An archival collection is a unique body of information, created at a particular time by a particular organization or individual as a result of a particular activity. If the cultural record contained in an archive is to be accessible, the archivist must examine, organize, and describe each collection individually. Introduction to Archival Organization and Description guides the novice to an understanding of the nature of archival information and documentation. Chapters cover topics such as the characteristics of archival materials, the gathering and analysis of information for archival description, and the implementation of descriptive tools in information systems. The Introduction to series acquaints professionals and students with the complex issues and technologies in the production, management, and dissemination of cultural heritage information resources.

This book serves as an introduction to the common organizational and descriptive practices that have developed in response to the particular requirements of archival collections. It serves as an orientation to fundamental archival principles for beginning and novice archivists, and includes such topics as the characteristics of archival materials and how these shape practices, the gathering and analyses of information that goes into descriptions, types of finding aids, and the deployment of information systems.

Includes sections "Reviews of books" and "Abstracts of archive publications."

Music libraries often contain much more than books, scores, and recordings; they are also home to a wealth of archival music materials. Despite having archival holdings, many music librarians struggle to provide adequate storage, description, and access to these materials. Remaining cognizant of the wide variety of funding and staffing available to music libraries across North America, this basic manual provides an entry point into the archival profession for music librarians without formal archival training. At the same time the manual also serves as a ready-reference book for those already familiar with basic archival practices. This manual discusses archival theory alongside archival principles and practices, explaining key concepts and developments in acquisition, appraisal, arrangement, description, preservation, digitization, and funding. These fundamentals are demonstrated throughout the manual by numerous examples and hypothetical situations a music librarian is likely to encounter while managing archival music collections.

North America maintains the largest collection of archival materials relating to the Chinese Republican era (1911–1949) outside of China. Most of the archival materials are also unique, and the collections contain special materials supplementing historical records in China and Taiwan. In many cases, North America's holdings represent the best and only public access to the tumultuous Republican government and society of the first half of the twentieth century. An essential guide for researchers and students of Republican China, this volume, presented in both English and Chinese, covers personal papers, correspondences, memoirs, diaries, photographs, moving images, and other materials held at academic and research institutions across the United States and Canada. It includes concise descriptions of the people, organizations, and events connected to each entry and notes when certain collections are closely related and when materials are digitized for online access. The book corrects common errors associated with the library records of many archives and updates or completes information on the objects of these records. More than a straightforward itemization, this book adds significant depth to any research on the history and global import of China's modern development.

Since its original publication Hunter's manual has been "not only a rich and ready reference tool but also a practical resource for solving problems" (Catholic Library World), and no text has served as a better overview of the field of archives. Newly revised and updated to more thoroughly address our increasingly digital world, including integration of digital records and audiovisual records into each chapter, it remains the clearest and most comprehensive guide to the discipline. Former editor of American Archivist, the journal of the Society of American Archivists (SAA), Hunter covers such keystone topics as a history of archives, including the roles of historical societies and local history collections in libraries; new sections on community archives, diversity, and inclusion; conducting a survey and starting an archival program; selection, appraisal, acquisition, accessioning, and deaccessioning; important points of copyright, privacy, and ethics; arrangement of archival collections, with a discussion of new theories; description, including DACS, EAD, and tools such as ArchivesSpace; access, reference, and outreach, with a look at how recent innovations in finding aids can help researchers; preservation, including guidance on how to handle rare books, maps, architectural records, and artifacts; digital records, addressing new and popular methods of storage and preservation of email, social media, image files, webpages, Word documents, spreadsheets, databases, and media files; disaster planning, security, and theft prevention; metrics, assessment, establishing employee procedures and policies, working with interns and volunteers, and other managerial duties; public relations and marketing, from social media and the Web to advocacy; and professional guidelines and codes, such as the newly developed SAA Statement of Core Values of Archivists. Providing in-depth coverage of both theory and practice, this manual is essential for archivists at all levels of experience and of all backgrounds.

The planning tools will enable library staff to assess their preservation needs and develop long-range plans to prioritize and meet them. They will be helpful to large libraries and federal agencies that increasingly seek to contract out preservation work.

This directory lists education institutions world-wide where professional education and training programmes in the field of library, archive and information science are carried out at a tertiary level of education or higher. More than ten years after the publication of the last edition, this up-to-date reference source includes more than 900 universities and other institutions, and more than 1.500 relevant programmes. Entries provide contact information as well as details such as statistical information, tuition fees, admission requirements, programmes' contents.

Much of our nation’s documentary heritage resides in small historical societies, libraries, cultural organizations, houses of worship, and museums. The preservation of this heritage often depends on the dedicated efforts of people who, in their workaday world, practice some profession other than archivist. For twenty five years, Organizing Archival Records has equipped non-professional archivists to tackle the challenging task of arranging and describing archival materials. The latest edition preserves the practical, easy-to-follow, step-by-step approach of earlier editions while updating its content to reflect current archival practices: practical ways to arrange and describe digital records; simple tools you can use to manage and store your descriptions, whatever the level of your computer skills; how to share your descriptions with others; why provenance and original order are foundational to arrangement and description; how the principles codified in SAA’s Describing Archives: A Content Standard can guide your arrangement and description process; an expanded discussion of related topics, including appraisal, security, safe handling of records, storage conditions, and what to do with all the records that were in your archives before you read Organizing Archival Records.