Ead McTaggart: Using VBA to Automate EAD Container List Tagging

Faced with the prospect of converting 200-page container lists to Encoded Archival Description (EAD), the author programmed a Microsoft Access® database using Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) to automatically insert the necessary EAD tags and their attributes. Some work is still required to ensur...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Randall Miles
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Code4Lib 2009-11-01
Series:Code4Lib Journal
Online Access:http://journal.code4lib.org/articles/2025
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author Randall Miles
author_facet Randall Miles
author_sort Randall Miles
collection DOAJ
description Faced with the prospect of converting 200-page container lists to Encoded Archival Description (EAD), the author programmed a Microsoft Access® database using Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) to automatically insert the necessary EAD tags and their attributes. Some work is still required to ensure that the container list is properly formatted before importing into the database. Once formatted, the database, named Ead McTaggart, will convert a 7,000 line Microsoft Excel® container list, where each line represents a series, sub-series, or folder title, into a properly tagged EAD container list in about five minutes. As written, Ead McTaggart will handle up to six component levels, but can be modified to handle more. Although many institutions use Archivists' Toolkit or Archon for this functionality, many libraries and archives who have not implemented those tools will find that EAD McTaggert minimizes the work of converting existing container lists to EAD finding aids with a low time investment for implementation.
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spelling doaj.art-7e4569f3d74c4d739431154ee027007f2022-12-21T21:48:16ZengCode4LibCode4Lib Journal1940-57582009-11-0182025Ead McTaggart: Using VBA to Automate EAD Container List TaggingRandall MilesFaced with the prospect of converting 200-page container lists to Encoded Archival Description (EAD), the author programmed a Microsoft Access® database using Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) to automatically insert the necessary EAD tags and their attributes. Some work is still required to ensure that the container list is properly formatted before importing into the database. Once formatted, the database, named Ead McTaggart, will convert a 7,000 line Microsoft Excel® container list, where each line represents a series, sub-series, or folder title, into a properly tagged EAD container list in about five minutes. As written, Ead McTaggart will handle up to six component levels, but can be modified to handle more. Although many institutions use Archivists' Toolkit or Archon for this functionality, many libraries and archives who have not implemented those tools will find that EAD McTaggert minimizes the work of converting existing container lists to EAD finding aids with a low time investment for implementation.http://journal.code4lib.org/articles/2025
spellingShingle Randall Miles
Ead McTaggart: Using VBA to Automate EAD Container List Tagging
Code4Lib Journal
title Ead McTaggart: Using VBA to Automate EAD Container List Tagging
title_full Ead McTaggart: Using VBA to Automate EAD Container List Tagging
title_fullStr Ead McTaggart: Using VBA to Automate EAD Container List Tagging
title_full_unstemmed Ead McTaggart: Using VBA to Automate EAD Container List Tagging
title_short Ead McTaggart: Using VBA to Automate EAD Container List Tagging
title_sort ead mctaggart using vba to automate ead container list tagging
url http://journal.code4lib.org/articles/2025
work_keys_str_mv AT randallmiles eadmctaggartusingvbatoautomateeadcontainerlisttagging