Workbook on Digital Private Papers > Arranging and cataloguing digital and hybrid archives > EAD templates for a personal archive
EAD templates for a personal archive
Suggested EAD elements required at c03 folder level (generic)
The following elements are recommended for describing digital material at this level. In many cases, it is likely that this is the lowest level to which it is practical to catalogue.
Elements in the <did>
<unitid> The shelfmark for the folder, e.g. TEST/1/1/1
<unittitle> This element should contain a supplied term indicating the type of object being described, along with the original title allocated to the object by the creator (the latter will have been recorded in the PREMIS element originalName). It is useful to give the original title in inverted commas to indicate quotation, e.g. Folder: "Speeches". The same applies for sub-folders; e.g. a subfolder within "Speeches" might be given the title Sub-folder: "Oral questions".
<unitdate> This should record a span date, usually at month level, covering the earliest date of creation for a document within the folder, to the latest last modified date of any of the documents. The 'normal' attribute will be set to record a date in accordance with ISO 8601.
<physdesc><extent> Supply the number of sub-folders and/or the total number of items (i.e. files). Also include size in MB.
<materialspec> Use to indicate the creator's original file formats represented in the folder.
<dao> If desired, a link can be made to the METS document which represents the 'folder' in the digital repository and points to the children sub-folders and files of the folder.
Example <did> for folder level:
Other elements
<phystech> This element could be used to refer researchers to the creator's relevant hardware and software environments as listed in the chronology of environments at fonds level. It should also be noted that material which originated elsewhere and was simply stored in a folder by the principal creator may have been generated in an altogether different environment.
<scope and content> An overview of the intellectual content of the material in the folder. Archivists could get a feel for the scope and content of different folders by using indexing technologies or automatic keyphrase extraction tools like Kea Or Data Fountains to pick out key words and phrases which are frequently used; this would help them to summarise the intellectual content of a folder without having to read all of its contents.
If not using <dao> to link to representations of the folder in the digital repository, and if not cataloguing to item level in EAD and providing links at that level, it may be appropriate to include a list of the files included in the folder here, using <daogrp> and <daoloc> to link to the digital objects via their repository METS documents.
<arrangement> Use to explain the arrangement of the component sub-folders or files and its rationale. Arrangement will usually replicate the order in which the records are found; this may reflect automatic arrangement by the computer, or decisions made by the creator on the arrangement of their files (by date, format, etc.). If any changes to arrangement have been made by the archivist they should be recorded here.
<accessrestrict> Provide an overview of any access restrictions (e.g. closures under the Data Protection Act (DPA)) which apply to the component items.
<controlaccess> A representation of the types of material held in the series could be given using the <genreform> element and a controlled vocabulary. The Dublin Core Metadata Initiative (DCMI) types vocabulary is one example, but the distinction between digital and traditional formats in this vocabulary is not clear (e.g. StillImage could apply to an analogue or digital image).
