Encoded Archival Context Activities

Objective: The Encoded Archival Context (EAC) initiative aimed to define a standard for recording and exchanging information about the individuals, families, and organizations that create archival records.

Overview: Biographical information, agency histories, and other contextual information are critical for understanding archival resources—the manuscripts, letters, memoranda, reports and more that form the "records" which archives collect, organize, and make accessible.

RLG coordinated the development of EAC starting in 2000. With support from the Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation, RLG hosted two key meetings in 2001, contributed to the ongoing progress of the standard, and sponsored Daniel Pitti of the University of Virginia in developing an XML Document Type Definition (DTD) for applying EAC encoding to online information about the creators of archival materials.

• Working drafts of the Ad Hoc EAC Working Group: Includes examples of organizations and individuals encoded using EAC Beta XML