RLG's EAD Report Card (released January 2005) is the first automated program for checking the quality of your EAD encoding. Created by popular demand, this Web application supplements RLG's award-winning RLG Best Practice Guidelines for Encoded Archival Description. Choose a finding aid, and the program will flag any discrepancies, take you to the relevant section of the encoding guidelines.

RLG plans to make the EAD Report Card code available as open source later in 2005. You will be able to download it and run it on your desktop , which should make the checkup even faster. As an open-source tool, it can also be programmed to reflect your local best practices.

RLG commissioned the EAD Report Card as part of our continuing commitment to making archival collections more accessible on the Web. In addition to the guidelines and the report card, RLG also provides access to RLG Archival Resources, a database of archival materials; all institutions are encouraged to submit their finding aids to this database.

URLs:

• EAD Report card: http://www.rlg.org/ead-report-card/
• RLG Best Pratice Guidelines for Encoded Archival Description: http://www.rlg.org/en/page.php?Page_ID=450

---