Contemporary Archival Description as Required Digital Competence of Today's Archivists

Abstract

This chapter examines the significance of knowing archival description standards, metadata models, and serializations for archivists who work in archival institutions and organizations of record creators. The author starts with international standards and one Croatian organization, which generates archival descriptions automatically by the archives management tool it uses. This software functionality was to become possible because the organization had professional knowledge of required standards. Also, the author explains university and professional education programs in Croatia, which build the digital competence of today's Croatian archivists. Moreover, the chapter outlines the global practice with archival description and production of finding aids in ways which are adequate today. Finally, the author uses the described case study, the analysis of finding aids practice in Croatia, the analysis of educational programs in Croatia, and the analysis of the global state of archival description to offer conclusions about the importance of this professional competence.