Popularizing the Finding Aid

Abstract

SUMMARY Encoded Archival Description (EAD) provides a flexible metadata infrastructure that, when coupled with World Wide Web functionality, allows archivists to move beyond simply replicating the physical form of the paper finding aid in the online environment and fundamentally re-conceptualize how archival information systems can facilitate popular use. This paper reviews the descriptive imperatives that have led to the traditional physical and intellectual form of the finding aid, and how those imperatives can be addressed by EAD. It then discusses some of the needs that diverse user practices and cognitive approaches bring to the design of discovery and retrieval in EAD-based archival information systems. Finally, it adapts and extends the search capabilities delineated by Bates for a “berrypicking” search interface, and suggests ten strategies to enhance browsing and retrieval in EAD-based archival information systems.

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