Summary

In late 2012, the International Council on Archives (ICA) Programme Commission formed the Experts Group on Archival Description (EGAD) as the partial successor to the Committee on Best Practices and Standards. ICA charged EGAD with developing standards for the description of records based on archival principles. EGAD commenced work on the standards from 2012, developing a conceptual model (Records in Context-Conceptual Model), an ontology (Records in Context-Ontology) and application guidelines (Records in Context-Application Guidelines). Draft versions of these standards were released for comment between 2016 and 2018 and are currently in the process of revision.

Details

The key objectives of EGAD are outlined in the EGAD Project Charter:

"The EGAD will produce a suite of products that will integrate and replace the current four ICA description standards: ISAD, ISAAR, ISDF, and ISDIAH. The suite of standards will include the following:

(a) ICA Records in Context Contextual Model (ICA-RiC-CM)
A conceptual model of the description archival records.

(b) ICA-RiC Ontology (ICA-RiC-O)
An ontology expressed in W3C OWL that conforms to ICA-RiC-CM and enables interrelating cultural heritage description drawn from local description systems.

© ICA-RiC Application Guidelines (ICA-RiC-AG)
Application Guidelines that will provide practical guidance in the application of ICA-RiC for both the editors of archival description, and for information technologists provide systems and services to archives.

An important EGAD objective is engaging the international archival community in the development of IAD-RiC. EGAD will give presentations and workshops in ICA-RiC [to achieve this objective]" (EGAD, 2017, p. 5).

Current Members

Florence Clavaud,
Archives nationales (France)
(2012-)

Adrian Cunningham,
Queensland State Archives (Australia)
[Corresponding Member]
(2012-)

Beatriz Franco Espiño,
Ministerio de Educación, Cultura y Deporte (Spain)
(2012-)

Miia Herrala,
Arkistolaitos (Finland)
(2017-)

Pete Johnston,
Archives Hub (United Kingdom)
[Corresponding Member]
(2012-)

Padré Lydie Gnessougou Baroan-Dioumency,
Direction Générale du Trésor et de la Comptabilité Publique (Ivory Coast)
(2012-)

Gavan McCarthy,
University of Melbourne eScholarship Research Centre (Australia)
(2012-)

Vitor Manoel Marques da Fonseca,
Arquivo Nacional/Universidade Federal Fluminense (Brazil)
(2012-)

Victoria Peters,
University of Strathclyde (United Kingdom)
(2012-)

Daniel Pitti (Chair/Président),
University of Virginia Institute for Advanced Technology in the Humanities (United States)
(2012-)

Bogdan-Florin Popovici,
Arhivele Naţionale ale României (Romania)
(2012-)

Javier E. Requejo Zalama,
Ministerio de Educación, Cultura y Deporte (Spain)
(2012-)

Stéphanie Roussel,
Service interministériel des Archives de France (France)
[Corresponding Member?]
(2012-)

Aaron Rubinstein,
University of Massachusetts Amherst (United States)
(2012-)

Bill Stockting,
British Library (United Kingdom)
(2012-)

Martin Stuerzlinger,
Archiversum (Austria)
(2012-)

Salvatore Vassallo,
Archivum Romanum Societatis Iesu (Italy)
(2012-)

Stefano Vitali,
Istituto Centrale per gli Archivi (Italy)
(2012-)

Helene Zettel,
Service interministériel des Archives de France (France)
(2017-)

Past Members

Nils Brübach,
Sächsisches Staatsarchiv (Germany)
(2012-2018)

Jaana Kilkki,
National Archives (Finland)
(2012-2016)

Alice Motte,
Archives départementales des Landes (France)
(2012-2016)

Claire Sibille,
Service interministériel des Archives de France (France)
(2012-2016)

Katherine Timms,
Library and Archives Canada / Bibliothèque et Archives Canada (Canada)
(2012-2018)

Milestones

September 2016

Consultation Draft - Public release of 'Records in Context' v0.1

Related entries

Published resources

Reports

• ICA Experts Group on Archival Description, Records in Context: A Conceptual Model for Archival Description, Consultation Draft v0.1 September 2016, International Council on Archives, Paris, September 2016, 116 pp. Also available at https://www.ica.org/en/egad-ric-conceptual-model. Details

Online Resources

• International Council on Archives, 'EGAD Strategic Work Plan', in International Council on Archives Website, 2016, https://www.ica.org/fr/node/16235. Details