Introduction
Description—the creation of an accurate representation of the archival material through the process of capturing, collating, analyzing, and organizing information that identifies the archival material and explains the context and system(s) that produced it—is the final major aspect of a processing project.
At the Bentley Historical Library, creating descriptive resources involves developing:
EAD-encoded finding aids, which are exported from ArchivesSpace resource records.
MARC catalog records, which are created from a standard template.
Processors will use Describing Archives: a Content Standard (DACS) as well as other resources described in this section to create finding aids and catalog records. They should also conform to the Bentley Historical Library's Writing Style recommendations (public link).
Finding Aids (ArchivesSpace)
Processors will create archival description in ArchivesSpace, from which Encoded Archival Description (EAD) will be exported and made available to researchers through the Bentley's finding aids portal, Arclight.
Before creating archival description, processors should familiarize themselves with the following key terms:
Resources are the main record for any kind of collection. A resource record includes high-level information about materials (i.e., the finding aid's front matter) as well as a listing of its component archival objects (i.e., the inventory).
Archival Objects are the components of a resource and correspond to a level of archival description in the <dsc> section of an EAD document. Archival objects may refer to purely intellectual entities or the actual archival materials themselves, which are associated with the archival object as "instances" or "digital objects." Every finding aid will have at least one series-level archival object.
Instances identify physical manifestations or instantiations of a given unit of archival description (i.e., an archival object), their container(s) (e.g., a folder, volume, or tube, which may be nested within another container), and their location.
Digital Objects identify digital file(s) associated with a given unit of archival description and their location. A digital object may be "simple" (i.e., consisting of a single file) or "complex" (i.e., consisting of multiple files or directories of content).
Agent records correspond to an personal, familial, or corporate entity that are significantly associated with the collection (e.g. as a creator or subject).
Subject records correspond to authorized versions of topics from approved vocabularies that represent significant topics within the collection
It is also important to note the following:
As processors create archival description in ArchivesSpace, they should consult the customized tool tips for quick reference information.
MARC Catalog Records
Once a finding aid is completed, archival collections are further described as MARC records (MAchine Readable Cataloging records) in the University of Michigan Library's online catalog (public link). MARC records provide summary information about collections and further enhance the discoverability of archival materials.
Processors will use a template to build out the bulk of a collection's MARC record, as the Lead Archivist for Collections Management is ultimately responsible for creating the final version of the record (in Alma) and publishing it in the catalog.