Dear Péter,
Thank you. All of the members of the EACWG are very pleased to release
it at last.
EAC-CPF does accommodate "localization," though not as permissively as
the technique described below. There are two principal ways of
extending the EAC-CPF. The first method is through the use of the
@localType (anyURI), which can be used to make the semantics of many
of the EAC-CPF tags more specific. The second method is to use within
<description> the <localDescription> or <localDescriptions> (which may
contain one or more <localDescription>. Both require the @localType.
These can be used to extend the EAC-CPF using a type or category of
description not accommodated in ISAAR(CPF) and EAC-CPF. "Nationality"
is a good example. It is not specifically addressed in either
ISAAR(CPF) and EAC-CPF because there is no international consensus on
the what "nationality" is. Nevertheless, at least one member of the
EACWG represents a national context within which the category is
considered meaningful and useful.
We did not accommodate a more permissive approach simply because we
wanted to encourage consistency and uniformity in practice based on an
international standard, ISAAR(CPF), in order to encourage the
international sharing of authority records. "Too much" diversity
(unpredictability) makes sharing and aggregating difficult.
As for extensions outside of what is accommodated, I think this is
perfectly acceptable in local systems, as long as what is shared
outside of the local systems conforms to EAC-CPF.
In the very near future, EAD will be reviewed and revised. I suspect
your suggestion concerning extensibility will be discussed!
Regards,
Daniel
On Mar 5, 2010, at 12:22 PM, Király Péter wrote:
> Dear Mr Pitti,
>
> this is a very good news!
>
> Unfortunatelly I didn't have time previously to send you comments
> about
> the EAC schema, so I guess that this is not the appropriate moment to
> send a comment, so I would like to excuse me, for this late email.
>
> I had the feeling, that different institutions have different
> requests against any
> metadata schema, including EAC and EAD. I don't know whether there
> exist
> any modifications of the EAC schema, but EAD has several custom
> versions
> (e.g. the Master project mixed TEI and EAD, the Monasterium project
> extended EAD with features important for medievalists etc.).
> Practically
> it means, that those schemas will not be no more EAD schemas, but new
> ones, which hold some of the features of EAD structure. I guess,
> that this
> is a problem. When I am thinking about this, I know a good solution
> found
> inside the OAI-PMH schema. It defines an "envelope" for different
> kind of
> metadata schemas, in a way, that in a given point of the schema it
> allows you
> to insert any element belongs to another namespace.
> The important part of the schema [1]:
>
> <complexType name="metadataType">
> <annotation>
> <documentation>Metadata must be expressed in XML that complies
> with another XML Schema (namespace=#other). Metadata must be
> explicitly qualified in the response.</documentation>
> </annotation>
> <sequence>
> <any namespace="##other" processContents="strict"/>
> </sequence>
> </complexType>
>
> I guess that there are parts in the EAC and EAD schemas, where this
> pattern
> could be followed, and these projects could remain EAD compilant.
>
> Anyway: I congratulate all of you, who worked on the new schema!
> Great work!
>
> Péter Király
>
> [1] http://www.openarchives.org/OAI/openarchivesprotocol.html#OAIPMHschema
>
> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Daniel Pitti"
> <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Friday, March 05, 2010 5:04 PM
> Subject: EAC-CPF 2010 Released!
>
>
>> The EAC-CPF Working Group (EACWG) is pleased to announce the public
>> release of the EAC-CPF 2010 version of the schema and tag library
>> for Encoded Archival Context-Corporate Bodies, Persons, and
>> Families. The new standard provides an XML vocabulary to enable
>> encoding and communicating archival authority records created
>> according to the rules promulgated in ISAAR-CPF, and it is
>> intended to facilitate content-rich authority records that can
>> interoperate in a global environment.
>>
>> EAC-CPF 2010 results from work over the past 30 months by a 15-
>> member working group representing 9 countries. Their work has been
>> supported by the Society of American Archivists, Staatsbibliothek
>> zu Berlin, Archivio di Stato di Bologna, the Istituto per i Beni
>> Artistici, Culturali e Naturali della Regione Emilia-Romagna, and
>> by generous funding from the Delmas Foundation. The Working Group
>> benefitted from extensive input from the international archival
>> community throughout the review process of the draft schema in
>> late 2009.
>>
>> The stable schema is available for immediate download in 3
>> versions: WC3 schema language, Relax NG Schema, and Relax NG
>> Schema Compact. It is accompanied by an extensive Tag Library
>> complete with encoding examples, which is also available for
>> immediate download. It is expected that the online tag library
>> will continue to evolve over time to meet the needs of the
>> encoding community.
>>
>> The three schema versions, the Tag Library, and other information
>> resources, are available on the official EAC-CPF website: http://eac.staatsbibliothek-berlin.de/
>> . The international standard is jointly supported by the Society
>> of American Archivists and the State Library of Berlin.
>>
>> Please contact Kathy Wisser ([log in to unmask]), Chair of the
>> EACWG, if you have questions.
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