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XML and EAD: Including administrative information about the document

XML and EAD: Including administrative information about the document

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At this point, we have the basic structure for our EAD document — now we're ready to add content to <eadheader>. As mentioned previously, <eadheader> contains administrative information about the document itself, including the document's title, who encoded the finding aid and when, the purpose of the finding aid, and any revisions to the markup of the finding aid.

<eadheader> has four child elements:

<eadid> - required element
<filedesc> - required element
<profiledesc> - optional element (required by IU Archives template)
<revisiondesc> - optional element (required by IU Archives template)

As we add each element to the document, we'll learn more about its purpose in an EAD document.

NOTE: Some of the elements we're working with today are marked as optional in EAD 2002, but are required by the IU Archives EAD template — those elements will be noted as we go through today's material.

Let's get started by adding <eadid> to <eadheader>.

Giving the document a unique identifier with `<eadid>`

The first element we'll add to <eadheader> is <eadid>. This element contains a unique identifier for the EAD document. This can consist of something as simple as your initials, or could consist of an abbreviated version of the document title.

<eadid> doesn't have any children, nor does it have required attributes — however, it's recommended that we include the countrycode and mainagencycode attributes if we want to make sure the element is compliant with ISAD(G) guidelines. These guidelines provide content guidelines for describing archival materials, such as finding aids like the one we're working on right now. In addition to countrycode and mainagencycode, we'll add the url attribute as an additional way of making the contents of <eadid> unique to this document. The content we include between the opening and closing tags is another way we can make the document ID unique. For today's session, we'll include edmondson_z581 as the content of <eadid>.

Let's go ahead and add <eadid> to the document now.

To add <eadid> to the document, add the highlighted code to edmondson.xml:


    <ead>
        <eadheader>
            <eadid countrycode="US" mainagencycode="InU-Ar" url="https://libraries.indiana.edu/university-archives">edmonson_z581</eadid> 
        </eadheader>
        <archdesc>

NOTE: If you're copying and pasting the code from the code block, you may need to scroll to the right in order to select the entire line of code.

Providing information about the document in `<filedesc>`

The next element we'll add to the document is <filedesc>. This element contains bibliographic information about the file, including the name of the document, who authored it, and who published it. <filedesc> has five children, but only four of them are used by IU Archives:

<titlestmt> - required element
<editionstmt> - optional element
<publicationstmt> - optional element, required by IU Archives
<profiledesc> - optional element, required by IU Archives
<revisiondesc> - optional element, required by IU Archives

We'll learn about these elements in two parts — first, we'll work with <titlestmt> and <publicationstmt>, then add <profiledesc> and <revisiondesc>.

Adding title and publisher information to the document

The elements <titlestmt> and <publicationstmt> focus on providing information about the people and institutions involved in creating and publishing a finding aid. <titlestmt> collects information about the finding aid, such as its title, its author, and the institution responsible for preparing and distributing it. <publicationstmt> contains publication information about the finding aid, such as when it was published, by whom, and any relevant contact information for the publisher. Let's add that information to the document now.

To add the <titlestmt> element to the document, add the highlighted code to the document:


    <eadheader>
        <eadid countrycode="US" mainagencycode="InU-Ar" url="https://libraries.indiana.edu/university-archives">edmonson_z581</eadid>  
            <titlestmt>
            
            </titlestmt>
        </eadheader>

To add <titleproper> to <titlestmt>, add the highlighted code between the opening and closing <titlestmt> tags:


    <eadheader>
        <eadid countrycode="US" mainagencycode="InU-Ar" url="https://libraries.indiana.edu/university-archives">edmonson_z581</eadid>  
            <titlestmt>
                <titleproper>Clarence Edmund Edmondson Papers</titleproper>
            </titlestmt>
        </eadheader>

To add <author> to <titlestmt>, add the highlighted code to the document, replacing the placeholder text with your name:


    <eadheader>
        <eadid countrycode="US" mainagencycode="InU-Ar" url="https://libraries.indiana.edu/university-archives">edmonson_z581</eadid>  
            <titlestmt>
                <titleproper>Clarence Edmund Edmondson Papers</titleproper>
                <author>Jane M. Doe</author>
            </titlestmt>
        </eadheader>

To add <publicationstmt> to <titlestmt>, add the highlighted code to the document:


    <eadheader>
        <eadid countrycode="US" mainagencycode="InU-Ar" url="https://libraries.indiana.edu/university-archives">edmonson_z581</eadid>  
            <titlestmt>
                <titleproper>Clarence Edmund Edmondson Papers</titleproper>
                <author>Jane M. Doe</author>
            </titlestmt>
            <publicationstmt>
            
            </publicationstmt>
        </eadheader>

To add the publisher's name to <publicationstmt>, add the highlighted code to the document:


    <eadheader>
        <eadid countrycode="US" mainagencycode="InU-Ar" url="https://libraries.indiana.edu/university-archives">edmonson_z581</eadid>  
            <titlestmt>
                <titleproper>Clarence Edmund Edmondson Papers</titleproper>
                <author>Jane M. Doe</author>
            </titlestmt>
            <publicationstmt>
                <publisher>Indiana University Archives</publisher>
            </publicationstmt>
        </eadheader>

To add the publisher's address to <publicationstmt>, add the highlighted code to the document:


            <publicationstmt>
                <publisher>Indiana University Archives</publisher>
                <address>
                    <addressline>1320 East Tenth Street</addressline>
                    <addressline>Herman B Wells Library E460</addressline>
                    <addressline>Bloomington, IN 47405-7000</addressline>
                    <addressline>Phone: 812-855-1127</addressline>
                </address>
            </publicationstmt>
        </eadheader>

To add the date of publication to <publicationstmt>, add the highlighted code to the document:


            <publicationstmt>
                <publisher>Indiana University Archives</publisher>
                <address>
                    <addressline>1320 East Tenth Street</addressline>
                    <addressline>Herman B Wells Library E460</addressline>
                    <addressline>Bloomington, IN 47405-7000</addressline>
                    <addressline>Phone: 812-855-1127</addressline>
                </address>
                <date normal="2021-08-17">August 17th, 2021</date>
            </publicationstmt>
        </eadheader>

Including creation and revision information

Now that we've added <titlestmt> and <publicationstmt>, we can focus on adding information about how and why the document was created, and make note of any revisions made to the encoded finding aid.

Information about how and why the finding aid was encoded is located in the <profiledesc> element. For today's example, <profiledesc> will include information about the application used to encode the document, and any other information pertinent to the creation of the document.

We can use <revisiondesc> to keep track of revisions made to the document. There are two ways to do that:

We can add an instance of <change> to <revisiondesc> each time we edit the document.
We can use <list> and add individual items to the list for each change made to the document.

The decision for which format to use will likely be made by the person who created the specific template you're using — however, if you're creating a template from scratch, the choice is up to you as to which method you use for documenting revisions. The IU Archives template makes use of <change>, so that's what we'll work with today when we make note of revisions to the document.

NOTE: For a comparison on using <list> and <change>, visit EADiva's page on <list> as used in <revisiondesc>.

To add the element <profiledesc> and its child element <creation> to <eadheader>, add the highlighted code to the document:


                <date normal="2021-08-17">August 17th, 2021</date>
            </publicationstmt>
         </filedesc>
        <profiledesc>
            <creation> This finding aid was encoded by Beth Lynn Nolen, on <date normal="2021-08-17">August 17th, 2021</date>, using oXygen XML Editor. Material generated based on documentation on the Clarence Edmondson papers provided to her as part of preparation for teaching XML and EAD to Z581.</creation>
        </profiledesc>
    </eadheader>

To add the element <revisiondesc> to <eadheader>, add the highlighted code to the document:


        </profiledesc>
        <revisiondesc>
        
        </revisiondesc>
    </eadheader>

To add information about a revision made to the document, inside the <revisiondesc> element, add the highlighted code:


        <revisiondesc>
            <change>
                <date normal="2021-08-17">August 17th, 2021</date>
                <item>Document edited for clarity.</date>
            </change>
        </revisiondesc>

To save the file, on the keyboard, press:
Control key + S

At this point, <eadheader> contains all the information we need, so we're ready to move onto describing the actual archive by adding content to <archdesc>.

XML and EAD: Including administrative information about the document

Available Files

Giving the document a unique identifier with <eadid>

Step 1: Add the child element <eadid> to <eadheader>.

Providing information about the document in <filedesc>

Adding title and publisher information to the document

Step 1: Add <titlestmt> and its child elements to <eadheader>.

Step 2: Add <publicationstmt> and its child elements to <eadheader>.

Including creation and revision information

Step 1: Add <profiledesc> and its child elements to <eadheader>.

Step 2: Add <revisiondesc> and its children to <eadheader>.

Step 3: Save the file.

Giving the document a unique identifier with `<eadid>`

Providing information about the document in `<filedesc>`