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Finding Aid Samples

As a preliminary test of the alpha version of the EAD, the Library of Congress elected to encode two of its finding aids--a register to the Shirley Jackson Papers in the Library's Manuscript Division and a register to the Visual Materials in the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People Records held in the Prints & Photographs Division.

The examples below reflect revised tagging occasioned by the beta release of the EAD Document Type Definition (DTD). The encoding team was interested in determining whether the EAD implementation of SGML works with the Library's finding aids. The team sought to gather information about problems or inconsistencies with the DTD and errors or inadequacies in the accompanying documentation. The way in which the team encoded the sample finding aids does not necessarily reflect intended future use of specific elements or levels of tagging. The team simply sought to create abundantly tagged finding aids which could be used to test and later demonstrate the benefits SGML offers for searching and disseminating the rich source of information contained within the Library's many hundreds of finding aids.

The Federal Theatre Project Collection finding aid is the most extensive application of the EAD beta release to date at the Library. The production process for such a large document required use of autotagging steps outside of the SGML editor as well as final parsing and editing using SGML authoring software. An HTML release of the same finding aid with links to digital images from the editor is planned in 1997.

Shirley Jackson Papers -- Library of Congress Manuscript Division

NAACP Register of Visual Materials -- Library of Congress Prints & Photographs Division

Federal Theatre Project Collection -- Library of Congress Music Division

SGML help page


EAD Finding Aid Pilot Project