Encoded Archival Description Tag Library, Version 2002

Appendix B: Deprecated and Obsolete Elements and Attributes

What are deprecated elements and attributes?

The EAD Working Group, in response to submissions for changes to the DTD in 2001, is recommending that certain elements no longer be used by encoders. Deprecation means that an element or attribute is not included in the distributed "default" version of the DTD. While it is possible to "switch on" these elements, encoders use them at their own risk, as deprecated elements and attributes will be made obsolete in the next version. While the Working Group will supply transformation scripts mapping deprecated elements and attributes from version 1.0 to version 2002, it will not supply scripts that map deprecated version 1.0 elements to the version that supercedes EAD2002. Deprecated elements can be switched on by making the following change to the DTD:

Following is a list of deprecated elements and attributes, which is in turn followed by their descriptions from the EAD Tag Library Version 1.0. Adjunct Descriptive Data <add> and Administrative Information <admininfo> were wrappers for a number of subelements that in EAD 2002 have been "unbundled" and made available at the same level as <did> and <scopecontent>. The rationale for this is that these wrapper elements simply represented tagging overhead, particularly when used at the component level. If element grouping is desirable in some instances, the new element Description Group <descgrp> may be used. The distinction between <organization> and <arrangement> was never very clear to archivists, so the two meanings have been combined in <arrangement> and brought in line with ISAD(G) element 3.3.4 System of Arrangement.

Tabular display elements Display Row <drow>, Display Entry <dentry>, and Table Specification <tspec> (which also had to be switched on in Version 1.0) are deprecated in favor of using style sheets to control the display of container and folder lists. However, if the use of these elements is desired, the following change must be made in the DTD:

The deprecated attributes LANGMATERIAL and LEGALSTATUS have been replaced by <langmaterial> and <legalstatus> elements. The absence of LEGALSTATUS made the OTHERLEGALSTATUS attribute unnecessary.

Deprecated Elements

• <add> Adjunct Descriptive Data
• <admininfo> Administrative Information
• <dentry> Display Entry
• <drow> Display Row
• <organization> Organization
• <tspec> Table Specification

Deprecated Attributes

• LANGMATERIAL
• LEGALSTATUS
• OTHERLEGALSTATUS

What are obsolete elements and attributes?

Inquiries to the archival community indicated that some of the tabular display elements were not being used or their use was being phased out, indicating that the Working Group could eliminate them from the DTD without first deprecating them. Obsolete elements and attributes are not available and cannot be switched on in the DTD.

A number of linking attributes were added to EAD Version 1.0 elements in anticipation of the XLink standard reaching a recommendation phase. XLink has changed substantially since that time and these attributes are no longer part of the specification. Other attributes made obsolete were available only in the tabular elements also made obsolete, or have been replaced by other attributes. In the case of OTHERSOURCE, the elimination of the semi-closed list in the SOURCE attribute has made it unnecessary.

Obsolete Elements

• <spanspec> Spanned Column Specification
• <tfoot> Table Foot

Obsolete Attributes

• BEHAVIOR
• CONTENT-ROLE
• CONTENT-TITLE
• EXTENT
• INLINE
• NUMBERED
• ORIENT
• OTHERSOURCE
• PUBSTATUS
• ROTATE
• SHORTENTRY
• SPANNAME
• SYSTEMID
• TABSTYLE
• TARGETTYPE
• TGROUPSTYLE
• TOCENTRY
• XLINK:FORM

Deprecated Elements

<add> Adjunct Descriptive Data

Description:

A wrapper element for supplemental information that facilitates use of the materials described in the finding aid. This includes additional access tools, such as indexes, file plans, and other finding aids, as well as descriptions or lists of materials separated from or related to those described in the finding aid. The main role of the <add> element is to distinguish supplemental information from the core description of the materials.

When information in <add> supplements information contained throughout the <archdesc>, the <add> might be used once as the last <archdesc> element near the end of the finding aid. When <add> information refers to a single Component <c>, it might be used at the end of the <c>, e.g., to mention a card index to a single series. Brief statements about other finding aids, separated materials, or bibliographical references that might appear, for example, in a scope and contents note do not usually need to be tagged as <add>.

May contain:

add, address, bibliography, blockquote, chronlist, fileplan, head, index, list, note, otherfindaid, p, relatedmaterial, separatedmaterial, table

May occur within:

add, archdesc, c, c01, c02, c03, c04, c05, c06, c07, c08, c09, c10, c11, c12, dentry

Attributes:

<admininfo> Administrative Information

Description:

A wrapper element for descriptive background information that helps readers of the finding aid know how to approach the archival materials and make use of the information they find. Includes information about acquisition source and custodial history, availability of microform or digital surrogates, processing method, preferred citation, restrictions on use or reproduction, and other kinds of administrative information.

The <admininfo> element may present text as a series of Paragraphs <p>, or it may feature content-specific elements: <accessrestrict>, <accruals>, <acqinfo>, <altformavail>, <appraisal>, <custodhist>, <prefercite>, <processinfo>, and <userestrict>. Both examples below illustrate the second approach.

May contain:

accessrestrict, accruals, acqinfo, address, admininfo, altformavail, appraisal, blockquote, chronlist, custodhist, head, list, note, p, prefercite, processinfo, table, userestrict

May occur within:

admininfo, archdesc, archdescgrp, c, c01, c02, c03, c04, c05, c06, c07, c08, c09, c10, c11, c12, dentry

Attributes:

<dentry> Display Entry

Description:

A formatting element that designates a single cell in a complex tabular layout by using the SPANNAME attribute to specify which columns the cell spans. The layout for a printed finding aid is often a multicolumn display with varying column widths. Four table elements work together to preserve the hierarchically indented appearance of printed finding aid container lists and descriptions of series: <tspec>, <thead>, <drow>, and <dentry>. Many online finding aids do not need to preserve these strict layouts and can rely on indented Component <c> elements to distinguish subordinate parts of Components <c> and associate them with the appropriate <container> or <unitid> elements.

The table layout is first specified in the Table Specification <tspec> element, which uses the subelements <colspec> and <spanspec> to spell out the column characteristics. A Table Head <thead> contains the column heads. The Display Row <drow> is part of a Component <c> and groups information that constitutes a row in the table. The Display Entry <dentry> identifies one cell in the tabular display, and is followed by elements that designate the cell's content, for example, <unittitle> or <unitid>.

The tabular display features that may be used within <dsc>, such as Display Entry <dentry>, are not included in the default version of the DTD. To "switch on" these elements, change the value of the parameter entity "%tabular" in the ead.dtd and eadgrp.dtd files from IGNORE to INCLUDE and the value of the parameter entity "%nontabular" from INCLUDE to IGNORE.

For additional information about using these specialized tabular elements, consult the EAD Retrospective Conversion Guidelines at the University of California, Berkeley:

<http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/amher/upguide.html>.

May contain:

abstract, accessrestrict, accruals, acqinfo, add, admininfo, altformavail, appraisal, arrangement, bibliography, bioghist, container, controlaccess, custodhist, dao, daogrp, descgrp, fileplan, index, langmaterial, materialspec, note, odd, organization, originalsloc, origination, otherfindaid, physdesc, physloc, phystech, prefercite, processinfo, relatedmaterial, repository, scopecontent, separatedmaterial, unitdate, unitid, unittitle, userestrict

May occur within:

drow

Attributes:

<drow> Display Row

Description:

A formatting element that designates one row of information in a complex tabular layout for a Component <c> element. The <drow> contains one or more <dentry> cells with subelements that contain descriptive text. The layout for a printed finding aid is often a multi-column display with varying column widths. Four table elements work together to preserve the hierarchically indented appearance of printed finding aid container lists and descriptions of series. Many online finding aids do not need to preserve these strict layouts and can rely on indented Component <c> elements to distinguish subordinate parts of Components <c> and associate them with the appropriate <container> or <unitid> elements.

The table layout is first specified in the Table Specification <tspec> element, which uses the subelements <colspec> and <spanspec> to spell out the column characteristics. A Table Head <thead> contains the column heads. The Display Row <drow> is part of a Component <c> and groups information that constitutes a row in the table. The Display Entry <dentry> identifies one cell in the tabular display, and is followed by elements that designate the cell's content, for example, <unittitle> or <unitid>.

The tabular display features that may be used within <dsc>, such as Display Row <drow>, are not included in the default version of the DTD. To "switch on" these elements, change the value of the parameter entity "%tabular" in the ead.dtd and eadgrp.dtd files from IGNORE to INCLUDE and the value of the parameter entity "%nontabular" from INCLUDE to IGNORE.

For additional information about using these specialized tabular elements, consult the EAD Retrospective Conversion Guidelines at the University of California, Berkeley:

<http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/amher/upguide.html>.

May contain:

dentry

May occur within:

c, c01, c02, c03, c04, c05, c06, c07, c08, c09, c10, c11, c12

Attributes:

<organization> Organization

Description:

Information on how the described materials have been subdivided into smaller units, e.g., record groups into series. It is used to identify the logical or physical groupings of the described materials within a hierarchical structure. Do not confuse with <arrangement>, which is for information on the filing sequence of the described materials within each grouping, e.g., alphabetical, chronological, geographical, office of origin, etc.

The <organization> element may occur within <archdesc> and <c> or as a subelement of <scopecontent>.

The <organization> element is comparable to MARC field 351$a.

May contain:

address, blockquote, chronlist, head, list, note, organization, p, table

May occur within:

archdesc, archdescgrp, c, c01, c02, c03, c04, c05, c06, c07, c08, c09, c10, c11, c12, descgrp, organization, scopecontent

Attributes:

<tspec> Table Specification

Description:

A formatting element that contains subelements that describe how the columns will be arranged in a complex tabular finding aid layout. The Table Specification <tspec> element has at least one Column Specification <colspec> for each column in the table. The <colspec> can be followed by one or more optional <spanspec> elements to specify columns formed by spanning more than one column.

Four specialized tabular elements work together to preserve the hierarchically indented appearance of printed container lists and descriptions of series. Many online finding aids do not need to preserve these strict layouts and can rely on indented Component <c> elements to distinguish subordinate parts of Components <c> and associate them with the appropriate <container> or <unitid>. Table Specification <tspec> contains the column setting elements <colspec> and <spanspec> that comprise the basic layout. Table Head <thead> contains the column heads. Display Row <drow> is part of a Component <c> and groups information that constitutes a row in the table. The Display Entry <dentry> element is part of a <drow> and identifies one cell in the tabular display by containing elements that designate the cell's content, for example, <unittitle> or <unitid>.

The <tpsec> element has no attributes.

The tabular display features that may be used within <dsc>, such as Table Specification <tspec>, are not included in the default version of the DTD. To "switch on" these elements, change the value of the parameter entity "%tabular" in the ead.dtd and eadgrp.dtd files from IGNORE to INCLUDE and the value of the parameter entity "%nontabular" from INCLUDE to IGNORE.

For additional information about using these specialized tabular elements, consult the EAD Retrospective Conversion Guidelines at the University of California, Berkeley:

<http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/amher/upguide.html>.

May contain:

colspec

May occur within:

dsc

Attributes:

None

Deprecated Attributes

LANGMATERIAL    The language of the collection materials described in <archdesc>, <c>, and <c01-12>. The value of the LANGMATERIAL attribute should be set using the three-letter codes for the appropriate language from ISO 639-2 (e.g., "eng" for English). If two or more codes are needed, separate them by a space, e.g.

<archdesc langmaterial="eng fre ger">

LEGALSTATUS    The statutorily-defined status of the materials being described in the encoded finding aid, as, for example, defined by the Public Records Act of 1958 in the United Kingdom. If not "public" or "private," an explanation may be provided in the OTHERLEGALSTATUS attribute. Available only in <archdesc>, <c>, and <c01> through <c12> elements. Values are:

• public
• private
• otherlegalstatus

OTHERLEGALSTATUS    The legal status of the materials being described in the encoded finding aid, other than the "public" or "private" choices from the semi-closed list in the LEGALSTATUS attribute.

Obsolete Elements

<spanspec> Spanned Column Specification

Description:

An empty formatting element that names and describes a column that is formed by combining (spanning) several other columns within a <table>. The <spanspec> element provides the formatting for this horizontal span and can be used to create a "cross head," in which a row contains a heading that flows across many columns and acts as a title for the cells below the row.

Three attributes are used together to force horizontal alignment on a specific character, such as a decimal point. The ALIGN attribute must be set to "char" (align="char"). The CHAR attribute should be set to the specific character on which the text will align (for example the decimal point, char="."). The CHAROFF attribute controls the position of the alignment. CHAROFF names the percentage of the current column width that is to the left of the alignment character (for example, charoff="30").

The extent of a horizontal span is determined by naming the first column (NAMEST) and the last column (NAMEEND) in the span.

By convention, any rule specified in COLSEP is printed or displayed to the right of the column. External rules are specified with the FRAME attribute of <table>; horizontal rules are specified with the <spanspec>, <table> or <tgroup> ROWSEP attribute.

By convention, any rule specified in ROWSEP prints or displays below the row. Vertical rules are specified by a COLSEP attribute; external rules are specified by the FRAME attribute of <table>.

See also related elements <colspec>, <table>, <tgroup>, and <tspec>.

May contain:

EMPTY

May occur within:

tgroup, tspec

Attributes:

<tfoot> Table Foot

Description:

A formatting element that contains information that usually appears at the bottom of the table, like a footer. This information may follow the <tbody> or may be repeated to provide a footer <row> at the bottom of any physical break in <row>s in the body of the table.

See also related elements <entry>, <row>, <table>, <tfoot>, <tgroup>, and <thead>.

May contain:

colspec, row

May occur within:

tgroup

Attributes:

Obsolete Attributes

BEHAVIOR    Detailed instructions about the behavior of a link that are beyond the scope of the controls provided by the SHOW and ACTUATE attributes.

CONTENT-ROLE    Information that explains to application software the part that a local resource plays in a link.

CONTENT-TITLE    Information that serves as a viewable caption which explains to the user the part that a local resource plays in an extended link.

EXTENT    The information in a <title> or <titleproper> element may refer to the entire bibliographic work, part of the work, or an unknown portion of the work. Values are:

• all
• part
• unknown-extent

INLINE    Specification defining whether or not the element containing the link serves as one of the resources for the link. Values are:

• true (the element containing the link serves as one of the resources, i.e., is the local resource, for the link. Most simple links are inline. This is the default value for the attribute.)
• false (the element containing the link does not serve as one of the resources for the link. This is the case with the following elements used with extended links: <daoloc>, <extptrloc>, <extrefloc>, <ptrloc>, and <refloc>. It is also possible, though uncommon, to have simple links that are not inline).

NUMBERED    The presence or absence of enumerated materials, as in a bibliographic citation. Values are:

• yes
• no

ORIENT    The orientation of the table relative to the page or screen. Values are:

• port (portrait--the top of the table is at the top of the page, which is the short edge of the paper)
• land (landscape--the top of the table is on one of the long edges of the paper, thus on the side of the page)

OTHERSOURCE    The source of the content of the element or rules for creating the controlled vocabulary term can be specified when the name of the appropriate thesaurus, term list, or set of rules is not present in the semi-closed list in the SOURCE attribute.

PUBSTATUS    The information given in the <title> may represent a published work, an unpublished work, or the publication status may not be known. Values are:

• pub
• unpub
• unknown-pub

ROTATE    Is the entry rotated 90 degrees to the orientation of the whole table? Possible values are (default is 1):

• 1 (entry is oriented 90 degrees counterclockwise to the table orientation)
• 0 (entry orientation is the same as the table orientation)

SHORTENTRY    Is the head used in the table of contents a shortened version? Values are:

• 1 (yes)
• 0 (no)

SPANNAME    Name of the previously specified horizontal span of columns in which the entry will be placed. The value must be a column name, as defined by the SPANNAME attribute on a Span Specification <spanspec> element.

SYSTEMID    An alphabetic or numeric representation of the automated system in which the <eadid> value is valid. When the <eadid> SOURCE attribute would be equivalent to the SYSTEMID attribute, the SOURCE attribute is sufficient.

TABSTYLE    The unique style of the table. This attribute can be used to reference a style in a stored library of table styles.

TARGETTYPE    A description of the characteristics of the resource to which a TARGET attribute links in a <ptr> or <ref> element.

TGROUPSTYLE    Unique table group style in the output specification, this is analogous to a table's tabstyle. Value is one "word" made up of letters and numbers with no spaces inside it.

TOCENTRY        Does the head appear in a list of tables? Values are:

• 1 (yes)
• 0 (no)

XLINK:FORM        The type of XML link being employed. Values are:

• simple (a uni-directional, inline link. This is the default value for the following linking elements: <dao>, <extptr>, <extref>, <ptr>, and <ref>. For most simple links, the value of the attribute INLINE is "true".)
• locator (an extended, multi-directional link. This is the default value for the following linking elements: <daoloc>, <extptrloc>, <extrefloc>, <ptrloc>, and <refloc>. For most extended links, the value of the attribute INLINE is "false".)