Encoded Archival Description: The Development of an Encoding Standard for Archival Finding Aids

Abstract

Encoded Archival Description (EAD) is nearing completion and formal release as a standard. EAD attempts to overcome obstacles to intellectual access for geographically distributed primary resources by providing a standard encoding structure for archival finding aids. EAD is the most recent in a line of similar efforts to address universal intellectual access to such data, and like its predecessors, EAD applies emerging technology to the problem. The technology underlying EAD is Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML) and Extensible Markup Language (XML). This article reviews the background of EAD and the contributions of archivists in both large and small repositories to its development.