collections management
artwork &
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archival arrangement & descriptionNew collection management system technologies and user demands have created opportunities for archivists to create more flexible, user friendly and inclusive approaches in archival practice. Traditional practice in Canada observes the Rules for Archival Description (RAD). Using RAD, materials are arranged based on provenance (centred on one remarkable creator, individual or group) and the original order in which the records were created or used. The process of arranging records requires the archivist to identify and interpret relationships between the parts. The archivist imposes intellectual and physical control in creating a hierarchical, RAD compliant, order and descriptions following specific metadata standards: fonds, sous fonds, series, subseries, file and item. Common critiques of RAD include its prescriptive hierarchy and extensive descriptive metadata that require a finding aid.
Community archives are often very different. Grass roots, community-engaged provenance builds representational belonging. A community archives may be defined as a site and set of record keeping practices that build “representational belonging”.11 A community archives offers a way to combat “symbolic annihilation” of marginalized groups whose records have been controlled by colonialist institutions
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