The EAD cookbook: A survey and usability study

American Archivist

Volumn 65, Issue 2, 2002, Pages 257-275

  Prom, Christopher J ^a  

^a NONE

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[No Author keywords available]

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EID: 2442422324     PISSN: 03609081     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.17723/aarc.65.2.b3783jr052731588     Document Type: Review

References (71)

1. Maynard Brichford, unpublished paper, "Toward a National Information System for Archives and Manuscripts: Comment," read at SAA Annual Meeting, Berkeley, California, September 1, 1981.
2. "Is EAD Dead?," (December 4, 2002).
3. (December 4, 2002).
4. Richard Rinehart, "Cross-Community Applications: The EAD in Museums," Journal of Internet Cataloging 4, nos. 3-4 (2001): 169-86;
5. Meg Sweet, Matthew Hillyard, Derek Breeden and Bill Stockting, "EAD and Government Archives," Journal of Internet Cataloging 4, nos. 3-4 (2001): 147-68.
6. James M. Roth, "Serving Up EAD: An Exploratory Study on the Deployment and Utilization of Encoded Archival Description Finding Aids," American Archivist 64 (Fall/Winter 2001): 216.
7. As Roth concluded after studying archivists' EAD deployment methods, some significant problems confront EAD implementors. "These include a steep learning curve for the entire EAD process, not having enough resources in the form of time and staff, and most especially, difficulty with deployment software." One archivist on the Archives and Archivists listserv perhaps spoke for many when she came to the conclusion that "From all accounts, it's an expensive and time-consuming proposition." Rebecca Fitzgerald, message to Archives and Archivists Listserv, November 27, 2001. (December 4, 2002).
8. Helen Tibbo and Lokman Meho, "Finding Finding Aids on the World Wide Web," American Archivist 64 (Spring/Summer 2001):75.
9. Kristin Martin, "An Analysis of Remote Reference Correspondence at a Large Academic Manuscripts Collection," American Archivist 64 (Spring/Summer 2001): 37-41.
10. Jill Tatem, "EAD: Obstacles to Implementation, Opportunity for Understanding," Archival Issues 23, no. 2 (1998): 155.
11. (December 4, 2002).
12. A non-functional version of the survey is available for reference at (December 4, 2002).
13. Archives and Museum Informatics 12, nos. 3-4 (1998), "EAD in Action: Applications of the Encoded Archival Description."
14. December 4, 2002).
15. Matthew Nickerson, "Electronic Access to Special Collections Registers in the Gerald R. Sherratt Library, Southern Utah University," Archives and Musuem Informatics 12, nos. 3-4 (1998): 236.
16. At the time the survey was conducted, software purchase was required. However, a beta implementation for the free text editor NoteTab Light is now available at (December 4, 2002).
17. Tibbo and Meho, "Finding Finding Aids," 69-70.
18. ;
19. and t (December 4, 2002).
20. Anne J. Gilliland-Swetland, "Popularizing the Finding Aid: Exploiting EAD to Enhance Online Discovery and Retrieval in Archival Information Systems by Diverse User Groups," Journal of Internet Cataloging 4, nos. 3-4 (2001): 214-21;
21. Dennis Meissner, "First Things First: Reengineering Finding Aids for Implementation of EAD," American Archivist 60 (Fall 1997): 372-87.
22. Maher notes that most archives do not put user data to very good use. Duff and Johnson argue that archivists have only recently begun to consider the user's point of view, and Altman and Nemmers were recently unable to find any literature on the usability of archival websites. William Maher, "The Use of User Studies," Midwestern Archivist 11, no. 1 (1986): 15;
23. Wendy Duff and Catherine Johnson, "A Virtual Expression of Need: An Analysis of E-mail Reference Questions," American Archivist 64 (Spring/Summer 2001): 43-60;
24. Burt Altman and John Nemmers, "The Usability of On-line Archival Resources: The Polaris Project Finding Aid," American Archivist 64 (Spring/Summer 2001): 122.
25. Roth, "Serving Up EAD," 218.
26. Richard V. Szary, "Encoded Finding Aids as a Transforming Technology in Archival Reference Service," Journal of Internet Cataloging 4, nos. 3-4 (2001):197.
27. Significant studies include Jacqueline Goggin, "The Indirect Approach: A Study of Scholarly Users of Black and Women's Organization Records in the Library of Congress Manuscript Division," Midwestern Archivist 11, no. 1 (1986): 57-67;
28. David Bearman, "User Presentation Language In Archives," Archives & Museum Informatics 3 (Winter 1989/90): 3-7;
29. Lawrence Dowler, "The Role of Use in Defining Archival Practice and Principles: a Research Agenda for the Availability and Use of Records," American Archivist 51 (Winter/Spring 1988): 74-95;
30. Robert Spindler and Richard Pearce-Moses, "Does AMC Mean Archives Made Confusing?," American Archivist 56 (Spring 1993): 330-41;
31. and Paul Conway, Partners In Research: Improving Access to the Nation's Archives (Pittsburgh: Archives & Museum Informatics, 1994).
32. These include Frederick Miller, "Use, Appraisal, and Research: A Case Study of Social Historians," American Archivist 49 (Fall 1986): 371-92;
33. N. P. Thomas, "Information-Seeking and the Nature of Relevance: Ph.D. Student Orientation as an Exercise in Information Retrieval," in Susan Bonzi, ed, Proceedings of the 56th Annual Meeting of the American Society for Information Science (Medford, N.J.: Learned Information, Inc, 1993);
34. and Charles Cole, "Name collection by Ph.D. History Students: Inducing Expertise," Journal of the American Society for Information Science 51:5 (2000): 444-55.
35. Useful studies include Sandra Payette and Oya Reiger, "Supporting Scholarly Inquiry: Incorporating Users in the Design of the Digital Library," Journal of Academic Librarianship 24 (March 1998): 121-29;
36. J. K. Nims and L. Rich, "How Successfully Do Users Search the Web?," College and Research Libraries News 59 (March 1998);
37. Harry Bruce, "Perceptions of the Internet: What People Think When They Search the Internet for Information," Internet Research: Electronic Networking Applications and Policy 9, no. 3 (1999): 187-99;
38. A. Dalgleish and R. Hall, "Uses and Perceptions of the World Wide Web in an Information-Seeking Environment," Journal of Librarianship and Information Science 32, no. 3 (2000): 104-13;
39. and Ingrid Hsieh-Yee, "Research on Web Search Behavior," Library & Information Science Research 23 (Summer 2001): 167-185.
40. Martin, "Remote Reference Correspondence,"7-42;
41. Duff and Johnson, "A Virtual Expression of Need," 43-60;
42. Altman, "On-line Archival Resources," 121-31.
43. Gilliland-Swetland, "Popularizing the Finding Aid," 199-225.
44. Hsieh-Yee, "Research on Web Search Behavior," 169, 172-74.
45. Dowler, "The Role of Use in Defining Archival Practice and Principles," 76-7;
46. Conway, Partners In Research
47. cited in Kristin Martin, "An Analysis of Remote Reference Correspondence," 21.
48. Spindler and Pearce-Moses, "Does AMC Mean Archives Made Confusing?" 333.
49. Dalgleish, "Uses and Perceptions," 108, 109-11.
50. Altman and Nemmers, "On-line Archival Resources," 121-31;
51. Gary Marchionini, Catherine Plaisant, and Anita Komlodi, "Interfaces and Tools for the Library of Congress National Digital Library Program," Information Processing and Management, 34 (September 1998): 538-39.
52. Conway, Partners In Research, cited in Martin, "Remote Reference Correspondence," 21-22.
53. "The First Rule of Usability: Don't Listen to Users," (December 4, 2002).
54. (December 4, 2002);
55. Jakob Neilsen, Designing Web Usability: The Practice of Simplicity (Indianapolis: New Riders Publishing, 2000);
56. Jakob Neilsen and Marie Tahir, Homepage Usability: 50 Websites Deconstructed (Indianapolis: New Riders Publishing, 2001).
57. Hsieh-Yee, "Research on Web Search Behavior," 174;
58. Marchionini, "Interfaces and Tools," 539.
59. Dalgleish, "Uses and Perceptions," 110.
60. For information on how search engines index pages, see (December 4, 2002). It is important to note that some search engines (e.g., Google) do not index tags.
61. Browser use statistics are available at (December 4, 2002).
62. Tibbo and Meho found Google to be one of the best search engines to use for title searching. Google provides the default search for Yahoo, which is currently the most popular search engine. (December 4, 2002).
63. Christopher J. Prom, "Extending the Capabilities of the EAD Cookbook," OCLC Systems and Services, 17, no.2 (2001): 89-95.
64. Elizabeth J. Shaw, "Rethinking EAD: Balancing Flexibility and Interoperability," New Review of Information Networking 7 (2001): 117-31.
65. The RLG Application Guidelines are available at (December 4, 2002).
66. The OAC best practice guidelines are available at (December 4, 2002).
67. Such data structure standards could be used in conjunction with the descriptive content standards currently being formulated by the participants in the CUSTARD project. A statement of principles for the CUSTARD Project is available at (December 4, 2002).
68. Richard Reinhart and Anne Gilliland-Swetland, "Editorial," Archives and Museum Informatics 12, nos. 3-4 (1998): 174;
69. Timothy P. Hoyer, Stephen Miller, and Alvin Pollack, "Consortial Approaches to the Implementation of Encoded Archival Description (EAD): The American Heritage Virtual Archive Project and the Online Archive of California (OAC)," Journal of Internet Cataloging 4, nos. 3-4 (2001): 136.
70. The EAD listserv archives is replete with such problems and questions. See (December 4, 2002).
71. Efforts such as the Archivist's Workbench hold significant promise in this respect. The project is charged with developing tools to simplify EAD adoption. No products have yet been developed, but a workspace, including some public items, is available at (December 4, 2002).