The EAD Roundtable of the Society of American Archivists
is pleased to announce the launch of the EAD HELP PAGES.
This website, at:
http://jefferson.village.virginia.edu/ead/
is intended to be a starting point for finding information
related to implementing the EAD.DTD.

The idea for the website came out of discussions at the
first meeting of the Roundtable at the SAA Annual Meeting
in Orlando, earlier this year.

One of the most useful sections of the website is a list of
EAD SITES ANNOTATED - which provides brief overviews of how
different repositories mark up and deliver their EAD instances.
Since one of the most often asked questions about EAD and SGML is:
"How do you do it?" - we gathered anecdotal responses from most of the
EAD sites listed by LC.

On another webpage, you can find links to TOOLS AND HELPER FILES.
[Helper files which were formerly available via the LC EAD site:
http://www.loc.gov/ead/
have now been officially transferred to the EAD HELP PAGES.]
An early idea for the website was to list hints and comments for
various commercial SGML products. Due to the availability of other
reliable guides to SGML software, we have chosen to limit
our TOOLS AND HELPER FILES page to include compiled versions
of the EAD.DTD

Any comments or additions are welcome. Please peruse the entire website,
including the MISSION statement. Our goal is to provide information and
contacts so that EAD can be as widely implemented as is feasible.

A great deal of thanks is owed to those who volunteered to gather
information, provide data, proofread and encourage -
including: Peter J. Roberts, Mark Shelstad, Mary Lacy
Clark Center, Anne Mitchell, Kris Kiesling, and Daniel Pitti.

And a special debt of gratitude is due the University of Virginia for
allowing us space on their server.

---------------------------------------------------------

Timothy Young, chair
Archivist
Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library
Yale University

--and--

Beth Bensman, vice-chair
University Archivist
Scott Memorial Library
Thomas Jefferson University

[This message has been cross-posted to the EAD list and the ARCHIVES list]