Through the use of natural-language definitions and examples, it assists archivists in achieving effective and consistent markup by rendering EAD's SGML codes more understandable. Despite translating SGML terminology and concepts into a more accessible and familiar language, the tag library is still a technical document that presupposes readers will possess a minimal understanding of SGML and finding aids. Novice finding aid encoders will need to supplement their use of the tag library by consulting EAD application guidelines, attending introductory EAD workshops and institutional training classes, and referring to other information sources. All of these elements are named, defined, and described in the EAD Tag Library. Secondly, the tag library identifies and defines any attributes that the DTD has associated with those elements.
Attributes are characteristics or properties that further refine the element designation.
Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, the tag library expresses the DTD structure by explaining the relationship between elements, specifying where the elements may be used and describing how they may be modified with attributes. While two of the basic purposes of EAD are to faciliate the searching and display of encoded finding aids in an electronic environment, nothing in the Tag Library itself addresses their specific implementation. Searching and display are instead dependent entirely on individual software applications and the stylesheets generally associated with such software. Throughout the tag library, snippets of encoded finding aids augment the narrative explanations and help illustrate the role, relationship, and usage of elements and attributes. The tag library includes examples of full tagging to indicate the ways in which elements and attributes can be combined, but less tagging is also possible and even desirable in many situations.