ARCHIVAL DESCRIPTION

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ARCHIVAL DESCRIPTION
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INTRODUCTION

• Finding Aid
• Any descriptive medium that establishes
  physical, administrative and/or intellectual
  control.

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INTRODUCTION

• Definition
• Purpose
• Administrative control
• Producing material for source
• Facilitating use

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INTRODUCTIONMost Common Finding Aids

• In-house
• Inventory
• Indexes

• Out-of-house
• Inventory on the web (EAD)
• Catalog record (MARC and/or NUCMC)
• Guide

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INTRODUCTION

• Points of entry
• Provenance structure
• Content index
• Contextual insight

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INTRODUCTION

• Categories of information in finding aids
• About the fonds and units within

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INTRODUCTION

• Categories of information in finding aids
• About the fonds and units within
• About use of the fonds

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INTRODUCTION

• Categories of information in finding aids
• About the fonds and units within
• About use of the fonds
• About the genesis authenticity of the fonds

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INTRODUCTION

• Categories of information in finding aids
• About the fonds and units within
• About use of the fonds
• About the genesis authenticity of the fonds
• About the repository

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PRINCIPAL FINDING AIDS

• INVENTORY

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Inventory

• Basic parts (proper order)
• Creator sketch
• Scope and content note
• Arrangement

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Inventory

• Arrangement
• Unit title
• Dates Inclusive/Bulk
• Quantity
• Form
• Shelf order and housing units

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Inventory
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Inventory
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Inventory

• Scope and content note

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Inventory

• Scope and content note elements of information
• Physical information
• Form
• Quantity
• Arrangement
• Units of documentation

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Inventory

• Scope and content note elements of information
• Content overall
• Aboutness overall
• Aboutness not revealed by arrangement
• Themes
• Extent depth of information

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Inventory

• Scope and content note elements of information
• Content concrete elements
• Activities/functions
• Events
• Dates
• Participants
• Issues

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Inventory

• Scope and content note elements of information
• Content features
• Units or documents of extraordinary note
• Units or documents obviously incomplete
• Relation of documentation to career/history

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Inventory

• Scope and content note - structure
• Summary sentence
• Fonds
• Forms
• Inclusive dates
• Focus of fonds
• Quantity
• Arrangement

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Inventory

• Scope and content note - structure
• Body
• Organization vis-à-vis arrangement

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Inventory

• Scope and content note - structure
• Body
• Organization vis-à-vis arrangement
• Disparate locations of information on
  same/similar matters

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Inventory

• Scope and content note - structure
• Body
• Organization vis-à-vis arrangement
• Disparate locations of information on
  same/similar matters
• Relate elements of information and structure

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Inventory

• Scope and content note - structure
• Body
• Organization vis-à-vis arrangement
• Disparate locations of information on
  same/similar matters
• Relate elements of information and structure
• Indexable terms

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Inventory

• Scope and content note Verbs
• Document
• Illuminate
• Contain
• Cover
• Record
• Concern

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Inventory

• Scope and content note - levels
• Fonds
• Series

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Inventory

• Scope and content note ATU

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Inventory

• Scope and content note - Lawn-B-Gone

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Inventory

• Scope and content note UTW

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Inventory

• Creator sketch (biographical sketch/agency
  history)

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Inventory

• Creator sketch (biographical sketch/agency
  history)
• Is research piece

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Inventory

• Creator sketch
• Is research piece
• Balance

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Inventory

• Challenges in crafting the inventory
• Faithfulness to creator vs. helpfulness to user
• Quantity of information

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Inventory

• Other parts
• Preface
• Introduction
• Index

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Inventory

• Centennial Office

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ENCODED ARCHIVAL DESCRIPTION (EAD)

• Purpose to put inventories on the web
• Document type definition
• Levels of description

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INDEXES

• Manifestations
• Inventory
• Repository
• Documents

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INDEXES

• Forms
• Subject

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INDEXES

• Forms
• Subject
• Chronology

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INDEXES

• Forms
• Subject
• Chronology
• Other

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CATALOGING

• Overview
• Based on inventory
• Focus on content

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CATALOGING

• Forms
• NUCMC entry
• MARC record

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NUCMC

• National Union Catalog of Manuscript Collections
• Concept and History

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NUCMC
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CATALOGING

• MAchine Readable Cataloging
• Creating an abstract from the inventory

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CATALOGING

• MAchine Readable Cataloging
• Creating an abstract from the inventory
• History

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CATALOGING

• MAchine Readable Cataloging
• Consists of
• Record
• Fields
• Subfields

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CATALOGING

• MAchine Readable Cataloging
• Basic fields Records as documentation
• 100/110 Creator
• 245 Title
• 545 Creator sketch
• 520 Scope and content note
• 300 Physical data
• 6xx, 7xx index terms

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CATALOGING

• MAchine Readable Cataloging
• Basic fields Records as Holdings
• 541 acquisition
• 561 provenance
• 506 restrictions
• 555 finding aids

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GUIDE

• Published, cumulated, annotated information on
  holdings of a repository
• General
• Topical

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ADMINISTRATIVE CONTROL DOCUMENTS

• Contents list at accessioning

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ACCESSION/OPENING NOTICES
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CALENDAR
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FORGING A DESCRIPTIVE PROGRAM

• Nature of material
• Research use
• Staff resources

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RELATING ARRANGEMENT AND DESCRIPTION

• General

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RELATING ARRANGEMENT AND DESCRIPTION

• General
• Labels for housing

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RELATING ARRANGEMENT AND DESCRIPTION

• General
• Labels for housing
• Processing rate

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CONCLUSION

• Arrangement is faithful to creator, while
  Description serves user.
• Is a progression