Does EAD Play Well with Other Metadata Standards?

Abstract

The Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting has been suggested as a simple method by which cultural heritage metadata might be exchanged and searched. However, much of the archival description encoded in Encoded Archival Description (EAD) files may not be optimally accessible. By analyzing EAD encoding patterns found in a sample of finding aids, this article explores some of the challenges which arise in attempting to make EAD files interoperable and searchable. The analysis shows that many EAD files lack key metadata elements or use non-standard encoding patterns. The findings suggest that institutions using EAD could benefit from the application of tighter best practice recommendations. Application of the OAI protocols on top of EAD may help harmonize and eliminate encoding differences, providing for better search and retrieval mechanisms.