Introduction
EADitor is an XForms framework for the creation and editing of Encoded Archival Description (EAD) finding aids using Orbeon, an enterprise-level XForms Java application, which runs in Apache Tomcat. By default, Orbeon is configured to read from an eXist XML database within the Orbeon application, but one can reconfigure the software to read and write from/to a filesystem or interact with a REST or SOAP interface, like a Fedora repository or a separate eXist database. Although the web form is certainly the most important aspect of the application since it can be integrated with existing content management and dissemination systems, EADitor also includes an easily customizable public interface for searching, sorting, and browsing collections of finding aids. This enables institutions to use a single application for content creation and publication. The public search interface utilizes Solr for faceted browsing.EADitor includes a simple interface for listing EAD guides and components of those guides for editing. The administrative interface links to an HTML version of the finding aid and the XML in eXist. New EAD finding aids can be uploaded into the system using a form, and the XML guide is preprocessed to correct encoding inconsistencies and upgrade documents that validate to the EAD 2002 DTD to be schema-conformant. The administrative interface includes check boxes for publishing the guide to Solr, as well as an advanced controlled vocabulary and default template management system.
The prepackaged downloads include Tomcat with Orbeon and EADitor loaded, and one can get the application up and running on a system that has the latest Java installed in minutes. Tomcat also contains an instance of Solr 1.4 to provide autosuggest functionality for subjects and other controlled access terms. The subjects are derived from the LCSH terms provided in the public domain by the Library of Congress. The index built into EADitor can be updated with a simple button click with the Atom feed provided at id.loc.gov.
Why XForms?
Many institutions have faced challenges in the efficient creation of electronic finding aids since the introduction of EAD in 1998. For finding aids to be useful to patrons of archives, robust metadata is required to adequately describe the conceptual organization of a manuscript collection. Subject specialists contribute their knowledge to provide context to the collection, which allows it to be searched more relevantly. EAD is a complex descriptive schema, and not all archivists or subject specialists can (or should) be required to be competent in XML encoding. The use of XForms, a W3C standard, to allow the creation of robust metadata through a next-generation web form removes barriers from subject specialists in the creation of EAD guides and reduces the potential for human errors in semantic usage or invalid XML.Since XForms is used for creating true XML, it is also possible to import EAD files from the "wild" into EADitor with some minor transformation to correct encoding inconsistencies. This is a feature that cannot be easily accomplished in Archon or Archivists' Toolkit, which flatten out complicated hierarchical XML structure to fit into a series of database tables. XForms and XForms applications, like Orbeon, are ripe for integrating into the Library, Archive, and Museum (LAM) universe. Other organizations are endeavoring to utilize XForms for the creation of MODS, Dublin Core, and VRA Core records. XForms represent the future for metadata creation in the library and archival communities.
More Info
Technical list, geared toward XForms developers in libraries: https://list.mail.virginia.edu/mailman/listinfo/xforms4libNon-technical list, for librarians and archivists interested in EADitor specifically: http://groups.google.com/group/eaditor
SAA 2010 Slideshow: http://people.virginia.edu/~ewg4x/saa10_eaditor.ppt
code4lib Issue 11 Article XForms for Libraries, An Introduction
