Enabling Armchair Delivery: Approaches to Encoding Finding Aids at the University of Liverpool

Encoded Archival Description (EAD) is increasingly being selected as the primary dataformat for constructing archival finding aids in theBritish Archive Community as the new technologies andknow-how required to encode lists are being embracedin many repositories. One major problem facingarchivists, though, is how to convert finding aidsheld in a variety of formats (including databases,word processed documents and paper lists with nomachine readable form) into EAD. This article willdiscuss the methods used in Special Collections andArchives at the University of Liverpool Library inconverting finding aids into EAD. Two main exampleswill be discussed: Firstly, designing database outputstyles which automatically generate EAD tags to wraparound database fields using the ProCite bibliographicdatabase and secondly, offshore keying of paper listswith the addition of basic EAD tags following arigorous template designed by Special Collections andArchives staff. Both methods have proved effectiveand have facilitated the generation of EAD encodedlists for a number of our largest collections. Finally, there will be a brief discussion of our useof native EAD generation using AdeptEdit software andour continuing use of conversion methods.