Day 16: Back to ArchivesSpace

After a short break, it was time to return to my work on ArchivesSpace. While working on the grant-funded research project, Tom, the ArchivesSpace administrator had time to review some of the work that had been done on ArchivesSpace and figure out some new aspects and features.

For most of the day, Tom walked me through exporting the ArchivesSpace finding aid into an XML format EAD finding aid and showed me how to read the scripting. I noticed:

• it is a very similar format to HTML coding, only easier to read and more user-friendly
• Certain tags cannot occur within others. For example: 
• the publicationstmt tag can hold
• publisher
• address
• addressline
• (PS: these tags are flanked by "<", ">", and "</"  I cannot use these here as Blogger translates them as xml commands and they disappear. For more information on this particular EAD tag, visit the LoC site on publicationstmt.
• What is even cooler about ArchivesSpace is that certain information is auto-populated into the xml EAD finding aid based on repository information  entered when setting up the platform.

• Certain EAD tags do not work if entered in the wrong section and field. 
• Because of this, you need to know EAD description best practices as well as how they translate to the ArchivesSpace platform.

For a list of some of the most commonly used EAD tags, go to the Library of Congress (LoC) website and check out the list of EAD Elements by Tag.

The LoC also has a guide to best practices regarding tag use at EAD Best Practices