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Third CUSTARD meeting



The third meeting of CUSTARD (Canada-US Task Force on Archival Description) was held in Washington, D.C. on 26-28 April 2002. The group is developing rules for the description of archival holdings which reconcile RAD and APPM within the structure of ISAD(G) and ISAAR(CPF). It is also expected that the resulting standard will form the basis of a content standard for EAD.

The production of this new standard is a joint effort of the Society of American Archivists and the Canadian Council on Archives. Funded by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the work will be accomplished through the efforts of a Steering Committee, an Editor/Project Manager, and an editorial and consultative group, consisting of equal representation from Canada and the U.S.

Since the second meeting in December, the Editor/Project Manager has prepared a Statement of Principles (now available on the SAA and CCAD websites), successive revisions of key elements for the description of archival materials, and a first draft of the principal sections relating to archival authority records (an introduction, choice of access points, and the administrative/ biographical history).

Much of the third meeting was spent reviewing drafts of the Title and Date elements, which are required elements in archival description.  In the course of this review, the group made a number of key decisions regarding the structure of the rules for all elements.  Each element will be organized in four parts: Introduction (including purpose, scope and sources of information), general rules (including rules for describing artificial collections where required), media-specific rules (where required), and specialized rules which are used only occasionally (where required).

After reviewing a draft of key sections of the rules for archival authority records, the group revisited its earlier decision to present the rules in three parts.  Instead the rules will be presented in two parts:  rules for describing material, and rules for archival authority records.  The rules for the formation of authorized names for persons and corporate bodies will remain very similar to those in AACR2.

The group also discussed a number of ways of working toward an established and secure process for ongoing maintenance of the new standard.

It is expected that a complete draft of the rules will be available for comments by the community in June 2003.  Once comments from the community are reviewed, final changes to the standard will be incorporated and the publication process will occur.  It is expected that the published standard (tentatively titled Describing Archives: A Content Standard) will be available in early 2004.
 
Further information may be obtained from Kris Kiesling (representing the SAA Standards Committee) or Bob Krawczyk (representing the Canadian Committee on Archival Description).

Kris Kiesling
Head, Technical and Digital Services
Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center
P.O. Drawer 7219
University of Texas at Austin
Austin, TX 78713-7219
Voice: (512) 232-4614
Fax: 512.471.7930
kiesling@mail.utexas.edu

Bob Krawczyk
Chair, Canadian Committee on Archival Description
(416) 921-9551
archivist@sympatico.ca