Please forgive this theoretical, naive and possibly silly concern.  I am
processing the Albert B. Sabin (developer of the live, oral polio vaccine)
papers at the Cincinnati Medical Heritage Center.  I have not yet begun to
markup my inventory but am anticipating doing so when the processing of this
large (ca. 400 l. ft.) collection is completed.  I have taken the EAD
workshop and have been lurking on this list for a while as well as having
visited sites with inventories in EAD.  I understand that one of the
benefits of EAD is the precise retrieval the user will enjoy.  When I try to
imagine how that might work for an inventory of this size (being described
at folder level detail), my mind boggles at the number of "hits" (tho'
precise) one might get when searching for, say, poliomyelitis.  This problem
could be minimized if one could search only one series or subseries.  I have
not been able to determine if this is possible with EAD or if such a
capability is planned.  It's quite possible (probable!) I don't understand
this well enough -- am I worried about nothing?  Or is this a potential
problem for large collections described at folder level detail?  Many thanks
for any light folks can shed on this.

Maggie

Maggie Yax, Albert B. Sabin Archivist
Cincinnati Medical Heritage Center
University of Cincinnati's Medical Center AIT&L
121 Wherry Hall
Cincinnati, OH 45267-0574
Phone: (513) 558-5121
Fax: (513) 558-0472
Email: [log in to unmask]