I have a question for you all, and particularly for those who may have 
worked on DACS.

My understanding of an archival collection is that, by definition, it 
comprises the evidence of the activities of its creator, be it an 
individual or an instutition or organization. I also understand (and 
someone please correct me if I'm wrong about this), that the entire 
practice of using levels of control, levels of description and original 
order is to preserve the provenance and intellectual integrity that a 
collection brings with it when it arrives at a repository.

However, if an institution assembles its own collection (as many do, 
including divisions of my own) and dubs it an "archival collection," what 
is the point of using techniques of archival arrangement and description 
if there is no provenance ("original order") to preserve?  I don't argue 
against collecting materials based on a theme or subject. But DACS gives 
permission to use techniques developed (in theory) to preserve provenance 
on collections which have been assembled out of whole cloth, based on the 
proposition that "such collections are part of the holdings in most 
institutions and must be described in a way that is consistent with the 
rest of the holdings." (DACS, p. xii)  Why "must" this be so? Holdings are 
already described in many different ways at many different institutions, 
so the admonition seems meaningless while giving permission to award the 
same credit for historical accuracy to artificial collections as it does 
to "organic" collections. 

Matt Snyder
Music Archivist
Wilson Processing Project
The New York Public Library

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