Dear list

Here's my tuppenceworth on the Directory of Archive Holdings. I agree - 
keep it simple. The list I have come up with is as follows (apologies 
for overlaps with others - I thought I'd try it cold).

Name of Archive/ Archive Holder

Contact Details (address, email, tel no, web-site, archivist(s)dealing 
with enquiries)

Collection(s)
Formats: Media (list to select from: cylinders, shellac, open reel tapes 
etc) Approximate size of collections
Content: General (free text) description of collections including remit, 
time period covered, geographical area covered, languages, subject 
matter. Any particularly interesting/ core collections could be listed here.
Keywords: To describe kind of recordings eg oral history, classical 
music, traditional music, verse, traditional songs, radio documentary, 
dialect studies etc etc - we should compile a list for people to choose 
from so that there is some consistent description between archives and a 
short way in to the subject matter. We can add to the list as necessary.

Other possible areas include:
Publications - rather than listing individual items it may be worth 
pointing searchers to a list of archive publications (on a website) - 
they might find that what they are searching for is already in the 
public domain.
Finding aids - personally, I don't think that people need to know 
whether transcriptions/ summaries are available until they contact the 
archive itself.
Access details - as these are likely to change it may not be necessary 
to add them here - they should be available on the particular archive's 
website or via the contact person given above.
Other resources related to collections - eg music scores, mss, film, 
video, photos, books - is it worth listing these here and separately? My 
feeling is that if these are significant they should be part of the 
Content description.


Cathlin Macaulay
School of Scottish Studies Archives

Moran Malachy wrote:
> Dear list
> 
> Apologies first of all to all those who have requested passwords from me
> for the BISA website. 
> 
> I'm afraid these aren't ready because the structure of the site is still
> a little undecided.
> 
> As you have noticed from Jonathan Draper's posting to the list earlier
> this week, there are decisions to be made about the way we want to set
> up the Directory of Archives. 
> 
> I agree with Martin's comment below that we should aim to make the
> Directory as easy to maintain as possible but I thought it would be
> useful to make the information below available to the list to help us in
> the discussion. 
> 
> Looking at the way this has been done elsewhere, there are at least
> three contenders for inclusion in any list of recommended Directory
> structures. These are;
> 
> 1. Directory of Recorded Sound Resources (see first attachment). This
> was a hard copy directory published about fifteen years ago.
> 2. Cecilia Directory (see http://www.cecilia-uk.org/html/). This has
> been running since at least 2003. 
> 3. International Council of Archives recommendations (ICA ISDIAH) (see
> second attachment). This was published just a few weeks ago.
> 
> I have also done a table of not-so-relevant directories (see third
> attachment).  
> 
> I think there are two views on how we should proceed - 1.) Keep it
> Simple; and 2.) Keep it Standardised (that is, follow international best
> practice as far as possible). I don't believe these objectives are
> mutually exclusive. 
> 
> It would be very useful if we could get as many opinions and comments on
> this as possible prior to discussion at the Training Day. 
> 
> Regards
> 
> Malachy 
> 
>

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