To:  Readers of the EAD list, for your information

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The Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation awards grant to RLG to help develop
international standard for archival contextual information.

 The Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation has given support to RLG to convene a
working meeting of experts on archival descriptive standards to continue
work on a project started two years ago at Yale University.  The purpose of
the meeting is to create a draft document type definition for archival
contextual information - the important information about the creators of
archival records, personal papers and other unique resources.  Biographical
information, agency histories,  and other contextual information are
critical for understanding archival resources and for linking related
materials in the expanding universe of electronic research sources.

Related efforts to carry out this work are underway in several countries
around the world and within the International Council on Archives.
Representatives from these related projects will be attending this working
meeting with a goal of ensuring international compatibility in the creation
of this descriptive schema.  The participants will analyse a wide range of
contextual records, identify common elements that must be used in this type
of description, and draft a model for testing by as wide a constituency as
possible.  The meeting will be held in Toronto in March, and participants
will be attending from the United States, Canada, Australia, the UK,
Sweden, Italy and Norway.

The Delmas Foundation award comes at a critical time to move this work
forward. The International Standard for Archival Authority Records, a
schema prepared by the International Council on Archives, is under review
in the year 2001 and this additional work will provide a concerted effort
to thoroughly vet that standard and provide guidance for its future
development.

For further information about this effort please contact either Richard
Szary or Anne Van Camp at the addresses listed below.
Richard Szary
Director, Manuscripts and Archives
Yale University Library
P.O. Box 208240
120 High Street
New Haven, CT 06520
phone:  (203) 432-9657
e-mail:  [log in to unmask]

Anne Van Camp
RLG, Manager of Member Initiatives
1200 Villa Street
Mountain View, CA  94041 USA
phone:+1  650-691-2237
fax: +1 650-964-0943
e-mail:  [log in to unmask]

RLG is a not-for-profit membership corporation of over 160 universities,
national libraries, archives,  historical societies, and other
institutions. In addition to a range of collaborative activities that
address members' shared goals, RLG develops and operates databases and
software to serve the information needs of member and non-member
institutions and individuals around the world.