Creators of Culture: Encoded Archival Context

Abstract

Encoded Archival Context (EAC) is an ongoing initiative within the international archival community to design and implement a prototype standard based on Extensible Markup Language (XML) for encoding descriptions of record creators. The primary audience for this prototype standard is the international archival community. The description of the individuals, families, and organizations who create records is an essential component of long-term preservation of and access to the documentary evidence of human activity. Identifying record creating entities, recording the names or designations used by and for them, describing their essential functions, activities, and characteristics, and the dates when and places in which they were active or over which they had some responsibility is an essential component of the curating of archival records. Creator description facilitates both access to and interpretation and understanding of records. EAC is thus intended to be both a means and an end. Description of creators is also essential in the description of bibliographic, museum, and other information, and thus EAC may be of interest to these other communities as well. As the custodians of the records upon which biographies and organization histories are based, archivists are well-placed to develop a standard that will assist in the fulfillment of their professional responsibilities, and at the same time lay the foundation for building international biographical and organization history reference resources.