Call for Comments: Revision of Encoded Archival Description (EAD)

Call for Comments: Revision of Encoded Archival Description (EAD)

In February 2010 the SAA Council charged a new subcommittee of the Standards Committee, the Technical Subcommittee for Encoded Archival Description (TS-EAD), to undertake a revision of the standard within a period of 5 years.

To ensure the greatest possible input from EAD users around the world, the subcommittee has an extensive international membership and is calling for proposed changes to the current version, EAD 2002. The deadline for change proposals is February 28, 2011.

The current timetable for this revision process is as follows:

* October 2010: Call for comments
* February 28, 2011: Deadline for comments
* August 2011: Discussion forum at SAA Annual Meeting
* Spring 2012: Working meeting of TS-EAD (subject to funding)
* December 2012: Release of draft schema for testing and comment
* August 2013: Publish revised version

In completing the revision process the subcommittee will take note of the Design Principles for Enhancements to EAD published at the time of the last revision. The subcommittee will take account also of the global success of EAD and current implementation practice. It will endeavour to encourage continued adoption of EAD as a tool for the online dissemination of archival information by ensuring that EAD is as economical and straightforward as possible to implement and use.

To propose changes, please complete the form below. Please complete a separate form for each change suggested, with a brief description and the rationale for the proposed change. Comments may also be sent by e-mail to ts-ead@archivists.org and should include the information in the form below.

To ensure that the revision process is as open as possible, all comments must be attributable to named individuals and affiliated organisations where appropriate. Anonymous responses will not be considered. All change proposals will be made publicly available, with attribution, in a forum to be determined. E-mail addresses are requested so that we may contact respondents for clarification; they will not be shared.

Michael Rush (Yale University)
Bill Stockting (British Library)
Co-chairs, TS-EAD