Chapter 5: Describing the Materials
What is a corporate name vs a personal name?
Corporate is typically a company entity vs a personal family name.
How does personal bias influence archival processing?
Personal beliefs may ruin the provenance of a collection, certain non-neutral language may be used, personal bias may become present in the way the information is presented and cared for.
What is the purpose of a finding aid?
Help a user find information in a specific record group, collection, or or series of archival materials.
Why was the Guidelines for Inclusive and Conscientious Description created?
To proactively create description that is respectful, just, accurate, and clear, and minimize harm through language.
What is the purpose of archival description?
Explanatory guide to allow users to understand the structure and content of records as well as context.
Physical and intellectual control.
What does Scope and Content Notes cover in a finding aid?
Scope is an overview of the collection and content notes cover the collection items.
What is arrangement?
Arrangement is the process of organizing materials with respect to their provenance and original order, to protect their context, and to achieve physical or intellectual control over the materials
What can a finding aid include?
Summary, scope and content note, history, subject terms, collection inventory.
How should we approach "challenging" content? If we believe something is "challenging", do we have a right to leave it out?
Add a note for challenging content like a TW. No, but we can make reference to it to leave the decision to the researcher.
What is DACS?
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
output-neutral set of rules to create archival descriptions
What are some reasons a collection might be labeled as "restricted" to the public?
Answer varies.
What is physical arrangement?
Arrangement by filing structure.
What are archival collections measured in?
Linear feet.
How do you refer to someone whose pronouns or gender identity are unknown?
They/them pronouns and not using gendered language.
What is structured vs unstructured data?
Structured: any data in fixed fields within a record or file
Unstructured: free-form, non tabular, dispersed, not easily retrievable
What is "custodial history" of a collection?
Who has had the collection in the past. The collections changing hands history.
What is intellectual arrangement?
Arrangement by provenance.
EAD is often used for finding aids. What does EAD stand for?
Encoded Archival Description.
Where do you put information about outdated or harmful language? (2 options)
Either next to the statement in question or at the bottom in processing notes.
Why are standards important in archival description?
Reinforces predictability for users and enables operability.
What is the "Two-Stage Approach"?
Consciously linked finding aids. If someone can find something via access points it can lead them to a finding aid and therefore a larger collection.
What are some important questions to consider for an archivist during arrangement?
Who created the records, how and why? What specific function or activity do the records relate to? What specific procedure or process gave rise to them? How were the records maintained by the creator and/or custodian? How were they used and transmitted over space and time? What are the different record formats? What functions did the different record formats each serve in the frame-work of action within which they participated?
Name at least one archival collection you've looked at that had a finding aid.
Varies.
Who wrote the Guidelines for Inclusive and Conscientious Description? (the types of group - not specific names)
Bonus 100pts!
Who might these guidelines leave out because of who made them?
"We are a group of white, cisgendered women, comprising a combination of straight and queer identities, and working at a predominately white, private institution."
Just about anyone not white or cisgender.
What is ISAD(G)?
General International Standard for Archival Description.