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 c04 item level (generic)
It is unlikely that repositories will be able to catalogue any but the most important material in a digital or hybrid archive at item level. In the event that item-level cataloguing is undertaken, the following EAD elements are recommended:
Elements in the <did>
<unitid> The shelfmark for the file, eg TEST/1/1/2/3
<unittitle> Indicate record type and also supply creator’s original title in inverted commas, e.g. File: "Campaign speech, May 2005".
<unitdate> In the case of an individual file, researchers are likely to be interested in knowing the date on which the file was first created, as well as the date on which it was last modified (if this information can be ascertained from the preservation metadata). This would be useful, for example, in the case of spreadsheets where new information is added over time; and speeches or papers, where the length of time a document took to write and revise before reaching the final version might be interesting. These can be recorded as span dates, with the normalise attribute set to record the ISO 8601-conformant format. At this level, a day (and even, in some cases, a time) might be useful and standards for formatting dates and times should be agreed on.
<origination> Record the name of the document’s creator. If more than one person has modified a document, ideally multiple names should be recorded here, although the limitations of current technology may prevent the extraction of this information. NCA Rules should be used.
<physdesc><extent> Record the size of the file in KB/MB.
<materialspec> Free-text description of the creator’s original file format.
<dao> Use to link to the digital object in its METS wrapper.
Example <did> for file level:
Other elements
<phystech> Use to indicate whether the original file was encrypted or password protected.
<scopecontent> Give a very brief indication of content, and if the document exists in a number of different drafts or versions, indicate which version this file represents.
<accessrestrict> Indicate any restrictions on access which apply to the file, e.g. closed; accessible to readers who have signed a condition of use form; available in read-only format, etc.
<relatedmaterial> Refer to any other version of the document (e.g. an earlier draft) which is included in the archive, citing its shelfmark. There should be a repository-level policy on the method and semantics of identifying versions; such a vocabulary could be based on the findings of the RIVER project, e.g. DigitalCopy, DigitalVariant, DigitalEdition.
