Encoded Archival Context—Corporate Bodies, Persons, and Families
n. (abbr. EAC-CPF)an encoding standard for information about the people or groups of people who create or are the subject of archival resourcesDryden 2010, 160The archival community’s new descriptive standard, Encoded Archival Context for Corporate Bodies, Persons, and Families (EAC-CPF), supports the sharing of descriptions of records creators and is a significant addition to the suite of standards for archival description.Dryden 2010, 163The EAC Working Group will continue its work on the ongoing development of EAC. The release of EAC-CPF is but one part of EAC Working Group’s mandate. Context is an extremely complex concept that archivists are just beginning to understand better. While creators are an important component of contextual information, other aspects of context must also be represented. The EAC Working Group will turn to the development of EAC-F (Encoded Archival Context—Functions) . . .Wisser 2011a, 168Using the structure of ISAAR(CPF), EAC-CPF provides a structured environment to describe creators and subjects of archival and other cultural heritage materials. EAC-CPF was initially developed as a beta standard (EAC Beta) and released in 2004. At that time, international implementers worked with the standard and provided significant input on the standard for the eventual development of EAC-CPF.Schaefer and Bunde 2013, 30EAC-CPF, which is encoded as an XML schema, serves as a framework for communicating descriptive information about the individuals, groups, and institutions that create, collect, preserve, and are the subject of archival collections. EAC-CPF is designed to support thesharing of authority records and linking of archival collections indisparate repositories. SAA adopted it as a standard in 2011, and it is maintained by SAA’s EAC Working Group.Wisser 2015, 1EAC-CPF provides a framework for the identification and description of entities documented by materials in archival repositories, including the delineation of relationships with other entities, resources, and functions. While identification and description have long been a component of archival description, the explicit portrayal of relationships is a new development. Contemporaneous with the linked open data movement, EAC-CPF presents new challenges for the descriptive paradigms of the archival profession.EAC-CPF 2020Encoded Archival Context for Corporate Bodies, Persons, and Families – EAC-CPF – is an XML-Schema for the International Standard Archival Authority Record for Corporate Bodies, Persons and Families, 2nd Edition, 2003. It is used closely in association with Encoded Archival Description (EAD), an XML-Schema for encoding archival finding aids, but not limited to it. ¶ In 2011 EAC-CPF became an adopted standard of the Society of American Archivists (SAA).
Notes
Archivists have not always made a distinction between EAC and EAC-CPF. When the Society of American Archivists’ EAC Working Group focused on producing a standard for corporate bodies, persons, and families, it issued EAC-CPF, and EAC became an acronym referring to a set of standards for contextual archival information. EAC includes EAC-CPF and may include additional standards such as EAC-F for functions.
