New catalogues

Training in the practice recommended by the Access to Archives (A2A) central team for the creation of new catalogues is provided for cataloguing staff (and their supervisors if appropriate) at the beginning of A2A projects.

This training is based on the A2A guidelines for new and revised cataloguing which are available from the standards and guidelines page. The following considerations drawn from the guidelines may be helpful here.

When preparing cataloguing descriptions for A2A the most important thing to remember is the underlying purpose of the A2A programme - access to archives. All descriptions need to be a complete and accurate enough reflection of the original records to enable A2A users to decide if they wish to see them.

Descriptions created now also need to be fit for use in contributors' cataloguing systems. Data exchange demands that descriptions achieve certain levels of consistency and this is only achieved by conformance to standards.

While collection level descriptions will be accepted for A2A, there is a preference for multi-level descriptions as users are mainly interested in descriptions of records they can actually see.

While descriptions prepared for A2A may use all 26 ISAD(G) data elements, other factors may necessitate a more skeletal approach. There is a minimum level of description to which all contributors to A2A must conform. To this end it is necessary to adhere to a few basic rules in terms of both structure and content:

Descriptions should be as clear and straightforward as possible
Descriptions may contain any combination of levels but there may be no sub-division of a level without a parent
The level, reference, and dates elements are mandatory at every level represented. Access conditions are mandatory where they apply. Extent is mandatory at all levels except file and item. Title and scope and content are also mandatory at every level except at file and item levels where it is mandatory to use either title or scope and content.
At the uppermost level creator, and administrative or biographical history, are also mandatory
At file and item levels information should be given about any languages used in the records other than English and of any physical conditions affecting the use of the records
The main descriptive elements, whether title or scope and content, should be as full as necessary to give the user a sense of what a particular record or records contain. In particular attention should be drawn to the people, bodies, places, events, activities and subjects with which records are mainly concerned
The content of the date element should at all times be that of the dates of creation of the record(s)
Creator names should conform to the National Council on Archives' rules for the construction of personal, place and corporate nameskb)

This page contains PDF files. See plug-ins and file formats for help in accessing these file types.