Archival Description Research Articles

The ISO standards process and implications of ISO for ICA standards

The International Standards Organization (ISO) Technical Committee 46, Sub-Committee 11, Archives and Records Management (TC 46/SC 11), has been developing standards and guidance for recordkeeping practice since its inception in 1998. To date it has published nine Standards (in four major sequences: records management, metadata for records, functional requirements for records, management systems for records) and five Technical Reports. The International Council of Archives (ICA) establishes professional best practices and standards primarily, but not exclusively, in the area of archival description. This article discusses the ISO development process and the strategic direction adopted for the relevant ISO committee. It also explores both opportunities and potential shortcomings of greater interaction between the ICA standards development process and ISO, and aims to identify common purpose and cooperative futures for the two organisations.

Archival Description and Records from Historically Marginalized Cultures: A View from a Postmodern Window

In the archival field, the last decade has witnessed much discussion on archives’ broad responsibilities for social memory. Considering that the social role of archives has stemmed from postmodern thinking suggests a paradigm shift from viewing archives as static recorded objects to viewing them as dynamic evidence of human memory. The modern archives and archivists are products of nineteenth-century positivism, limiting their function to archiving written documents within stable organizations. The new thoughts on the social role of archives provide a chance to realize that traditional archival practices have preserved only a sliver of organizational memory, thus ignoring fluid records of human activities and memory. Archival description is the primary method for users to access materials in archives. Thus, it can determine how archival materials will be used (or not used). The traditional archival description works as the representation of archival materials and is directly projected from the hierarchy of organizational documents. This paper argues that archivists will need to redefine archival description to be more sensitive to atypical types of archival materials from various cultural contexts. This paper surveys the postmodern approaches to archival concepts in relation to descriptive practices. It also examines some issues related to representing historically marginalized groups in archival description who were previously neglected in traditional archival practices.

An Archival Approach to Digitization and Web Accessibility at the Archives of American Art

The Archives of American Art, an archival unit of the Smithsonian Institution, with generous support from the Terra Foundation for American Art, has developed a digitization methodology to provide Web access to the papers of artists, dealers, critics, historians and art world figures that have been scanned in their entirety. The Archives’ unique role as an aggregator and distributor of primary resources through microfilm beginning in 1954, and adoption of the tools designed by and for archivists, including the USMARC AMC format in the 1980s, and particularly Encoded Archival Description (EAD) in the late 1990s, provided the operational infrastructure, capacity, and conducive environment that led to its ability to fully digitize and provide access to entire collections. The scalable infrastructure and workflow put in place where digitization and Web presentation seamlessly follow the fundamental archival work of arrangement and description demonstrate that a digitization methodology for archival collections need not be dictated by mismatched technology and approaches at the item or object level practiced by libraries and museums.

Descrizioni archivistiche e web semantico: un connubio possibile?

The article presents a reflection on the possibility to insert and manage archival description within the semantic web. The chosen language for this attempt is the one of Topic Maps, standard ISO 13250, a web semantic technology collateral to RDF. Through using TMCL (Topic Maps Constraint Language), the main construction will be presented, highlighting the scalability and flexibility options offered. The data model of Topic Maps defines some elements (constructions in the vocabulary) that, if combined, allow to express and codify a illimited range of descriptions and relations; moreover, they allows to manage multiple indexes disambiguating different terms. This contributions examines carefully agreements and possibilities of a mapping between topic maps and the main archival descriptive standards, presenting and example using ISAAR(CPF). The data in a description like this should integrate with the choosen language, showing practical advantages in extra supply tools, in exchanging data with other archivistic informative systems, and in in building flexible interface.

Enabling Integrated, Online Access to Special Collections

Because of efforts such as large-scale book digitization projects, research libraries will increasingly be distinguished by their special and unique collections. In this paper, the authors analyze three software solutions that enable Encoded Archival Description finding aid documents and digital objects (derived from photographs, manuscripts, and other special collection items) to be published online. While several significant market and technological challenges exist, there are available solutions, both commercial and open-source, that enable libraries to publish selected digital collections and items online.

Noteworthy: Cost of Resource Exchange (CORE) Protocol; BISG Issues Best Practices and Roadmaps for the Book Supply Chain; DAISYpedia Offers Implementation Advice for Digital Talking Book Standard; Call for Comments: Revision of Encoded Archival Description (EAD); Survey Conducted to Learn Current Practice in Using Standardized Journal Article Version Terminology; NARA Provides Guidance on Managing Records in Cloud Computing Environments; LAC

Noteworthy: Cost of Resource Exchange (CORE) Protocol; BISG Issues Best Practices and Roadmaps for the Book Supply Chain; DAISYpedia Offers Implementation Advice for Digital Talking Book Standard; Call for Comments: Revision of Encoded Archival Description (EAD); Survey Conducted to Learn Current Practice in Using Standardized Journal Article Version Terminology; NARA Provides Guidance on Managing Records in Cloud Computing Environments; LAC

Of condors and judges: archival musings over a judicial investigation

The paper discusses some archival issues that emerged during a judicial investigation carried out by the Prosecutor’s Office of Rome (Italy) regarding human rights violations in South America in the 1970s. More specifically, the investigation concerned the death of some Italo-Argentine and Italo-Uruguayan citizens, arguably killed by intelligence agents who belonged to the ‘Condor System’. The paper makes three different—although interrelated—points: (1) it shows how transnational justice is leading to the construction of complex case files, with an international nature, and to international and local conflicts over the legal standing of documentary evidence; (2) it argues that case files of trials celebrated overseas, regarding gross human rights abuses, should be made available to the people in the affected countries; (3) on the basis of the author’s experience as consultant in this judicial investigation, the paper emphasizes that archival description according to professional standards helps judicial work.

A Season of Change: How Science Librarians Can Remain Relevant with Open Access and Scholarly Communications Initiatives.

The article focuses on maintaining the relevance of science librarians with new developments such as new communication initiatives and Open Access publishing. Current issues demonstrating the impact of such initiatives include the digital divide existing between the public and the research community, transformation of the physical space in the library and increasing reliance on electronic journals. Standards on interoperability in sharing library data and collections include the Encoded Archival Description (EAD) and the Dublin Core (DC).

The Archival Photograph and Its Meaning: Formalisms for Modeling Images

This article explores ontological principles and their potential applications in the formal description of archival photographs. Current archival descriptive practices are reviewed and the larger question is addressed: do archivists who are engaged in describing photographs need a more formalized system of representation, or do existing encoding schemes and description standards provide enough foundation and structure? The emerging semantic Web 3.0 environment presents new challenges. Ontology, formalizations, semantic annotations, and effective machine processing are of immediate and practical importance. To begin exploring these concepts within the context of archival description, a new semantic archives model is proposed.

Selling Fashion: Realizing the Research Potential of the House of Fraser Archive, University of Glasgow Archive Services

The House of Fraser Archive is a rich resource for the study of the development of fashion retailing in Britain since the mid-nineteenth century. It is, however, underexploited by textile, fashion and retail historians. During the summer of 2009, the University of Glasgow Archive Services will complete an Arts and Humanities Research Council-funded project which seeks to improve the accessibility of the Archive. Adopting a progressive approach to archival description, the project is developing an innovative online catalogue, providing fuller access to information about the Archive and the resources contained within it.

Trusting Description: Authenticity, Accountability, and Archival Description Standards

It has been suggested that one of the purposes of archival description is to establish grounds for presuming the authenticity of the records being described. The article examines the implications of this statement by examining the relationship between and among authenticity, archival description, and archival accountability, assessing how this relationship is made manifest in a contemporary archival description standard—the General International Standard for Archival Description—and considering the relationship between description and documentation.

Encoded Archival Description as a Halfway Technology

In the mid 1990s, Encoded Archival Description (EAD) appeared as a revolutionary technology for publishing archival finding aids on the Web. The author explores whether or not, given the advent of Web 2.0, the archival community should abandon EAD and look for something to replace it.

Two New ICA Descriptive Standards: ISDF and ISDIAH

In 2008, the International Council on Archives Committee on Best Practices and Standards (ICA/CBPS) published two new standards for archival description: ISDF: International Standard for Describing...

Managing Electronic Records in Manuscript Collections: A Case Study from the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library

This paper reports on the management of electronic records in manuscript collections at the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale University. The paper offers a case study exploring the InterPARES 1 Authenticity Task Force Requirements for Assessing and Maintaining the Authenticity of Electronic Records and archival description as models for assessing and maintaining the authenticity of copies of electronic records in manuscript collections. The paper focuses on rules in Describing Archives: A Content Standard (DACS) applied to description in finding aids.

Interoperability Between Archival and Bibliographic Metadata: An EAD to MODS Crosswalk

In this article we investigate the problem of semantic interoperability between archival and bibliographic metadata used in digital libraries and repositories. We investigate the semantic relationships between two metadata standards, namely the Encoded Archival Description (EAD) and the Metadata Object Description Schema (MODS). We propose a crosswalk between EAD and MODS consisting of three basic components: (a) a semantic mapping from EAD elements/attributes to MODS elements/attributes, (b) techniques to map the hierarchical structure of the EAD document to MODS, and (c) techniques to retain in MODS the information related to the archival components that is inherited from the descriptions of components of higher hierarchy in the EAD document.

Encoded Archival Description (EAD) Metadata Scheme: An Analysis of Use of the EAD Headers

An exploratory study was designed to gain a perspective on the current state of Encoded Archival Description (EAD) metadata use and quality. This article examines the implementation of EAD metadata at 6 digital archival repositories. It identifies EAD metadata elements that evince the most frequent inconsistent and incomplete usage. For this, the header <eadheader> areas of a collection of 150 randomly collected EAD metadata records were analyzed in terms of frequency, completeness, and consistency. In addition to these criteria, 3 best practices guidelines for EAD were consulted to determine how EAD metadata tags are used in local repositories vis-à-vis the guidelines. Analysis focuses on patterns of usage of certain aspects of EAD metadata within each repository as well as comparison across all 6 repositories. Implications and issues drawn from the evaluation are also discussed in relation to the issue of semantic interoperability across EAD digital repositories.

A Brave New World: Archivists and Shareable Descriptive Metadata

The notion of metadata has recently emerged in the cultural heritage community as a result of increased expectations for making descriptive metadata openly available. Archivists, too, must work to create shareable metadata if archives are to remain viable in a continually evolving information environment. This paper discusses the issues involved in applying shareable metadata principles to archival description, describes strategies and tools for creating shareable archival descriptive metadata, and considers emerging trends in metadata sharing. The authors also outline further recommendations for action by the archival community.

Arrangement and description of architectural records: time-honored principles and new technologies

The basic archival practices for arrangement and description of architectural records evolved prior to the electronic era. Now as more is being learned about digital documentation of architecture, the underlying principles of arrangement and description continue to be validated even as archival practices evolve. In archival arrangement the principles of provenance or respect des fonds and original order are now being understood as a way to capture and retain information on the source and organization of groups of documents. In archival description, computer-based information tools have become widely adopted and the power of the internet and the world wide web are improving delivery of information. As technological solutions continue to evolve, the underlying principles and goals of archival arrangement and description will remain unchanged even as they continue to be adapted to the changing information environment.

Web Site Usability for Rare Book and Manuscript Libraries

The information presented on the Web sites of special collections libraries is often very different from the information included on the Web sites of general collections libraries. Descriptions of manuscripts, finding aids in HTML or PDF formats, Encoded Archival Description findings aids, short-title lists, and home-grown databases are among the diverse resources that may be found on Web sites of special collections libraries. Additionally, the Web site may be required to describe certain important sources of information that are not available online, such as finding aids in hard copy or a card catalog. The library literature includes many studies of . . .

It's Complicated: Barriers to EAD Implementation

Eleven years after the release of Encoded Archival Description (EAD), archivists' reactions to it range from wholehearted acceptance to outright rejection. In the middle of this spectrum are archivists who decide to implement EAD but encounter obstacles in doing so. This paper reports the findings of a survey of sixteen such cases. It identifies barriers to implementation such as lack of staff and a gap between the technology needed to publish EAD and the skills of many archivists. It discusses solutions and recommends changing the emphasis of EAD training, using server-friendly software, and engaging consultants to bolster archivists' technology expertise.