Archival knowledge and know-how…and collection level description..

There is nothing more satisfying than to hear collecting experts talk about what they know, how they go about doing what they do — sharing their knowledge and know-how. Archival theory is fascinating…and a domain language emerged immediately: evidence, entities, relationships, data models, ISAD(G), ISAAR(CPF), ISO 23081, ISO 15489, Continuum, InterPARES, end-of-life, fonds, series, files, documents, records…and these words are loaded with particular meaning to archivists, archival collection management systems and archival practices.

Birmingham Central Library, Photo Archives

 

I had the pleasure of attending the Standards, Software, and Strategies – A & D in Action seminar put together by the NSW Branch of the Australian Society of Archivists on Wednesday 29th July hosted by State Records of NSW at the Sydney Records Centre in the Rocks.

Sigrid McCausland (Charles Sturt University, Wagga Wagga) chaired the event and the talks and speakers (aka leading lights) were:

National and international descriptive standards – Kate Cumming (Government Recordkeeping, State Records NSW)

Archival software – Mark Stevens (City of Sydney Archives) – Archives Investigator, Anne Picot & Julia Mant (University of Sydney Archives) BOS/TRIM – , and Chris Hurley (Commonwealth Bank) – MS Access, Lyn Milton, (The Fred Hollows Foundation) – Tabularium, Michael Smith, (University of Western Sydney) TRIM, Prue Heath, (SCEGGS Darlinghurst) – Archive Manager and Judith Seeff, (Sydney Theatre Company Archives & Australian Theatre for Young People Archives) – FileMaker Pro

My thoughts in the main after a day immersed and amongst these professionals was how much talent and experience the archival community has to offer in terms of developing a community of practice. There were presentations from archivists working in entirely different contexts. The benefit of this exchange is sometimes just the perspective I suspect, rather than the exact solution to any immediate challenges.

some leading lights in archival practice

 

Collection Level Description
I raised some questions about what is happening with the Register of Australian Archives and Manuscripts (RAAM) and where the archival community is heading with standardising different levels of description. My theory is that collection level description is where the single most benefit may arise for cross-sector searching. At the moment it seems that the diverse domains in the collecting sector are wrestling with describing collections at item level. My personal view is that the archival community have the head start and are well-practised at describing collection material at various collection levels. This is not to diminish the value of item level description…each description level has a place and value to searchers and researchers alike.

The international (though locally oriented) leading light (for me) as far as offering comprehensive collection level description goes is the Southern Cross Resource Finder that lists collections that hold information useful for studies on Australia and New Zealand. A local leading light for me is also the ANDS project, in particular the Register My Data initiative…more on that another day.

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