What is this site?

This is EADiva.com, a one-woman tag library for the Encoded Archival Description version 3 (EAD3) metadata schema. This site builds off my work trying to make the original tag library more learner-friendly. That site is still in existence at eadiva.com/2/ and I plan to leave it there permanently.

EADiva.com is a site aimed at learners, people trying to prepare crosswalks or templates, and people who just need a reference. I created the first version while still in library school and wrote with my classmates in mind. When reading these pages, you won’t need to know what an RNG file is or how an XML schema is created. Fortunately, unlike the last time, you won’t need to know that for the official EAD3 tag library either! In fact, I’d like to start this out with a huge shout-out to the EAD3 team for their years of work, to Mike & Kelcy for spearheading things, and to the thought they put into the new tag library. I’m also grateful that they invited me to tag along for parts.

You can also read my reflection on the project’s 5-year anniversary.

Why Not Just Use the Official EAD Resources?

Actually they’re really awesome this time around and more layperson-friendly. But despite the great improvements, I think there’s still a place for EADiva 3.0. I can be more informal. I can interlink to tutorials. I don’t have to worry about being the official version and using very official-sounding language. Like last time, every element page links to the official tag library’s page for that element so you can see the official take on it.

Changes From the EADiva 2002 Version

In the site for EAD 2002, I worked primarily from the tag library and only consulted the schema if I had questions. In this version, I’ve worked from iterations of the schema over a year before its release. This has led to a much better focus on my part on required element order. I’ve worked especially hard on the tag library pages to spell out exactly how an element and its child elements should be used. If anything about that seems unclear, please let me know and I’ll try to make it even better.

Also, for the sake of people building crosswalks, or trying to understand what’s changed for the sake of their XSLT, or just curious, I’ve added a section in each recurring element page about what changed from EAD 2002.

The right sidebar now has useful information on each element. If it’s new in EAD3, the sidebar displays a small green box letting you know. If the element was used in EAD 2002, it contains a link to that element’s page on the 2002 version of EADiva so you can view them side-by-side.

Site Structure

I’ve created the site as a structured, interlinked tag library in which every EAD element is described in its own page. The element descriptions include information about what kind of information the tag may contain, where it may occur within an EAD finding aid and inside which elements, what attributes it may or must have (and definitions of those attributes on every page), which elements it may contain, and at least one example of how it can be used.

EAD’s structure can be seen on the elements page. Major structural elements are outlined at the top and nested to reflect their usage. Below them are generic elements which may be used in more places throughout the finding aid, tabular (used to create tables) elements, and linking elements. I’ve also created an alphabetically ordered list of elements.

Why “EADiva”?

While working on a paper for MARAC about EAD and Archivist’s Toolkit, I had to construct a silly resumé website for one of my library school classes. It was late, I’d just been comparing EAD files from several repositories with my partner, and I decided to describe myself as a “Mistress of Serials and EADiva.” The next day, it kept popping into my head. Eventually, what had started as a joke turned into an idea for this site and then the site’s name. It’s not a self-description, more of a tongue-in-cheek aspiration.