The authors summarize survey results covering six topics: responsibility for machine-readable records, campus administrative databases, automated control systems, use of word processing, entry of holdings information in library network databases, and the place of archives in library automation planning. Almost one-fifth of the 979 institutions surveyed were active in one or more of these areas. Findings include the need for more emphasis on appraisal and preservation in the development of machine-readable archives, the probable increase in the use of microcomputers and database management systems for internal control, and the probable development of closer integration of archives and libraries as library automation begins to be more accommodating to archival needs. Educational issues remain highly important. While archivists may not need to be expert programmers, a greater grasp of computer capabilities and the environment of computer professionals is needed both to preserve the machine-readable record and to utilize automated techniques in physical and intellectual control.
In this issue we present two addresses by Leon J. Stout, 56th president of the Society of American Archivists. The first address, "Reimagining Archives: Lessons from the Museum Experience," was given as Stout was about to assume his duties as president at SAA's 2000 annual meeting held in Denver. "The Cyberarchivist: Mary Jane Meets the Information Age" was delivered at the opening plenary session of the 2001 annual meeting held in Washington, D.C. The following texts have been revised slightly for publication in the American Archivist.
The Working Group's definition of archival description encompasses not only bibliographic data and finding aids, but also the collection and analysis of administrative and statistical data about archival institutions and their holdings. The author examines several efforts at standardizing library and archival statistical gathering processes, focusing in particular on the recent efforts by the National Association of Government Archives and Records Administrators and its 1987 Program Reporting Guidelines.
Most books dealing with this subject are written by computer scientists. Computer science, like most other highly specialized disciplines, has developed a jargon which few people outside the discipline understand. Consequently, most such highly specialized treatises on particular applications of the computer are quickly laid aside by museum workers and archivists alike. Museum Cataloging in the Computer Age could easily have been another such book. But it is not. Here we have a book written not by a computer scientist or electronic engineer, but by a social scientist and anthropologist. It is written because there was a clear indication for "a need for some kind of publication to give the layman a better understanding of data banks-what they are, how they work, when they are and are not useful, and what it takes to create them.'' The chief merit of this book is therefore that the museum workers and archivists who never were exposed to computer j argon can now read about the particular application the book deals with in clear, simple, and therefore understandable language. I have mentioned archivists on equal terms with museum workers as if the book were about cataloging in museums and archives. This is not done unintentionally. Many questions posed are absolutely basic to documentation of many kinds of materials and are equally valid for archival cataloging. Indeed, archivists can use the basic concepts discussed in chapters 1 to 5 (a little over one diird of the book) to good advantage. The problems encountered in museum cataloging closely parallel those encountered in archival cataloging. The objects to be cataloged are multifarious and do occur as single objects as well as in artificially organized groups consisting of many multifarious single objects. Chapters 2 and 4 discuss the basic documentation "input" question. Chapter 3,' 'Why Use a Computer," seems to be somewhat out of place in the total organization of the book, because here the basics of such matters as computer activities, flow charts, and potential uses of computers in museums are discussed. This subject matter would logically follow die discussion on the organization and standardization of the "input," which is discussed in chapters 2 and 4, and the actual creation of the "input" which is discussed in chapter 5. Chapter 6, which by far exceeds the other chapters in number of pages (146), describes seven computer (packaged) systems. This chapter is the technical part of the book and perhaps the least useful of the chapters.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.