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Recent News and Events
The Saskatchewan Archives SAIN Pilot Project
Making on-line information about its collections is a high priority.
11/19/2002
The Saskatchewan Archives SAIN pilot project
Making on-line information about its collections is a high priority.
The Saskatchewan Archives Board (SAB) has been working since January 2002 on the new SAIN pilot project, an initiative to create on-line descriptions of archival records in its custody. This project has been made possible by financial assistance from the Canadian Culture Online Program of Canadian Heritage, the National Archives of Canada and the Canadian Council of Archives.
SAIN (Saskatchewan Archival Information Network - http://lib74123.usask.ca/scaa/sain/sain-about.html) is a searchable database of descriptions of archival materials in the custody of institutions in the province. The SAIN website is the provincial component of the Canadian Archival Information Network (CAIN). CAIN is intended to provide access to Canadian archival content through the development of internet based archival resources.
As of April, a number of SAB entries have been available on-line. In order to access SAB descriptions in the SAIN database visit the website at http://lib74123.usask.ca/sain/. To date, the SAB staff have created 60 entries called fonds level entries and many more are in progress. A fonds is defined as "the whole of the documents, regardless of form or medium, automatically and organically created and/or accumulated and used by a particular individual, family or corporate body in the course of that creator's activities or functions." At this stage of the project, all of SAB s descriptions are at the fonds or collection level.
In the simplest terms, this means that most descriptions in SAIN/CAIN are currently at the most general level; you will find summary descriptions of archival material but not as yet many detailed file lists or digitized copies of actual items. A fonds or collection could include hundreds or thousands of items including information on a wide variety of subjects and activities, so further research tools and/or consultation with the relevant archives will be needed to locate specific files or items. It is hoped that these descriptions will give users enough information to determine whether they should contact the relevant archives for more details or to peruse the records themselves.
Similar to a library cataloguing system, archival descriptions are intended to provide access to the information contained in records held by a repository. However, a fundamental difference is that, while a library is organized by subject, archives are organized by provenance. Archival descriptive entries briefly describe the provenance of records by capturing relevant contextual information. This information includes administrative and biographical details of records creators, the scope and content of records, activities reflected in the records, and the various media or types of records. The descriptive entries also provide details regarding access restrictions, retrieval procedures, arrangement decisions, and conservation and preservation interventions.
This is SAB's initial contribution to what it hopes will be an on-going initiative to make available on-line descriptions that will facilitate research and help determine if an in-house visit to examine the records is required. For further information on SAB's research resources, please contact Reference services at 787-4068 (Regina) or 933-5832 (Saskatoon), or visit our web page www.saskarchives.com
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