The Technical Subcommittee on Encoded Archival Standards (TS-EAS) is pleased to release Encoded Archival Description (EAD) 4.0, a draft updated version of the standard for public review and comment. To ensure the greatest possible input from EAD users around the world, the subcommittee is calling for comments on the proposed changes to the current version, EAD3 (deprecated), schema and tag library, and the previous version, EAD 2002, DTD, schema and tag library. The deadline for comments on the change proposals is Sunday, 28 July 2024. An introductory webinar on how to contribute to this call for comments is scheduled for 24 April (twice with the same content to accommodate different time zones around the world) at 10am UTC (open for registration) and 4pm UTC (open for registration). We are looking forward to seeing you there!
The process for this major revision for EAD started in 2021, following the December 2020 approval by the Society of American Archivist (SAA) Standards Committee. Work on the revision draft was completed through monthly virtual meetings of the EAD Team of TS-EAS, two two-day hybrid meetings in August 2022 in Boston and in September 2022 in The Hague, thanks to the Harvard Business School and the Nationaal Archief hosting parts of the EAD Team in-person, a two-day hybrid meeting during the SAA Annual Meeting pre-conference in July 2023 in Washington, DC, and various engagement activities with the international community of EAD users between 2021 and early 2024.
As with the previous revision of its sibling standard, the Encoded Archival Context - Corporate bodies, Persons, and Families (EAC-CPF), the EAD revision has used the design principles (https://github.com/SAA-SDT/TS-EAS-subteam-notes/wiki/Design-Principles/) which TS-EAS introduced in 2021 as a general framework. The proposed changes are based partially on community feedback and partially on bringing EAD up to speed with current developments in the world of archival description as well as the wider context of publishing cultural heritage collections online. In terms of such conceptual aspects, the EAD revision focuses on the following major areas:
- Evaluating EAD's relation to other standards often used in connection with EAD; this includes but is not restricted to
- Aligning with EAC-CPF where useful, and
- Considering the impact of Records in Contexts (RiC) replacing the existing ICA standards such as the General International Standard Archival Description (ISAD(G));
- Enabling more support for the use of Linked Open (Usable) Data with EAD; this picks up on relevant approaches introduced by EAC-CPF 2.0 and includes
- Reviewing EAD's approach to encoding relation(ship)s to other entities;
- Simplifying where possible, e.g. by
- Revising the terminology used in the names of elements and attributes, and
- Aligning the encoding options of elements that include information about the same "things" such as agents or functions;
- Concentrating on encoding the descriptive archival information rather than encoding how this information is to be displayed.
Currently available files and documentation
All of these can also be found on the TS-EAS GitHub page, where we will continuously add more documentation throughout the call for comments phase.
Current timetable
- Mid-April 2024: Call for comments opens
- End of April to early July 2024: Four drop-in sessions on the draft of EAD 4.0
- Register now for the first of these sessions giving you an introduction in how you can contribute to the call for comments
- We will hold this session twice (with the same content) to accommodate different time zones around the world
- 28 July 2024: Deadline for comments
- Throughout April to July 2024: EAD Team to start discussing comments and change requests
- July to September 2024: EAD Team to finalize revision of feedback and prepare a new draft version of EAD 4.0
- Q4 2024: Second call for comments on revised version
To give comments on the proposed changes, please contribute directly in GitHub https://github.com/SAA-SDT/eas-schemas/issues or via the TS-EAS webform (https://www2.archivists.org/standards/TS-EAS-report-an-issue). For more information on how to do this, see the "How to Submit a Bug Report or Feature Request for EAD and EAC-CPF tutorial" (https://github.com/SAA-SDT/TS-EAS-subteam-notes/wiki/Submitting-
an-Issue-or-Feature-Request).
Alternatively, you can also send an email to ts-eas@archivists.org with a brief description and the rationale for the proposed change.
To ensure that the revision process is as open as possible, all comments must be attributable to named individuals and affiliated organizations where appropriate. Anonymous responses will not be considered. All change proposals will be made publicly available via GitHub. E-mail addresses are requested so that we may contact respondents for clarification. We will only use your e-mail addresses in the specific context of the EAD revision and the feedback you have provided.
Kerstin Arnold (Archives Portal Europe Foundation, NL), EAD Team lead of TS-EAS,
Karin Bredenberg (Kommunalförbundet Sydarkivera, SE) &
Mary Samouelian (Harvard Business School, US), TS-EAS Co-chairs
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Cory Nimer
University Archivist
Brigham Young University
Provo UT
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