Cross-Community Applications: The EAD in Museums
Richard Rinehart · 2024
Markup and network technologies present an opportunity for museums to integrate traditional collection and item descriptions and make them available to anyone, anywhere. Encoded Archival Description, while developed in the archival community, appears to provide the means to realize this opportunity. Several museum projects are experimenting with the application of EAD to museum materials to find out what does and does not work. Traditional descriptive practices and standardization efforts within the museum community provide the context for this development. EAD will accommodate many traditional practices while also offering the possibility of new and potentially powerful forms of access. While EAD offers museums many potential benefits, its use also presents challenges.