Some time ago I promised to post to this list the directions for altering the ead.dtd file so that it would conform to the XML standard. The following text comes from the forthcoming (late Summer) <shamelessPlug>EAD Application Guidelines</shamelessPlug> There is also information on how the prolog to an EAD instance should look in XML, which is slightly different from the SGML requirements. Michael "If the DTD is to be used with XML applications such as validating processors, one change must first be made to the "ead.dtd" file. There is a section towards the end of the file headed "SGML EADNOTAT AND EADCHARS INCLUSION/EXCLUSION." At the end of this section, there is an entity reference that reads "<!ENTITY % sgml 'INCLUDE' >". To "switch off" SGML compatibility and "switch on" XML compatibility, change 'INCLUDE' to 'IGNORE'. When you make this change, observe that the explanatory note in this section of the DTD file points out that "for XML, the eadnotat.ent file should be invoked in the declaration subset of [the] individual instance." This means that the file "eadnotat.ent" must be explicitly declared as an entity in each EAD instance. For XML instances, the prolog of each EAD-encoded finding aid should therefore read: <!DOCTYPE ead PUBLIC "-//Society of American Archivists//DTD ead.dtd (Encoded Archival Description (EAD))//EN" "ead.dtd" [ <!ENTITY % eadnotat PUBLIC "-//Society of American Archivists//DTD eadnotat.ent (EAD Notation Declarations)//EN" "eadnotat.ent"> %eadnotat; ]> Note that the Uniform Resource Identifiers (URI), in this case simple file names that point to the files ead.dtd and eadnotat.ent, must point to the physical location of these two files. Their content may therefore vary from the above examples according to local file storage practices." Michael Fox Head of Processing Minnesota Historical Society 345 Kellogg Blvd West St. Paul MN 55102-1906 phone: 651-296-1014 fax: 651-296-9961 [log in to unmask] **NOTE NEW AREA CODE EFFECTIVE JULY 12, 1998**