Encoded Archival Standards (EAS) — Reference Guide

Overview

Heratio implements the full TS-EAS (Technical Subcommittee on Encoded Archival Standards) family of XML standards for interoperability with other archival management systems. This guide documents the current implementation status and how these standards relate to the RiC (Records in Contexts) data model.

Current Implementation Status

The TS-EAS Family

The TS-EAS standards are converging with RiC rather than competing:

Traditional XML (Hierarchical)

• EAD 4 — Describes archival records (fonds, series, files, items). Maps to rico:Record and rico:RecordSet.
• EAC-CPF 2.0 — Describes agents (persons, corporate bodies, families). Maps to rico:Agent.
• EAC-F — Describes functions and activities (ISDF data). Maps to rico:Activity and the ric_activity table.
• EAG 3.0 — Describes repositories and institutions. Maps to rico:CorporateBody with repository role.

Graph-Based (Linked Data)

• RiC-O — The ICA Records in Contexts Ontology, expressed as JSON-LD and stored in a Fuseki triplestore.

Official crosswalks exist between the XML standards and RiC-O, meaning the same data can be expressed in both formats.

EAD 4.0

EAD 4.0 is the latest revision of Encoded Archival Description, aligned with EAC-CPF 2.0 and designed to work alongside RiC-O. Key changes from EAD3:

• Shared <control> element pattern with EAC-CPF 2.0
• Better relationship modelling
• Alignment with RiC entity types
• Support for linked data identifiers

In Heratio, EAD 4 export maps ISAD(G) fields from the information_object and information_object_i18n tables directly. The hierarchy is serialized using recursive <c> elements following the nested set model.

Export

Navigate to Admin > Export > Metadata Export and select the EAD 4 format. You can export individual records or entire collections.

EAC-CPF 2.0

EAC-CPF 2.0 was released in August 2022 and introduces significant improvements over version 1.0:

• Shared <control> element pattern aligned with EAD 4
• Improved relationship modelling with typed relations
• Better support for parallel names and multilingual descriptions
• Maintenance history tracking

In Heratio, EAC-CPF 2.0 serializes data from the actor and actor_i18n tables, including authorized forms of name, dates of existence, history, mandates, legal status, and functions.

Namespace Change

EAC-CPF 2.0 uses the namespace https://archivists.org/ns/eac/v2 (replacing the 1.0 namespace urn:isbn:1-931666-33-4).

EAC-F (Functions)

EAC-F is a new standard for encoding ISDF (International Standard for Describing Functions) data. It directly maps to the ric_activity entities in Heratio.

Data sources:

• function / function_i18n tables (ISDF data)
• ric_activity table (RiC-O activity entities)
• relation table for function-to-record and function-to-agent relationships

EAG 3.0

EAG (Encoded Archival Guide) describes archival institutions and repositories, aligned with ISDIAH. It serializes from:

• repository table with actor inheritance
• actor_i18n for institution names and descriptions
• contact_information for addresses, phones, emails, websites

Mapping to RiC Entities

Further Reading

• TS-EAS on GitHub
• EAD at Library of Congress
• EAC-CPF 2.0 Schema
• ICA Records in Contexts