Description

Kate Theimer is the author of the popular blog ArchivesNext and a frequent writer, speaker and commentator on issues related to the future of archives. She is the author of Web 2.0 Tools and Strategies for Archives and Local History Collections and the editor of A Different Kind of Web: New Connections between Archives and Our Users, as well having contributed chapters to Many Happy Returns: Advocacy for Archives and Archivists, The Future of Archives and Recordkeeping, and the Encyclopedia of Archival Science. She has published articles in the American Archivist and the Journal of Digital Humanities. Kate served on the Council of the Society of American Archivists from 2010 to 2013. Before starting her career as an independent writer and editor, she worked in the policy division of the National Archives and Records Administration in College Park, Maryland. She holds an MSI with a specialization in archives and records management from the University of Michigan and an MA in art history from the University of Maryland. Kate Theimer is the 2014 recipient of the Society of American Archivists’ Spotlight Award. The Spotlight Award recognizes the contributions of individuals who work for the good of the profession and archives collections—work that does not typically receive public recognition. Since 2011, Theimer has used Facebook, Twitter, and her blog to raise money for Spontaneous Scholarships that help unemployed, underemployed, and underfunded archivists to attend SAA’s Annual Meeting. The first year the scholarships were offered Theimer raised $5,504 to assist 18 students and 8 SAA members at the full registration rate; the program continued in 2012 and 2013 resulting in a total of more than $20,000 in donations and almost one hundred archivists assisted over the first three years. Theimer recently launched a campaign to raise funds for the 2014 scholarships.

• Introduction1) “The Hive”: Crowdsourcing the Description of Collections Zo? D'Arcy, National Archives of Australia2) More Than a Note: Early Experiences with Implementing EAC-CPFErin Faulder, Veronica Martzahl, and Eliot Wilczek, Tufts University 3) Creating Access and Establishing Control: Conducting a Comprehensive Survey to Reveal a Hidden Repository Matthew B. Gorham and Chela Scott Weber, Brooklyn Historical Society 4) Step by Step, Stage by Stage: Getting a Diverse Backlog of Legacy Finding Aids Online Eira Tansey, Tulane University 5) You Got Your Archives in My Cataloging: A Collaborative Standards-Based Approach to Creating Item-Level Metadata for Digitized Archival MaterialsKelcy Shepherd and Kate Gerrity, Amherst College 6) A Long Road: Creating Policies and Procedures for Mandatory Arrangement and Description by Records CreatorsKristjana Kristinsdóttir, National Archives of Iceland7) Collaboration in Cataloging: Sourcing Knowledge from Near and Far for a Challenging CollectionEvyn Kropf, University of Michigan8) Where there’s a Will There’s a Way: Using LibGuides to Rescue Paper Ephemera from the Bibliographic UnderbrushSharon Farnel, Robert Cole, Robert Desmarais, Spencer Holizki, and Jeff Papineau, University of Alberta9) Describing Records, People, Organizations and Functions: The Empowering the User Project’s Flexible Archival Catalogue Clare Paterson, University of Glasgow 10) Business as Usual: Integrating Born-Digital Materials into Regular Workflows Jackie Dean and Meg Tuomala, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill 11) Opening the Black File Cabinets: Describing Single Items for Discovery and AccessJames Gerencser, Dickinson CollegeAbout the EditorIndex

Description, one of the titles in the Innovative Practices for Archives and Special Collections series, is a delightful collection of case studies that look at how to increase the accessibility and discoverability of archives. . . .Description is highly recommended for libraries and institutions that have major library and information subject-based collections. The book is also recommended for any information professional who wishes to understand more about archival collections.