From archival gothic to MARC modern: Building common data structures

Abstract

Archivists have never succeeded in developing a framework that would provide consistently formatted descriptive information about archival holdings. This has resulted in confusion and inefficiency for staff members and researchers alike. The author analyzes widely used manuals of archival description, discussing the elements of information recommended for inclusion in various kinds of finding aids and the implicit "data structures" intended to contain those elements. She also reviews recent developments, mostly related to automation efforts, that have led to more explicit definitions or data structures and presents issues that must be addressed in order to to define a general archival information system standard.