Search

Copyright of Documentation & Bibliotheques is the property of Les Editions ASTED inc and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This article examines the treatment of family papers in a sample of specialist repositories in the UK. It is suggested that there is an inherent tension between thematic collecting policies and traditional archival theories concerning the preservation of provenance. This conflict has sometimes been more broadly characterized in archival thought as the choice between serving the needs of users and that of fulfilling archival requirements. Family papers can serve to highlight these difficulties, due to their often complex provenance and wide-ranging content. It is argued that, through arrangement and description, archivists have sometimes simplified and, in some cases, distorted information about records in their care in order to meet the perceived interests of their users. It is concluded that authority records, if properly developed, could protect provenance, enable easier access and minimize the privileging of information within multifaceted collections such as family papers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Little attention has previously been paid to the use of controlled vocabularies and subject keywords for indexing archival finding aids in the UK. Qualitative and quantitative responses to a questionnaire of UK repositories concerning the use of subject keywords and controlled vocabularies are presented. Clear patterns of thesaurus usage emerge from responses, and diverse opinions are put forward. Issues raised include retrieval by free text versus controlled vocabulary, strengths and weaknesses of different thesauri, lack of suitable thesauri, use of multiple thesauri, retrospective conversion, consistency of indexing across repositories and consistency of indexing across networks. Possible ways forward for the subject indexing of finding aids are identified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]