What the "tidyer" does

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The tidyer changes EAD files in a number of ways. For example:

• it adds a normal form to unitdates which don't have one (this will involve some guesswork);
• it fixes the DOCTYPE declaration;
• it tweaks whitespace e.g. removing spaces around hyphens;
• it fixes several validity problems with EAD produced by Cantab;
• it fixes broken XML encodings e.g. & not & or ¹;
• it canonicalizes unitids into the GBR/1234/ABC format;
• it performs a number of tweaks to punctuation in name authorities to make them conform to local conventions;
• it converts EAD from A2A and Archives Hub, both of which are SGML formats, into something Janus can use.

When the tidyer runs, it provides a short summary of the changes made.

The tidyer saves a copy of the original file with a .bak extension. To find out exactly what the tidyer did you should compare this file with the tidyer's output.

Local conventions re use of punctuation in name authorities

Some local conventions have been adopted governing the use of punctuation in the construction of name authorities. At present, the tidyer will automatically make the following corrections. Contributors are encouraged to note the conventions used and construct name authorities accordingly rather than rely on the tidyer.

1. Removes any full stops before the first opening parenthesis, removes commas around dates, and removes parentheses around words without numbers in them, i.e. Shakespeare, William. (1564-1616), (playwright) becomes Shakespeare, William (1564-1616) playwright
2. Adds an accent to 'nee'.
3. Removes a comma after Sir and before a date, i.e. Guinness, Sir, Alec, (1914-2000) knight, actor becomes Guinness, Sir Alec (1914-2000) knight, actor
4. Changes a "1945-" style date into "b 1945", i.e. Clapton, Eric Patrick (1945-) musician becomes Clapton, Eric Patrick (b 1945) musician. And similarly, changes a "-1945" style date into "d 1945", i.e. Patuone, Eruera Maihi (-1872) Maori chief becomes Patuone, Eruera Maihi (d 1872) Maori chief
5. Changes circa into c, e.g. "d. circa 1845" becomes " d c 1845"
6. Turns "first" into "1st"

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