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Recent News and Events
SASKATCHEWAN ARCHIVES LAUNCHES ITS FIRST OFFICIAL ARCHIVAL DESCRIPTION MANUAL
2/3/2005
On November 15, 2004, the Saskatchewan Archives Archival Description Manual (ADM) was approved for use by Archives staff. This is a major step forward in standardizing the description of archival materials and their creators by adapting and augmenting the nationally accepted Rules for Archival Description (RAD) within Saskatchewan Archives. The ADM will allow Archives staff to provide consistent, top-level information about its holdings at the fonds and series levels to both in-house researchers and to clientele at a distance who wish to access finding aids on the internet. It also presents a new approach to describing government records and their responsible agencies, based on the model used in Australia, Ontario and Manitoba archives.
The development of the Archival Description Manual is the result of 3 1/2 years of intensive work by the Archives Descriptive Standards Committee, several sub-committees and working groups involving most members of staff. The appointment of a full-time Descriptive Standards Officer in December 2001 provided the necessary expertise and coordination to move the early stages of development along. In the Autumn of 2004 two chief archivists, Nadine Charabin and Linda Putz, formed a working group to write the final version of the Manual. In future Saskatchewan Archives hopes to present more of its finding aids on line as human resources and technological infrastructure allow. Currently a limited number of fonds-level descriptions are available on the Saskatchewan Archival Information Network (SAIN).
As staff puts the Archival Description Manual to use in the next few months, any necessary revisions will be noted. A full review of the manual will take place in the Fall of 2005 and a full revised version will be approved by January 1, 2006.
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