Archival Arrangement and Description

Trends in Archives Practice by the Society of American Archivists is a new, open-ended series of modules featuring brief, authoritative treatments — written and edited by top-level professionals — that fill significant gaps in archival literature. The goal of this modular approach is to build agile, user-centered resources. Each module will treat a discrete topic relating to the practical management of archives and manuscript collections in the digital age. The first three modules address archival arrangement and description and are designed to complement Kathleen D. Roe's book, ARRANGING AND DESCRIBING ARCHIVES AND MANUSCRIPTS. They include: MODULE 1 STANDARDS FOR ARCHIVAL DESCRIPTION Sibyl Schaefer and Janet M. Bunde Untangles the history of standards development and provides an overview of descriptive standards that an archives might wish to use. MODULE 2 PROCESSING DIGITAL RECORDS AND MANUSCRIPTS J. Gordon Daines III Builds on familiar terminology and models to show how any repository can take practical steps to process born-digital materials and to make them accessible to users. MODULE 3 DESIGNING DESCRIPTIVE AND ACCESS SYSTEMS Daniel A. Santamaria Implementation advice regarding the wide range of tools and software that support specific needs in arranging, describing, and providing access to analog and digital archival materials.