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Collection Management

Intellectual Control: Archives

This section will briefly review standard procedures for organizing and cataloging archival materials, which may be unfamiliar to some organizations, such as public libraries or historical museums, that hold archival materials in addition to other types of collections.

Archival materials are generally organized in groups, with related materials cataloged together as one unit instead of separately. When arranging collections, archivists follow two primary principles:

• Provenance requires that records created or accumulated by the same source—whether an organization or an individual—be kept together, since as a whole they shed light on the activities of the records' creator. For institutional collections, maintaining provenance allows the researcher to discern where certain types of information might be found by determining what organization, department, or person would have produced that information.
• Original order requires that the archivist maintain the original organization of documents within a collection. This can provide useful information about the routine activities of an organization and also help date documents or attribute documents to an author. If, however, there is no discernible order to the collection, the archivist will impose as straightforward an order as possible.

Archival description enables the researcher to find both the collection he or she needs and the information within the collection by using various types of written guides (e.g., summary catalog records, detailed finding aids, subject indexes). The availability of written guides prevents users' rummaging through large numbers of boxes and documents, which can cause handling damage and general disorder. Furthermore, the researcher is not solely dependent on the personal knowledge of the archivist or other staff member(s) present to access the materials.

If you are starting with a significant backlog of material that has never been organized at all, you should begin with a basic collection-level inventory of all materials (e.g., the Smith Family Papers, the library scrapbooks, the school yearbooks, the Ladies Benevolent Society Collection). This should provide information about the records' creator, the dates of the collection, the amount of material in it, and a general paragraph about its contents. Eventually you will arrange and describe all these materials in some detail, using standard archival practices.

 

Sharing Cataloging Data for Archival and Manuscript Materials

If possible, cataloging data for archival and manuscript materials should be automated at the local level using the MARC format. This might be done through an existing online library/museum catalog or through a stand-alone system that runs on a PC. In addition, there are a number of state-level databases of historical records (e.g., the New York State Historical Documents Inventory) that create automated cataloging records from information submitted by the repository.

For unique materials, cataloging records should be entered into the OCLC bibliographic databases. For smaller institutions without the ability to input records into these databases, cataloging information can be submitted to the National Union Catalog of Manuscript Collections, a cooperative cataloging program operated by the Library of Congress. Based on information submitted by the repository, NUCMC's catalogers create MARC records in the RLG database and establish pertinent name and subject authority headings. The submitting institution must then be prepared to make the cataloged materials available to researchers on a regular basis.

While the OCLC and RLG bibliographic databases are excellent resources, MARC records inherently provide limited detail. Access fees can also create a barrier to using these services. Archivists are now using the Web with greater frequency to provide comprehensive access to their collections by listing collections online. Some have begun to put entire finding aids online, but this task requires an enormous amount of time and effort when done in a useful and standardized manner. Standards have been developed for encoding finding aids for the Web. The Encoded Archival Description (EAD) Standard is maintained by the Society of American Archivists in partnership with the Library of Congress Network Development/MARC Standards Office. For more information, visit the EAD Web site.