This GitHub repository is used by the Congregational Library & Archives to store, in a publicly available online space, the EAD3 versions of completed finding aids produced by the archivists at the CLA. This space may be further expanded to include other XML-based documents, such as METS and MODS, as the need arises. The XML files found within this repository are publicaly available and may be used, shared, and adapted for any purpose.
Prior to the creation of this repository, in the winter of 2019, the CLA produced EAD finding aids, but did not have any means of making those finding aids available online. This repository was created in response to a growing need to produce more metadata-rich documents that might eventually be crawled by external finding-aid databases, such as ArchivesGrid. Beyond the desire to have the CLA's EAD3 finding aids available for crawling and data aggrigation, the CLA desired to have a digital space where XML documents could be stored and made available for future uses.
The CLA uses the EAD3 export option of ArchivesSpace to produce all of the library's XML-based finding aids. All EAD documents undergo minor editing, post export, to remove extraneous information, clean up the data where necessary, and add a representation tag linking to the human-readable PDF version of the finding aid found on the CLA website.
The Congregational Library & Archives is a public research library and special collection, found in the heart of Boston, which collects the writings and materials of Congregationalists, an important and historically relevant religious denomination in the United States. The CLA's mission is to preserve the manuscript and printed history of Congregationalism and to make it available to all interested parties through our library services, digitization efforts, and public exhibits. Please feel free to explore our online catalog, manuscript collections, and digital collections.