SAFT version 0.1.1 (2011-05-17)

This module provides a convenient way to create archival finding aids in a
format specified by the SAFT XML standard. Archives use XML encoded finding
aids to exchange metadata of their collections or to publish these metadata in
web portals.

If you don't know what a finding aid is in the first place, please refer to
Wikipedia. SAFT is a standard for XML encoding those finding aids. The acronym
SAFT stands for German "Standard-Austauschformat" (s.th. like "standard
interchange format"). You can find the SAFT DTD and more (German)
documentation on SAFT XML in the German Wikipedia and on this website:
http://www.archivschule.de/forschung/retrokonversion-252/vorstudien-und-saft-xml/

SAFT XML is not very widely used (in fact, since its tag names are German,
probably nobody uses it outside Germany), a far more widespread format for
such purposes is the American standard Encoded Archival Description (EAD).

So why bother using SAFT anyway? Three reasons: First, it might be better
suited to German archival tradition (personal opinion). Second, it might be
easier to use than EAD (again, personal opinion). Third, I haven't heard of a
Perl module for EAD so far. For SAFT? Here you go.

This module does not, however, provide every feature the SAFT DTD allows you
to use. Instead methods are provided only for common cases and rather simple
structures (i.e., cases I have stumbled upon and structures I have needed so
far using SAFT XML). Anything that's allowed by the SAFT DTD but not provided
by this module could easily be achieved using a general XML module such as
XML::LibXML. In fact, a lot of the stuff this module does is actually done by
wrapping XML::LibXML.


INSTALLATION

To install this module, run the following commands:

	perl Makefile.PL
	make
	make test
	make install

Alternatively, to install with Module::Build, you can use the following commands:

	perl Build.PL
	./Build
	./Build test
	./Build install


DEPENDENCIES

This module uses Perl (minimum 5.10) and the following modules and pragmas:

warnings
strict
Carp
utf8
version
XML::LibXML (tested with version 1.70)


COPYRIGHT AND LICENCE

Copyright (c) 2011, Martin Hoppenheit <martin.hoppenheit@brhf.de>

This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
it under the same terms as Perl itself.