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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