Archival Description Research Articles

The Integrated Archival Information System “ZoSIA” and Its Implications for Archival Descriptive and Reference Practices in the Polish State Archives

ABSTRACTThe Integrated Archival Information System, ZoSIA, was created by the National Digital Archives in Warsaw as a unified platform for archival description and access, based on such international standards. The system is being developed (along with an information technology [IT] infrastructure) since 2007 and nowadays is the main archival data management tool used by the Polish Archives. The ZoSIA provides both a way to record descriptive information about archival holdings and a means to view, search, and browse that information. It used also as a tool for creating finding aids. The introduction of the ZoSIA affected archival practice, as well as reference services. The change was accelerated by the technology development and the appearance of electronic records. In 2016, the Central Committee for Archival Methodology made a conscious effort to adjust the process of establishing intellectual control over records through to the usage of Integrated Archival Information System.

Archival interventions and the language we use

This article discusses issues around the display and use of historical language now considered offensive. Taking as a starting point the non-neutrality of archives, archival systems and documentation, it considers the role of archivists in upholding and reproducing dominant power structures through archival description. It also examines the implications of the uncritical reproduction of historical language in archival description, catalogues and finding aids. It considers the balancing act between reproducing this language and potentially causing offence and distress, and not providing full and accurate information if it is not displayed. While much has been written previously about these issues, there are fewer links to practical actions which may be taken to mitigate these issues. Therefore, a case study is presented using the Language Policy developed by the Find & Connect web resource in Australia, to consider how archives and archivists can be more transparent in their archival description practices. It discusses the development and content of the policy, implications for work on the web resource, and public reception to the policy.

“Strangers from a Different Shore”

Abstract This exploratory research examines archival representations of Chinese in America in collections dating from before and during the Chinese Exclusion Era (1860–1943), both in mainstream institutional archives/special collections repositories and in smaller community-based archives. Using critical race theory as a methodological framework and an interpretivist case study approach, this research shows a continued lack for transparency surrounding archival description and archival representations within such collections and an uneven distribution of resources across institutions that collect and preserve materials on early Chinese in America. The report identifies the difficulties of balancing evolving terminologies and changing archival descriptive standards/technology and the need for collaboration among bibliographers, catalogers, archivists, historians and activists in creating archival descriptions in collections about the Chinese in America.

Os benefícios do uso conjunto da ISAAR (CPF) e ISAD(G) na descrição arquivística

O presente artigo tem como objetivo analisar a aplicação da Norma Internacional de Registro de Autoridade Arquivística para Entidades Coletivas, Pessoas e Famílias: ISAAR (CPF), em conjunto com a ISAD(G) na descrição arquivística, e a sua eficiência no processo e resultado da descrição. A metodologia adotada é de caráter qualitativo e descritivo, baseada no levantamento bibliográfico e documental. O artigo apresenta breve histórico da ISAAR (CPF), enfatizando seu vínculo com a ISAD(G) e com a Declaração de Princípios de Descrição Arquivística e o porquê de a literatura da área apontar um baixo índice do uso daquela norma. Destaca os resultados da análise da primeira edição da ISAAR (CPF) e da sua vinculação com a ISAD(G), levando à constatação de que o seu caráter inovador e sua súbita divulgação foram os principais motivos para a resistência dos arquivistas em aplicá-la. Evidência, por meio da comparação da ISAAR (CPF) com a ISAD(G), que a primeira possui campos próprios, não sendo mero componente da segunda. Apresenta também o conceito de controle de autoridade e demonstra as relações entre autoridades, acervos e suas partes. Conclui que há vantagens na adoção da ISAAR (CPF), no que tange à economia de tempo na atualização dos dados do produtor, riqueza de informações fornecidas ao usuário durante a pesquisa, preservação do contexto e o possível compartilhamento de registros e consequente economia de recursos institucionais.Palavras-chave: ISAAR (CPF). Produtor Arquivístico. Controle de Autoridade. Registro de Autoridade. Descrição Arquivística.Link: https://agora.emnuvens.com.br/ra/article/view/712

Open Social Knowledge Creation and Library and Archival Metadata

Standardization both reflects and facilitates the collaborative and networked approach to metadata creation within the fields of librarianship and archival studies. These standards—such as Resource Description and Access and Rules for Archival Description—and the theoretical frameworks they embody enable professionals to work more effectively together. Yet such guidelines also determine who is qualified to undertake the work of cataloging and processing in libraries and archives. Both fields are empathetic to facilitating user-generated metadata and have taken steps towards collaborating with their research communities (as illustrated, for example, by social tagging and folksonomies) but these initial experiments cannot yet be regarded as widely adopted and radically open and social. This paper explores the recent histories of descriptive work in libraries and archives and the challenges involved in departing from deeply established models of metadata creation.

Between Policy and Practice: Archival Descriptions, Digital Returns and a Place for Coalescing Narratives

ABSTRACTThe Strathfieldsaye Estate collection at the University of Melbourne Archives is discussed in relation to recognising, protecting and reclaiming Koori (First Peoples of southeast Australia) heritage. The settler collection includes early 1900s photographs of Koori people within two distinct albums – a family album that includes a series of studio portraits of Koori adults and children, and an album depicting Koori families on Ramahyuck Aboriginal Mission Station. In the past, these albums have been defined by, and limited to, traditional archiving practices excluding Koori interpretation, authorship and social context. Restoring Koori ownership and authorship of intangible heritage plays a large part in consolidating ancestor photographs with Koori perspectives of identity and culture.

Linear to Granular: Preparing Descriptions for an ArchivesSpace Migration

This article describes and analyzes the data cleanup undertaken at Georgia State University’s Special Collections and Archives (GSU) to migrate collection descriptions from Archivist’s Toolkit (AT) to ArchivesSpace. Specific work described includes revising and consolidating name and subject headings stored in the AT database and reformatting AT resources (finding aids) that had been created in Encoded Archival Description to mimic an older paper inventory format. The article looks back to the earliest finding aids at GSU and traces their development along with the evolution of archival descriptive formats, identifying practices that led, even in AT, to creating finding aids with a linear structure. With the migration complete, the collection descriptions are now in ArchivesSpace, which integrates description creation, storage, and display in a single database. Having collection data and presentation in the same system will change practices, and its interface will affect user interaction with finding aids.

Knowledge Organization as Knowledge Creation: Surfacing Community Participation in Archival Arrangement and Description

Remix or bricolage is recognized as a primary mode of knowledge creation in contemporary digital culture. Archival arrangement represents a form of bricolage that archivists have been practicing for years. By organizing records according to provenance, archivists engage in knowledge creation. Archival theory holds that records are created as an output from social and bureaucratic processes. Archival description, then, could serve as a form of archival record, bearing evidence of the processes of archival arrangement. Current participatory and community-based approaches to archival description urgently require an evidential record of their processes of community consultation and professional mediation. This paper examines two Canadian community-based, participatory archival projects. Project Naming, at Library and Archives Canada, draws upon Inuit community contributions to augment the often sparse and sometimes offensive descriptions of historic photos of arctic peoples. The Sex Work Database at the University of Manitoba, works with sex work activists to create and apply a tagging folksonomy to a collection of websites, organizational records and news media. Analysis of these diverse, community-based projects reveals how current approaches to description make it difficult to distinguish between professional and community contributions to arrangement and description, and proposes ways to make such contributions more apparent.

Speculative classification: Tracing a disputed portrait between the archives of Malvina Hoffman and Sergey Merkurov

Author(s): Hovhannisyan, Marianna | Abstract: This paper presents a case study that illustrates how porous the bond is between two different epistemological regimes: the emphasis that is placed on visuality in art historical collections, and the act of labeling by the archive. I will touch upon collections representing two sculptors, Malvina Hoffman (1885–1966) and Sergey Merkurov (1881–1952), who both passed through the studio of Auguste Rodin (1840–1917). In this case the slippage is the assigning of an incorrect or at least misleading keyword or ‘tag’ of one portrait in Hoffman’s archives at the Special Collections of the Getty Research Institute. Intended as part of The Races of Mankind project, in the archive the portrait is titled “Armenian Jew.” That initial title, as well as the current archival description and the lineage invoked through the title, have all been left open and in dispute. As such, the unresolved status of this portrait emerges as an anomaly in Hoffman’s archive that tests the limits of her logic of physiognomy and facial character. My research shows that due to this mistag, the portrait has a direct reference to a completely different work of Hoffman. This invites in turn another reading that sees a provocative physiognomic resemblance with Merkurov’s first death mask.

The implementation of the Integrated System of Archival Description (ZoSIA) at the State Archives in Katowice and the data protection

In 2017, the State Archives in Katowice implemented the Integrated System of Archival Description (ZoSIA). The project involved collecting data from existing databases, Sezam and IZA, and transferring them to the new database. ZoSIA operates online and is integrated with other archives in Poland. The researchers can access the database through the search engine at www.szukajwarchiwach.pl. Special focus has been put on data protection. The fonds that contain such data are excluded from online publication. The paper discusses the process of the implementation with its challenges and solutions. It describes what kind of personal data is protected and how the fonds containing such data are excluded from the publication online. The implementation of ZoSIA in Poland marks the start of a new era in the Polish archives, the digital era.

Sound Practice: Evaluating DACS Compliance in Archival Description of Music Recordings

Standardization of descriptive practice supports improved access to archival collections with sound recordings of music. However, description of music sound recordings is complicated because of the unique characteristics of both music and sound recordings. Unfortunately, the standard for archival description in the United States, Describing Archives: A Content Standard (DACS), does not supply specific rules for music sound recordings, although it does recommend that archivists consult The International Association of Sound and Audiovisual Archives (IASA) Cataloguing Rules: A Manual for Description of Sound Recordings and Related Audiovisual Media for guidance. Given the wide range of descriptive options available via this recommendation, this study evaluates the extent to which finding aids for music collections with sound recordings successfully adhere to DACS, both in the application of IASA’s Rules as well as overall compliance with the standard in description of music sound recordings. Using document analysis methodology, this study finds low compliance with DACS and shows that finding aids commonly fail to apply IASA’s Rules correctly in description of music sound recordings. More research is needed to determine the reason(s) for this noncompliance. Possible solutions to improve standardization could include updating and clarifying the instructions in DACS, or using a different standard that provides specific instructions for description of archival sound recordings.

The Terezita Romo Papers: Capturing the Spirit of Collective Action in Archives

This article addresses the Terezita Romo Papers, one of a handful of archival collections of the Royal Chicano Air Force—a large collective of young, mostly immigrant or first-generation Mexican American artists and activists who produced countless community events and art projects and programs in Sacramento, California during the second half of the twentieth century. While membership of the Royal Chicano Air Force (RCAF) and its activities are hard to calculate, its history has been shaped by a tendency towards iconization of the group’s male founders in archival description. Specifically, where collections are described to highlight the unique contributions of individuals, it is difficult to retain and promote the collective voice of action which made so many of these movements successful. Using the papers of Tere Romo, one member of the RCAF, this paper looks at how the archives of the RCAF have tended towards iconization—overshadowing the contributions of its female members—and explores ways in which archivists can reconsider the language of archives when processing and describing materials documenting collective action in American history. A correction article relating to this publication can be found here: http://doi.org/10.5334/kula.62/

O tratamento temático da informação em instrumentos normativos de descrição arquivística

O estudo analisa Instrumentos Normativos de Descrição Arquivística desenvolvidos em diferentes países, a fim de verificar a descrição de conteúdo nestes documentos. Trata das vertentes teóricas do Tratamento Temático da Informação: catalogação de assunto, indexação e análise documental, assim como seus respectivos objetos: produtos, instrumentos e processos. Apresenta correntes teóricas do pensamento arquivístico: tradicional, records management e integrada, assim como, discorre sobre o histórico da descrição arquivística e o desenvolvimento de manuais, normas e orientações que foram criadas na intenção de padronizar o processo de descrição arquivística. Realiza levantamento de Instrumentos Normativos de Descrição Arquivística em diferentes países, tendo sido coletados e caracterizados 12 que se apresentam em línguas portuguesa, espanhola e inglesa. Dentre esses, foram selecionados oito Instrumentos Normativos de Descrição Arquivística que contemplam a descrição de conteúdo em sua estrutura, possibilitando, assim, a análise da existência ou não de características das vertentes teóricas do Tratamento Temático da Informação e a identificação dos aspectos indicados pela literatura da área de TTI: processos, produtos e instrumentos. Conclui-se que documentos de arquivo apresentam características específicas que precisam ser analisadas de forma diferente dos bibliográficos. No entanto, é possível estabelecer diálogo entre as áreas de Tratamento Temático da Informação e Arquivologia, visando à melhoria do acesso à informação. Contribui-se com a transposição desses conceitos e teorias, oriundos da Ciência da Informação, ao contexto do documento de arquivo e com as discussões acerca do desenvolvimento teórico e prático do Tratamento Temático da Informação na Arquivologia.

Elaborating a Crosswalk Between Data Documentation Initiative (DDI) and Encoded Archival Description (EAD) for an Emerging Data Archive Service Provider

Belgium has recently decided to integrate the Consortium of European Social Science Data Archives (CESSDA). The Social Sciences Data Archive (SODA) project aims at tackling the different challenges entailed by the setting up of a new research infrastructure in the form of a data archive. The SODA project involves an archival institution, the State Archives of Belgium, which, like most other large archival repositories around the world, work with Encoded Archival Description (EAD) for managing their metadata. There exists at the State Archives a large pipeline of programs and procedures that processes EAD documents and channels their content through different applications, such as the online catalog of the institution. Because there is a chance that the future Belgian data archive will be part of the State Archives and because DDI is the most widespread metadata standard in the social sciences as well as a requirement for joining CESSDA, the State Archives have developed a DDI-to-EAD crosswalk in order to re-use the State Archives' infrastructure for the needs of the future Belgian service provider. Technical illustrations highlight the conceptual differences between DDI and EAD and how these can be reconciled or escaped for the purpose of a data archive for the social sciences.

Metadata is key - the most important data after data

Metadata is key - the most important data after data

EAD ODD: a solution for project-specific EAD schemes

This article tackles the issue of integrating heterogeneous archival sources in one single data repository, namely the EHRI portal, whose aim is to support Holocaust research by providing online access to information about dispersed sources relating to the Holocaust ( http://portal.ehri-project.eu ). In this case, the problem at hand is to combine data coming from a network of archives in order to create an interoperable data space which can be used to search for, retrieve and disseminate content in the context of archival-based research. The central aspect of the work described in this paper is the assessment of the role of the Encoded Archival Description (EAD) standard as the basis for achieving the tasks described above. We have worked out how we could develop a real strategy of defining specific customization of EAD that could be used at various stages of the process of integrating heterogeneous sources. We have developed a methodology based on a specification and customization method inspired from the extensive experience of the Text Encoding Initiative (TEI) community. In the TEI framework, one has the possibility to model specific subsets or extensions of the TEI guidelines while maintaining both the technical (XML schemas) and editorial (documentation) content within a single framework. This work has led us quite far in anticipating that the method we have developed may be of a wider interest within similar environments, but also, as we believe, for the future maintenance of the EAD standard.

Archival assemblages: applying disability studies’ political/relational model to archival description

This paper critically explores power structures embedded in archival description and re-conceptualizes archives and archival material as assemblages of politicized decisions specifically by utilizing Alison Kafer’s political/relational model of disability as a framework. Kafer’s model draws upon previous models of disability to open up contestation and politicization of disability as a category. This approach acknowledges that concepts of disability always already intersect with notions of race, class, age, gender, and sexuality. This article argues that cross-informing archival studies and feminist disability studies illuminates the long history that records creation and description processes have in documenting, surveilling, and controlling disabled and other non-normative bodies and minds. Furthermore, a political/relational approach makes possible the illumination of archival assemblages: the multiple perspectives, power structures, and cultural influences—all of which are temporally, spatially, and materially contingent—that inform the creation and archival handling of records. Through close readings of multiple records’ descriptions, both inside and outside of disability, this paper focuses on the complexity of language and its politics within disability communities. A political/relational approach first promotes moving away from the replication and reliance on self-evident properties of a record and second advocates for addressing—not redressing—contestable terms, both of which illuminate the archival assemblages which produced it. By embracing the contestation of disability, and therefore the corresponding ways in which it is represented in archives, archivists and archives users are able to perceive and challenge the ways in which norms and deviance are understood, perpetuated, and constructed in public narratives via archives. Existing at the intersection of disability studies, feminist discourse, and archival studies, this paper builds theory around archival description and radicalizes traditional approaches to understanding normativized constructs within archives as it encourages reflexivity and shifts power relations.

#MPLP Part 2: Replacing Item-Level Metadata with User-Generated Social Tags

ABSTRACT This article explores the potential for integrating and/or supplementing archival description with user-generated tags. The study was a mixed-methods, quasi-experimental design using a sam...

An Exploration into Archival Descriptions of LGBTQ Materials

ABSTRACT While traditional archives have successfully diversified collecting scopes to include materials from marginalized communities, archivists have yet to examine whether the descriptions of th...

A call to rethink archival creation: exploring types of creation in personal archives

The concept of creatorship is central to archival theory, as evidenced in archival description, which focuses on the relation of the material described to a single, named creator. Despite its centrality to the discipline and profession, the concept of archival creation is under-theorized and oversimplified. This article builds on recent discussion in the archival discipline regarding the need to expand the principle of provenance by exploring methods of archival creation in the archives of Canadian and American writers. It argues for a broader understanding of the types of agents and processes that create an archive over time and suggests that despite being centered on the concept of creation, the archival discipline has only begun to scratch the surface of the possibilities contained in it.