Overview

Description: Innovative Practices for Archives and Special Collections explores how archives of different sizes and types can enhance the accessibility of their holdings. The book uses eleven case studies to demonstrate innovative ideas that could be transferred into many other settings. Case studies cover 1.Crowdsourcing the Description of Collections 2.Early Experiences with Implementing EAC-CPF 3.Conducting a Comprehensive Survey to Reveal a Hidden Repository 4.Getting a Diverse Backlog of Legacy Finding Aids Online 5.A Collaborative Standards-Based Approach to Creating Item-Level Metadata for Digitized Archival Materials 6.Creating Policies and Procedures for Mandatory Arrangement and Description by Records Creators 7.Collaboration in Cataloging: Sourcing Knowledge from Near and Far for a Challenging Collection 8.Using LibGuides to Rescue Paper Ephemera from the Bibliographic Underbrush 9.Describing Records, People, Organizations and Functions: The Empowering the User Project's Flexible Archival Catalogue 10.Integrating Born-Digital Materials into Regular Workflows 11.Describing Single Items for Discovery and Access These successful and innovative practices will help archivists and special collections librarians better describe their collections so that they can be successfully accessed and users can locate the right materials. Readers can use these as models, sources of inspiration, or starting points for new discussions. The volume will be useful to those working in archives and special collections as well as other cultural heritage organizations, and provides ideas ranging from those that require long-term planning and coordination to ones that could be immediately implemented. It also provides students and educators in archives, library, and public history graduate programs a resource for understanding the variety of ways materials are being described in the field today and the kinds of strategies archivists are using to ensure collections can be found by the people who want to use them.

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9780810890930

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After literally centuries of providing access with flat paper finding aids, the archival community is now grappling with both the heady opportunities and sometimes perplexing challenges of exploring new approaches to description and access in the digital age. Kate Theimer has assembled a virtual laboratory of experiments in access undertaken by colleagues from around the nation and internationally. This collection provides archivists with an important guide to imagining and implementing new ways to more effectively engage users with the rich, essential resources of the archival record. Read it-then join the effort! -- Kathleen D. Roe, Director of Archives and Records Management Operations, New York State Archives and author of Arranging and Describing Archives and Manuscripts These thoughtfully selected case studies mine the evolving international, interprofessional, and interactive landscape of archival description in innovative and inspirational ways. The essays comprising this volume take the current temperature of a rapidly morphing profession and will interest and stimulate a wide array of information practitioners. -- Bill Landis, Head of Public Services, Manuscripts & Archives, Yale University Library

Author Information

Kate Theimer is the author of the popular blog ArchivesNext and a frequent writer, speaker and commentator on issues related to the future of archives. She is the author of Web 2.0 Tools and Strategies for Archives and Local History Collections and the editor of A Different Kind of Web: New Connections between Archives and Our Users, as well having contributed chapters to Many Happy Returns: Advocacy for Archives and Archivists, The Future of Archives and Recordkeeping, and the Encyclopedia of Archival Science. She has published articles in the American Archivist and the Journal of Digital Humanities. Kate served on the Council of the Society of American Archivists from 2010 to 2013. Before starting her career as an independent writer and editor, she worked in the policy division of the National Archives and Records Administration in College Park, Maryland. She holds an MSI with a specialization in archives and records management from the University of Michigan and an MA in art history from the University of Maryland. Kate Theimer is the 2014 recipient of the Society of American Archivists' Spotlight Award. The Spotlight Award recognizes the contributions of individuals who work for the good of the profession and archives collections-work that does not typically receive public recognition. Since 2011, Theimer has used Facebook, Twitter, and her blog to raise money for Spontaneous Scholarships that help unemployed, underemployed, and underfunded archivists to attend SAA's Annual Meeting. The first year the scholarships were offered Theimer raised $5,504 to assist 18 students and 8 SAA members at the full registration rate; the program continued in 2012 and 2013 resulting in a total of more than $20,000 in donations and almost one hundred archivists assisted over the first three years. Theimer recently launched a campaign to raise funds for the 2014 scholarships.

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