link is a stable web page, the entity declaration will include its URL, and there is no need to register a handle.
If the target of a link is not a stable URL, for instance the response to a cgi-bin query, consider registering a handle. In Example 2b, handles should be registered for each entity, which would resolve to a URL that sends a search to InQuery, e.g., "http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/S?ammem/magbell:@field(DOCID+@range (magbell37500200+magbell37500299))".

Conversion from SGML to XML:

In converting existing SGML finding aids to XML, processing instructions such as <?ATTLINK EXTPTR HREF URI> which were present in the SGML finding aids to enable external linking in the Panorama application have been converted to XML format in those finding aids, e.g. <?ATTLINK EXTPTR HREF URI?>. These instructions may be retained in a converted XML document; however, they should not be added to newly encoded finding aids.
In the process of document conversion, the values of the declared entities are extracted from the declarations and appear as the value of the HREF attribute, and the entity declaration is no longer present (i.e., HREF="&arendthome;" will be changed to HREF="http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/arendthtml/".) This result for converted finding aids is acceptable, but newly encoded finding aids should continue to implement the practice described above concerning use of external entities.

Repeatable:

n/a

Order:

n/a

Revision Date:

05/27/04

Table of Contents

EAD Header

Table of Contents Number:

3.1

EAD Guideline:

3.6.1 (Ver. 1.0)

Tag:

Description:

The <eadheader> comprises a set of metadata about the finding aid that serves to identify each EAD instance, and is based on the TEI header.

LC Practice requires the inclusion of <eadheader> and its subelements; <eadheader> and two of its subelements, <eadid> and <filedesc>, are required by the EAD DTD. Consistent formulation of its information is essential.

New in EAD 2002: required attributes LANGENCODING, SCRIPTENCODING, REPOSITORYENCODING, COUNTRYENCODING, and DATEENCODING.

Labels/Heads:

n/a

Encoding Analog:

n/a

Other Attributes:

relatedencoding="MARC21" Required
langencoding="iso639-2b" Required
scriptencoding="iso15924" Required
repositoryencoding="iso15511" Required
countryencoding="iso3611-1" Required
dateencoding="iso8601" Required

See Tag Library for full list of attributes and their values.

Subelements:

Listed in order required by DTD. Required elements must be included to conform with LC practice.

<eadid> Required by DTD See 3.1.1, Unique File Identifier
<filedesc> Required by DTD See 3.1.2, File Description
<profiledesc> Required See 3.1.3, Profile Description
<revisiondesc> Required if applicable See 3.1.4, Revision Description

Tagging Example 1.

Fully encoded <eadheader> element

<ead>
 <eadheader relatedencoding="MARC21" langencoding="iso639-2b" scriptencoding="iso15924" repositoryencoding="iso15511" countryencoding="iso3166-1" dateencoding="iso8601">
 <eadid countrycode="us" mainagencycode="dlc" identifier="hdl:loc.gov/loc.mss/eadmss.ms001004" encodinganalog="856$u">http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.mss/eadmss.ms001004</eadid>
 <filedesc>
 <titlestmt>
 <titleproper encodinganalog="245$a">Charles and Ray
 Eames</titleproper>
 <subtitle>A Register of Their Papers in the Library of
 Congress</subtitle>
 <author encodinganalog="245$c">Prepared by Margaret H. McAleer
 with the assistance of Thelma Follette, Lisa Madison, and
 Robert A. Vietrogoski</author>
 </titlestmt>
 <publicationstmt>
 <publisher encodinganalog="260$b">
 <extptr href="lcseal" show="embed" actuate="onload" /> Manuscript Division, Library of Congress
 </publisher>
 <address>
 <addressline>Washington, D.C.</addressline>
 </address>
 <date encodinganalog="260$c" normal="1995">1995</date>
 </publicationstmt>
 <seriesstmt>
 <titleproper>Registers of Papers in the Manuscript Division of
 the Library of Congress</titleproper>
 </seriesstmt>
 </filedesc>
 <profiledesc>
 <creation>Text converted and initial EAD tagging provided by
 Apex Data Services, <date normal="1999-01">January 1999;</date>
 encoding completed by Manuscript Division, <date normal="1999-11">November 1999</date></creation>
 <langusage encodinganalog="546">Finding aid written in <language langcode="eng" encodinganalog="041">English</language> and <language langcode="ita" encodinganalog="041">Italian</language>
 </langusage>
 </profiledesc>
 <revisiondesc>
 <change encodinganalog="583">
 <date normal="2000-04">2000 April</date>
 <item>Linked to digital content</item>
 </change>
 <change encodinganalog="583">
 <date normal="1999-11">1999 November</date>
 <item>Revised to EAD version 1</item>
 </change>
 </revisiondesc>
 </eadheader>
</ead>

Display of Tagging Example 1.

If header used to generate display, header should not be set to audience='internal'

                       Charles and Ray Eames
            A Register of Their Papers in the Library of Congress

                   Prepared by Margaret H. McAleer
        with the assistance of Thelma Follette, Lisa Madison,
                     and Robert A. Vietrogoski

              Manuscript Division, Library of Congress
                        Washington, D.C.

                        [LC seal graphic]

                              1995

Text converted and initial EAD tagging provided by Apex Data Services,
January 1999; encoding completed by Manuscript Division, November 1999

2000 April Linked to digital content
1999 November Revised to EAD version 1

Note: display of series statement and language code suppressed

Comments:

The predominant practice for finding aids at the Library of Congress has used data from the <eadheader> to generate a title-page display, although some divisions have encoded a separate <titlepage> element in <frontmatter> in order to present elements in an order not permitted by the DTD. Future LC finding aids should discontinue use of <titlepage>. At present, LC HTML displays are generated from the <eadheader> rather than the <titlepage>, and title page formatting will not display to most users. When XSLT stylesheets are implemented, it will be easy to reorder the display of elements and to insert textual formatting that need not be included in <eadheader>; but at present, continue to include the LC seal within the <publisher> element in <eadheader>.
Set the RELATEDENCODING analog both at the <eadheader> and <archdesc> levels, since different encoding schemes may be used for the two major sections in future. Past practice has been to set RELATEDENCODING at the parent <ead> element alone. This is a change in LC practice.

Repeatable:

Order:

first element within <ead>

Revision Date:

05/26/04

Table of Contents

Unique File Identifier

Table of Contents Number:

3.1.1

EAD Guideline:

3.6.1.1 (Ver. 1.0)

Tag:

<eadid>

Description:

The <eadid> is an element required by the DTD that includes a unique alphanumeric identifier for each separate EAD finding aid. The <eadid> for a finding aid remains constant no matter how many times the finding aid may be revised or expanded.

LC Practice requires the <eadid>, which should be formulated according to the scheme described below.

New in EAD 2002: attributes COUNTRYCODE, IDENTIFIER, MAINAGENCYCODE, and others (attributes SYSTEMID, SOURCE, and TYPE are no longer valid).

Labels/Heads:

n/a

Encoding Analog:

856$u

Other Attributes:

countrycode="us" Required
mainagencycode="dlc" Required
identifier=LC handle preceded by "hdl:" (do not include the LC handle proxy server address "http://hdl.loc.gov") Required

Tagging Example 1.

<eadid> for the fourth Manuscript Division finding aid created in 2001

<eadheader>
 <eadid countrycode="us" mainagencycode="dlc" identifier="hdl:loc.gov/loc.mss/eadmss.ms001004" encodinganalog="856$u">http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.mss/eadmss.ms001004</eadid>
</eadheader>

Display of Tagging Example 1.

<eadid> for the fourth Manuscript Division finding aid created in 2001

http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.mss/eadmss.ms001004

Note: display of <eadid> is usually suppressed in HTML and XML versions

Comments:

Assumptions:

The <eadid> identifies the "work" (i.e., the intellectual content), whether fixed or dynamic in nature. Finding aids are by nature dynamic works; they can reflect additions to collections they describe, increased granularity of descriptions (especially with digital collections), and for encoded finding aids, increased levels of tagging.

A new <eadid> is assigned only for a new work, not simply when the finding aid is updated.
The <eadid> is a published identifier; it is not functionally similar to a PIN.
Even if only part of a collection is initially processed and described, the EAD finding aid reflects the complete collection (in the header, scope and contents, etc.). The finding aid content should skeletally describe the complete collection and more completely describe the part of the collection being worked on. This should allow the finding aid to be expanded without requiring the <eadid> to change.
If a finding aid is subdivided into physical parts, a unique <eadid> will not be assigned to each separate physical part (this whole/part information will be incorporated into "structural metadata" associated with EADs stored in a repository)

EAD ID structure:

The Library of Congress bases its <eadid> practice on the persistent identifier naming scheme used for LC handles. The <eadid> is used by LC divisions when they register handles for finding aids.
An LC <eadid> consists of two parts: the naming authority and the finding aid item identifier.

The naming authority identifies the LC division maintaining the finding aid (which may or may not be the LC division which created the finding aid). Because an LC <eadid> is also a persistent identifier, the naming authority is assigned at the time the <eadid> is created -- and will not change if the maintaining division changes its name. The naming authority is unique within LC. (Example: loc.pnp.eadpnp or loc.mss)
The finding aid item identifier is a two-part name. The first part is a stable "aggregate" name beginning with "ead." Each LC division uses the same aggregate name for all finding aids it maintains. (Example: eadrbc or eadmbrs). The second part is an eight-character number assigned by the maintaining division. This number is structured as follows: the first two characters (lower case) identify the maintaining division, the next three digits identify an abbreviated date of creation for the finding aid, and the last three digits are a one-up ID number assigned to finding aids created within that year (Example: ms001004 is the fourth finding aid created by the Manuscript Division in 2001).

The content of the <eadid> contains an LC handle resolved through LC’s handle proxy server (http://hdl.loc.gov). The actual LC handle is recorded in the <eadid> IDENTIFIER attribute.

Set the <eadid> IDENTIFIER attribute to the LC handle (Example: "hdl:loc.afc/eadafc.af999001"). RLG Best Practice Guidelines state that <eadid> should include at least one of the following attributes: PUBLICID, IDENTIFIER, or URL. URN has been added as an option in EAD 2002. However, because handles are not yet valid type of URN, LC believes that IDENTIFIER is the attribute best suitable for handles. ("URI" is not a valid attribute in EAD 2002).
Set the content of the <eadid> to the URL for the LC handle resolved through LC’s handle proxy server (Example: http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.afc/eadafc.af999001)
Examples of <eadid> content are:

AFC: http://lcweb.loc.gov/hdl/afc/eadafc.af999001
G&M: http://lcweb.loc.gov/hdl/gmd/eadgmd.gm001001
MBRS/RS: http://lcweb.loc.gov/hdl/mbrsrs/eadmbrsrs.rs000001
MSS: http://lcweb.loc.gov/hdl/mss/eadmss.ms001028
MUSIC: http://lcweb.loc.gov/hdl/music/eadmusic.mu999001
P&P: http://lcweb.loc.gov/hdl/pnp/eadpnp.pp996001
RBC: http://lcweb.loc.gov/hdl/rbc/eadrbc.rb998001

Other institutions and consortia assign <eadid> values using a variety of schemes. Many use the <eadid> PUBLICID attribute. EAD 2002 permits use of multiple types of identifiers; see Tag Library, <eadid>, for an example setting both PUBLICID and URL attributes.

Repeatable:

Order:

first element within <ead>

Revision Date:

05/18/04

Table of Contents

File Description

Table of Contents Number:

3.1.2

EAD Guideline:

3.6.1.2 (Ver. 1.0)

Tag:

Description:

Bibliographic information about the intellectual content of the encoded finding aid is bundled in the required element <filedesc>, in which elements such as the finding aid's title, subtitle, author, and publisher are encoded in a series of subelements.

LC Practice requires the inclusion of <filedesc>, which is a mandatory element required by the EAD DTD.

Labels/Heads:

n/a

Encoding Analog:

n/a

Other Attributes:

n/a

Subelements:

Listed in recommended order. Encoding analogs listed below are required.

<titlestmt> Required by DTD

<titleproper encodinganalog="245$a"> Required by DTD
<subtitle>
<author encodinganalog="245$c"> Recommended

<editionstmt>

<edition>

<publicationstmt> Required

<publisher encodinganalog="260$b"> Required
<extptr> Required
<address> Required
<date encodinganalog="260$c" normal="(ISO 8601 normalized date)"> Required

<seriesstmt>

<titleproper>
<num>

<notestmt>

<note>

Tagging Example 1.

File description including series statement

<filedesc>
 <titlestmt>
 <titleproper encodinganalog="245$a">Charles and Ray
 Eames</titleproper>
 <subtitle>A Register of Their Papers in the Library of
 Congress</subtitle>
 <author encodinganalog="245$c">Prepared by Margaret H. McAleer
 with the assistance of Thelma Follette, Lisa Madison, and Robert
 A. Vietrogoski</author>
 </titlestmt>
 <publicationstmt>
 <publisher encodinganalog="260$b">
 <extptr href="lcseal" show="embed" actuate="onload" />
 Manuscript Division, Library of Congress
 </publisher>
 <address>
 <addressline>Washington, D.C.</addressline>
 </address>
 <date encodinganalog="260$c" normal="1995">1995</date>
 </publicationstmt>
 <seriesstmt>
 <titleproper>Registers of Papers in the Manuscript Division of
 the Library of Congress</titleproper>
 </seriesstmt>
</filedesc>

Display of Tagging Example 1.

Title display generated from file (series statement display suppressed)

Comments:

Remember that the finding aid title will be different from the name of the collection.
Each division should follow its own guidelines for the formulation of titles and in deciding whether series titles are to be used (for instance, the Manuscript Division has discontinued use of series titles). Finding aid titles may be formulated without subtitles, as is done by Music Division and American Folklife Division.
Date normalization will follow ISO standard 8601. Follow this normalization standard also for <unitdate> elements normalized in the <did> and component levels.

Repeatable:

Order:

first element within <ead> following <eadid>

Revision Date:

05/09/03

Table of Contents

Profile Description

Table of Contents Number:

3.1.3

EAD Guideline:

3.6.1.3 (Ver. 1.0)

Tag:

Description:

The <profiledesc> element bundles information about the creation of the encoded finding aid.

LC Practices requires the inclusion of <profiledesc>, as it establishes initial version control for the finding aid.

New in EAD 2002: attribute LANGCODE in <language>.

Labels/Heads:

n/a

Encoding Analog:

n/a

Other Attributes:

n/a

Subelements:

<creation> Required

<date> (set normal attribute) Required

<langusage encodinganalog="546"> Required

<language langcode="eng" encodinganalog="041"> Required

Set the SCRIPTCODE attribute for <language> using ISO 15924 only if nonroman script needs to be noted.

Tagging Example 1.

Creation description explicitly naming encoder/s; multiple languages in finding aid

<profiledesc>
 <creation>Finding Aid encoded by Morgan Cundiff and Paul Fraunfelter, <date normal="2001">2001</date>
 </creation>
 <langusage encodinganalog="546">Finding aid written in
 <language langcode="eng" encodinganalog="041">English</language> and <language langcode="fre" encodinganalog="041">French</language>
 </langusage>
</profiledesc>

Display of Tagging Example 1.

Title display generated from creation description (language statement display suppressed)

Finding Aid encoded by Morgan Cundiff and Paul Fraunfelter, 2001

Tagging Example 2.

Finding aid initially encoded by vendor

<profiledesc>
 <creation>Text converted and initial EAD tagging provided by Apex
 Data Services, <date normal="1999-01">January 1999;</date> encoding
 completed by Manuscript Division, <date normal="1999-11">November
 1999</date>
 </creation>
 <langusage encodinganalog="546">Finding aid written in
 <language langcode="eng" encodinganalog="041">English</language>
 </langusage>
</profiledesc>

Display of Tagging Example 2.

Finding aid initially encoded by vendor (language statement display suppressed)

Text converted and initial EAD tagging provided by Apex Data Services,
January 1999; encoding completed by Manuscript Division, 1999

Comments:

Each division should follow its own guidelines on giving names of encoders. It will be useful to record conversions performed in whole or part by outside agencies.
Use natural language for a statement of the language or languages in which the finding aid is written; use the LANGCODE attribute with value taken from ISO 639-2 for the language code in <language>, which will normally be "eng".
Use the ENCODINGANALOG attribute "546" for <langusage> and "041" for <language>; the latter maps most precisely to the LANGCODE attribute on <language>. Note that this differs from the current version of RLG Best Practice Guidelines for Encoded Archival Description, which sets "546" as ENCODINGANALOG for <langusage>.

Repeatable:

Order:

follows <filedesc> and precedes <revisiondesc>

Revision Date:

6/6/03

Table of Contents

Revision Description

Table of Contents Number:

3.1.4

EAD Guideline:

3.6.1.4 (Ver. 1.0)

Tag:

Description:

The <revisiondesc> element contains information about substantial changes that have been made to the encoded finding aid.

LC Practice requires the inclusion of <revisiondesc> when applicable.

Labels/Heads:

n/a

Encoding Analog:

n/a

Other Attributes:

n/a

Subelements:

<change encodinganalog="583">

<date> (set normal attribute)
<item>

Tagging Example 1.

Finding aid revised and expanded (first revision of encoded finding aid)

<revisiondesc>
 <change encodinganalog="583">
 <date normal="1999-07">1999 July</date>
 <item>Finding aid revised to incorporate additional materials in
 December 1998, and re-encoded by John Smith.</item>
 </change>

Library of Congress

Recommended Best Practices for Encoded Archival Description Finding Aids at the Library of Congress (EAD Version 2002)

DRAFT

December 9, 2004

December 9, 2004

Table of Contents

List of Practices

INTRODUCTION

LC EAD Practices Working Group:

Basic Conventions Used

Name:

Table of Contents Number:

Guidelines Number:

Tag:

Description:

See also:

Labels/Heads:

Encoding Analog:

Other attributes:

Subelements:

Examples:

Comments:

Repeatable:

Order:

Revision Date:

Implementing XML in EAD 2002

XML is Case Sensitive

XML Character Encoding

Differences between SGML Prolog and XML Prolog

Converting from SGML EAD Version 1

Differences Between Converted Finding Aids and New EAD 2002 Encoding:

Library of Congress EAD Practices

Generic Text and Formatting Elements

Table of Contents Number:

EAD Guideline:

Description:

See also:

Encoding Analog:

Other Attributes:

Subelements:

Tagging Example 1.

Display of Tagging Example 1.

Tagging Example 2.

Display of Tagging Example 2.

Tagging Example 3.

Display of Tagging Example 3.

Comments:

Repeatable:

Order:

Revision Date:

Heading

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