Standard practices for primary archives management tasks.

• Author: Haller, Stephen E.
• Position: Archival Arrangement and Description - Book review

Archival Arrangement and Description is the Society of American Archivists' (SAA) initial piece in its modular series "Trends in Archives Practice." This volume covers recent standard practices for the primary tasks in managing archives and is meant to complement SAA's 2005 Arranging and Describing Archives and Manuscripts by Kathleen Roe. It includes three modules:

1. "Standards for Archival Description" by Sibyl Schaefer and Janet M. Bunde

2. "Processing Digital Records and Manuscripts" by J. Gordon Daines III

3. "Designing Descriptive and Access Systems" by Daniel A. Santamaria

   Editors Christopher J. Prom and Thomas J. Frusciano define the publication's intended audiences as experienced and new archivists and those in related professions. This review considers each of the modules separately.

   Standards for Archival Description

   Schaefer and Bunde provide a thorough and readable history of archival standards and an overview of descriptive standards and acronyms. They state the importance of standards to appropriately describe archival collections from both the archivist's and user's perspective, but they also acknowledge that standards have not always been universally accepted. Still, they say, "... standards will help your descriptions get discovered."

   The authors provide four logical sections:

1. Data Structure Standards (e.g., machine readable cataloging [MARC] and encoded archival description [EAD])

2. Data Content Standards (e.g., Anglo-American cataloguing rules [AACR] and Describing Archives: A Content [DACS])

3. Data Value Standards (e.g., Library of Congress subject headings [LCSH] and others)

4. Metadata and Companion Standards (e.g., descriptive and structural)

   These sections offer a blend of quick reference and examples for what can seem tedious subjects for some audiences. Taken together, the ensuing "Archival Descriptions for Your Repository" section, the module's conclusion, and three appendices are perhaps the most helpful parts of this module.

   Processing Digital Records and Manuscripts

   Daines uses familiar archival terminology to describe steps to process and make accessible born-digital materials in four sections: "Issues and Challenges Posed by Digital Records"; "Arrangement and Description: Mapping a Business Process"; "Digital Processing: Practices and Procedures"; and "Recommendations."

   In the first section, the author provides context for and the history of archivists' responses to the constantly shifting nature of...