ARCHIVAL INFORMATICSNEWSLETTER

ISSN 0892-2179 FALL 1988 Volume 2 #3

Defining Data and Functions forArchives & Museum Systems

, F2r the r'1useum Computer Network meeting1~ ,,~nta f10mca mOCtober, I put together a 11st.01 100 vendOrs of archlV8s, museum andrecords management software! With ~ manysYstems to choose between, users tire going toneed considerable help. The accompanying listof 75 consultants may be of some use here butI t.hink it is fort.unate on the whole that anotherstrat.egy 1S beg1nning 1.0 emerge, Let's call1t"codification" or "rat.ionalization" of t.he dat.a.functions, fmd structures of tlrchwes tlndmuseum mformation syst.ems,

Hie purpose of anumber' of ongoing efforts isto develop frameworks within which localraqUlrements and the offerings of differentvendors may be compared, These frameworksare common defm1t1ons oltha modu'les ofarchives and museum syst.ems, the functions ofeach module and tJle (Jat.a of the system as awhole, Th1S newsletter contains areV1ew of anevaluation framework sold by Willoughby (In­Box). adata model advanced by the ICOMCommittee on Documentation (Standards), andnews of an effort to provide afunctionaldefinition of ageneralized archival system(Conferences - SAM, My vendor list suggeststhat fwe mOdules may be present mafullfledged system: Collect10ns (including Records)f1onogement, Informat.ion Retrievol, Events11anagement, r1embership & Development. andSpace (Exhibits and Storage) 11anaoernentOt.her specialized funct.lOns otten d8s1red byarcti1ves and museums but handled bv separat.esystems mc1ude: Index Preparat.ion, FundsAccounting, Slide Library 11anooementInteractive Video Development. &. Presentationemd Volunteer t1anagement GenerlcrWUlrements include Word Processino. File

r'1anagernent, Project r'1anagement, Desk TopPublishing and Busmess Graph1cs

Effort.s to adopt amore uniform perspectiveon software mnlis market. will, In turn, S8t.minimal standards and reward vendors WhOprOVide fully capable sYstems Over t.Mcorning year, I will be lnyolved in acontract t.oprOVide adesign t.o the Research LibrariesGroup for alocal archives/museum systemthat will serve as aworkst.ation to RLI NDuring the contract period. numerousinstitut.ions w1ll participat.e in requirement.sOOf1nit.ion exercises, and ageneral mode', ofrequ1rements and data will be construct.edwhic~l I would ~Iope to present. for professlOnwide review, I am confident that suchdissemination of models of archives andmuseum syst.ems w1ll, in t1me. lead us to astronger market and better' systems, DB 0

TABLE OF CONTENTS

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ARTICLES

MACHINE-READABLE VIEWSThomas E. Brown

Society of American ArchivistsEver',' annual meetlng of the Society of

..~merican ArchiYists has Its ups and downs forth()<'-R interested in the archlval administrationor machIne-readable records. The Atlantaconferenr.e was no exceptlon.

Interest Inautomated records has apparent Iymoved into the mainstream. This was clear .when chairs and representatives from variousc.ommittees and tasK forces solicited themYolvement of the newly restructuredCommittee on Automated Records &. Techniques(CART) in projects of common concern.Conversely I when approached by CART, otheroroups aenerouslY aliowed time on alreadYI~rowdeci agendas to hear CART proposals andIn1tlatlves or mutual Interest

Severa! workshops and formal sessions wereexclusively devoted to automated records. EachW($ well attended. ,Ii,udiences frequentlyJncluded le.ader$ of the Society -- current andformer ot"ficers, council members, and chairSof avariety of task forr.es. sections and~~ommittes. AddltlOnally, several presentatIOnsin more traditional sessions alluded to thelmpact which today's electronic record keepingpractices will have on the archives oftomorrow.

For me, the otherWIse solid conference hadtwo disappointments. The first came on aproposal to the Colleoe and UniversitY sect1on.Building on earlier s·uccessful work with theAmeriean AssoeiatlOn of Col1eoiate Reqlstrarsand Adm issions Officers. CARt propoSed toldentitv cOlleJJ8 and university organizationsdnd assoclatlOns whose members create andmaIntain recordS and to work with them todevelop gUidelines for preservlng archivalfl'lCumentatlon, especial jy in machine-readabIeform. When CART outlined its proposal to theC,S•.USection meeting. the group responded withIndifference.

The second disappointment came 1n asesslOnon "Documenting the ,A,IDS Crisis". AIDS maybe the rirst eo idem ic fought with the computer.

To dOCument AIDS and me struggle agamst 1tmust, therefore, Jnvoj'y'e the lona-termpreservation ot" some maetl1ne-readab Ierecords. And some of the records must comefrom the Centers for DIS-ease Control r: CDC.i A

prlme candIdate IS CDC;'s AID.') Dat6lJdsecontaining mlcrolevel data from tne CaseReport Form. Yet the representative from CDCmade no reference to the arcnwal retentIon aTthis or any other non-aggregated master fIle ordatabase. When Questioned. the CDCrepresentative acknow Iedged that no such rd,;,nseXisted, This not only Violates legalrequirements but l:llso abrogates socialresponSibility. Seem lnglv, CDC erroneouslybelieve that publIshing tabular data Jr) theWeekly Morbidity and Mortal1ty ReDor~s

rulfllis its ieaal and SOCIal obiioallOns. For ailour sakes, l~is hope that CDC is managing thebattle agaInst the epldem Ie more effectIvelythan it IS managing its informatlOn resources.

Two new pUblicationsNew York State ArchiVes &. Records

Administration has .lust publiShed p, StrateglcPlan for Managing ana Preserymg ElectronlcRecords in New York State Government Thissolid report presents recommendatlOns of theSpecIal MedIa Records Project mthreesections. The first outHneS the strategic issuesIn the ffian&j8ment and preservatIon ot alltypes of electroniC informatlOn, The secondr.:1elineates seven obJectives for managing anI)preservmg information from automatedinformatIOn systems. The last descrlbes 27activities to be undertaken durmg the next !"iV8years to achieve the objectives of section two.

The report has two strenQths seldom found ingovernment documents relatmg to automatedrecords. First, it IS asoup-to-nuts strateg.; toensure tile proper archival manaoement ofautomated information systems. indeed. itGould be used as aprimer on archivalInvolvement in mformatlOn resourcesmanagement. Secondly, the reoort outlmes acomprenenslve plan for the archivaladm Inlstration of automated systems In tnestate of New York bv diyjding the problem mto27 manageable tas~.s As such, the reportsnould serve as amodel for other archives

50 Archival Informatics Newsletter vol.2 #3

8t.1,ernptmg to gam admmlstratwe contra", overt.heir orQl:lnizat.lons' electronic records,[The report lS avai1ab'le wlthout cost from theNew York Stat.e Archwes. Cultura'i Educat10nCenter, Albanv I NY 12230.J

The second report. from tMNatlOnalArchl'v'es t. Records Adm1nlstration (t~ARA), 15another example of the Quality work bemg donebV N~.P.ft:s ft.rchival R,esearch and Eva"uationStaff Writt~n by ThomF.lS E Weir Jr., thereport. lS ent.itled "3.480 Glass Tape CartridgeDrives and Archival Dat.a Storage' TactinologyAssessment Report",

3480 cl/JSS cart.ndaes are a new rnoonetlcformat for computer data storage, The mar~,etfor Hlis class of drives is substantial andgrowmg, and 1s expect.ed to dominate themainframe t.ape market by 1991, This (Iose~;

two questions for NARA; 1) should the NationalArchlVes use 3480 class tape cartncXle drivesfor storage of 11.20 arcr,ival records and 2) hOw:)hould Ule NatlOnfj] Archw8S acxc-eSSlOnmformatlOn from agencles usmg thlS class ofijnv'e':., Trie GDncluSlOn of t~le r'epor1. lS Uiat~jARA should adOpt a wait-ana-see attltude foro"Iear or two

The st.rengtrl of the report 1S its analYS1s offuture oota storaoe tectlnolocl1es, Archives willhave to deal withthlS comlng technology and,w~lile mucrl lS beinq wntten on the subiec1. ofoptlcal disk, thlS ls'the first report to exploreHie archivallmplications of a new technologym magnetiC storage. ThOse of us who are1radltiono"list.s m rnachme-readable recordstlel18ve that magnetiC storage will remamvlable mt.o t.he twentY-flrst century In thiSsense, the report provldes asolid baslS fordoolinQ WitJl the future. AlthoUQh the report'stit'le suggest.s lt would have mterest only for anlnsommac. don't ludQe thlS report by lts cover.lAvai1able from ~H1S in paper or fiche; order"# PR~ ~7-:r1<L ,~-:' q>1'"' 9L (', ') 1 'LlO-.;.,j ..... \ ••h.>/f<,-J"f- L,''';' ,p<lper pusil'7'\'l~ dl' ]'v-' \. L ,Ian mg,

Reprlse for Reference Serv1ceIn t.he la::J, lssue of HilS newsletter. I

presented aconti nuum of machme- readabler'ecords r'Meranee ser'VlCes, Acolleague, damesPo" ')OC'otlS, Data Services Ubrarlan at trleUrnvsrsity of cal1forma at San Dieoo, hasdeve"oped aslml1ar framework desCrlbmgseven diHerent levels of reference servlces for

macmne-reaQatlie dala that can be offered (1\/ atraditiomlllibrary. The list 1s In ~scendlnQ

order of compiexltY and cost.. In Qp.nerai \DriP.level of servICe presupposes the Prlorestabllshment of all the levels of servIce belowit HiS seven levels are:

1: Offer passlVe referral serVlces'2: Provide active educatlonljl & referrljl

serVlces3: Purcrlase t1ochine-Readable Information

(MRI)4: Inventory and/or establish an archives for

fiRI alread}1 on campus5: Provlde mUllrnal computmQ ser'l1ce~,

6' PrOVide data consultation serVIces7: Pr'ovide information products and d1.Ita

analySis sarvlces

It is noteworthY that traditionallibranp.scan begm to mclude data serVlces with mimITIaleffort using th1s paradigm but the tradl1.1onalarchlVes needs to reach level four' before 11. canmcorporate machme readable records into itstloldinqs. As Jacobs puts it. it "will take muchmore effort and time to accomp l1sh th1S fourthlevel of ser'vice," The relative ease with whichlibraries may mcorporate data products In(;ompanson to what the traditlOnal1jrch1ve.sfaces may explain why the growth segment fordat.a services 1S in traditional1ibranesexpandmg thelr act1Vlt.ies. Conversely l theneed for traditional archives to begin at levelfour may have llmited their lnvolvement mdata products and services, This mav part.iallyanswer aquestlOn that has haunted members ofSAA.'s Committee on Automat.ed Records andTechnlQues. Over 200 archiVists have Mentrained throuah acore curriculum onautomated recOrdS, so why are there so iewvmble /'JrchiVf:ll prOQrams for mactnne-readable mformatwi1'>

(A CODV of ,James Jac:obs' outine rnijy beobtained by writmg tmn at: CentrallJnlVerslt~:

Llbrary. C-075-R, Umverslty of Califorma at.<: D' L' I 11' rA <Y)()Q7 'J,:;an 1ego, 1:20.0. (l, ,.,.• ~.:.. ~J,

TEB 0

..Fall. 1988 Copyright by Archives & Museum Informatics 51

Optical Disks: Are ArchivistsRepeating the Mistakes of thePast?

Margaret Hedstrom

PractICal, workable, and relativelYinexpensive optical systems have pIqued theinterest of some archivists In the capabilitlesof this new technology. Promlses of rapidsearch tmd retrieval capabilities with cheapstor8tJe costs and astab Ie medi um seemespeciallv temoting to repositories With laraecollections of graphic images, maps, drawinCts,and textual dOCuments. As archivists debate·using optical systems for storage and retrievalof roc.ords alrewl in archlVes. we must notavOId the questlOn of how to identify, acr.ess.and preserve information created elsewhereand stored tn optical based systems_ l\rchivlsts have rarelY stopPed to cons1derwhat we will 00 with information from opHealdisk systems that are created outside archiVesby government agencIes. corporations,lnstitutlOns, and mdlvlduals, But we shouldrer.ognlze that the same features which makeoptical diSK technologv appealing for use inarchiVes (high density storage, rapid occess,Image enhancement. easv reproduction. etc. )aim make this technology attractive and cost­effectlVe for manY applications in or06ni28­tions with active records systems The recordst~13t offIces are scanning onto optieal diskstoday wlll confront archlVlsts sooner or lateros another 1OformatlOn technology problemun less we begm developing strafegies now topreserve informatIOn 10 thIS format.

No standards. guidelines, or procedures existto help archivists handle records stored onoptieal disk systems, but there are importantSImilaritIes between optical and maqnetic:::'!stems. .A.rch1Y1sts can app Iy some" lessonslearned from our previous experIence wIthmagnetIc medIa systems to respond moreeffectwelv to the mtroductlon of ooHeal disks.

The first lesson to learn from Ollr experienceWIth maanetlc electronlc records IS that the~~hort life span of storage medii), although animpor tant problem. IS not the most challenainaaspect of preservJnO records aT mOdern ..information systems. Archivists who perceive

the tl"lree- to ten-year useful Ilfe of magnencmedia as the mam problem of electronlcrecords are likelv to consider the lonqefprole.c:ted life of optIcal dIsks as d SIOI';lflcantadVance or even as apOS5lble solutlOn to manyof the problems that archivists confront wr,enpree...ervmg computer-generated records. TJ1€optical medIum maY last 30 veor:. or loncerthus reducmg the frequency at WhIch the' 'InformatIon must be COpIed onto anew storooedevIce I and optIcal disks cannot be erased In thesense that maanetlc media can. To be sanaUinE:about optically stored mformatlOn as a .consequence, however, overlooks the muCl"1more cruclallssue of system dependency whIchoptlcal- and magnetlc systems share. uptlcalsystems pose many of the same access andpreservatlOn problems as maqnetlc SYSTemS ­- and they raIse some new Issues of theIr own..Because both types of systems relv on softw6ff3to retrieve lnformatlOn, archIVIsts mustpreserve both the medIum on whIch therecords are stored and the means to access therecords (hardware &software). Even If,indeed especIally because. Optlcal medIa maylast for fifty years, there is no assurance thatthe hardWare and software necessary toretrieve ra"'.Ords from that medlUm WIll beusabIe or avai lab Ie in fifty years. Anvone whohas encountered Wlre recordlnqs, waf.cylinders, punChed paper tape or McBee cardS,to name on Iva few obsolete mformatlOn storaqetechnologIes, can appreCiate thIS problem on 8small scale.

Archivists who work WIth magneticelectrOniC records try to mlnlm1Ze the need forsoftware by reformattmg electrOnicmformatlOn lOto a"soTtware- mdependent-'format. In the absence of WIdely aoopted dataand document Interchanae standards, thiSapproach has been effective for certam types ofmachme-readab Ie data fIles. 'iet somearchiVIsts are becommg uncomfortable withthIS practIce, The strateov of creotmosoftware- Independent data for archw8IpreservatlOn IS Increasmolv 11m 1ted b8Ci:1useInformatlOn from most dOcument-based andImage-based systems cannot be retrIeved orInterpreted In asoftware- Independent jormat.ThIS problem 1S even more apparent WIthopt1cal systems because there IS no SUch thmgas a "soHware- Independent" Tor mat for

52 Archival Informatics Newsletter vo1.2 #3

opl1call\/ stored mforrnatlOn.Arctnv8S wlllhave to rna~e acom r01troent to ffil)mtaJnmgsome naroware and some software to accesst.hen rnoonetlc f:lnd ODtlcal records.

StandardS for encryptlOn. compactlOn.storooe, and data or document. mterchanae areessenhai to enable future access to recordSstored on magnetlc and opHcal media, to maketnelr preservallOn affordable, and ta permltrflloratwn of mformatlOn between aeneratlOnsof storage and relneval t.ecnnologl13s. TheWlt'1espread ,jeyelopment and adoption ofstandardS bv oaraware manufacturers,softwara developers. and users of modernmformatlOn systems would enab"le archwes tolimit the hardware and software needed forocceess to asmall number of systems that canr'atneve mfonnatlon from dl'oIerseapphcatiOrts.

Another f6(lture that. opticllland magnetlcsvst.ems SMre lS that. t1ard copy mput andoutput documents do not nocBSsarily provlde aneffectlVe alternatlVe for access to. or storageof, information, Even if the information couldDe reprOdUced on paper t or paper saved afterit is scanned), paper-based systems do notprovlde an occeptable alternat1Ve format. Theuse of new methods to occess mformation mfundamentally different Wf!YS changes howindividuals and corporate bodies usemformation and may alter the longterrn valueof the record.

ArCrI1V1St.S snould also be aware that offlCeswtnctl rely upon an optical disk wstem to storedocuments or unages and which retneve'Information rapidly from adisk., are unlik.elyto aevelop or rnamta1n manual f11mg syst.emsfor t.he Slime mforrnatlOn, If the paperdOCuments are saved at an ttley w111 be batchedwhen U,ey are scanned and stored somewhere)ust mcase they are ever needed for'v8nficat.lOn or certification Thev will not beneatly filed or mdexed unless the office alsouses a oarallal rnrmual file to conduct itstl\Jsmess Often orgamZtlt.ions lnV8St 10;Jutomated retnevlJl systems because they findthe best organ12ed and mamt.amed manual:>vstems too unweildy to provide effectiveoc'Ce~·~ to mformat1on.

We have learned from our experiences W1ttlmagnetiC $)i'stems that archlVal records need tobe identified when the system is designed.

EffectlY8 preservatlOn of arcrnvai recor'dSfrom large ootFj- and document-base::: requlresroulmes to separate oats and documents Wml10nQ term values from triose of trl)nSlent value.Even though I ana perhaps especially because.oDpralsal and preservation strate~l1e,3 formformatlOn from optlCal dISk systems remalnunderdaveloped, archivists ShOll ld becomelnVOiVed 1n tne deS1gn of optlcal dlSki'Jppl1C(jtlOns if they are bemo used to storemformetlOn with long-term ·value In the caseof oot1cal d'isk. irnaqe- based systems, iI kevlssue for archlV1sts lS makmg sure that accesspomts are orovided that. wlll allow retneval of1OformatlOn for secondarv uses other tnantho~-e necessary for the ~ystern's Dr-lrnarypurpose. One cannot search an lmage-basedsystem after the fact on index terms trlat werenot lncorporated lnto the aeslgn. AS archwlstsrush out to exolore opt1cal dlS~, S'y'stams fortMlr own appl1catlOns, we stlould aiso canSH:lerhow to become involved in the design of opticalSYStems bv others so that we have some Chanceof mak.ing'the mforrnation on those Systemsavailable mthe future,

ArchlVists need to respond to newinformaHan technologles when they areintroduced rather than waitlna untlllaroebackiogsof records become lrretrlevablebecause thw are stored in an obsolete format.One of the lessons we nave learned fromworklnQ with maqnetic medi/J is that archi',istswalled too long t.o·address t.he probiems t"'atthiS changing technology posed. Large amountsof obsolete and irretrievable informationacculurnated and valuable archival recordswere "lost Mfore arcrliv1sts took me lssue ofelectrOniC records keepwQ senously. Wecannot aiard to repeat thlS m1stake iigam W1t.tlyet another new storage technology

MH 0

[Margaret HedStrom l the chalr of the SAACommittee on Automated Records &. Techniques.can be reactled at ttle .speclal 11ed1a ProJect,New York. StlJte Arctllves & RecordsAdmInistration, Cultural EducatiOn Center,Albany, NY 12230, (518) 474-67711

fall. 1988 Copyright by Archives & Museum Informatics 53

CONFERENCES

Museum Termlnology ControlTrll:t :;ecOnd Annual Confer-ence of Ule r'1useurn

Documentation ASSOc1ation, ~leld in GambridQeEnQland from 580tember 18-24. was devotedto the topic of Terminology Control. Therneet1no. which was co-soonsored by the GettyTrust Art History Information Program,atlr8Ct.ed over 160 oart1elpants from dozens off;()untries whose presentations and discussions,conduct.ed in Engllsrl, French and It.a11an, weresimultaneously translated permittingconslder'abIe act,we enchanae of V1ews.

The Conference was orec€lded by aMuseumDocumeni.!:ll1on Stuav lour ana aone daYIndexinQ LanQu8Qes TraininQ Seminar.Part.ic1pants -1n the st.ul1Y tour were uniform lyenthusiastic about their behind the scenes viewand frank discusslOns witJ, curat.ors at. t.heBritish Museum, the Museum of London, theNationa', Maritime 11useum, the National!'1useum of Science &. Industrv, the TateGallerv and the Vict.or18 and Albert. MuseumThe indexmg seminar conducted by deanAit.chison. Alan Gflchrist and Dr I.C.Mellwainewas somewhat less enthusiastically received,orooab'Iy oecause the mstructors presented aQuite theoret.ical framewor'k in the rnorninQ ,follOWed bv exerC1ses that were arawn frori,bibliooraohic rat.her than museum traditions,

Tile Conference oroper was 1ntroduced bv anoverview of the purposes and mechanics ofS1.andardizatlOn, by me, ana aoresen1.atlOn ont.he role of standards bodies such as theInternational Standards Oraanlzation ( ISO) by,A..xel Ermert. Papers by t1ar'ilyn .schmidt ontt"le Thesaurus Art1s unlVersalls and EleanorFink on CIDCX; (the documentatjon committee ofme Internallona'l Councll on 11useums)mtroduc'8d some of the plavers m the effor'ts 1.0aGrneve consensus 10 museum terrnmologycontrol. The scene was further defmed by JohnPerKms of 1.he ConservatlOri InforrnatlOnNetwork who introduced thlS new serVlCe andSusanne Peters of the ICOfvl DocumentatlOnCenter wrlo exposed the problerns of cont.rollinglerrmnoloQV as ameans of access to trtedatabase maintained by ICOt'1 and ICOMOS.Furt.her perSpeCllYe was orovlded oy nat.1onf.ll

reports from tne UK bv I"llenael budd, Italv ovOreste Ferrarl. Canada bv Steve Delrov, andme US bv ·Jlm E: lackeD',;,.

For the next two days. partlclpants heardanout 60 papers devot.ed to spec1il(vocabulanes or data structures bemfJ used HI,]varlety of kmds of museums and speeL::!]documentat.lOtl projects At t.he wr'ap upseSSlOn that provlded particlpants wlt.h anopport.unlt.y t.o express thelr feehngs at the endof the conference demonstrated, t.he plet.hora oftermmoloQles left many unconvmced t.hat.national, to say nothmg of mternatlOnaJ,agreement was wort.h the effort. Those whosougM amore positlVe concluslOn from themeetmg found solace 1n the agreement. exprssedat. the wrap up sesslOn that. different.Yocabulanes could and would cont.r·oJ dlfferentfieldS of data, trlat d1fferent \!ocabularle2, were1ustif led by different. uses f:lnd userperspectives, and that there 15 awldespreadneed mthe museum (,'ommumty fortermmology control over proper names andplace names, for wtnch me1.hodo10g183 anddatabases eXlst and In WhlCh areas progress canbe made.

The Museum Documentation AsSoc1ationhopes to publish procedinQS of the cont'erencebefore next year's meetmg, scheduled forSeptember 14- 18 in York, England

ArchIves DescrIptIon PractIcesWH.h the support of the Internaf,lOnal

Council on I~rchives .. t.he National Archlves ofcanada hosted an mVitatlOnal meet.mg of"Expert.s on Descrlptive St.andards" mottawafrom October 4-7. Thirtv participants.representing fifteen GOuntnes and theInternational Council on Archives (ICA.), theInternational Federatlan of Librar\:Associations (IFLA) and the InternationalStandards Organ1zaf.1on ( ISO) I gathered tod1SCUSS the stlJte of st/jndf.lrdiz~tlOn of archlva',description and t.o determine t.he prospect.s foraqreement at an international level.- Over t.he course of four dijl/S, t.hey exammed

t.he state of archival description standard2. 10tJ,eir respective countries and heard parlf:w~. on"Concepts, Prmciples &. t1ethodolo018S" bv LisaWeber, "The Relationship between Aut.omatlOnand DescrlPt.ive Standards" bv Michael Cook.

Archival Informatics Newsletter vo1.2 #3

"TM Role of ACademlC Tni1rllng anaPrOfes."iorRll AssocmtlOns mDescrlpt.ionStandards" by Jacques Gnmard, "Descrlpt.1onsStandards &International Organllations" byHugo Stibbe, and "Stategies for Developmentand Implementation of Archival DescriptionStandards" by David Bear·man.

The meetmo adopted a number of resolutionsaddressed to th"e ICA, lncluding aproposal toestablish an international working group topursue astandard for "descnption at the fondslevel", an area mwhich the meatinQ reachedsubstantial agreement To me, the agreementaround the table that a number of entitles otherthan holdings -- entitles such as repo-3ltorles,records creating orgamlat1ons, retentlOn3Chedules, facilities, and users -- might beprorrnsmg areas for development of descrlptionstandards was an exciting outcome of therneetino. Clearly archivists are reF.ldv to thinkabout the possibility of sharmg authorityrecords of various sorts 1n order to realize thepotential benefits of informatiOn ex.change atttle internat10nallevet

Avarlety of products were brought to themeeting by participants. My attention wasespecially caught. by awor~,lng group draftfrom the ArchiVes Nation61e de France whichconsisted of terminology for forms of materialand TunctlOns and closely resembled the liststhat (,'011eagues USl ng R1INhave beenoo.;elop1Og, Throughout the meetmg, PeterHorSman from the Nether lands ex.pressed theinterest of Dutch archiVists in functiontermmoloqy. Others also thought the ideaworth pursumg, I note that. at the SM. meetingand in subsequent travels around the UnitedStates, Rav Orover of t.he New Zealand NationalA.rchlves nas also been mterest.ed mthlsapproach. The converoence of the vocabulan6Sbe10g developed suggests that for !J)vernmentalfunct.ions at any rate, we may be nearmg anmternational agreement on the structure ofthis access po101..

Society of American ArchivistsThe 1988 SAA meet.ing in At.lanta was the

fir·s1., and may well be the last, meeting ofarctnvists at Which one could attend end-to­end sessions devoted to descriptive practicBsand standards. That it was the first, revealshow far the profession has corne in us10g

automated metMds mtM past few years TrIlJtit willlik.elv be the last demonstrat.es flOWimportant. Steve Hensen's reV1SlOn of rllSArchlVes, Personal PIJpers and t1anuscrlOts(APPM) gUldelines, will be to establishingdescriptive standards. So many issues thatgenerated much light and no small amount ofheat mAtlanta wlll be laid to rest. wrlen Steveis througrl.

Although my week bef.Jln with meetings 01 Uu:.Committee on Automated RecordS andTechniques and the Committee on Educ-ation andProfessional Development I the DeSCrlptionSection and the Government Records section.all of WhlCh pald conslderable attent10n t.oprofeSSiOnal standards for archlvaldeSCription, the meeting proper began for mewlth asession on format. int.egrat.ion (MARCformat that is) addressea bv SallY McCallum(Library of ConQress) and Lisa Weber(NHPRC). The cr"owd attract.ed in alar'ge roomto hear t.hese tal ks was an early SlQna1tJliJlarchivlsts are now vltally concernea with themechamsrns bv which libraries havemamta1ned deSCription standards. The contentof the talk.s in turn illustrIJted howsubstantlally archivists have begun to affectlibrary pract.ice. Sally McCallum adopted adistinction among bibliographic item control,serlals control and archlVal controlmtroducedby archwlsts and recounted how often AMCconcepts, such 6S the action field 583 havebeen employed in librar~f practlce. In her8(,-c,'Ount of the merging of the bibliographicformats into a unified format. she emphaSizedt.hat. t.he merged format more clearly reflectsthe original intent of MARC and extends theopportunities presented by each of the separateformats to each of the others. In conel USlOn sheunder lined the lmportance t.hat. descrlptivestandards will have 10 guiding descriptionpractices. now that the format has beenshroven of most of lts prescrlptive.descnptlOn convention specifiC, structures.

Llsa Weber emphaslzed the role archivlslsmust play in maintaining the new unifiedformat and illustrated some of the challengeswhich lie ahead as aconsequence of formatlnt.egratlOn. Stle identified ar"eas in wh1ctlprevious efforts bv archivist.s to reform 1'1ARCnad succeeded and failed, and emphaSized t.heimportance that implementations of format

Fall. 1988 Copyright by Archives & Museum Informatics 55

lntegratlOn wIll have on future $uccess orfdilure of drchives to get what th8'v need fromOlE' format

The The.orv aM Practice of Appraisal, couldnave addressed deSCrlptlOn Issues, smce Inmdny W8l/S our coniusIOn about what we areIjomg when we ao appralsallS compounded bvthe absence of standardized means forrecorOlng appraIsal deceSlOns. As It was, the:~ession did not address this issue; insteadFrank Boles and ,.Ju l1a '(oung focussed on anapparently precise and empirical studv theyconducted whIch does Ilttle to help uscommunlcate the b{)Sls for appraisal deciSIons,

On Saturdav, the first sesslOn I attendedreported on the use of the MARC-VM format.L1nda Evans I'eported on the Vl"l usersconference whose proceedings and compendIUm1S now aval1able from the Chicago HistoricalX1Clety, Diane O'Connor from the SmithsonianInstitutlOn reported on continumg work on thePhoto Thesaurus she edited last year and on the.')1 ArchIVes photographic data model (seeProjects &Proposals is this issue), JimBower of the Gettv Art HIstory InformationProgram presented apaper on why AuthorityflIes need not be "Authorltatlve" files.explaJnlna how the Getty AHIP Vocabularycoordination qroup I of whIch he IS amember I

has been integrating avariety of nameauthorlty fi les but perm ittmg each proJectthat contributes a lists to determine its ownpreferred form of name for its products,

...Jim Bowers set the staoe for the authorItycontrol sessIOn which fonowed, In successIvepapers, Marion Matters (SM AutomationOfficer) presented acase stu(jy of nameauthority control as procticed i:lt the Minnesoti:lHIstorIcal Soclety, BIll McNltt discussedsubject authoritY control as it is bemaImplemented in the PresidentIal LibnirlessYstem, and David Delorenzo, now at HarvardUnJ'Iersitv I analvsed the transactIOn logsproduced by the system he set up at Ga IlaudetCollege to establish Just what kinds of sesrcheswere conducted. He found. unsurprlsmgly,that 38% of searChes were for SUbJects, 25%author, title or subject terms. 20% author!title terms, 11 %genre and 5% "assocIated,jescnptors" or mlscelloneous terms.

t"lore description practIce standardS followedIn the afternoon when FOJ'm and Genre terms

r'ecelVed the attentlon or aseparate seSSIOnPeJtricio:l Cloud intr"oduced the se5sion b"/ Clskingwnat are tne purposes of autnor ltv control anawho are our users? Hope Mavo spoke for onegroup m dlscussmg the varIous vocaoularl8Sadopted bv the ACRl Rare Books andManuscrlpts SectlOn (RBMS). SpeCIalizedlists produced by RBM51lnd under developmentmclude genre terms, prmtmg & pub ilsnmgeVIdence, provenance evidence. and bindIngterms. Eacn was intrOdUCed and ItSapplicabilitY discussed. Helena Zinkhampresented tna LIbrarv of Congress Graphlct"loterjols Genre and PhysjQlI Choracter1sticHeadings lIst (Gl"lGPC) and Its hlstorv She. .

called special attention to the often ignored butvaluable lntroauctlOn to the publIshed lIst Inthe final paper of the sesSIOn. HarT lett Ostroffexp lalned why NUCMC IS usmg the R.LG lIst ofqenre and form headinos for MARC tao 655 andthe M T1ist for MARC tag 755 at present andwhy she mtends to create her own I1st In thenext few years, WhiCh she feels WOUld Improveof the RLG list and provide better scope notesPersonally J I hope that thIS effort can beconducted With abroad base of professlOnalInvolvement so that we don't rl'sk 'Jettmg Justanother ideosyncratic list out of the NUCI"J(;effort.

By Sunday mormnq it was astonJshlna to see. - -anyone left for the sessIOn on Authoritv Controlin which Richard Szary and I presented ourvIews of future requlrements. Both of us oeganbY assertinG that we needed more clarltv aboutthe kinds o( IiSt5 we were speak ing about. tnetypes of implementatlOns mtended and thepurposes of control J and each of us suggestedtypologies of authorities that were extremelySImIlar, I went on to examlOe reSe~lr'Ch result'Sfrom ve.ars of Iibrarv and Iniormat IOn sCJenceresearCh on authorities, and suggest tne wffY~

in which theY should affect future authoritvplans In archIves. RIch spoke on the functlOnalrequirements of an Ideal Imp lementatlOn,detailing the capabilitles that he belIevesshould be present in authorltv svstems

56 Archival Informatics Newsletter vo1.2 #3

COStA: Gateways to ComprehensiveState Informotion Policy

When the Chief ExecutlVe Officers of Statellbrarv Agencies ((,'OSLA) met mRaleighNort.h Carolina In mlo-OCtober, the semmarwas attended by directors of state informationservlC8S, state telecommunications d1Vis1ons,and state archlVes as well as by legislativeaides and polley makers. The participation wast.elling In itself -- this community is learninghow to make connectlons with lnformatianproviders and information creators and haslearnea that poliCY is the first step in a newinformation equation.

HIe meeting was subtitled "A Conference forStakeholders". and the stakeholders were madet.o work. for their enlightenment When, aftereach sesslOn framed the issues, tables of eightworked on consensus reports, Unfortunately Iwas able to st/J'y' only for the session in which Iparticipated, on mformation policy forelectromc records. but it was clear from theenergy of the group that the previous speakersand the consensus building format of themeeting were having the desired effect. COSLAexpects to publish the conference prOO3edingsand small group conclusions next year,

One fascinatinQ OOGument that was new to mewas made available by Ed Levine, StaffD1rector of the Jomt Committee on InformationTechnology Resources of the Florida StateLegislature, Entitled "Remote Computer Accessto Public Records in Florida", this January1985 report discusses the technical and policylSSUes that arose from Florida's pioneermgprogram to provioo access to electromc publicrecords. Copies are available from Mr. Levine.

National Assoclat10n of GovernmentArchlv1sts & Records Admlnlstrators

Cooperative approaches to appra1sal,automation of records management and theNAPA General Records Schedule for ElectronicRecords occupied my dance card for the NAGARAmeeting 1n Annapolis, JU1'l21, Unfortunately,the As.'3ociation seems not to have been able toext.end beyond the State Arch1ves despite itsrecent chanoo of title and membershlp and theefforts of its aggresslYe volunteer ExecutiveDlrector. Bruce D~rstvne.

The cooperat1ve appraisal sesslOn was openedbv em LeFurdv of NARA who, 10 adeparture

Tor hlS agency, embraced the potentla1ofcooperation. followed by Dorothy Provine ofthe Dlstrict of Columbla who illustrated theneed wlth acase studY of the differencesbetween appra1sals of construction permits mdifferent U,S, jurisdictions. The session wasconcluded by Kathleen Roe Who, recounting tMyear long experlence of sharmg apprcllsalreports in RLlN, reported that practlce lS stilltoo uneven, too poorly concelVed. and too adhoc, for actual exchanges of appraisal data to bevery useful. Rather than abandoninQ theeffort, she called for improvements °mdescriptions of appnllsal determinations.

11ike Miller and Bill Cunliffe of NARA,presented the General Records SChedule forElectronic Records, The schedule adopts as itsgeneral prmciole that 1f a master file 15scheduled, all inputs and outputs are disposableexcept for products disseminated in electronicform, Ifeel that RG20 assumes flat files.routine data, isolated systems, and workinQenvironments unaltered by the introduction ofautomation, and as such provides essentially noguidance to those who operate in awork worldtransformed by mteractive, online, inter­connected information systems. Bill Cunliffe.reporting as a records manager, indicated thathe felt simllarly in the review phases, butobViously as a NARA amployae, he has taken thepos1tion now that the GRS 1s necessary find 1sall we have.

Am. Society for Information ScienceI taught a preconference workshop on recorOS

and archlVes manooement for informationscientists at the annual meeting of ASIS inAtlanta, The focus of the full-day session wasthe impact of the advent of electrOniC recordson traditional archival and recordsmanagement practices and the design ofarchlVal mformat.lOn systems based onorganization function and record syst.emsstruct.ure, Iargued thl.lt such systems present.opportunities for those interested in taking onthe role of information resource rnanooers.

DB' 0

Fall. 1988 Copyright by Archives & Museum Informatics 57

IN-BOI

REPORTS

Amerwan 11anaqement. :)'y'stems Inc, GeneralFunctlonal Requirements for theSmHhsonlan InstHution Archives(1/28/88). FeasibHlty Study for theSmlthsonian InstUution Archives(3110/88). Analysis of Ufe CycleCosts: The Mini-Computer Alternativefor the Smithsonian InstltutionArchives (3/10/88), t.hree report.s,prepared as del iverables under GSA ContractGS- OOK - 85AFD2777, for tM Sm 1thsonlanInstitut.ion Archives.

The underlYlOQ commonal1tY of SI ArchlYesprocedures and {hose of most other archivalrepositories with some records managementactivity makes the first of these reports, afunctional requirements document prepared byAMS, useful to awider community However,the "global" reqUlrernent.s accepted bv AMS thatled to recommend an in-house developed,mWlComputer-based implement.ation, areextremely dubious; these included a presumedrequirement for SIA staff to be able to modifYthe applications themselves and aprotlibitionagainst. relying upon an outside source ofexpertise to operate the system, even when twoof the opt1On3 thereby relected involvedrelying on aSmithsonian'office with four timesthe staff of the Archives! The conclusionreached by N1S, that the 51 Archives shouldacquire aminicomputer and develop their ownsoftware for alife-cyCle cost of just under $1minJOn 15. very sHnplv, bad adv1C8 althoughthe five year life c'y'cle cost analysis itself is a90011 example of tM genre

Bureau of Canadian Archivists, Report ofthe Working Group on Description atthe Fonds level to the PlanningCommittee on Descriptive Standards,March 1988 78p

The first of tM proposed standards forarchival description to emanate from theCanadian description pr·oiects endorses AACR2(and tMn departs from it somewhat) Get a

COP'/ from Heather MaeNei 1, Descr1pt 1VeStandards Proiect Officer. CClnadian Council ofArchives, 344 Wellington St. , Rm 4101 ,WestMemorial Bldq, OttClwa KlA-ON3, CANADA.Comments must be received bv Nov 30 to til?

considere.t1 for the final draft.

N~tionl.:ll Academv of Science. Notionol Academvof Engmeenng, Inst1t.ute of r1edic1ne, The 'Future of Technology and Work:Research &. Polley Issues ed. by BruceHenderson &. DaVid Mowerv (Washinqton DC.National Academy Press. 1988) p, 41 p,

This is acrisp, literate, but broeld brushsummary of aone day conference held at theAcooemy in OCtober 1987, Issues are clear lvdelineated, and though they are not startling, ·Itmakes auseful introduction for semor staffconcerned with national poliC'! lssues

National Archives &. Records Administration,Archival Research &. Evaluation Staff, TnomasE. Weir Jr., 3480 Closs Tape CartridgeDrives and Arch1val Data Storage:Technology Assessment Report, NetlonalArchives Technical Information Paper #4,,June 1988 30p, (NTIS # PB8-233135/AS.$12,95) .

This is tl timely and thorough assessment ofthe 3480 cartridge for data archives which,like NARA, are facing pressures to convert tothis technology for its density and GonvenJence.Concludes tMt tJI6 3480 is meeting highstandards and that conversion will be r-eqUlredsoon, but somehow (disbelievmq 1tselP)allows that NARA itself will hold off for nowdue to financ1al and lffiplementlltlOnconstraints, Continumg updates are promlsed

National ArchlVes of Canada, Conservationof Photographic Materials: ABosicReading Us!, (Ottawa, National Archlves,1988). Text in EnQlish and French, 320,Klaus Hendricks and Anne Whitehurst have

compiled abibliography ttlat will be ofuse togeneralist conservators in spite of lts Jack ofannotation, The sDecialist will want to use thebibliographic facilities of the Conser·vatlOnInformation Network's online blbllOQraPh1Gdatabase to which the authors are primecontributors.

58 Archival Informatics Newsletter vo1.2 #3

Nelt lOnaI Endowment for the Humelnl ties, LynneV. Chenf31/, Humanities in America: AReport to the President, the Congressand the American People (Washington DC,NEH, september 1988).

This is the first b1annual report mandated by'~onaress In 1955. It telkes i) broCld VIew ofculfural education, incorporatmg museums,bookstores end public televisIOn. InterestinaJYit makes no mention of arch1vesl '

New York State University, EducationDepelrtment and ArchlVes &. RecordsAdm imstration, A Strategic PIan forManaging and Preserving ElectronicRecords in New Yort State Government:Final Report of the Special MediaRecords Project, August 1988 36pp.

The dlagnosis of Issues and prob lemspresente.d bv this report is d pithy summary ofthe challenge of electronlc media. The sevenobjectIVes defined for New Vork State will bevalid, with little modification, for anyJurisdiction. But it is the 27 concreteac:tlv1ties suggested for the next five years thatdeserve the greatest attention of professionalsfor they are both strategiC in the best sense andl:loable. As such It represents the tlrst fullmenu of coordinated governmental response toHle challenge of electronlc records.

Trego, Lori A., Ohio Depertment otAdministrative Services, NationalInformation Management Survey ofAutomation and Machine ReadableRecords, (Columbus Ohio, 1957) 46p.

Hlis lS a useful summary of t.he state ofplanning, program development and policy forelect.ronic records in t.he fifty United St.atesbased on phone interviews conducted in Marchand April1987.

u.s. Congress, 01f1Ge of Technology Assessment,Informing the Nation: Federal Informa­tion DlssemlnaUon 1n an ElectronlcAge~OTA-CIT-396 (Washington DC, US GPO,October 19138) 333p A.vallatlle from GPO for$14.00 1 stock. # 052- 003-0 1130- 1

Th1S Jong-aWalted repo!'t confronts theDol iCY Imp l1cetlOns of electronlc dr5sem In()tlOnof agrowing portlOn of the $6 bllllOngovernment Information dlssemlnation budqethead on, calling for acceptance of the method ofdissem inat ion throlloh aII 8vai lab Ie avenues.including depositorv'libraries, countering theargument tor government to plev no ra Ie In

value-added information dissemmation I andrevealina the emeralnQ Drab lems for FOIA Inan age o(electronlc-record keeping anddistributlOn. Hlqhlv recommended for itsdefinition of the Issues and 1ts balanced POl1C'y'proposals.

JOURNAL ARTICLES & BOOKS

Barnett J Patricia J. I "The Art &Architecture Thesaurus as aFacetted MAR.CFormat", Visual Resources, \101.4#3 p.247-260 examines the relatlonship betweenprecoordinated library subject headinqs andthe post-coordinated approach of the AAT.Those who might be put off should know that Itreally has little to do with MARC.

linking Art Objects and ArtInformation, a speciaI issue of LibraryTrends edited by Deirdre Stam and .A,nge!a Gira!(vo] 37 #2, Fall 1988i includes articles bvscholars, registrars J curators, systemsanalvsts and mformatlOn specIalIsts on avariety of problems involved in the design ofart 1niormation systems. Taken as awhole thevolume is one of the most excitinq treatmentsof museum mformatlOn Issues ever - themdividuaJ articles each deserve a full review J

but instead I'll.wst recommend the book as awhole.

Palmer J Roger C., Understand1nglibrary Microcomputer Systems. PacificInformation Inc., Studio City CA, 1988 129 p.plus source code on floppy disk. for t.he Book.AcqUisition System.

Roqer Palmer has wriHen the ultimate casestuaY of t.he definition, deSign and developmentof asoftware svst.em. Issued tooet.her· w1th tJll?code for' t.he resulting system. The book can be:--efJd as an h1Slorlcal account of Mw system::.are des1gned or as asor·t of manual for the

PaU, 1988 Copyright by Archives & Museum Informatics 59

resultant system. Its strength, I feel, IS as ateaching tool; in agraduate seminar it would beagreat critical assignment.

Roberts, Helene; "Do you have any picturesof..?: Sublect Access to works of Aret 10 VisualCollections and Book Reproductions", Ad.Documentation v. 7 #3 p.87-90, is aninteresting discussion of the reasons onecollection chose to use ICONCLASS.

.sunder land, Jane & 5arasan, Lenore; TheChecklist Kit for Comparing AutomatedMuseum Col1ecUons Systems (WinnetkaILI Willoughby Associates, 1988) $15 fromthe pl.Ibl1shers.

The Checklist kit consists of an introductorygUldeline for the use of the check lists, anarticle by Lenore Sarasan entitled "What tolook for in Automated Museum systems" firstpublished in Museum Studies Journal (v.3#4,Winter 1987), and two sets of forms to becopied and used In comparmg posslble systems.Inc] udOO are four. pages of venoor profile~orms, and 24 pages of features evaluationt.orms addressmg collections manegementfunctions, general systems features, datastructure features, user interface features,query features, report features, "speciol~eatures" , and documentation and support(WhlCh could as easily have been in the venoorevaluation). The layout of the forms perm itsthe user to employ them first to determine thedeg~ee to which each feature is required ordeslred by the repository (ranking them as"must have", "might need", "don't need""frill" ) and subsequently to use the sa~e formto assess what each system prov1des (yes I no,when planned, can't tell). It will come as nosurprise that Willoughby's systems look very~ when evaluoted ogoinst this checklist, butIt 15 not ber.ause the checklist is ideosyncratic.Indeed I the check Iist features ore extremeIywell thought out and fairly comprehensive,like Willoughby's sYstems. Any such list could·al.ways mclude other fe.atures and exclude someot. those 1ncIuded. ond Wi lloughby'sover lopsWIth my own (published as v. J #4 of ArchivalInformatics Te.chnical Reoorts) in many ways.I IIke their layout better and some of theirQuest Ions are better stated, but on the Whole

(not surprisingly) prefer mme. Still, I wouldrecommend this pUblication to anyoneconsidering purchasing asystem; this is one .$15 investment in prelimmary research. thatis w~1l worth it. Willoughby's has againpertormed aservICe for the museum market,and shou Id again to be thanked for it.

NEWSLETTERS

ICOM News (ISSN 0018-8999) vo1.41#21988 contains an extenslve outline of the baSICsyllabus for Professional Museum Training.now 17ye.arsold. TheTrainingcommitteewould like to revise the syllabus and isInviting suggestions to Dr. Patric/< BaylanDirector of Museums and Art Galleries 'Leicester Museums. Art Ga1JerlOes &R~rdSSerVice, 96 New Walk, Leicester LEI 6TD UK.

InteractiYe Media InternationalNewsletter (PLF Communications, 9 CrossSt. Court, Cross St. I Peterborough I Cambs. PE 11UF ENGLAND, £.125 p.8.) featured museumsand int~racti.ve video.opportunities in its May1988 Issue.1n an article by Isabel Pring.Short news Items on video in museums andcultural institutions are regUlar features.

Mid-Atlantic ArchiYist (ISSN 0738­?396) Vo1.17 #3, Summer 1988 p.12-13mcluOOs an article by Kathleen Roe on thepatron registration system of the PennsylvaniaState Archives that serves as auseful reminderthat reqUirements for automation of archivesdo not end with cataloging of holdings.

Network News... vol.1 #4, Autumn 1988(free from Conservation Information Network45034 Glencoe Ave.. Marina Del Ray CA I

90292) reviews the development of UDCclassification 77 for photograpny and thePHOCUS database developed by Klaus Hendricksand Anne Whitehurst and avai labIe tnrouqhCIN. .

OClC Newsletter (ISSN 0163-898x) freefrom OCLC, 6565 Frantz Rd., Dub lin OH43017-0702, has abrief summary of theJune 22, 1988 NISO meeting in itsJuly/August issue along with astatus report

60 Archival Informatics Newsletter vo1.2 #3

distnbuted to that meetmg on the state of allNISO st~ndord3 ~s of June 10, 1988.

Recordfacts Update (ISSN 0899-7475.free from National Archlves, Office of RecordsMrnmistf'at.lOn, Records AdministrationInforrnatlon Center) Washington DC 20408)GontCllns ~ rniscell~ny of records m~nagement

wformation. While generally reliable,Yo1.2# 1 contamedsome most improbablecalculations of the floor space reqUirements offiling cabmets.

SM Newsletter (l5SN 0091-5971)::;eptember 1988 contains areport by SAA.Pr'eservation Program OffICer Paul Conway onrecent research on the storage of microfilmmasters which Conway states may reqUirearchlvlsts to revise thelr procedures.

SPECTRA, The Quarterly Journal of theMuseum Computer Network (vol.15 #3,Fall 1988) contains a valuable article on"Computer Software, Equlpment and servicesProcurement by Museums and otherConservinQ Institutions - Introduction to BasicC.ontract.uallssues and Protection of 11useumand Academic Pr'ooerty" by "1ar'k H. BicXJleESQ.) Partner in Dechert Price &. Rhoads,Philadelphia (0.2-8).

EPHEMERA

AASLH Special Report #2. ( Insert to HistoryNews vol.43 -R'4, ,July/August 1988) entitledCommon Agenda Museum InformationSurvey, is adata collection instrumentintended to develop astandard for reporting ontllstol'lcal repositones. Ttle surveyinstrument will test the standard and provideUniform information on AmerJcan culturalhistory museums.

AR~1A's f1icro/PC lAC has issued the 4thEdition of its Software Directory forAutomated Records ManagementSystems (from Walter May 415-591­4472, 1988,41 p.). The directory' consistsor very snort descrlPtions of pack.aoes sold by28 firms (a few defunct).

Library·' Technologles Inc. ( 1142E BradfieldRd.. Abi ngdon PA 19001 , 215- 576- 6953)has published apamphlet entitled libraryDatabase Preparation Services: APrimer (JulV 1988, 8p. ), that addresses['1ARC tape formats, ~IOW to extract records andsolve duplication problems, OeLe specificissues, barcoding and authority controlquestions, and other lssues relating to databaselooding m clear terms. but wlth good detail.Users will want to compare this with thellbrary Systems Newsletter report onProcessing OCLC tapes in June 1988 (v.8#6p.41-45).

Light 1mpresslons Ms released t.he 1988­89 edition of the Photographers BjographyFHe, aproduct of the International Museum 01Photography at the George Eastman House. The12 microfiche set, containinQ nearly 20,000entries, is cross indexw by name variants andpseudonyms and available for $95 by calling800-828-9629. The International Museumof Photography provides on1i ne access to theBiography File of Photographers at cost tonon-prom organlzatlons ( $1.50 per logonhour plus local telec.'Ommunications. using aVT 102 or equlValent. or an IBM PC at.300,1200 or 2400 baud).

Recently Andrew Eskind, Director ofInterdepartmental S8rvlces for the 1t"IP sentme the first of what is expected to be at least aseven videodisc set of Images from the EastmanHouse collection. It represents some, but notall, of the 20% ofthe collection that is nowcataloged and contains otherwise inaccessiblenegatives of photographs by t"lathew Bradv.Anne Brigman. Nickolas Mura'l and others. Forfurther information. contact Andr'ew Esk md at716-271-3361.

NAGARA's Government Records Issues Seriespublished its inaugural issue under the generaleditorship of Roy Turnbaugh. Subsequentissues will be edited bY North Dakota StateArchivist Gerald Newborg. The premierpamphlet is entitled The NewMassachusetts Archives Facility: AStudy 1n Plann1ng and Process byMassachusetts State ArchiVist ,1\1 bert ~.

Whitaker I.Jr. ("June i 988, 3p)

Fall. 1988 Copyright by Archives & Museum Informatics 61

LETTERS

Bl1 Vernon. Vernon Systems, Auck.land. NewZealand, wrltes .

We wer.e delighted with the first independentrevIew ot COLLECTION in the summer Issue of'lour .iournaL May we maKe the followingcomments on your caveats that we are smal I'loung, far Wlay and have not yet made asale?

,size: We have three in our development teamand are seeking a fourth. We use freelanceRevelatfon consultants for overflows. We havefour part time support staff, Over six peopleyears of R&D has been invested to date in the:;ystem.

Young: Although the project Is only two and ahalf years old, the principals of VernonSystems have sUbstantial track records Insystems development. COLLECTION speaks forthe understanding we have acquired of museumapplications.

Far Awffi./: New Zealand is twelve hours f1yinotime from Los Angeles, We have fax and emaiL"However, we reccgnize the need for localsupport and provide thIS by:

it- training the in-house Systems SupervIsorto support users

* retraInIng loc.al Revelation consultants fortechnical support* using museum sYstems consultants for

implementation supportit- ourselves providing app Iicat ion tailoring

and ultimate supportWe intend opening alocal office.

No sales: This reflects the lead time for suchdecisions. It is expected that we will have ourfirst significant contract shortly.

The review raIses Questions as toRevelation's longevity and ability to handleheavy worKloads.

With over 75,000 users, consistentocc.I)lades from the technical press, and anenthusiastIe developer base, we are confidentthat Revelation has asecure future, (Note theincreasing frequency of citations in suchJournals as Archival Informatics Newsletter)., Revelat,lon distrIbutes the processIng load tomexpenslve but powerful workstations ( 286or 386 PC's). Network operating systems suchas Novell Ilnk these to the f1la server which

can De another mlCro, or amlnl or even amainframe. These confiQurations allowRevelatlon app11GatlOns to handle large mesand tran5-actlon volumes.

~Hchael Coo~., UniverSIty of LlVerpool,L1verpool, England, writes:

The Museum DocumentatlOn ASSOclatlOn(Building 0,347 Cherry Hinton Rd"cambridge CB 1 4DH) has now Issued aprototype verSIon of an archIves applicatlOnwithin its package MODES, This pockaqe 1S 6cheap and simple system for controllingmuseum holdings, The archlVes applIcation hasbeen put together by the staff of the archIvesdepartment of the British Antarctic Survey atCambridge University, tn collaboration withthe Archives Description Pro,iect at LiverpoolUnIVersity, The standards and conventIOn ofthe Manual of Archival DescriPtion (MAD)have been jncorporated, though as some ofthese are as yet incomplete, the match is notperfect. There are templates (system supp] iedformats, including data entry screens) forletters, title deeds, maps, and photographs, andafull set of archlval data elements, arranqed 1n4 hierarchical levels, is avallab1e on screen,The manual includes exp lanatory text writtenby archivists and dealing with their specificproblems,

The prototype IS now on test at BAS andLtverpool University, Reports andamendments will be issued from time to time

MODES is available from the MDA for £200which makes it avery reasonably priced 'package, especIally as support and maintenanceis avai lab1e,

Jane Sledge, Smithsonian Institution, writes:In your revIew of Peter Homulos's

presentation at the AAM, you fail to mentionthe CIDOC working group concentratmo oninternational standards in your fleetin'greference to CIDOC working groups ... , Thereis an international group working on datastandards ,... At the 1987 meetino the DataStandards work ing group attempted to focusattention on data modellnq efforts andte.chniQues ." , '

62 Archival Informatics Newsletter vo1.2 #3

If

NEWS

Archives library Information CenterThe National Archives has ~tabllshed Its

,A.rChlves LIbrarv InrormatlOn (;enter' ,i1,L1GJ)$ aserVlCe to the professIOn as was proposedbv the recent NAGARA study of the lnrarmatlOnnee.as of arCh1Y1sts and records managers. ALiCW111 conduct free searches of bIb 110graph1C,jatobases, and wlil publ1sh for the professlOn aquar'ter Iv lIst of Its acceSSlOns and an annuaI!l')t of Journal'3 to whIch It 5ubscrJbes so as to:Jccommodate mterl1brarvloans, Feesw'lll beCharged for reproductlOn, but not for on sHeuse whIch 15 encour!396d. fFor mfarmatlOn.call or write p,lle. NatIOnal ArchIves l1brary(NNIU. N.I\RA.Washinaton. DC 20408(,-,),,' -,-.<; q"C'''J -.,,;l ~ )-')":'" -'.. t)':I':.

Electronic Data & Depository librariesThe Government Printing Office issued a

re(lon in ,June 1988 I whlcrl descrl bed fivepr'oJects it will undertake exoerimentallv totest the suitablitiv of dissemination ofelectronlc formats to the depository libraries,Data from the 1982 Census of Agriculture andthe 1982 Census of retai 1trade will be madeavaJ1ab Ie on CD- ROI'1 , as w1ll theCongressional Record and aEPA database, theTox1c Release Inventory. Online access to twoother databases wi 11 be provided as part of thetest. These are the Economic Bulletin Board ofthe Departmernt of Com merce. amergeddatabase of numerous DOC mes of statistlcs andnews, and abibliographic and full-textdatabase from the Department of Ener·gy. For'details SBe the report, "Dissemination ofInformation 11) Ele.ctronic Format to Federal[>8Positorv Libraries: Proposed ProjectLlescrl pt lOn:~"

SM AutomatIon Program OffIcerThe Societv of American ArchiVIsts

announced the appointment of l"larion 1'1attersas its new automation program officer as ofAugust 1. f1S. f1atters reolaces Lisa Weberwho left the SAA to serve on the staff of theNHPRC. r-latters W1J] run the program fromher home office at 1936 Sargent Avenue I S1.Paul, f'1N 55105 (612) 698-6949

MAPS to Conduct fiche Standards StudyTt'!e MlO-.Atlant.1C' ~'respr\/anon .')prvlct? nas

announceD t~lat n has entered into ;.'1 contractwith tile CommlSSlOn on PreservatJOn anaAccess to exolore the apolication of 3Smmarchlvai fIlm stanaarGS to tile prOOUCT1nn ofmicrofiche Accordina to the 1'1APS Newsletter.the contract WIll be usen to ldentlfy the speclaiproblems and costs in extending extant 35mmstanaardS to the 105mm fIlmIng andproc.essing envIronment Areport is due ear lvIn 19139 and progress throughout the prO,lBctwill be rBPorted b\/ MAPS

NARA becomes member of RlGThe National ArchIves and RecordS

Administration became the fir::,t Feder(J]government agency to ,10m PLG on l"lard"! 8A.sthe 40th special member in the Archi'y'e,;:-"f1anuscrlpts and Specla1 CollectlOns program,NARA WIll contrIbute to RLiN In conJunctlOnWIth an mter-.1UrlSdlctlOnai recoras prOJectunder the dlrectlon of Frank Evans

NTIS Privatization cancelledOn August 23 ~res1dent Reagan slgnea a

Federal Trade Bill that outlaws contracting outof the repository or the services of NTiS,effectlvelv ending several vears of studY anddebate on thIS tOP1C.

NAPA/NARA StudyThe NatlOnal Academy of Public Admmlstra­

tlOn has undertaken astudy of electrOniCrecordkeepmg m the Federal Government onbehalf of the NatlOnal .A.rchlves & RecordsAdmmlstratlOn The study, WhIch 15 mtendedto be completed In December 1988, wll1reoort on over ahundre.d mterv1ews and ananalYSIS of several hundred questlOnnalrereturns as well as the collectlVe WIsdom of apanel of experts drawn from throughout theFederall3overnment, the information industry,unIversIties and elsewhere. ProJect managerSarah Kadec provided minutes of NAPA Panelmeetmgs; a flnal report wlll be Issued bY' theend of the year

Fall, 1988 Copyright by Archives & Museum Informatics 63

PROJECTS & PROPOSALS

Smlthsonion Art Museums Doto Model

flJt.er several vears of wort, the art museumbureaus of tM Smlthsonian Inst.ltutlOn rl8vecompleted a full drait of adata model thatworKmQ qrouD members bel1eve accommodatesail the data used bv thew organl28tlOns m anyof Hs octlvltle.'3. The mode"l, Wh1Ch 1dent1f1es28 entities, hundreds of lntersectlons betweenthese ent1t1es and over 200 large groups ofdata attributes, IS available from Jane Sledge,CollectlOns InformatlOn Svstem Manager,Office of Information Resource Management,Sm1thsonum InSt.1tutlOn, WashlnQton Dc20560, AnyOne thlnkmg of orderlng it shouldunoerstand data nOrmall2atlon procedures andfeel comfortable with entity-relationshipmodels e)(pres;>80 through a data dlctlOnarv.

NISO/ISO Common Command Languages

Peggy Morrison prepared 8 comparison ofthe NISO and ISO Common Command Languageproposals for the NISO meetmg In September.The report lists each NISO command and itsfunctIOn, eoch ISO commond and its function,dnd then ldentlf1es three areas of dIfferencesbetween the two, relatmo to searchqual ification. character mask mg and prox 1m itY,)Derator~. For anvone followlnQ thesestandards this three page summary WIll be avalued gift. [CoPies should be available fromNISO. ~·jatlOnallnstitute of Standards &Technoogy, Admln Bldg 10 I, Rm E-106,Gaithersburg. l"m 20899; (301) 975-2814]

Requirements Study for Rl6i\rchlves &. Museum InformatIcs nelS slgnea a

contract with the Re.search LibrarJes Group toCOnduct an analysis of the requirements for anarchlVes and museum InformatIOn system and·dellVer adeslQn document bv October 1989.InterJm reports on thestuw will be publlshedII) thl~lournl)l.

Photogrophy Repository Dato Models

D1ane Vaal O'Connor has m~ availabIe t,he~,rfllt.hsoman Inst.ltutiOn Arct'lr-/es F'hotoQtI:mrl1cData ModeL awor K1 ng paper Demg u-;ed -10

oofine t.he st.ruct.ure of 1nforrfl;Jtlon r'equlred tosupport the $1 ArchlVes PMto Survey projectThe model cons1sts of mformation abouUhreemajor entlt.1es; Persons/Organr~alion~; 82,Creators, prlotographs, and CollectlOns as t.heobject.s of admlnlstrat1ve actlv1tv AttribuTe':.of these entities are defined in an informald1ctlOnarv of data elemenls. [AvaIlable fromDiane Vogt.-O'Connor, SI Archives, Ae.1 Bldg,Sm1thsoman InstilutlOn, Washmg1.on, DC20560).

ArJata e'lement Olctionary for photograpnycollections is also being circulated bv Da·...·ldClark, Hlstory Computerization ~roJect) LosAngeles City Historical Society, 24e~·1 Pium,~

Rd" MalibU CA 90265 The 11st 13 cornpat.1t)"lewith 1'1ARC VM. but does not inclUde all tM datathat could Oe recorded maMARC re.cord.

Courses on Automated Records &Techniques

THe SM CommIttee on Automated RecordS exTechniques has compiled a list of all thecourses It has sponsoreo on these Issues Slnce1983 An average of 3 one and two da\!worKshops have oeen onere£! eact'l vear t

Rl6 Government Records ProjectThe Natlonal Historical Publications and

Records CommIssion voted at 1ts Octobermeetino to orO'v'ide most of the funds reauested0'1 RLG-for Its ambItious expansIOn of the"seven states proiect", now Galled thegovernment recordS proJect. The expandedeffort, which will qet underwa\/ ear Iy In1989, will inclu~NARA, the GeorgloHIstOrical Society. the D1str lct of Columb1o andSIX additional states and will emphas1ze thedevelopment of form-of-material/seriesauthOrity r'lles and Inter-governmentalcooperatlOn ln ldentlfication and ;3Ppralsal ofdlVlded arChIves, dupllcatlVe recordS serIes,admimstrativelv diVIded records and recordsdocumenting parallel funet10ns of state anaFederall~encles.

64 Archival Informatics Newsletter vo1.2 #3

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II

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SOFTWARE BRIEFS

M' NARET by Cactus SoftwareCactus Software. Inc. (850 Norttl State St..

Chicago, IL 60610; 312-642-8655) hasreleased its much awaited collectionsmanaqement software package. off1ciallydubbed MINARET. MINARET is described as "aflexible database w1th word processmgfeatures". It imports and exports MARCrecords but can also support non-11ARC dataand allows new fields and sub-fields to beaenerated at user d1scretion. It contains aquery and 8 reporting modu'le. and runs onPC's AdemonstratlOn system. w1th fullfunctwna'lity for a -limited number of records,can be obtained from the publisher. Thesystem will be rev1ewed in this journal soon.

DBase III Archives AccessioningAlan Bam, of the Smithsoman Institution,

Archives 1S offering copies of his DBase IIIoccessioning system and ausers manual tomterested reposltories as soon as the system 15r;omplete <. documentation is holding it up now).

FONTMAXThe May issue of Research in Word

Proc.essing Newsletter (SOuth Dakota SChool ofr-1 ines & Technology I Rapid City SD 57701),came With ademonstration disk. for FONTMAXlor use with Hercules Graphic Card Plus andIncolor Card. It allows display and printing ofscientific characters, multi-lingual charactersets I and numerous fonts in conJ unction withthe major word proc~"SOrs, DBase III Plus,Mllltil:llan I Lotlus 123, Framework and OMwhen used with the HP LaserJet, and numerousother laser printers. The developers, ISSInternatIOnal Software Systems Inc., claim theproduct is r.arried by "your local softwaredealer". If so, it could be worth evaluating.

NICROMARC ANC Version 2.0Michigan State University has released

11icrol"lARC AMC 2.0 and is distributingdemonstration diskettes to potential buyers.The product was recently reviewed in libraryHigh Tt?.ch News (March 1988) by FrederickMichels & Terry Lovegrove (p. 14- 15) and

receIved an award (rom tne .socletJ ofAmerican Archivists at its annual meeting InAtianta. Clearly my vIew that the product ISmadequat.e IS not shared bv all

Visual Thosourus Debuts11ark Rorvig, Director of the Umversltv of

Texas Prolect ICON ImageSCalmQ Laboratoryis sharing the prototype verSlOn of ahypercardstack desiqned to serve as avlsual thesaurus.The product. developed by Jeff Sk.aistis of thelaboratory, is described as "a graphicalinterface meant to be used as afront-end fordatabase searchina, Its malO advantage overthe methods normallY used for searchmg areHs abillty to provide acontrolled vocabularyfor searcning and also the vlsual clues itprovides for the selection of terms. II Theprototype reqUires aMacll with at least 2MBof memory. ahard card with at least 2.5 MBfree, Hypercard 1.2 or later! For additionalinformation or copies contact Mr, Gary Saloff ,Curator of the NASA Visual Archives, for whomthe prototype was developed and who is testingits use (716) 483-2664, or the Project Iconlaboratory, EDB 564, Austin TX

S.F.Shatespeare Festival uses OMThe latest issue of the O&A Quarter Iy

Newsletter from Symantic reports on the useof this off-the-shelf integrated wordprocessor, file manager, prlntmg system bythe San Francisco Shakespeare Festival tomanaqe membership and development. It 15interesting to see such inexpensive packagesbeing used successfully, as producer BobbyWinston reports.

Cuadra Goes to EuropeCuadra Associates has announced that Abacus

Software (London) and Sweetens ComputerServices (Preston. Lancashire) will bedistributing STAR which was recently installedin England at the publishers Oxford UniversityPress and Routledge Chapman & Hall and forBBe TV news and current affairs. The Britishsales are part of an aggresSive Europeanmarketing push launched by the Los Angelesbased text retrieval and online database vendorwhich has also begun in-house testing anddocumentation of amajor new release STAR.

Fall. 1988 Copyright by Archives & Museum Informatics 65

NOTIS AMC updateThe NOllS Users Group Newsletter #2, July

1988, edited bv Patricia Cloud. Center forResearch Libraries. 6050 S. Kenwood.Chicago. IL 60637. reports on avariety ofdifficulties encountered by NOllS AMC usersand on their status In the NOllS problemrevIew Queue. The most serIous are the publicavailability and lack of useful retrieval forfields 541 and 583. Potential users of NOTISmay wish to keep track of these developmentss.

EDSI Enhonces Fund-AccountingExecutrive Data Systems has released

version 4,3 of its Fund Accounting PrlCKage andIS now selling three versIOn of the package atvarious prires. Version 3.0. previously soldfor $1250. is now marketed at $450. Thenew, networked version 4.3 with improvedfeatures such as budgeting for SUb-accounts,creating aDIF me for aSingle fund or range offunds, adding new occounts during transactionentry, and printing budget amounts and/orrevenue on Statement of Functional Expenses,is beinQ sold for $850. Afull version of 4.3with Pro)ect Reporting produces detalledproJect reports containing every transactionfor every account or SUb-account, revenue andexpense reports for projects on any range offunds of sub-accounts, and projectrevenue/expense reports showing summarydata by account for individual or consolidatedfunds, ranges of funds, or sub-accounts.

Now for Records Monogement SystemZasio Enterprises, Inc. of Sunnyvale

california has introduced anew product,Versatile, which has features for activerecords manaqement, records dlsposltlOn,records scheduling, inactive records storage,vital records management and charge back.Versatile operates on PC's and PC networks.

Building Interactive ExhibitsClay & WOOO Computer Studios [5506

Blackbird. Pleasanton, CA 94566-5336;41 5-426-1220J develops interactivecomputer based exhibits for museums. Theyare anXlOUS to demonstrate their expertise toc:urCItor:s

IArchival Informatics Newsletter is aquarterly publicatIOn of ArchIVes & MuseumInformatics, 5600 Northumberland S1.,Plttsburgh, PA 15217; (412 )-421-4638.It is edited by David Bearman I whoseauthorship can be presumed for all items nototherwise attributed. Subscription to theArchtvol Informottcs Newsletter (ISSN0892-2179) is available for $24.00 perye.ar f pre-paid, to U.S, addesses; $30,00 peryear, pre- paid to foreign addresses; and$40,00 per year billed, worldwide.

Asubscription to both the Newsletter and itscompanIon Quarter ly pUb l1cat Ion f ArchlvoIInformotics Technjcol Report (ISSN0894-0266) is ava1Jable for $160,00 pa. inthe U.S.; $180.00 abroad; and will be bil1ed atno additional charge. II .

IndIvIdual technical reports are available at$45 each, prepaid; $50 billed, Titlescurrently available include:

o Optical Media for Archives & Museums

o COllecting SOftware: ANew Challenge forArchives and Museums

o Functional Requirements of CollectionsManagement Systems

o AcQuirmg & Implementing AutomatedSystems

o Directory of Software for Archives &Museums

o Smithsonian Seminar on Authority Controlin Archives

o Appraising Online Information SystemsI (November '88)

I0 Functional ReqUirements for Exhibit~1anagement Information Systems (Jan. '89)I .

66 Archival Informatics Newsletter vol.2 #3

STANDARDS

Offlce Document Arch1tectureAt. the ICA Automation Commlttee meeting in

Pans, and elsewhere, Charles Dollar haspresented and Circulated aoraft of apaperwntten bv hlmself and ana Thomas E Weir,Jr , enti1.1etj "Archives Administ.ratlonRecords t1anaqernent and Computer' Dat~Exchange Standards: An Inter'section ofProctlces" in whlCh t.he aut.hors review thevarlOUS standards, draft 3tandards andproposed standards for document/im!]Qe ClndlOformat.ion exchange mcan] unction with theirrole in the life-c'lcle of lOformatlOn. Inpartlcular', t.hey examine the role of two hlghlevel reference models for standards: theODA/OD IF(Office DocumentArc~litectureIOff1Ce Document Int.erchangeFormat) model and the OSI (Open Systemslnte,rconnect.ion) model. The paper put.s avanety of standards familiar to archivists andrecords managers, such as CCITT Group 3 and 4FAX communications, SGML, and MARC, intot.he cont.ext of these models and serves CIS auseful introduction to the problem of usingemergin9 standards as ameans of controllingrecords 10 the electronic office. Thosemterested mthe issue may also w1sh to consult"Data and Document Interchange Standards andtrle National Archives" l National Archives ofcanada, Project Report 1-6465, 60pp plusannexes, "lune 1987 (available from ,JohnMcDonald, Director, Automated Infor-mationSystems Division, N6tional Archives of canadaOttawa, KlA ON3, CANADA).

Preservation Actions TermlnologyThe American Library Associations

Preservation of library Materials SectionPre.'3ervat.1on Program Management Committee,~Ias developed a list of "Standard Terminologytor VSI1ARC 583" that will be used bypreservat.ion officers. Now that 583 has beenparti,al,lv ern~roced by the iibrary community,archlVlsts wl11 have the benefits of sharingconservatlOn and treatment mformation 1f they~pt the standard. (Copies should be availabletrom Karen 11uHer '. EX8CutlVe Dlrl~ctor,

Resources &TechmcalServlces DlvlSlOn, ALA,50 E Huron St., Chic6l~o IL 606111- , -

MARC for Visual MaterialsThe results of the conference held tlv users of

the MARC Visual MTj1eril)ls form61 lJ:ls1. f':I11have been published by Llnda Evans and~~aureen O'Brien Will of the ChlCagO Hhtor-lca',,:,;oclety as MARC for Archiyal Visqal Materials'A. COffloendiurn of Practice, HIB cornpendlUrnreviews tna definition of each fielo and flOw 'Itwas used by me institutlons partlcipatinq 1nthe conference. Appendixes provide full­sample recordS from participating lnstitutlOnsand areport on the conference which addresse~,

some of the underlying issues. Support for t.ht?publication and meetmg was provided by theNHPRC, so the volume is available for free tothose who send $5 to cover mail and handlingcosts to the Prints and Photographs .Department., ChiCago Historical Society. Clark51.. at North Ave., Chicago, IL 60614.

COmmon COmmunlcat1ons FormatThe General Information Programme of

UNESCO has issued the second edition ofCCF: The Common Communication Format.(PGI- 88/WS/2, Paris 1988). CCF is aspecification to permlt systems desiQners tod~ign procedures that can exchange Computerf11es. not adescriptive convention. In effect itserves as a bridge between the definition of ISO2709 and the ISBD's, Although it is also notintended as avehicle for non-bibliographicmformatlon exchange, It is auseful foundationon which to build towards archives andmuseum mformation systems.

MY 1n MARC,Along with a revision of the DraWings

hlerarchy, the AAT distributed news of thedecision, by t.he American Library ,.o,ssociationMARBI committee, to create anew MARC field"Faceted Toplcal Subject Heading" into WhlChPAT and MESH Thesaurus post-coordinatedt~rm$ could be recorded, Rules for use of thefleld are being developed, and the AAT staffhOPes to offer aworkshop on t.he use of the f1eldin conjunction with the ARLIS/NA conference

Fall. 1988 Copyright by Archives &Museum Informatics 67

Whitetlead,AAT, 62 Stratton Ro.,Wmiamst.own. t1A 01267, 413-458-2151].

Standard Museum Facll1ties ReportThe Reglstrars Committee of the AAM, in a

bre1:lKthrough th1:lt will affect1:l11 museums andarcrnves lrlvolved in exhibitlOns and ioans, hasooootoo astandard facilitles report Wh1Ch canbe used m place of all tne separate reports nowreqUlred by eoctilendinQ inst.it.ution. It. will beavailable from the AAI1 this fall, and if adoptedtty lending institutions should greatly reducet.tte burdens of arrangmg an eXhibH,

Coordinating Archival StandardsThe number of proposals for development of

standards In t.he United States, and the requestby the Description PAO of SAA at its 1987meet.ing that the Soc1ety play arole informu1atina standards, led to the submission ofaproposal to the NHPRC to fund aworkinggroup of archivists to address how best. to makethe archival VOlce heard m forums m whichstandards affecting archives are underdevelopment and what criteria to apply toproposals to develop standards for the archivalcommunity 1tse1f. The proJect, which will beco-chmred by Lawrence Dowler (HarvardUnivers1ty) and Richard Szary (YaleUniversity), will be staffed part time byVictoria Walsh. It will hold an orgamzational1'lnd planning meeting in December to OOJpt aprocedure for consider1ng proposals forstandardization presented to it. Followlng thatmeeting, t.he group will hold ameeting in thesprmQ to WhlCh mterested parties will beinvited to submit ideas for standardizationefforts and proposals for cooperativeinvolvement of archlVists and others m thelJ3velopment of standards, Its final product.w1ll be areport on how the profession can bestrealize its obiectives for standards over thenear future and what roles the SPA can play in·the realization of these aims.

Technology Choice in VoluntaryStandards Committees

Specialists in stand1:lrdssett.inq will bepleased to see 11art.in Weiss' dissertationsubrfllUed to ttlB Carneg18 r-1ellon Umvers1tvDepartment. of Engineermg and Public PolicyOct.ober 12. 1988 entit.led Technology Chmce

in Voluntary Standaras Comm1ttees. ,A.nErnpir·ir.;al Analysis, Outr:;omes of st.andardsdeClslon were found to be posltlvelv correlatedwith the financial strengt.hs of the coalition:::supportmg the technolog1es and the extent toWhlCh they Gontributed to the GommW.ee, bul.only weal::"Iv related to the market power offirms, and not. correlat.ed w1t.h t.he lnstarledtJase of the technologl8S bemg debated or thenurnber of people attendina the meet.ina,::, ~~or­

dO proponents posltlOns aduall\' change whenthey accept the new standF.lrd. so 1t 13 not.necessary to conVlnce t.he OPPosltlOn that Ulesolut.ion is best, only that it is do-able

APPM2 Draft Circulated for CommentDraft two of the second edition of Steve

Hensen's Archives, Personal Papers andl"lanuscnpts: Acatalogmg Manual for ArchlValRepos1tories, Hist.Orlca"1 Socleties andManuscnpt Libraries 15 now available tramthe Soc1ety of American Archivist.s [600 SFedera1St., Suite 504, Chicago, IL 60605, for$17 including h1)ndling). The revised editionupdates the text of the ear lier edition 1n part I,Descnption, and then mtroduces six newchapters m part II , Headi ngs and Umformlitles. Appendixes mclude examples ofcataloging records, MARC tagging of catalogrecords, and atable of MARC field/subfieldeqUivalents. The new material is intended topermit the manual to stand alone as an archivaldescnption convention but rules 1n MCR2 arecited by number t.o support the headings for"persons, corporate names and geographICnames, for ardent cataloqers. Comment.s arebeing solicited at this stage for apublicationthat will doubtless be considered authoritative;speak now or be prepared to hold your peacefor QUlte some t.ime t

Museum Informution ShuringMuseum Documentation ASsoclation Annual

Conference. to be held in 1:lt the University ofYork, September 14-18, 1989 York,England, will have the theme "Sharing theInformation Resources of Museums", Forinformation, or to particioate. write: MDA,Building 0.347 Cherry Hinton P.d. )CambridgeCB 1 4DH, ENGLAND

68 Archival Informatics Newsletter vo1.2 #3