Introduction to creating archival finding aids, for Society of Indiana Archivists Fall Workshop 2011

1. Best Practices for Creating Finding
Aids
So you’ve processed the collection, now
what??
By jennifer whitlock, archivist, Indianapolis Museum of Art,
for Society of Indiana Archivists Workshop Fall 2011

2. What is a Finding Aid?
 A description of an
archival collection
usually containing the
history of the creator as
well as an inventory of
the contents.
 created in various
electronic and print
formats, including word
processor document,
spreadsheet, database,
paper list, index cards,
etc.

3. Sterling Library, Yale University
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:SML-Card-
Catalog.jpg
County of San Diego Public Records
http://www.sdcounty.ca.gov/cob/bosa/navrecords3.html
Old School “Finding
Aids”
Oregon State Archives
http://arcweb.sos.state.or.us/tour/reffindingnew.htm
l

4. Paper Finding Aid
Bentley Historical Library, University of
Michigan
http://bentley.umich.edu/exhibits/bhl75/collections.php

5. Online Finding Aid

6. Hierarchy or “nesting”
levels of description
Broader to more specific
Top level description will be inherited by subsequent levels
Collectio
n
Series
Sub-
series
folder
item
http://gabbafriends.com/yo-gabba-nesting-dolls

7. How do you make it useful to
your patrons?
 Top level (usually collection or record group level)
minimum:
 Unique ID code
 Repository info
 Title
 Date
 Extent – linear feet, cubic feet, number of boxes
 Name of creator
 Scope and Content
 Access Conditions or restrictions
 Language of the Material
 Next level (series or record series) includes all of the
above unless it is the same or if it needs more specific
information

8. How do you make it useful to your patrons?
Multilevel Optimum:
All of the previous Plus:
 Administrative/Biographical History
 Scope and Content (including full detailed
description)
 Access points
Can add any additional elements that might be
useful…

9. How do you make it useful to your patrons?
 Every
collection is
different - not
all elements
will be used
for every
collection
 Tailor
description to
suit the size,
importance,
and

10. Links to example finding aids
 Guggenheim http://www.guggenheim.org/new-
york/collections/library-and-archives/archive-
collections
 Archives of American Art
http://www.aaa.si.edu/collectionsonline/
 Greene & Greene Virtual Archives
 http://www.usc.edu/dept/architecture/greeneandgr
eene/
 http://www.oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/kt5p30
075x

11. Playing well with others
Standards for content
 General International Standard Archival Description
ISAD(G) http://www.icacds.org.uk/eng/ISAD(G).pdf
 Describing Archives: A Content Standard DA:CS [based
on ISAD(G)]
http://www.archivists.org/governance/standards/dacs.asp
 Rules for Archival Description RAD [Canadian]
http://www.cdncouncilarchives.ca/archdesrules.html

12. …Playing well with others…
Describing Archives: A Content Standard DA:CS
 Scope and Content
 Historical/Biographical
 Access Points

13. ...Playing well with others…
Access Points
Controlled Vocabularies and Specialized Thesaurus
International Standard Archival Authority Record for Corporate
Bodies, Persons and Families (ISAAR(CPF))
http://www.icacds.org.uk/eng/isaar2ndedn-e_3_1.pdf
 LC Subject headings (LCSH)
http://www.loc.gov/cds/products/product.php?productID=159
 LC Authority Headings http://authorities.loc.gov/cgi-
bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?DB=local&PAGE=First
 LC Thesaurus for Graphic Materials I: Subject terms (TGM I)
http://www.loc.gov/rr/print/tgm1/

14. …Playing well with others…
Access Points
Controlled Vocabularies and Specialized Thesaurus
Getty Vocabularies
http://www.getty.edu/research/tools/vocabularies/index.html
 Getty Art & Architecture Thesaurus (AAT)
 Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names (TGN)
 Getty Union List of Artist Names (ULAN)
Thesaurus for Use in College and University Archives
http://www2.archivists.org/thesaurus

15. …Playing well with others…
Standards for format
The standard machine-readable format for
manuscript collection finding aids, widely used in
the United States, England, Canada, and
Australia, is
http://www.loc.gov/ead/
MARC MAchine-Readable Cataloging
 usually Collection level record
 searchable with library materials

16. …Playing well with others…
Software:
XML editing programs:
 Examples: Xmetal, NoteTab (w/EAD Cookbook), Oxygen,
etc.
 Even MS Word tries to use XML
 Apply XSLT (stylesheets) for display
 Convert to HTML for web display
Disadvantages:
Does not support other archival functions:
reference, accessions, locations, etc.
Not as user friendly as archives specific software
No display features
No digital image metadata or support

17. …Playing well with others…
•Not only for finding
aids, supports many
archival management Open Source Archives Management
Tools
functions
•one searchable database
•Can export EAD (and
MARC) and collaborate
•User friendly interface
•Designed for archivists by
archivists
•Community input
BUT…
Free as in kittens not as in
beer

18. …Playing well with others…
Consortia or portals:
Arizona Archives online: http://www.azarchivesonline.org/xtf/search
Online Archives of California: http://www.oac.cdlib.org/
Northwest Digital Archives: http://nwda.wsulibs.wsu.edu/
Rocky Mountain Online Archive: http://rmoa.unm.edu/
Texas Archival Resources Online: http://www.lib.utexas.edu/taro/
Ohio Link Finding Aid Repository: http://ead.ohiolink.edu/xtf-ead/
North Carolina Exploring Cultural Heritage Online: http://www.ncecho.org/
Archives Florida: http://palmm2.fcla.edu/afl/

19. …Playing well with others…
Consortia or portals:
We need a EAD finding aid portal for Indiana!
Who’s in?
 Indiana Memory, Indiana Digital Library
http://www.in.gov/memories/

20. Future of the Finding Aid
What’s next?
 Visualization, Timelines, graphs, mapping
 Augmented reality
 Interactive, custom display based on user needs
 Tagging, researcher comments, user created
description
 Cool like the commercial website
 Visual rather than purely textual
Open the door to whole new audiences….

21. DEMO!!!!

22. Let’s make a finding aid
http://www.imamuseum.org/archon/