The Society of American Archivists Encoded Archival Description Working Group1
is
pleased to bring you EAD 2002, the second full version of the encoding standard for
archival finding aids. This version represents a truly international collaboration in the
continued development and maintenance of EAD.
In 2000 the International Council on Archives Committee on Descriptive Standards
published the second edition of the General International Standard Archival Description
(ISAD(G)). One of the guiding principles of EAD is to maintain compatibility with
ISAD(G). Many of the suggestions submitted to the Working Group in late 2000 and
early 2001 reflected changes needed to maintain that compatibility; they have been
accommodated in this version through the addition of new elements and/or attributes or
through clarification of existing element and attribute definitions. Experimentation with
EAD internationally, particularly recent tests in France and Germany, has shown that
EAD is applicable to a variety of descriptive practices but also has indicated the need for
structural changes. Some of the more significant changes are as follows:
There are two new elements in the Descriptive Identification of the Unit :
Language of the Material , and Material Specific Details .
Replacing the LANGMATERIAL attribute in and , the
element makes it possible to provide intelligible information about language(s) to the end
user. Information such as scale for technical drawings and maps and playing time for
sound recordings can be expressed in , expanding EAD's applicability
beyond "traditional" archival materials.