Archives: Perspectives

The past two weeks have exposed me to some of the internal logic that archivists use to create and maintain archives. This internal perspective is different than my typical user perspective. Two articles, Cory Nimer and J. Gordon Daines III’s "What Do You Mean It Doesn't Make Sense?" and Jennifer Schaffner’s "The Metadata Is the Interface” tackled questions about how the archives can manageably make their collections more accessible.

Nimer and Daines advocated for social navigation tools integrated in online finding aides while Schaffner concluded that collection descriptions should be revised to meet user needs. Both of these articles highlighted that people often interact with archives in a way that bypasses interacting with the archivist.

Over the summer I conducted research in the archives of The Print Center at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. With a finding aide containing little, occasionally misleading, description I was able to navigate the not-yet-completely processed collection. Mark Greene and Dennis Meissner advocated that archivists should strive to make as many collection available as possible and that the archivists work be adequate, minimum, and sufficient. The Print Center’s archives meet these requirements, yet after these readings, I wondered how the collection could benefit from Schaffner, Nimer, and Daines suggestions.

An online finding aide with searchable keyword headings would help to prioritize series or boxes. A personalized way to keep track of this prioritization would also benefit the research. Thinking about what it would take to actually accomplish either of those things, I realized that archivists play an active role facilitating the access of their archives on the web, even if their presence is hidden.

 Readings:

Greene, Mark A., and Dennis Meissner. "More Product, Less Process: Revamping Traditional Archival Processing." American Archivist 68, no. 2 (2005): 208-263.

Nimer, Cory, and J. Gordon Daines III. "What Do You Mean It Doesn't Make Sense? Redesigning Finding Aids from the User's Perspective." Journal of Archival Organization 6, no. 4 (2008): 216-232.

Schaffner, Jennifer. "The Metadata Is the Interface: Better Description for Better Discovery of Archives and Special Collections, Synthesized from User Studies." Dublin, OH: OCLC Online Computer Library Center, 2009.