That may have been a suggestion I made, but it isn't my solution (as
always only partially implemented as yet, but the bits seem to work).

I only use the final index term as a single string in EAD - e.g.

<subject source="lcsh" encodinganalog="MARC650"
authfilenumber="GB33S-191">Churches - England - Durham (County)</subject>

All index terms (people, corporate bodies, places, subjects, genre) are
stored in an SQL database which provides proper authority control and
uses the MARC field structure including subfields and supplied punctuation.

This means that once you have created the term it will be used in the
same form in other collections etc., and not only provides an existing
data structure (makes building the thing far easier) but also allows you
to do potentially useful things like subfield searching.

The trick is to pass your controlled index term searches into the
database rather than the EAD, which can be done with ASP or PHP and then
  use these results to interrogate the EAD by searching against
authfilenumber attribute values. This also means that you can continue a
simple free text search function if, as we do, you have very few
collections with authority controlled index terms.

The problem with trying to do the whole thing in EAD is, aside from
having to twist tag usage, without any externally stored versions of the
index terms it is far more difficult to enforce consistent usage across
many files and cataloguers.

--
# Richard Higgins
# Durham University Library
# Archives & Special Collections
# Palace Green
# Durham
# DH1 3RN
# E-Mail: [log in to unmask]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Kathryn Jenner
> Sent: 26 January 2004 11:01
> To: Robin Wiltshire
> Subject: message for EAD list: LCSH subject headings
>
>
>
> Hello all,
>
>
>
> I'm currently working on an EAD cataloguing project to produce an online
> finding aid for the Leeds Archive of Vernacular Culture. On a general
> level we've had very few problems with EAD, other than in the rendering
> of LCSH subject headings. Having looked at the list archives it seems
> that when this issue has been discussed previously, no "clear cut"
> answer has been forthcoming as to what approach should be taken towards
> representing the subdivisions of LCSH headings (i.e. MARC 650|x and |z)
> in EAD.
>
>
>
> As suggested by Richard Higgins, one approach is to use the <controlaccess>  element as a wrapper with LCSH contained within <subject>  elements with "encodinganalogs" representing the various MARC
> divisions, i.e.:
>
>
>
>
> ....<controlaccess>
> <controlaccess encodinganalog="MARC650">
> <subject encodinganalog="$a">Calligraphers</subject>
> <subject encodinganalog="$z">Minnesota</subject></controlaccess>
> ... more index terms ...
> </controlaccess>
>
>
>
>
>
> I would be grateful of any comments regarding this approach to LCSH in
> EAD, and also any information on alternative strategies.
>
> __________________________________
>
> Kathryn Jenner
>
> Research Assistant
>
> Leeds Archive of Vernacular Culture
>
> School of English
>
> University of Leeds
>
> LS2 9JT
>
> 0113 343 2236
>
> [log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]>
>
> http://www.leeds.ac.uk/english/activities/lavc/