I guess that the collections of non-cataloged items that exist today may
also be preserved for "ever" without ever cataloging them, but Should they
not be considered a finite set of collections? I mean, are we still creating
such collections for long? Are we not supposed to be producing more and more
collections of e-records that come with their own encapsulated metadata
along? Historical archives would then be caring for self described objects. 

I believe many librarians are already working in the preservation of digital
collections that might have been considered archival collections in the
past. Might be also that archivists end up loosing their jobs after a while
if they don't work as or together with the digital librarians and the like.

Maria

Maria J. del Olmo
Document Management Officer
European Commission - DG Environment




-----Original Message-----
From: Archives & Archivists [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf
Of Lucas. Arel
Sent: Wednesday, June 14, 2006 5:22 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Classification Schemes--Was The L Word

This is an interesting side to this topic.  I've got access to the ALA
Journal again now and see that librarians are officially considering giving
up the LC Subject Guide!  That would be a shift akin to the geologists
recognizing plate tectonics, a world-changing sort of thing.  Google has
caused much rethinking and more will result, I'm sure, of classification
schemes.  I've also seen criticism of the finding-aid scheme, although
group-level cataloging won't go away as long as archives are focused on
collections of documents (and sometimes objects) with thousands of items
that we will never have time to catalog even if we wanted to.

Arel
(the usual disclaimers)
Arel Lucas
Archives/Special Collections Librarian
Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Prescott Campus

-----Original Message-----
From: Archives & Archivists [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf
Of Scott, Kim
Sent: Wednesday, June 14, 2006 7:54 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: The L Word

Pointing out how different you are from the people you work with is a
bad idea in any profession. 

I think the basic definitions and qualifications of librarians and
archivists are changing as we speak, and that they are drawing ever
closer together.  Archivists are moving away from group level
description in the digital environment because the format demands the
creation of individual item cataloging records (or call it "metadata" if
you prefer.)  Librarians are finding their "catalogs" have no relevance
to the younger generation who have no analog format to compare it to.

In my opinion, this medium we use to communicate and store information
is changing everything.  For better or worse I don't know.

Kim Allen Scott
Special Collections Librarian AND University Archivist
Montana State University, Bozeman

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