Rowman & Littlefield Publishers Description: Innovative Practices for Archives and Special Collections

Description: Innovative Practices for Archives and Special Collections explores how archives of different sizes and types can enhance the accessibility of their holdings. The book uses eleven case studies to demonstrate innovative ideas that could be transferred into many other settings. Case studies cover 1.Crowdsourcing the Description of Collections 2.Early Experiences with Implementing EAC-CPF 3.Conducting a Comprehensive Survey to Reveal a Hidden Repository 4.Getting a Diverse Backlog of Legacy Finding Aids Online 5.A Collaborative Standards-Based Approach to Creating Item-Level Metadata for Digitized Archival Materials 6.Creating Policies and Procedures for Mandatory Arrangement and Description by Records Creators 7.Collaboration in Cataloging: Sourcing Knowledge from Near and Far for a Challenging Collection 8.Using LibGuides to Rescue Paper Ephemera from the Bibliographic Underbrush 9.Describing Records, People, Organizations and Functions: The Empowering the User Project's Flexible Archival Catalogue 10.Integrating Born-Digital Materials into Regular Workflows 11.Describing Single Items for Discovery and Access These successful and innovative practices will help archivists and special collections librarians better describe their collections so that they can be successfully accessed and users can locate the right materials. Readers can use these as models, sources of inspiration, or starting points for new discussions. The volume will be useful to those working in archives and special collections as well as other cultural heritage organizations, and provides ideas ranging from those that require long-term planning and coordination to ones that could be immediately implemented. It also provides students and educators in archives, library, and public history graduate programs a resource for understanding the variety of ways materials are being described in the field today and the kinds of strategies archivists are using to ensure collections can be found by the people who want to use them. Review After literally centuries of providing access with flat paper finding aids, the archival community is now grappling with both the heady opportunities and sometimes perplexing challenges of exploring new approaches to description and access in the digital age. Kate Theimer has assembled a virtual laboratory of experiments in access undertaken by colleagues from around the nation and internationally. This collection provides archivists with an important guide to imagining and implementing new ways to more effectively engage users with the rich, essential resources of the archival record. Read it--then join the effort!--Kathleen D. Roe, New York State Archives (retired), Director of Archives and Records Management Description, one of the titles in the Innovative Practices for Archives and Special Collections series, is a delightful collection of case studies that look at how to increase the accessibility and discoverability of archives. . . .Description is highly recommended for libraries and institutions that have major library and information subject-based collections. The book is also recommended for any information professional who wishes to understand more about archival collections.--Australian Library Journal Editor Kate Theimer has gathered a collection of 11 case studies from institutions around the world describing different methods and experiences in creating better collection descriptions. These topics range from crowdsourcing collection descriptions, utilizing different resources such as LibGuides, collaboration, policy development, and more. Some topics are very in-depth and require significant planning, while others are very direct and could be relatively simple to implement. Each case study follows the same outline and includes sections on planning, implementation, results, lessons learned, and conclusion, while providing additional notes and citations as needed. These case st