Fourteen archivists present a mosaic of the research that represents the current state of archival science and introduces themes that will carry the profession into the future as a complex academic discipline. As the archival profession in the United States continues to evolve, the book honors one of its most prolific and influential thinkers and writers, Richard J. Cox, who retired from the profession in 2017 after a 45-year career. The book addresses the archival themes of accountability and evidence, ethics and education, archival history, and memory. Defining a Discipline demonstrates the importance of the role of archivists, archives, and archival institutions in communities, organizations, and the digital environment. It looks forward—a direction that the pioneering Cox promoted throughout his career.

Since its original publication Hunter's manual has been "not only a rich and ready reference tool but also a practical resource for solving problems" (Catholic Library World), and no text has served as a better overview of the field of archives. Newly revised and updated to more thoroughly address our increasingly digital world, including integration of digital records and audiovisual records into each chapter, it remains the clearest and most comprehensive guide to the discipline. Former editor of American Archivist, the journal of the Society of American Archivists (SAA), Hunter covers such keystone topics as

• a history of archives, including the roles of historical societies and local history collections in libraries;
• new sections on community archives, diversity, and inclusion;
• conducting a survey and starting an archival program;
• selection, appraisal, acquisition, accessioning, and deaccessioning;
• important points of copyright, privacy, and ethics;
• arrangement of archival collections, with a discussion of new theories;
• description, including DACS, EAD, and tools such as ArchivesSpace;
• access, reference, and outreach, with a look at how recent innovations in finding aids can help researchers;
• preservation, including guidance on how to handle rare books, maps, architectural records, and artifacts;
• digital records, addressing new and popular methods of storage and preservation of email, social media, image files, webpages, Word documents, spreadsheets, databases, and media files;
• disaster planning, security, and theft prevention;
• metrics, assessment, establishing employee procedures and policies, working with interns and volunteers, and other managerial duties;
• public relations and marketing, from social media and the Web to advocacy; and
• professional guidelines and codes, such as the newly developed SAA Statement of Core Values of Archivists.

Providing in-depth coverage of both theory and practice, this manual is essential for archivists at all levels of experience and of all backgrounds.
 

A photographer and a historian explore a vast archive of Spanish colonial history.

At a time when Western nations are being urged to confront their colonial past, this book examines a major archive, revealing the scale of the Spanish colonial enterprise in South and Central America.
 
Established in 1785, the Archivo General de Indias in Seville holds roughly three hundred years of Spanish colonial history in the Americas. It houses 8,000 charts and around ninety million documents—among them Christopher Columbus’s logbook and the famous Treaty of Tordesillas which, mediated by the Pope and signed in 1494, entitled the Spanish and Portuguese kings to divide the world between them. With this treaty as a starting point, the historian Martin Zimmermann journeys into the age of discovery and recounts stories of dangerous passages, encounters with the unknown, colonial brutality, and the power of cartographers, illustrating the insatiable lust of colonialists to conquer, exploit, and own the world. Ursula Schulz-Dornburg’s photographs show the archive before its redevelopment in 2002, offering a unique view into one of Europe’s most significant archives.