Designing Archival Description Systems will be taught as a new course
in the Rare Book School at the University of Virginia,
9-13 June 2008. The course will be taught by Daniel Pitti.

Applications are available at http://www.rarebookschool.org/applications/

Course description:
Released in 1998, Encoded Archival Description (EAD) has enabled
archivists to publish standardized Internet-accessible finding aids.
EAD has also provided the archival community with the opportunity to
gain a better understanding of emerging technologies and standards
and the opportunities presented by them to transform and enhance
archival description. The course will focus on the design of archival
descriptive systems by exploring markup and database technologies,
the International Council on Archives' (ICA) standards, and the
related communication standards. This course is aimed at
technologists, archivists, and librarians that either are or are
contemplating designing and implementing an advanced archival
descriptive system, and individuals interested in archival description theory.

This course will explore in detail markup and database technologies,
efforts underway to integrate the two technologies, and the
opportunity provided by this integration for transforming archival
description. Students will then read and discuss the ICA standards
ISAD(G), ISAAR(CPF), ISAF, and ISIAH, and the interrelation of the
four standards to form a complete archival descriptive system.
Students then will explore the complementary communication standards
EAD, EAC, EAG, and the potential for developing a communication
standard for ISAF. Finally, the students will develop an archival
description system implementation model based on markup and database
technologies. While the course will have some hands-on components,
the objective will be to develop a conceptual model of a complete
archival description system.

Applicants must have a good knowledge of archival descriptive
practices as well as experience using either markup or database
technologies. In their personal statement, applicants should indicate
their relevant archival background, the extent of their previous
experience with computers in general and EAD in particular, and
describe their role (present or future) in the implementation of
archival description systems in their home institution.