Controlled Access Headings in EAD Finding Aids: Current Practices in Number of and Types of Headings Assigned

Abstract

This article presents the findings from a study of controlled access headings assigned to encoded archival description finding aids in the Ohio Library and Information Network Finding Aid Repository, focusing on the number of headings per finding aid and the category of terms assigned. Assigning multiple controlled access headings was widely practiced, with an average of 8.16 headings per finding aid. Proper names and topical terms were the 2 categories most often assigned, followed by place names and genre terms, respectively. The study also suggests that practices in assigning access headings for archival collections have not evolved much with the implementation of encoded archival description.

KEYWORDS:

• encoded archival description
• EAD
• finding aids
• subject access
• online access
• controlled access headings

Notes

1. Lisa R. Coats, “Users of EAD Finding Aids: Who Are They and Are They Satisfied?” Journal of Archival Organization 2, no. 3 (2004): 28.

2. Society of American Archivists, Describing Archives: A Content Standard (Chicago: Society of American Archivists, 2004).

3. Mary Jo Pugh, “The Illusion of Omniscience: Subject Access and the Reference Archivist,” American Archivist 45, no. 1 (1982): 42.

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5. Jackie Dooley, “Subject Indexing in Context,” American Archivist 55 (Spring 1992): 345.

6. Richard C. Berner, “Manuscript Catalogs and Other Finding Aids: What Are Their Relationship?” American Archivist 34, no. 4 (1971): 370.

7. Michael E. Stevens, “The Historian and Archival Finding Aids,” Georgia Archive 5 (Winter 1977): 64–74.

8. Ibid., 71.

9. Jennifer Schaffner, “The Metadata is the Interface: Better Description for Better Discovery of Archives and Special Collections, Synthesized from User Studies,” report produced by OCLC Research (Dublin, Ohio: OCLC Research, 2009), 6. Available at http://www.oclc.org/programs/publications/reports/2009-06.pdf.

10. Pugh, “Illusion of Omniscience,” 35.

11. Claire Gabriel, “Subject Access to Archives and Manuscript Collections: An Historical Overview,” Journal of Archival Organization 1, no. 4 (2002): 60.

12. Ibid., 58.

13. Dooley, “Subject Indexing in Context,” 347.

14. Gabriel, “Subject Access,” 60.

15. “Development of the Encoded Archival Description DTD,” EAD Encoded Archival Description, Version 2002, Official Site. Available at http://www.loc.gov/ead/eaddev.html

16. Schaffner, “Metadata is the Interface,” 11.

17. Gabriel, “Subject Access,” 61.

18. Avra Michelson, “Description and Reference in the Age of Automation,” American Archivist 50 (Spring 1987): 199.

19. Elizabeth Cox and Leslie Czechowski, “Subject Access Points in the MARC Record and Archival Finding Aid: Enough or Too Many?” Journal of Archival Organization 5, no. 4 (2007): 51–59.

20. Ibid., 56–57.

21. Jihyun Kim, “EAD Encoding and Display: A Content Analysis,” Journal of Archival Organization 2, no. 3 (2004): 50.

22. Kathleen Feeney, “Retrieval of Archival Finding Aids Using World-Wide-Web Search Engines,” American Archivist 62 (Fall 1999): 206–228.

23. Ibid., 224.

24. Helen R. Tibbo and Lokman I. Meho, “Finding Finding Aids on the World Wide Web,” American Archivist 64 (Spring/Summer 2001): 61–77.

25. Schaffner, “Metadata is the Interface,” 7.

26. Feeney, “Retrieval of Archival Finding Aids,” 211–212; Tibbo and Lokman, “Finding Finding Aids,” 66.

27. Gabriel, “Subject Access,” 62.

28. “What is OhioLINK?” The Ohio Library and Information Network. Available at http://www.ohiolink.edu/about/what-is-ol.html.

29. “OhioLINK EAD FACTORy (Finding Aid Creation Tool and Online Repository) Contributors: Frequently Asked Questions,” no. 4. Available at http://ead.ohiolink.edu/xtf-ead/contributor_faq.html.

30. OhioLINK EAD Task Force, “OhioLINK EAD Task Force Annual Report 2010,” OhioLINK Database Management and Standards Committee: 2. Available at http://platinum.ohiolink.edu/dms/ead/EAD_TF_2010_AnnualRpt.pdf.

31. Cara Gilgenbach, Amy McCrory, and David Gaj, “The OhioLINK EAD FACTORy: Consortial Creation and Delivery of EAD,” Archival Issues, 31, no. 2 (2007): 154–155.

32. “OhioLINK EAD FACTOR Contributors: Frequently Asked Questions,” no. 11.

33. Print and Photographs Division, Library of Congress, Thesaurus for Graphic Materials. Available at http://www.loc.gov/pictures/collection/tgm/

34. Society of American Archivists, Describing Archives: A Content Standard, chapters 12–14.

35. Mark A. Greene and Dennis Meissner, “More Product, Less Process: Revamping Traditional Processing,” American Archivist 68, issue 2 (2005): 208–263.