In this forum, Eli Brown, Marty Heggestad, and Peter Martinez, all from Rare and Manuscript Collections in Kroch Library, will present information about EAD, a standard for encoding archival finding aids using XML.

The presenters will address the following:

• What an archival finding aid is.
• Why there was a need to encode finding aids.
• The advantages of using XML to encode our finding aids.
• How we go about creating these finding aids; production, management, and delivery.
• The relationship between the EAD encoded finding aids and other collection records such as in RLIN and Voyager.
• How using a data structure standard has affected the way in which we describe the content of an archival collection.
• The future of EAD finding aids for CUL.