Encoded Archival Description as a Halfway Technology

Dow, Elizabeth H.

doi:10.1080/15332740903117701

Cited by 6 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 6 publications

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“…Archival metadata standards assist in guaranteeing that metadata are consistent and correct, thereby facilitating archive resource search and retrieval (Gueguen et al , 2013). Additionally, they promote the integration of metadata from numerous sources and the establishment of semantic links between archived materials and other relevant entities, such as people, organisations and events (Dow, 2009; Pacheco et al , 2023). In general, archival metadata standards aim to describe consistent rules for four object categories: archival resources, archival institutions, archival activities and persons or groups related to archival resources (Llanes-Padrón and Pastor-Sánchez, 2017).…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

A knowledge graph of interlinking digital records: the case of the 1997 Korean financial crisis

Kim

2023

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Purpose Despite ongoing research into archival metadata standards, digital archives are unable to effectively represent records in their appropriate contexts. This study aims to propose a knowledge graph that depicts the diverse relationships between heterogeneous digital archive entities. Design/methodology/approach This study introduces and describes a method for applying knowledge graphs to digital archives in a step-by-step manner. It examines archival metadata standards, such as Records in Context Ontology (RiC-O), for characterising digital records; explains the process of data refinement, enrichment and reconciliation with examples; and demonstrates the use of knowledge graphs constructed using semantic queries. Findings This study introduced the 97imf.kr archive as a knowledge graph, enabling meaningful exploration of relationships within the archive’s records. This approach facilitated comprehensive record descriptions about different record entities. Applying archival ontologies with general-purpose vocabularies to digital records was advised to enhance metadata coherence and semantic search. Originality/value Most digital archives serviced in Korea are limited in the proper use of archival metadata standards. The contribution of this study is to propose a practical application of knowledge graph technology for linking and exploring digital records. This study details the process of collecting raw data on archives, data preprocessing and data enrichment, and demonstrates how to build a knowledge graph connected to external data. In particular, the knowledge graph of RiC-O vocabulary, Wikidata and Schema.org vocabulary and the semantic query using it can be applied to supplement keyword search in conventional digital archives.

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Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

A knowledge graph of interlinking digital records: the case of the 1997 Korean financial crisis

Kim

2023

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“…However it is unfair, as many authors did, to heap on EAD criticism that actually pertains to the deficiencies of the archival milieu at large. For instance, the subjective difficulty in appropriating EAD was and still is largely due to the lack of training (or interest) from archivists into computer matters (Shaw, 2001;Yaco, 2008;Dow, 2009). Lack of funding for the purchase of computers, software, training sessions, and other such spendings for the implementation of EAD cannot be seriously attributed to EAD itself either: technology always comes at a cost.…”

Section: Ddi and Eadmentioning

confidence: 99%

Elaborating a Crosswalk Between Data Documentation Initiative (DDI) and Encoded Archival Description (EAD) for an Emerging Data Archive Service Provider

Peuch¹

2018

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Belgium has recently decided to integrate the Consortium of European Social Science Data Archives (CESSDA). The Social Sciences Data Archive (SODA) project aims at tackling the different challenges entailed by the setting up of a new research infrastructure in the form of a data archive. The SODA project involves an archival institution, the State Archives of Belgium, which, like most other large archival repositories around the world, work with Encoded Archival Description (EAD) for managing their metadata. There exists at the State Archives a large pipeline of programs and procedures that processes EAD documents and channels their content through different applications, such as the online catalog of the institution. Because there is a chance that the future Belgian data archive will be part of the State Archives and because DDI is the most widespread metadata standard in the social sciences as well as a requirement for joining CESSDA, the State Archives have developed a DDI-to-EAD crosswalk in order to re-use the State Archives' infrastructure for the needs of the future Belgian service provider. Technical illustrations highlight the conceptual differences between DDI and EAD and how these can be reconciled or escaped for the purpose of a data archive for the social sciences.

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“…Several reasons have been given for this, including, for instance, the flexibility of the EAD architecture, which allows similar concepts to be recorded in multiple ways (Shaw 2009, p. 123). Others, such as Dow (2009), argue that EAD is inherently more 'document-centric' (modelled on the requirements of encoding the features of the textual document which forms the traditional printed finding aid) than 'data-centric' (modelled on atomistic data components at multiple levels of granularity); this makes interoperability, particularly its potential for detailed federated searching, harder to achieve.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

An XML schema for enhancing the semantic interoperability of archival description

Gärtner

2014

Arch Sci

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The archival community is presently addressing questions of semantic interoperability, which have been raised by linked open data and the Semantic Web. Current discussions on revisions to encoded archival description (EAD), for instance, are moving from document-based to more database-like element sets to facilitate greater interoperability. But to realise fully the potential benefits offered by such developments, further steps are needed. This article outlines a new experimental schema, which allows collection descriptions to be encoded in a more interoperable manner. Devised for the Collaborative European Digital Archive Architecture Project, it complements the descriptive elements of a collection-level record with more semantically precise metadata components. The schema was devised to form the core of a 'digital ecosystem', a rapidly changing research environment of which archival descriptions form a core part. The advantages of semantic interoperability and the data requirements to achieve it are discussed before a detailed description of the schema itself. The article then suggests some initial ways in which it could be employed to enhance access to collection descriptions, its compatibility with the Semantic Web and standards such as ISAD(G), and how it may be used in conjunction with EAD. The schema has yet to be evaluated in detail in working environments, and so is offered as a heuristic proof-of-concept for community discussion.

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Encoded Archival Description as a Halfway Technology

Abstract: In the mid 1990s, Encoded Archival Description (EAD) appeared as a revolutionary technology for publishing archival finding aids on the Web. The author explores whether or not, given the advent of Web 2.0, the archival community should abandon EAD and look for something to replace it.

Cited by 6 publications

References 6 publications

A knowledge graph of interlinking digital records: the case of the 1997 Korean financial crisis

A knowledge graph of interlinking digital records: the case of the 1997 Korean financial crisis

Elaborating a Crosswalk Between Data Documentation Initiative (DDI) and Encoded Archival Description (EAD) for an Emerging Data Archive Service Provider

An XML schema for enhancing the semantic interoperability of archival description

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