Demystifying EAD

28 September 2005

9:00 AM–4:30 PM

McKeldin Library

Facilitated by Jennie A. Levine, Ann Hanlon, and Jennifer O'Brien Roper.

This one-day workshop is aimed at archivists and librarians, as well as IT professionals who wish to learn more about the basics of Encoded Archival Description (EAD). It includes an overview of the benefits of using EAD, a discussion of the types of tools/solutions available for implementation of EAD (EAD Cookbook, hand-coding, database driven); and a discussion of the "minimum" tag requirements. The workshop is designed to help archivists decide if EAD is right for their institutions, and, if so, to help to conceptualize an institutional EAD plan. Workshop participants will not be expected to have any prior knowledge of XML or EAD; however, a familiarity with basic HTML would be useful. It is designed for the archivist who is interested in embarking upon, or taking part in, a project involving EAD and who would like an overview of how to begin. The purpose of this workshop is not to teach participants how to code using EAD,but to explain what tools and methods they may use to do so. By the end of the workshop, participants will have gained an understanding of basic tools available to learn EAD, the minimum EAD Tag Requirements, and the skills to ask the right questions when planning an EAD project.

Participants should bring one (paper) copy of a finding aid.

Topics to be Covered

• Introduction to EAD: Definitions, Benefits, and Concerns
• Getting Started: Education and Strategies
• EAD Tools and Coding Solutions
• Exercise: Mapping EAD Minimum Tags to Finding Aids
• Strategies for Presenting EAD to the Public
• Project Management Techniques – "Talking to Techies"