For a long time I have wondered why there are sometimes communications problems between those documenting collections in Libraries & Archives and those documenting collections in Museums.
Having been to an Access to Archives (A2A) meeting, largely filled with archivists, and a Collection Description Focus meeting (mainly librarians) in recent weeks, I think I have now reached some conclusions.
There are two areas of confusion (well at least two).
The first is essentially that in Libraries and Archives the process of documentation involves the creation of "Access points" or "finding aids" for documents which already exist. This is essentially a secondary activity. In museums and the heritage world, documentation involves the creation of new, original, documents which describe objects or sites (e.g. a catalogue record). These records are not themselves finding aids or access points, even though they may tell you the physical location of the object.
It is this issue which leads to the difference of opinion over the use plural and singular forms. When creating (or reading) a record about an artefact it makes no sense to describe one jar as "jars" or one house as "houses". In the same way if you were writing a book about Audley End House you would not give it the title "Audley End Houses".
However when searching, you are looking for books about houses, or records of jars (even if some of those books and records are only about one occurrence).
The second area relates to "subjects". Most objects don't have an inherent subject, the "object name" is not equivalent to "subject". For example a cup is not about cups. This becomes even clearer when you look at those objects which do have a subject. The subject of a book called "Audley End House" is not books but country houses. However a catalogue record does have a subject, a record describing a jar is about jars not records.
A collection of objects can have a subject but this is not often derived directly from the constituent object names, for example the collection of objects at Brodsworth Hall is about "Life in a Victorian country house" not curtains, spoons and paintings.
Exhibitions also have subjects, and indeed a curator may use the same object (e.g. a flint) in several exhibitions (e.g. "building construction", "making a plate", and "geology of Norfolk").
Trevor Reynolds
Collections Registrar, English Heritage
Room G01, 23 Savile Row, London, W1S 2ET, UK
tel: +44 (0)20 7973 3482 fax: +44 (0)20 7973 3001 (GTN 3503 3482)
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