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organization



From: Daniel Sokolow@MCGRAW-HILL on 05/11/2000 11:04 AM


To:   archives@listserv.muohio.edu
cc:
Subject:  organization

Here's my take on it.  I'm in the middle of a reorganization now (only two years
in, with many more to go - I keep getting interrupted), and my company
reorganizes itself every five weeks.  Rather than trying to keep up with the
changes, I've decided to organize by subject matter rather than organizational
structure (similar, I think, to Dean's approach).  This way, whether Business
Week is simply BW, part of MH Publications Company, Information and Media
Services, or whatever other idea they come up with, it's all simply under the
"Publications" Record Group, in a series on Business Publications.

I know this isn't entirely consistent with archival theory, but this collection
has developed so haphazardly anyway that trying to stick to theory would be
impossible.  I'm concerned more with usability than anything else, and if I and
the users can find things more easily this way, then to blazes with theory.

One other thought - if your retrieval system (i.e., your database or electronic
guide to your collection) is structured properly, you can call things whatever
or place things wherever you want without a problem; just make sure your
different sections of the same types of material are linked intellectually
(through a "see also" reference or using the same keywords) in your database,
everything will appear when you do your searches.  If you're not on a DB system,
you're in more trouble, but I suppose you could do that sort of thing on paper
too.

DS


Daniel Sokolow
Corporate Archivist
The McGraw-Hill Companies
1221 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY 10020
daniel_sokolow@mcgraw-hill.com

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