8a Archival Description in the Digital Environment
Tracks
Practice and Identity
| Tuesday, October 18, 2022 |
| 3:15 PM - 4:45 PM |
Presentation Type
Traditional Paper -- Moderator: Michaela Hart
Session Information
'Changing Practice' means moving from where you are to somewhere new, taking some of the present and the past with you. One paper in this session addresses the necessity of applying principle-based description to the variety and complexity of recordkeeping systems that archivists now encounter; another considers the benefits of professional reciprocity models and sharing the specialist knowledge involved in managing cultural heritage collections. The third is a meditation on an archive that straddles the shift in formats, from handwriting to computer-generated media, and the inevitable questions raised about archives in the current 'post-script' era.
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Dr James Doig
Assistant Director
National Archives Of Australia
Archival Description in the Digital Environment
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In many ways the practice of archival description is what separates the archivist from other collection-based professions. While the principles of archival description have been well-established for well over a century and have not been seriously challenged, the standards and models behind descriptive practices are evolving and will continue to evolve. Developing standards like the ICA’s Records in Context (Ric) and the development of revised data models by archival institutions such as NAA’s Archival Control Model, are designed to more accurately reflect the complexities of records creation, use and management. The many different varieties of business systems used by agencies have complex data structures, often unique data models and schemas, interrelationships with other systems, and are used and queried in lots of different ways. Legacy digital collections in archives can also be very complex and involve the same information arranged in different ways, and existing in different media and formats in different locations. If, as Peter Scott said, the archivist is the preserver, interpreter and analyst of recordkeeping systems, then existing guidance on descriptive practice does not help us to help us document agency business systems. On the other hand, building a new corpus of practice may be unrealistic and unhelpful.
This paper will examine some practical examples of new and legacy digital transfers at the National Archives with a view to highlighting the descriptive problems they raise and possible solutions to those problems. The examples focus on different types of business systems such as EDRMSs, document management systems, case management systems and databases, as well as examples of legacy digital collections and the problems associated with them. The intent of the paper is to show that, although archives cannot accept all records created by agencies, we should accept all the information we can about the RNA records we do accept. In this way, principles-based description guidelines may be more desirable and useful then ‘black-letter’ descriptive standards, which attempt to be exhaustive, and that the archival control systems that implement standards also need to be flexible enough to manage and present metadata that does not easily map to existing standards.
This paper will examine some practical examples of new and legacy digital transfers at the National Archives with a view to highlighting the descriptive problems they raise and possible solutions to those problems. The examples focus on different types of business systems such as EDRMSs, document management systems, case management systems and databases, as well as examples of legacy digital collections and the problems associated with them. The intent of the paper is to show that, although archives cannot accept all records created by agencies, we should accept all the information we can about the RNA records we do accept. In this way, principles-based description guidelines may be more desirable and useful then ‘black-letter’ descriptive standards, which attempt to be exhaustive, and that the archival control systems that implement standards also need to be flexible enough to manage and present metadata that does not easily map to existing standards.
