EAD Application Guidelines for Version 1.0
Chapter 3. Creating Finding Aids in EAD: Continued
Hundreds of names and subjects can appear in a finding aid, but prominence can be given to the major ones that relate to the entire collection, or that highlight the collection's principal strengths, by grouping them together within the Controlled Access Headings <controlaccess> element under <archdesc>. These headings often are the same as the terms included in the 1xx, 6xx, and 7xx fields of the MARC catalog record for the collection. Because of their value as search terms, some repositories are grouping them near the front of their finding aids, immediately after the high-level <did>, so that a researcher landing in the <controlaccess> area as the result of a search will be in close proximity to the collection summary provided in the high-level <did>. Some of these headings also can be embedded in <did> subelements, as described in section 3.5.1.1. For a detailed discussion of authority-controlled access terms and their placement and use in EAD finding aids, see section 3.5.3.
Finding aids often contain information about the acquisition, custodial history, processing, and archival management of the collections they describe. Statements about the conditions of access, use, and duplication, or the availability of microfilm or other surrogates also may be included to give the user essential information about how to approach and make use of the archival materials. The <admininfo> element provides a place to assemble such information in an EAD finding aid. This optional wrapper element is for background information that users may need to gain access to the archival materials, place them in context, and make use of the information they contain. The element <admininfo> can also contain information that will assist repositories in some aspects of collection management.
At the highest level of description in <archdesc>, <admininfo> can be used to provide collection management information for the entire body of materials. It also can be used at the <c> level to provide information specific to a subgroup, series, or lower component. Unlike the <did> subelements, <admininfo> cannot contain text directly; it can only contain other elements. The subelements available within <admininfo> include generic text elements such as Heading <head>, Paragraph <p>, and List <list>, as well as nine content-specific elements:
- Acquisition Information <acqinfo>
- Custodial History <custodhist>
- Restrictions on Access <accessrestrict>
- Restrictions on Use <userestrict>
- Alternate Form Available <altformavail>
- Preferred Citation <prefercite>
- Appraisals <appraisal>
- Accruals <accruals>
- Processing Information <processinfo>
Each of these subelements is described in the sections that follow. Use of the generic text elements is described in section 3.5.1.7.
Like all <did>-level elements, <admininfo> is recursive, meaning one <admininfo> can contain another; this is a useful capability if you need a different array of <admininfo> details for distinct parts of a collection, such as multiple accessions. Recursion also facilitates the use of multiple headings or subheadings within <admininfo>. Headings should be constructed with users in mind; using only the element name or archival terminology may not be meaningful to a user. In addition, <admininfo> is repeatable, so information that is critical to a user, such as restrictions on access, can be provided near the beginning of the description, while information that is principally useful to repository staff, such as who processed the collection and when, can be provided after <scopecontent> or elsewhere in the finding aid.
The <admininfo> element can be entered as a single narrative in one or more <p>s rather than as specific subelements. This may be appropriate if individual administrative data elements cannot be easily parsed out of existing text when converting legacy data, but it leaves you with a rather undifferentiated block of text, which limits your ability to manipulate or reuse the data. Individually tagging the content-specific elements available within <admininfo> will, on the other hand, make the information much more useful in an online system. Each <admininfo> subelement contains an optional <head> and required <p>s in which you can enter text.
If an element contains standard pieces of text that apply to a range of finding aids, consider using a pointer element to display boilerplate text stored outside the finding aid (see section 6.5 on entities for more detail). This is especially useful for text that may change in future, such as the repository's address, a set of access conditions, or instructions for ordering microfilm copies.
None of the <admininfo> subelements are required and all are repeatable. Some, such as <acqinfo>, <accessrestrict>, <userestrict>, and <prefercite> may be useful in all finding aids, while others may only be needed for particular collections. The subelements can appear in any order within <admininfo>, but you should adopt a consistent order within all of your finding aids. Consider placing first those elements deemed most important to users (as opposed to staff). For example, you might place <accessrestrict> and <altformavail> in an <admininfo> immediately following the high-level <did>, and then open another <admininfo> that contains <appraisal> and <processinfo> after <scopecontent> or elsewhere in the finding aid. The sequence of subelements as presented in this section suggests one such possible order, but other logical or display considerations may prevail for your environment.
Each of the subelements has AUDIENCE and ENCODINGANALOG attributes. The AUDIENCE attribute can be set to "internal" to limit display of designated elements to repository staff (note, however, that the ability to suppress display of this attribute is dependent on your software environment, as mentioned elsewhere in these Guidelines). The ENCODINGANALOG attribute can be used to map the <admininfo> subelements to corresponding data elements in MARC or other encoding systems. (See the crosswalk in appendix B for MARC and ISAD(G) equivalents.)
Repositories have widely varying practices for recording information about the chain of custody for a body of materials and documenting their own acquisition of the materials. EAD accommodates this information in two <admininfo> subelements:
- Acquisition Information <acqinfo>
- Custodial History <custodhist>
The <acqinfo> element encodes information about the immediate source of the materials being described and the circumstances (donation, transfer, purchase, or deposit) under which they were received. It may be useful to document further details about an acquisition using elements available within Paragraph <p>. For example, an acquisition or donor number can be tagged as <num type="donor"> and the donor name tagged using <persname> or <corpname>, with the ROLE attribute set appropriately:
<acqinfo>
<p>The collection, <num type="accession">77-135</num>, was
given to the repository in <date type="accession">1977</date> by
<persname role="donor">Georgia O'Keeffe</persname>.</p>
</acqinfo>
In addition to documenting the immediate source of acquisition in <acqinfo>, the <custodhist> element can be used to encode information about the previous chain of custody. This type of information often has been incorporated into biographical and historical sketches or scope and content notes. <custodhist> provides a designated area for describing both the physical possession and intellectual ownership of the material and details of changes in ownership and/or custody that may be significant for its authority, integrity, and interpretation. For example, a body of materials may have been transferred and added to by different agencies within a corporate body, or family papers may have been handed down from generation to generation; understanding this chain of custody may assist a researcher in interpreting the materials and may affect the authenticity of the materials. (See also section 3.5.1.4.5 for information about accruals and appraisals, and section 3.5.4.4 for information about separated materials.)
<custodhist>
<p>The Ocean Falls Corporation records remained in the custody of Pacific Mills
Ltd., and its successor companies, until the mill and townsite were taken over by
the B.C. provincial government in 1973. In 1976 the records were transferred
to the Ocean Falls Public Library, which began the rearrangement of the records
in their current form. The project was never completed, however, due to lack of
funding and the collection lay in basement storage of the library until the Crown
Corporation, B.C. Cellulose, announced the closing of the mill in 1980. Abandoned
over a period of several years, the records were moved from one temporary storage
location to another as buildings were demolished, and suffered extensive losses
and water damage due to neglect. When the final dismantling of the Ocean
Falls facility was announced in 1986, a team of curators from the Royal
British Columbia Museum retrieved what remained of the records from the
townsite. These were transferred to the Provincial Archives in late 1986.</p>
</custodhist>
It is recommended that you not bog down the beginning of your finding aid with extensive acquisitions statements and custodial histories that researchers are unlikely to read immediately. Provide only as much information as your users may need when initially trying to orient themselves to a collection and to determine whether it is relevant to their research. More detailed statements about the acquisitions process or the custodial history of the materials may be better placed after information of greater immediate interest to researchers, such as the Scope and Content <scopecontent> note and Component <c> descriptions (see section 3.5.1.6 and section 3.5.2, respectively).
Limitations on researchers' access to archival materials may be imposed due to donor agreements, sensitivity of the content of the materials, physical condition of the materials, off-site storage, or statutory regulations. The Restrictions on Access <accessrestrict> element contains information about conditions that affect the availability of the materials described in the finding aid. It also can be used to state the absence of any access restrictions.
<accessrestrict>
<p>This collection is open for research with the exception of one box of
tapes and diaries, which is sealed until Plunkett's death or until explicit
permission for use is given by the Plunkett family. </p>
</accessrestrict>
After a researcher has seen the archival materials, there may be restrictions on reuse of the information for purposes of quotation, publication, or other reproduction; these can be stated in the Restrictions on Use <userestrict> element. The use conditions may be imposed by the repository, donor, or legal statute. The <userestrict> element also can be used to indicate the absence of such restrictions.
<userestrict>
<p>Materials are in the public domain. </p>
</userestrict>
<userestrict>
<head>Ownership and Literary Rights</head>
<p>The Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas Collection is the physical property
of the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University. Literary rights,
including copyright, belong to the authors or their legal heirs and assigns. For
further information, consult the appropriate curator.</p>
</userestrict>
It is useful for researchers to be aware of the fact that all or portions of a collection are available in multiple formats, that they may be required to use a format other than the original, or that they may be able to use the materials without visiting the repository. The existence of copies-microforms, digital images, videotape copies of motion pictures, or paper facsimiles-can be stated in <altformavail>. Information about the copies might include the format of the alternate form, its extent, identifying number or code, location, and the source or procedure for ordering copies. If only portions of the material have been duplicated, <altformavail> can be used at the Component <c> level and should include a brief statement about what is included in the duplicate version. If copies exist in more than one format, for example, both microform and digital copies, separate <altformavail> elements can be used for each, using the TYPE attribute to distinguish between them.
<altformavail type="microfilm">
<p>The Correspondence Series in this collection is available on microfilm
through Interlibrary Loan.</p>
</altformavail>
<altformavail>
<p>The original handwritten draft of <title
render="italic">Women in Love</title> is extremely fragile.
Researchers are required to use a photocopy unless special arrangements
are made.</p>
</altformavail>
Repositories frequently supply standard statements to be used for citing their holdings; these can be encoded in <prefercite>. The text can provide an example of a generic citation for the repository, or the example can be specific to the material being described. If you have varying preferred citation formats for different original media or modes of publication, examples of all the citations relevant for a collection should be provided. Alternatively, a pointer element could be used to call an entity file that states your repository's citation policies and preferred formats (see the discussion of entities in section 6.5).
<prefercite>
<p>[identification of item]. California Gold Rush Mining Towns,
BANC PIC 1987.021 -- PIC, The Bancroft Library, University of California,
Berkeley.</p>
</prefercite>
Government and corporate archives typically receive regular, scheduled additions to record groups or series. Manuscript repositories also sometimes receive personal papers in installments, particularly if the creator is alive at the time the donations begin. Repositories may simply wish to indicate that future additions to a collection are expected. The Accruals <accruals> element contains information about anticipated additions to the materials being described, indicating the date, frequency, or quantity of anticipated additions, or conversely, that no further additions are expected. This information may be useful to researchers, but could also be used by the repository to track and plan for accessions.
<accruals>
<p>Additions to the Department of Game and Fish records are
expected annually.</p>
</accruals>
Your repository may document appraisal decisions in your finding aids. The Appraisal <appraisal> element contains information about the process of determining the archival value and thus the disposition of records; it can be used to describe both original appraisal decisions and reappraisals that led to significant weeding or deaccessioning. It is recommended that you document appraisal decisions in cases where users might have reason to expect to find material in your repository, either because they were familiar with it prior to accessioning into the archives or because it had been described in a finding aid prior to reappraisal. If necessary, additional information about weeding and any resulting changes in the organization or arrangement of the material can be provided in the Separated Materials <separatedmaterial>, Organization <organization>, or Arrangement <arrangement> elements in other parts of the finding aid.
<appraisal>
<head>Appraisal statement:</head>
<p>Mental health facility patient case files are an important
route to documenting significant developments in mental health services
in New York, particularly therapies and treatments used, research
conducted on the nature and causes of mental conditions, the development
of diagnostic criteria, and the experiences of patients and families in
the facilities.</p>
The State Archives will obtain all pre-1920 patient case files. For post 1920 patient case files, the State Archives will obtain a representative sample of patient case files in their entirety from the following facilities: Binghamton, Pilgrim, Central Islip, Kings Park, Buffalo, Middletown, St. Lawrence, Mohawk Valley, and the Manhattan Psychiatric Center. The Office of Mental Health will microfilm case files for Pilgrim, Central Islip, Kings Park, and Mohawk Valley and transfer microfilm masters to the State Archives. The sample captures specific patient populations and treatments as defined in the detailed appraisal report, as well as providing for geographic coverage. The sample is necessary because over 110,000 cubic feet of patient case files currently exist, and cannot either be microfilmed in their entirety or retained in paper form. Admission and discharge ledgers for all patients will be retained by the State Archives to ensure core information survives on all patients for all facilities.</p>
</appraisal>
The name of the processor and the date the collection was processed is frequently included in archival finding aids.(61) While you may choose not to document routine processing activities beyond this basic information, <processinfo> also can be used to encode a range of information regarding accessioning, arranging and describing, preserving, or otherwise preparing the described materials for research use.
<processinfo>
<head>Processing Information</head>
<p>These records were originally organized and processed in 1977 by
Lydia Lucas. In 1993, Michael Fox refined the arrangement prior to
microfilming.</p>
</processinfo>
For electronic records, <processinfo> may be the most appropriate place to describe file conversions, media migrations, and other maintenance and preservation actions that do not result in alternative formats being made available for public use (such formats would be encoded in <altformavail>; see section 3.5.1.4.3).
<processinfo>
<head>Processing Information</head>
<p>Duderstadt created many of his speeches and other documents using
MORE 3.0, an outlining/text editing program for Apple computers that is no
longer commercially available or supported. During processing of the collection
the MORE files were converted to WordPerfect files.</p>
</processinfo>
Contextual information about the creation or formation of a body of archival materials is typically found in finding aids in some kind of creator sketch-a biographical sketch or agency history-which provides background information about the individual, family, or organization which created or collected the materials. The information may be presented as narrative text and/or as a chronology, in which dates are paired with one or more events in a columnar format. In EAD, such contextual information is encoded in <bioghist>.
Several encoding options exist. If you prefer to present the biographical sketch in narrative form, you might use the optional <head> followed by a series of paragraphs. Within <p> it is possible to encode <persname>, <famname>, <corpname>, and <occupation> access terms, as well as dates. Such detailed content encoding could be useful if these kinds of access points, such as the name of an agency's predecessor, do not appear in other parts of the finding aid or are not grouped together in <controlaccess> (see section 3.5.3). Remember, however, that it is advisable to mark up only those pieces of text that relate to information contained in the collection itself so that users do not obtain irrelevant search results.
<bioghist>
<head>Organizational History</head>
<p><title render="italic">The Quest</title> was founded
in the fall of 1965 by <persname>Alexis Levitin</persname>.
The original editorial staff and board comprised--like Levitin--graduate
students at <corpname>Columbia University</corpname>. Levitin
created a literary magazine that attempted to avoid a narrowly-defined focus
and to encourage good writing from contributors of many viewpoints.
<blockquote><p>"We expect (read the magazine's entry in the
<title render="italic">Directory of Little Magazines</title>) of the
artist not only a well-wrought structure, but, within it, a creative and
meaningful reflection upon the essential truths of our existence as well."</p>
</blockquote></p>
<p>After Levitin left New York in 1968 for a teaching position at Dartmouth,
most of the work of editing the magazine was carried on by <persname>David
Hartwell</persname> and <persname>Tom Beeler</persname>, who
ultimately purchased the magazine from Levitin in late 1969.
Hartwell and Beeler had never liked the name <title render="italic">Quest</title>
and renamed it <title render="italic">The Little Magazine</title>, under
which title it first appeared with the spring 1970 issue.</p>
<p>After Beeler's departure in 1971 the principal burden of
continuing the magazine was borne by David Hartwell, working with
a constantly changing cast of editors and editorial board members.</p>
</p>Throughout its twenty-one year life <title render="italic">The Quest</title>
and <title render="italic">The Little Magazine</title> published new
poetry and short fiction from primarily younger American writers. Circulation
never rose much above a thousand, even with national distribution by <persname>
Bernhard DeBoer</persname>, and in the face of steeply rising production costs
publication became increasingly irregular in the late 1970s. By the end of the decade
Hartwell was heavily involved in science fiction editing but was able to continue
publication with the help of the volunteer editorial board. Eventually the end came,
and with the appearance of v. 15, no.3-4 in 1987 <title render="italic">The Little
Magazine</title> ceased publication.</p>
</bioghist>
If you prefer to present contextual information in the form of a structured chronology, the Chronology List <chronlist> element is available within <bioghist>. The element <chronlist> contains the wrapper element Chronology Item <chronitem>, which bundles a date with a single event or a group of events:
<bioghist>
<head>Biographical Note</head>
<chronlist>
<chronitem>
<date>1919, Dec. 14</date>
<event>Born, <geogname>San Francisco, Calif.</geogname>
(Due to discrepancies concerning its authenticity, the year of
Jackson's birth is also cited as 1916 by some authorities.)</event>
</chronitem>
<chronitem>
<date>1940</date>
<eventgrp>
<event>A.B., <corpname>Syracuse University</corpname>,
<geogname>Syracuse, N.Y.</geogname></event>
<event>Married <persname>Stanley Edgar Hyman</persname>
</event>
</eventgrp>
</chronitem>
</chronlist>
</bioghist>
The <bioghist> element is recursive (i.e., it can be nested within itself). As mentioned earlier, recursion permits bundling of the parts of a logical component of the finding aid, while at the same time allowing subcomponents to be separately identified. For example, the finding aid for the records of the Alfred A. Knopf Inc. publishing firm contains three sections of contextual information.(62) Both Alfred and Blanche Knopf were intimately involved in the running of the firm, and the records contain much personal correspondence and information about their other interests and travels; it is therefore appropriate for the finding aid to contain an agency history for the firm itself, as well as separate biographical sketches for both Alfred and Blanche Knopf. The markup would look like this:
<bioghist>
<bioghist encodinganalog="545">
<head>Organizational History</head>
<p>The Alfred A. Knopf Inc. publishing firm was founded in 1915....
</p>
</bioghist>
<bioghist encodinganalog="545">
<head>Biographical Sketch of Alfred Knopf</head>
<p><persname encodinganalog="700" source="lcnaf" normal="Knopf,
Alfred A., 1892-1984">Alfred Knopf </persname>....</p>
</bioghist>
<bioghist encodinganalog="545">
<head>Biographical Sketch of Blanche Knopf</head>
<p><persname encodinganalog="700" source="lcnaf"
normal="Knopf, Blanche W., 1894-1966"> Blanche Knopf
</persname>....</p>
</bioghist>
</bioghist>
This markup allows the use of multiple <head>s for formatting purposes (<head> is not repeatable within an individual element), as well as the extraction of the three sections for individual MARC 545 (Biographical or Historical Data) fields and added entries for Alfred and Blanche Knopf, if so desired. See also section 3.5.3.1 for discussion of attributes for name elements.
Finding aids frequently contain a section that summarizes the range and topical coverage of the described materials, often mentioning their form and organization, and naming significant individuals, organizations, events, places, and subjects represented in the materials. Generally such sections are called scope and content notes, and in EAD they are encoded in <scopecontent>. Within <scopecontent>, you can separately encode <organization>, which describes the manner in which the materials have been subdivided into smaller units such as series, and <arrangement>, which designates the filing sequence of the materials such as alphabetical, chronological, or numerical. The <organization> and <arrangement> elements also are available within <archdesc> outside of <scopecontent> to accommodate finding aids in which this information is stated elsewhere. As in <bioghist> and other <did>-level elements, it is also possible to encode a variety of access points within <scopecontent>, such as <persname>, <subject>, and <genreform>.
<scopecontent>
<head>Collection Scope and Content Note</head>
<scopecontent encodinganalog="520">
<p>The records of the Detroit Japanese American Citizens League
<abbr>(JACL)</abbr> document mainly the social activities
of this Detroit area ethnic group. Some of the files pertain to the
lasting effect of the relocation of American citizens of Japanese descent
during World War II.</p>
<organization><p>The records are organized in three series:
Topical Files, Photographs, and Scrapbooks.</p></organization>
</scopecontent>
<p>The Topical Files series contains papers spanning 1947 through 1995
that document the Detroit chapter's meeting minutes, installation banquets,
preparation for various conventions, and relationship with the national JACL
organization. Also contained in this series are copies of the chapter's
newsletter and <title render="italic">The Beacon</title>, a
monthly Detroit publication of Nisei-Caucasian fellowship. The Miscellaneous
folders hold mostly correspondence along with other Detroit JACL records that
may be duplicated in the Minutes and Treasurer's Reports groups. Peter
Fujioka's correspondence is also available and filed under his name.</p>
<p>Photographs of installation banquets, picnics, conferences, teen
events, and other activities can be found in the Photograph Series.
Individuals in these photographs are mostly unidentified; however, the
photographs are generally labeled and arranged according to event.
Photographs stored in folders should be examined for identification
markings on the back. Some photographs were removed from the scrapbooks
for the exhibit entitled <title render="quoted">From Manzanar to
Motor City. A History of Michigan's Japanese American Community</title>
and are labeled with a number designating which scrapbook originally contained
the photograph.</p>
<p>The Scrapbook Series most clearly demonstrates the activities of the
Detroit JACL chapter. Most scrapbooks contain information about the overall
chapter activities, while others focus on the activities of the youth groups
and the golf club. Each book contains photographs and documentation of events
and publications and has been kept intact if possible. Materials which have
become detached have been transferred to folders. Some duplication appears
between the Scrapbook and Topical Files series.</p>
</scopecontent>
Like <bioghist>, <scopecontent> is recursive, facilitating the use of multiple <head>s and enabling the extraction of a summary paragraph, via the ENCODINGANALOG attribute, from a longer scope and content note for use in the 520 field of a MARC record.
Most EAD elements focus on markup of the structural components of a finding aid, but some generic text and formatting elements also are necessary for coherent formatting of the document; these include <head>, <p>, <blockquote>, <emph>, <list>, and a variety of other elements. In addition, subelements within <p> enable further formatting, linking, and vocabulary control options. Not all of these elements will be discussed in this section, but you should be aware of their availability and check their proper use in the EAD Tag Library. Linking elements and tabular display elements are described more specifically in chapter 7 and section 4.3.5.4, respectively.
These Guidelines emphasize the desirability of omitting some formatting elements from the markup and allowing the stylesheet to control online display (see section 5.3.3 for more information on stylesheets). A good rule of thumb is that if the content of an element should be displayed consistently in a particular way (such as in italics) across all of your finding aids (or in all finding aids of a particular type), then it is best to let the stylesheet control the display. On the other hand, if a single word in a paragraph needs special treatment, such as to be italicized, use the appropriate formatting element (in the case of italics, use <emph>).
Most of EAD's textual and formatting subelements are optional, a certain amount of generic textual markup is necessary. One reason for this is that SGML syntax prefers that each element be defined to contain either other elements or text, but not both. This is why, for example, you must open <p> to type text into <scopecontent>, which cannot directly contain text (referred to in SGML as parsed character data, or PCDATA).
Headings are frequently used in finding aids to identify blocks of text. The <head> element is available for all of the <did>-level elements, such as <admininfo> and <scopecontent>, as well as for all components <c> and many other elements for which a heading of some sort is desirable. If <head> is used, it must appear as the first subelement, before <p> or another subelement. Headings can easily be manipulated with a stylesheet to control display. Examples illustrating the use of <head> abound in this chapter, such as in section 3.5.1.5 and section 3.5.3.7.
There are circumstances in which it is not appropriate to use <head> for heading-like information. As explained in section 3.5.1.1, <did> subelements use a LABEL attribute instead of <head>. It is also important to avoid using <head> when a more specific EAD structural element such as <unittitle> is more appropriate, as described in section 3.5.2.3.1.1.
The Paragraph <p> element is used to designate what we think of as a simple paragraph-one or more sentences that form a logical prose passage. A paragraph may be a subdivision of a larger narrative, or it may stand alone. It is usually typographically distinct: a blank line often appears before and after it; the text begins on a new line; and the first letter of the first word is often indented, capitalized, or both.
The <p> element is an important element that is used frequently. It is available, and its use often required, within more than 30 EAD elements. Unlike most elements, it may contain a combination of text and other elements. More than thirty subelements are available within <p>, including all of the subelements that are available in <controlaccess> (described in section 3.5.3). An advantage of having these elements available within <p> is that you can encode names, subjects, and form and genre terms in natural language and also provide their authority-controlled forms for search and retrieval purposes. The latter is accomplished by using the NORMAL attribute.
<p><persname source="lcnaf" normal="Knopf, Alfred A.,
1892-1984">Knopf</persname> entered <corpname
source="lcnaf" normal="Columbia College (Columbia University)">
Columbia College</corpname> in 1908, where he became interested
in the fields of history and literature.</p>
Several generic textual subelements are available within <p> as well, such as Abbreviation <abbr>, Emphasis <emph>, Expansion <expan>, Line Break <lb>, List <list>, and Table <table>. In some instances, it will be preferable to have the stylesheet control the display of such things, but in others it will be more practical to include them in the markup. Some of these elements also can be used to facilitate searching. For example, using <abbr> in the following sentence may enhance the retrievability of references to ISAD(G).
<p>In the General International Standard Archival Description
<abbr>ISAD(G)</abbr> ...</p>
A number of citation and linking elements are available in <p>, including Archival Reference <archref>, Bibliographic Reference <bibref>, Extended Pointer <extptr>, Reference <ref>, and Title <title> (the linking elements are discussed in chapter 7). The use of <title> in <p> is particularly useful for display and retrieval purposes. For instance, it may not be possible to have a stylesheet control the display of every <title> within a <p>, because the stylesheet would not be able to distinguish a journal article title that should appear within quotation marks from a title of a novel that should appear in italics. To control this type of display, the RENDER attribute would be necessary:
<title render="italic">Alice in Wonderland</title>
Keep in mind that when <p> is available within an element it is often required before you can insert text, unless another structural subelement is used first. For example, both of the following examples are valid, but the latter is more precise in its markup due to inclusion of the subelement <acqinfo>:
<admininfo>
<p>The record group was donated by the Detroit Japanese American
Citizens League in February 1998. Donor no. 8691</p>
</admininfo>
<admininfo>
<acqinfo>
<p>The record group was donated by the Detroit Japanese American
Citizens League in February 1998. Donor no. 8691</p>
</acqinfo>
</admininfo>
As mentioned in section 3.5.1.2.6, <note> is available many places other than <did> because of its utility as explanatory text. The <note> element can be used within all of the <did>-level elements (<admininfo>, <bioghist>, <scopecontent>, <c>, Adjunct Descriptive Data <add>, and Other Descriptive Data <odd>), as well as within the <admininfo> subelements, generic textual elements, and linking elements. They can be placed as footnotes at the bottom of each page if desired for hard-copy printouts; in an online environment, they may be placed either at the end of a document or embedded within the text. The ACTUATE and SHOW attributes can be used to suppress online display of <note>s until they are requested by a finding aid user; details on using these attributes are in section 7.4.1.
The online environment facilitates the inclusion of digital representations of archival materials embedded within a finding aid or linked to it. EAD provides many linking elements, but the <dao> and <daogrp> elements are intended specifically for digital representations from the collection described by the finding aid. These representations might include graphic images, audio or video clips, images of text pages, and electronic transcriptions of text. The <dao> and <daogrp> elements are available within <did>, as mentioned in section 3.5.1.2.9, but they are also available within a number of other EAD elements, including <bioghist>, <scopecontent>, and <c>. In a biographical sketch you might provide photographs of the creator or images of other items from the collection that relate to an event or activity connected to the creator's life; in a scope and content note or within components, you might either link to or embed thumbnail images or clips of materials from the collection. These might represent the contents of entire files, selected items that are frequently requested, or items that are fragile and cannot be handled in the original. Detailed instructions for using <dao> and <daogrp> are in section 7.3.6.
Footnotes
- When the processor is also the author of the finding aid, consider repeating the individual's name within the <filedesc> element of the <eadheader> (see section 3.6.1.2).
- This collection is at the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center at the University of Texas, Austin.
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Copyright Society of American Archivists, 1999.
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