We are planning to export finding aids from a database into EAD-tagged XML 
documents and ingest them into DLXS for federated searching.  The techies 
want to know if the entity declaration in the PUBLIC identifier that I 
currently use for XMetaL-created finding aids is necessary.  I currently 
create my finding aids in an XMetaL template as SGML files then convert 
them to XML with NoteTabPro, run the Saxon frameset to create HTML versions 
for display on the Web, and run Saxon jvm to create PDFs for printable 
copies. All this conversion will be moot when we ingest the XML document 
into DLXS.

In the example below, is "beebe.sgm" necessary or could it be "beebe.xml" 
or simply "beebe"?  The techie is changing the name to "beebe1" without a 
.xml or .sgm extension before ingesting it into DLXS and it seems to work 
just fine.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>
<!DOCTYPE ead SYSTEM "file:/c:\pubclass\shared\ead\ead.dtd" [
<!ENTITY psulogo PUBLIC "-//Pennsylvania State University::University 
Libraries::Special Collections Department//NONSGML (PSU logo)//EN" 
"file:/C:\pubclass\documents\psulogo.gif" NDATA gif>
]>
<ead
 ><eadheader
langencoding="iso639-2b"
scriptencoding="iso15924"
dateencoding="iso8601"
countryencoding="iso3166-1"
repositoryencoding="iso15511"
 ><eadid
 >PUBLIC "-//Pennsylvania State University::University
          Libraries::Special Collections Library//TEXT (US::PSt::MGN 
324::Helen Hulick Beebe Papers, 1927-1998//EN" "beebe.sgm"</eadid> . . .

Am I worrying about retaining legacy data that is unnecessary or is there a 
good reason that the extension should remain? Thanks for your insight.

Sue

Susan Hamburger, Ph.D.
Manuscripts Cataloging Librarian
Cataloging Services
126 Paterno Library
The Pennsylvania State University
University Park, PA 16802

814/865-1755
FAX 814/863-7293