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This article addresses the Terezita Romo Papers, one of a handful of archival collections of the Royal Chicano Air Force—a large collective of young, mostly immigrant or first-generation Mexican American artists and activists who produced countless community events and art projects and programs in Sacramento, California during the second half of the twentieth century. While membership of the Royal Chicano Air Force (RCAF) and its activities are hard to calculate, its history has been shaped by a tendency towards iconization of the group’s male founders in archival description. Specifically, where collections are described to highlight the unique contributions of individuals, it is difficult to retain and promote the collective voice of action which made so many of these movements successful. Using the papers of Tere Romo, one member of the RCAF, this paper looks at how the archives of the RCAF have tended towards iconization—overshadowing the contributions of its female members—and explores ways in which archivists can reconsider the language of archives when processing and describing materials documenting collective action in American history.

Practitioners can draw upon a body of literature on various aspects of managing digital archives. However, one area where guidance is lacking is cataloguing. The characteristics of digital material have brought into question basic cataloguing practices. This article considers the treatment of the cataloguing of digital material in the archival literature. It focuses on discussions of the implications for descriptive standards of digital records, and considers the solutions proposed in the literature or adopted by practitioners. Through tracing discussions of cataloguing through the literature, this article surveys how current descriptive practice has been applied to digital material. Locating these discussions within a wider context of technological change, affecting not only archival material but also the environment within which it is used, the article explores the profession’s response to the demands of digital material and identifies areas for further research. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In light of numerous discussions about whether to follow Mark Greene and Dennis Meissner's suggestions to process lightly and broadly, valid reasons remain for continuing traditional practices for many literary correspondence collections. In this case study, the authors use the Kenneth Burke Papers in the Special Collections Library, Pennsylvania State University Libraries, as an example of when it is desirable to provide item level indexing. Recognizing that the majority of archival records may not require such detailed description, the authors discuss when it is appropriate to examine and index literary correspondents, a practice used with many other literary collections in which name access to literary correspondents is a legitimate, valued interest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An important and not often addressed topic - considering the issues opened by cross-disciplinary projects - is the shared control of authority records, or better authority metadata, extended to other documentary and cultural heritage sciences. This paper will examine the potential opened by multi-dimensional and networked logics in the representation of entities in the form of data towards which the document communities are converging. This approach is even more valid if we consider the users' point of view, presently forced to jump from one information environment to another, and confront different names, forms and attributes for the same entities. The core entities to work on are persons, corporate bodies, places, chronological contexts, events, qualifying their relationships. After a brief resume of archival description's peculiarity, the paper highlights the updated standards available, mostly IFLA-LRM and RiC, precious documents to start from and stimulate an active collaboration. To facilitate the sharing, control, and enrichment of authority data in the form of RDF assertions, librarians and archivists may follow several pathways: matching the existing conceptual models, converging on a shared data playground like Wikidata, and developing foundational meta-ontology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a critical analysis of disciplinary discussions on user-generated contributions to institutional archives collections metadata and attempts to assess its impact on professional archivists' approach to archival description. It frames archival description as a distinct knowledge domain and considers the possibilities, limitations, and contradictions of expanding this key function of archival work beyond the professional purview. It discusses how enhanced user participation might contribute to the knowledge and information infrastructures of archives and what this might suggest for archival description going forward. It identifies various practical, theoretical, and ethical implications for archives emerging from this body of literature, all undergirded by the role of technology in shaping the cultural and historical phenomena that archives seek to capture. The paper concludes with a brief discussion of archives' renewed place in knowledge building in a digital society and offers suggestions for continued inquiry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An archives' descriptive practices have a significant impact on researchers' ability to find, use, and understand records. Archivists do not fully utilize the descriptive fields that DACS and other standards provide to explain how and why a collections are acquired and the interventions archivists make in collections. However, this information can be critical to a researcher's analysis. This paper makes a case for archival description that is rooted in values of transparency and accountability, and provides a concrete examples of how one institution rewrote its description policies to codify and formalize transparency and accountability as key drivers of their descriptive program. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The scientific exchange correspondence of the Dundo Museum Biology Laboratory (Angola), included in the archive of António de Barros Machado (1912–2002) and Dora Lustig (1907–1986), constitutes a valuable repository of information for the history of contemporary science, particularly in the field of natural sciences—botany, entomology, mammals, ornithology, primates, reptiles, termites, zoogeography, zoology—and of biology. This paper describes the application of the Records in Contexts model to the correspondence collection, with the aim of representing two realities: its production context and the relationships between scientists. The exploration of the model sought to understand its fundamentals and, simultaneously, model the information, starting by identifying the entities, attributes and relations needed for the collection representation scheme. This study resulted in a modelling exercise of the relations between 11 correspondents and the director of the Dundo Museum Biology Laboratory, Barros Machado, regarding the work on the museum collections which culminated in the publication of scientific articles in Publicações Culturais da Companhia de Diamantes de Angola [Cultural Publications of the Diamond Company of Angola]. In the future, it is proposed to apply the same scheme to the description of the remaining scientists in the epistolary collection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Migrating archival description from paper-based finding aids to structured online data reconfigures the dynamics of archival representation and interactions. This paper considers the knowledge implications of transferring traditional finding aids to Discover Archives, a university-wide implementation of Access to Memory (AtoM) at the University of Toronto. The migration and translation of varied descriptive practices to conform to a single system that is accessible to anyone, anywhere, effectively shifts both where and how users interface with archives and their material. This paper reflects on how different sets of knowledge are reorganized in these shifts. Discover Archives empowers researchers to do independent searches using the full breadth of their domain expertise, seemingly unbound from archival gatekeeping. At the same time, these searches are performed in the absence of archivists' unstructured mediation, where searches benefit from human interaction and the kinds of knowledges that reference staff draw on to handle complex reference questions, especially those from novice archival users. We explore the extent to which that lost knowledge can be drawn back into archival interactions via rich metadata that documents contexts and relationships embedded within Discover Archives and beyond. Internal user experience design (UXD) research on Discover Archives highlights a gap between current online description and habitual user expectations in web search and discovery. To help bridge this gap, we contributed to broader discovery nodes such as linked open "context hubs" like Wikipedia and Wikidata, which can supplement hierarchical description with linked metadata and visualization capabilities. These can reintroduce rhizomatic and serendipitous connections, enabled by archivist, researcher, and larger sets of community knowledges, to the benefit of both the user and the archivist. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of JLIS.it: Italian Journal of Library, Archives & Information Science is the property of Firenze University Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of JLIS.it: Italian Journal of Library, Archives & Information Science is the property of Firenze University Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to examine the indexing method used by Caribbean libraries to describe special collections and manuscripts. Design/methodology/approach - Various types of finding aids spanning 1960-2014 are used to show the pattern of descriptions adopted by the librarians. At the same time, the factors which have sustained the approach at national libraries and university libraries are highlighted. Findings - The paper concludes that while the indexing approach may be labour-intensive, this practice is perceived as developing a national and regional documentary heritage. The materials used for this study are primarily accessible to the public inclusive of published guides and online databases. Originality/value - The literature is replete with theories and cases from places such as the UK, the USA and Australia, this paper presents a perspective on the development of archival description in the Caribbean. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By looking at current examples of participatory archives, this paper hopes to introduce and encourage a discussion of participatory description. How does an originating community describe their records? How can the nuances of another language be allowed for in archival description? Archival description helps to create access points for users, but archivists must ask the question, access for whom? This paper seeks to examine the existing state of archival description and to make recommendations for areas in which decolonizing methodologies might be employed to better address the nuances of multicultural, community, and participatory archives. A literature review is provided in order to examine the current state of archival description. As a second step, decolonizing methodologies are discussed and examined in order to establish a method by which description might become more participatory. Finally, some examples of archives in which participatory endeavors have been undertaken are presented, in order to establish models from which other archives can draw inspiration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents preliminary findings from an exploratory research study investigating the education, Library and Information Science (LIS) work experiences, and demographics of description specialists engaging in inclusive description work and/or initiatives. Survey results represent participants' education background, LIS work experiences, motivations behind projects and initiatives, areas of work and types of project priorities, preferred outcomes, and challenges encountered while engaging in inclusive description work and/or initiatives. Findings also point to gaps in understanding related to cultural concepts. A participant-created definition for inclusive description is a successful outcome of the study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to discuss three projects from three institutions that are dealing with challenges with natural sciences field documentation. Each is working to create the collection, item and data-level description required so that researchers can fully use the data to study how biodiversity has changed over time and space. Libraries, archives and museums recognize the need to make content searchable across material type. To create online catalogs that would make this possible, ideally, all records would describe one item. Museums and libraries describe their materials at the item level; however, archives must balance the need to describe the collection as a whole alongside needs of collection materials that may require more description to reconnect with library and museum items. There is a growing determination inside of archives to increase this flow of data, particularly for the natural sciences, by creating workflows that provide additional description to make these data discoverable. This process is a bit like drilling into the earth: each level must be described before the next can be dealt with. Design/methodology/approach - The piece describes challenges, approaches and workflows of three institutions developing deeper levels of description for archival materials that will be made available online to a specialized audience. It also describes the methods developed so that the material's data can eventually be accessed at a more granular level and linked to related resources. Findings - Current systems, schema and standards are adapted as necessary, and the natural sciences archival community is still working to develop best practices. However, they are getting much closer through the collaboration made possible through grants in the recent years. Originality/value - The work described in this paper is ongoing, and best practices resulting from the work are still under development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to identify and study the documentation on benefices to parishes in the Ecclesiastical Archives of Mérida-Badajoz (Spain). In order to do this, an analysis of the history of the archive and its documentation is presented, in order to later focus on the beneficio curato, showing an approach to the process and a specific study of the documentation kept in these archives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista Ibero-Americana de Ciência da Informação is the property of Revista Ibero-Americana de Ciencia da Informacao and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

University-based educational stations transmitted programing to local audiences throughout the U.S. Surviving records remain in the custody of university archives but remain unavailable due to the complicated nature of radio collections and their audio components, placing them at risk of loss. Using the University of Minnesota station KUOM as a case study, this paper documents archivist successful advocacy for the processing and preservation of historical radio materials. The authors offer reflections on broader strategies that archivists may employ to help process and digitize materials documenting the history of university-based radio within their collections. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper represents an abridgement of a panel session that reported on the status of training for archivists in the use of Encoded Archival Description (EAD) in seven countries (France, Germany, Netherlands, Portugal, Switzerland, United Kingdom, and United States). It touched on related archival descriptive standards and practices and associated technological issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Encoded Archival Description (EAD) provides a flexible metadata infrastructure that, when coupled with World Wide Web functionality, allows archivists to move beyond simply replicating the physical form of the paper finding aid in the online environment and fundamentally re-conceptualize how archival inofrmation systems can facilitate popular use. This paper reviews the descriptive imperatives that have led to the traditional physical and intellectual form of the finding aid, and how those imperatives can be addressed by EAD. It then discusses some of the needs that diverse user practices and cognitive approaches bring to the design of discovery and retrieval in EAD-based archival information systems. Finally, it adapts and extends the search capabilities delineated by Bates for a "berrypicking" search interface, and suggests ten strategies to enhance browsing and retrieval in EAD-based archival information systems. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Migrating archival description from paper-based finding aids to structured online data reconfigures the dynamics of archival representation and interactions. This paper considers the knowledge implications of transferring traditional finding aids to Discover Archives, a university-wide implementation of Access to Memory (AtoM) at the University of Toronto. The migration and translation of varied descriptive practices to conform to a single system that is accessible to anyone, anywhere, effectively shifts both where and how users interface with archives and their material. This paper reflects on how different sets of knowledge are reorganized in these shifts. Discover Archives empowers researchers to do independent searches using the full breadth of their domain expertise, seemingly unbound from archival gatekeeping. At the same time, these searches are performed in the absence of archivists' unstructured mediation, where searches benefit from human interaction and the kinds of knowledges that reference staff draw on to handle complex reference questions, especially those from novice archival users. We explore the extent to which that lost knowledge can be drawn back into archival interactions via rich metadata that documents contexts and relationships embedded within Discover Archives and beyond. Internal user experience design (UXD) research on Discover Archives highlights a gap between current online description and habitual user expectations in web search and discovery. To help bridge this gap, we contributed to broader discovery nodes such as linked open "context hubs" like Wikipedia and Wikidata, which can supplement hierarchical description with linked metadata and visualization capabilities. These can reintroduce rhizomatic and serendipitous connections, enabled by archivist, researcher, and larger sets of community knowledges, to the benefit of both the user and the archivist.

Not only is ETH Zurich one of the world’s leading technical universities, with its major collections and archives it also makes key contributions towards the preservation and mediation of national and international cultural assets. The Thomas Mann Archive at ETH-Library is one of these archives. It houses the majority of the written personal papers of the famous German author and winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature Thomas Mann. Under the ambitious project TMA_Online, the roughly 35,000 manuscripts and letters and more than 80,000 newspaper articles from the Thomas Mann Archive were described and digitised fully in less than two years. The new web service Thomas Mann Archive Online is now available for searches. This project report outlines the concrete procedure in the various sub-projects, the challenges involved and the results achieved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper outlines a skeleton chronology of the computerization of archival description within the United Kingdom. Considering a period from the 1960s to the early 1990s, it describes many of the early experiments and systems developed in UK archives and sketches out how the vision of automation or ‘going digital’ changed over time, in line with advances and changes in the underlying technological landscape. It also seeks to consider how archivists reacted to the challenges of the computer both in terms of a move towards cooperation and working together, but also in terms of a growing focus on the standardisation of archival description and descriptive practice. This focus on standardisation is considered and interrogated through the interconnected lenses of both; a power struggle – the reassertion of professional (human) standards in a move towards specifying the requirements required by the machines; and the reconsideration of practice. It suggests that the answer as to the exact balance of power between archivist and computer probably remains mute, particularly in respect of the exact impact of the computer on driving changes in archivists’ thinking around their descriptive practice. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

There is no clear guidance or standards for US campus archivists on how to best describe records that contain information on sexual violence. While there are well-established standards for archival description, decisions for how to best describe sensitive material are mostly left for individual archival institutions to decide. The lack of agreed-upon professional guidelines could make description decisions difficult in an environment like a college campus where attention on the topic may be taboo. However, as many campus archives' mission statements unequivocally state, college and university archives are repositories of campus history and wider societal issues. This puts campus archives and archivists directly in the center of responsibility to document histories that are part of enduring difficult realities. Through a systematic investigation of US campus archival finding aids, this study explores how the problem of sexual violence is represented in campus archives' holdings. Findings indicate that while campus archives do collect records on sexual violence, records related to the topic may belong to collections that are not associated with campus history, records on campus sexual assault are not always consistently described in campus archives, and discoverability of relevant records can be problematic. Study results suggest that further research on the topic and development of resources on best practices are needed to support campus archivists in this work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Anales de Documentación is the property of Servicio de Publicaciones de la Universidad de Murcia and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This article provides a concise guide to the structure and use of the Encoded Archival Description (EAD) and Encoded Archival Context (EAC) metadata standards. After a brief outline of archival description, the finding aid, and the objectives behind EAD, the structure of EAD is examined in detail. Discussion of all of the important elements in the EAD document-type definition (DTD) will be supplemented with examples of actual finding aids and their encoding, with attention to the common necessity of "reengineering" existing finding aids. The current status of EAD implementation and some issues affecting the widespread adoption of EAD are considered. A close look at the emerging EAC standard closes the article, providing key element definitions from the EAC Tag Library (Beta version, Feb. 2004), and examples of EAC records-including early implementations such as the University College London's LEADERS project. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Greater access to archival materials remains a significant challenge to archivists, librarians, and researchers. In addition to official records documenting governmental activities and agencies, the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) has significant collections of donated personal papers. Some are processed, some are in the backlog, but nearly all of the non-Presidential Library manuscript collections are inaccessible. This essay reviews the history and some of the contents of the former Record Group 200: Records of the National Archives Gill Collection, as an example of the importance of hidden material at NARA. After a contextual history of the agency and the creation of this forgotten record group, this article describes ten manuscript collections from the former RG 200 to demonstrate not only the research potential of each but show the varied nature of these materials. This study reveals the importance of access, description, and reevaluation when archivists deal with back burner collections. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A unified Canadian/US descriptive code is the aim of the Canadian/US Task Force on Archival Description (CUSTARD). Within the framework of the International Council on Archives' General International Standard Archival Description (ISAD(G)) and the International Standard Archival Authority Record (ISAAR(CPF)), this Task Force, an NEH-funded project, is reconciling the US cataloging code, Archives, Personal Papers, and Manuscripts (APPM), with the Canadian Rules for Archival Description (RAD). In this article, the learnings of the process of blending two established descriptive standards are presented in a preliminary way. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines two examples of archival visual information with potentially transgender and non-binary representation to interrogate the descriptive challenges latent within such materials. By using gender theory and queer historiography, this paper deploys a critical case study to consider the particularities of naming gender when contextual evidence provides little to no authoritative guidance. By talking through the way gender makes itself visible within visual information, the paper guides readers through the way transgender or non-binary identity might exist within both pieces of visual information. The paper then provides suggestions on how to provide respectful and inclusive descriptive records that attend to the complexities of a still-evolving queer history. By offering both a statement on the impossibility of naming identity within intersecting forms of queer embodiment alongside reference points for methods of discussing potential gendered identities, the paper offers practical approaches to describing transgender and non-binary identities for information professionals.

This paper conjectures that standard archival descriptions are no longer efficient in order to answer to society needs, mainly in an intercultural perspective. After a brief evaluation of the peculiarities of cultural heritage different domain languages, the specific issues of archival descriptions are discussed, seeking the possible strategies - technological as well as cultural - valid to open to an integration of descriptive languages. A particular focus is proposed on RDA, an approach which shows to be the best candidate to harmonize the separate descriptions typical of archival domain and activating the potential informative integrations with any limitation of information environments and single content quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Remix or bricolage is recognized as a primary mode of knowledge creation in contemporary digital culture. Archival arrangement represents a form of bricolage that archivists have been practicing for years. By organizing records according to provenance, archivists engage in knowledge creation. Archival theory holds that records are created as an output from social and bureaucratic processes. Archival description, then, could serve as a form of archival record, bearing evidence of the processes of archival arrangement. Current participatory and community-based approaches to archival description urgently require an evidential record of their processes of community consultation and professional mediation. This paper examines two Canadian community-based, participatory archival projects. Project Naming, at Library and Archives Canada, draws upon Inuit community contributions to augment the often sparse and sometimes offensive descriptions of historic photos of arctic peoples. The Sex Work Database at the University of Manitoba, works with sex work activists to create and apply a tagging folksonomy to a collection of websites, organizational records and news media. Analysis of these diverse, community-based projects reveals how current approaches to description make it difficult to distinguish between professional and community contributions to arrangement and description, and proposes ways to make such contributions more apparent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The advent of the information paradigm has shaken many of the principles of archival theory and practice. One key issue is knowing to which extent can digital information be trusted. Digital resources are represented by metadata, and trust consists in demonstrating their authenticity. Since the traditional elements used to verify the authenticity of analog records are not suitable in the digital world, the field faces a major challenge. The use of abundant, pertinent and constantly captured metadata seems to one of the most relevant solutions. This article aims to contribute to tackle this issue by setting the goal of proposing a model that attempts to include the most relevant metadata elements to capture the information that contributes for ascertaining the authenticity of digital archival descriptions. To that end, mixed methods methodology are employed. A qualitative documentary research is used to collect, analyze and interpret a corpus of scientific literature. As a complement, the quantitative technique requirements engineering is used to extract from international description standards the metadata requirements that can assist in the presumption of authenticity. Both approaches are then combined through a critical lens into a single unifying model for authenticity that is deemed as complete as necessary but as simple as possible. The model can be used by organizations or as a contribution to the discussion of authenticity and trustworthiness in digital archival descriptions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Perspectivas em Ciência da Informaçao is the property of Nova Economia and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This qualitative study uses document analysis to explore the description of archival music materials in 35 online finding aids for music collections, including single-level and multilevel finding aids. A group of 29 codes was developed and applied across the sample to determine the characteristics related to music materials that were most frequently described. Findings include "date" as the most frequently described characteristic, with format of materials being the second. Regarding differences between description of sound recordings and notated music, this study also finds that date was more frequently described for notated music and format more frequently for sound recordings [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper deals with a problem of quality of finding aids, based on the practice of the State Archives in Pazin in the period between 2002 and 2006. The question is raised How to make quality finding aids regardless of forms of their use, presuming need for maximum fulfillment of their potential capacity to provide information. Actions taken in order to raise the quality of finding aids are discussed in the context of presumption of the best practice. Based on the analysis of finding aids, some omissions related to typology are emphasized, partly generating from professional procedures of archival arrangement. The paper presents a concept of evaluation of finding aids and explains criteria and procedures on which the evaluation is based. The part of the paper involved in archival description presents basic and specific quality requirements. It also considers some of the most frequently identified deviations from the normative prescriptions (national archival legislative, international archival norms) and other established professional criteria, and offers proposals for their partial compensation. Finding aids in the form of archival lists are discussed concerning methods of creating information and forming data, with intention to achieve a maximum compliance with that type of finding aid, as well as a need to raise their usability regardless of context of their use. The role of creator of finding aids is considered in the context of information system and specific working environment existing within the archive. The information system is identified as primal recipient of the information given by content of finding aid. The role of user is represented by examples of specific recipients, regarding on the type of information given within some of descriptive elements in ISAD(G). The paper emphasizes a need for the systematic coordination and coherent documentation of procedures and practices related to the process of archival arrangement. The importance of professional planning and of defining management policy for documentation created in the process of arranging archival material is analyzed by giving examples concerning the consequences of their partial absence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Creating archival descriptions in a digital environment and communicating across the Internet is not the same as traditional paper-based communication. As in other cultural domains, in archival description the medium influences the structure and content of information. The Siasfi Project and the Online Guide to the State Archives of Florence are good examples of these transformations. The article presents the main features of the Online Guide and discusses the theoretical and methodological assumptions underlying its conceptual model which are rooted in the international descriptive standards, ISAD(G) and ISAAR (CPF), as well as in a complex view of what archival context is. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At the beginning of 1996 the means of reference to the Public Record Office's 150km of records dating back to the 11th century were, as far as the user was concerned, all on paper and mainly available on a single site. This article traces the development since then of the Public Record Office's hierarchical Internet catalogue (PROCAT) and in particular the role that EAD has had in this process. Two major EAD projects are described with partcular emphasis on how the developing EAD standard was utilized in the context of a large national archive. Aspects of EAD relating to data exhange, data preparation, standardization and publication are all discussed as are its relationship to emergent XML technologies. Finally a role for EAD within PROCAT is described even though it is in essence a traditional relational database. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Although there has been recent speculation about applying the Encoded Archival Description (EAD) Document Type Definition (DTD) to a host of descriptive outputs, including catalog records and subject guides, its perceived need, design, and development emerged from the American archival community's focus on that special subset of finding aids known as collection inventories and registers. This article briefly analyzes the tradtional function and structure of these finding aids in a paper-based form and explores how longtime interest in disseminating these guides electronically led to the formation of the Berkeley Finding Aid Project in 1993, and five years later, to the version 1.0 release of EAD. The author provides a basic outline of EAD's structure and demonstrates that although much of its design stems from American archival practice, its developers tried from the outset to create a data model that would merit international support and address the needs of a wide variety of archival institutions both in the United States and abroad. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]