Along with selecting, installing and testing archival databases, I've been trying to learn the archivist-lingo, so that I may understand the best ways to proceed with cataloging and digitizing the history-related collections around Pocahontas County. (Hence many hours in front of the computer screen, yet no blog posts.) Here are some of the things I've been reading lately.
Helpful Resources for Archive and Collection Management
- Local History and Small Archives: Chapter 10: Description from the State Library of Queensland. They have a site called Local History and Small Archives that presents training manuals, Internet Resources, and an Internet Resources Workbook.
- The Archivist's Toolkit from the Archives Association of British Columbia.
- Basic RAD Rules of Archival Description from the Saskatchewan Council for Archives and Archivists. Saves us buying that expensive book, at least for now!
- Digital History: A Guide to Gathering, Preserving, and Presenting the Past on the Web by Daniel J. Cohen and Roy Rosenzweig. The complete text of their book available free on the Web!
- Encoded Archival Description: An Introduction and Overview by Daniel V. Pitti; complete text of an article on "EAD," an acronym regularly thrown around by us archivist-types.
Exemplar Archives
- Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections provides some digital access to papers and recordings. They also detail their holdings, and let you see their catalogs, which I have found very helpful in learning what information must be captured in the cataloging process.
- Smithsonian Institution Libraries Homepage
- Archives Unboxed and Revealed: A Guide to Understanding Archives from Archives of Ontario explains in "layman's terms" what an archive is. These are visually elegant pages, and they have many fascinating online exhibits.
- Hamilton, Ontario Public Library's Local History and Archives has a very nice Web site displaying several digital collections.
- Iowa Heritage Digital Collections: Welcome to the Iowa Heritage Digital Collections, an online repository of Iowa history and culture created by bringing together in digital form documents, images, maps, finding aids, interpretive and educational materials, and other media from collections held by a wide range of organizations throughout Iowa. This could be a model for a way to draw together the small collections of papers, artifacts, and historic buildings of Pocahontas County under a "digital roof."
More References
- Archives and Records Management Resources from the National Archives--pretty site; lots of linkrot.
- Digital Librarian: Archives and Manuscripts: a list of links
- Campus Case Studies, an electronic publication of the Society of American Archivists. Also see Standards for Archival Description: A Handbook. Much of this text refers to non-free publications from various archivists' organizations.
- Organizing a Local History Collection in a Small Public Library, abstract from The Hawthorn Press
- Smithsonian Folkways has updated and added much to their site since last I visited.
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