[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

Re: A rose by any other name? I don't think so!



I think the differences between librarians and archivists
have been well covered here, and I definitely agree that
librarians and archivists have a different level of analysis
- record groups, series, etc. compared to libraries' (and
museums') item level approach.

However, I think that the gap between these fields is
continually closing in some senses. Access to materials in
archival repositories have historically required the
archivist as a "gatekeeper." There didn't tend to be any
cataloging, so you'd have to ask the archivist if you were
looking for something. As that knowledge (or rather those
knowledge-holders) have died, there has been an increase in
using online databases to access archival materials, the
tools traditionally used by librarians. And as financial
resources dwindle, many libraries are increasingly using
collection level cataloging. A collection level record for a
book collection provides some access, and usually the
creation of such a record by the librarian is accompanied by
the intent to someday get the funding to do item-level
cataloging, but who knows when or if.

I've been an archivist, a manuscript curator, museum
cataloger, and now I'm a librarian in a Special Collections
dept. Over the years, I've met lots of people with librarian
orientations working as archivists (one I worked with wanted
the collections in alphabetical order!), and know that
there's a big difference in the whole thought process
involved about what to keep and how to handle it. But I also
think that the differences are often accentuated to
ourselves more as a matter of the process of establishing
"archivists" as a separate profession than anything else.
There are plenty of people we accept as "archivists" who
have item level approaches generally, and plenty who use an
item level approach situationally. Some photographic
archives, for example, have a fully item level approach, and
most archives receiving a collection of individual
biographies would want access to be made on an item level to
facilitate access.

I guess I just hesitate to make definitive statements one
way or another. I know that most repositories are motley
collections of things, especially the small, local places
that haven't had a "collecting policy" all that long. I
think of the differences more as "tendencies," or even
"goals." I am concerned that archivists who define
themselves as _only_ dealing with record groups etc. might
become inflexible on making the individual decisions that
each collection needs to be made accessible.

Ready to be blasted!



Ms. Georgen Gilliam
Special Materials Cataloger
Utah State University Libraries
geogil@ngw.lib.usu.edu

A posting from the Archives & Archivists LISTSERV List!

To subscribe or unsubscribe, send e-mail to listserv@listserv.muohio.edu
      In body of message:  SUB ARCHIVES firstname lastname
                    *or*:  UNSUB ARCHIVES
To post a message, send e-mail to archives@listserv.muohio.edu

Or to do *anything* (and enjoy doing it!), use the web interface at
     http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/archives.html

Problems?  Send e-mail to Robert F Schmidt <rschmidt@lib.muohio.edu>