7.0       RELATED EXTERNAL DOCUMENTATION AREA

 

 

7.1       RELATED EXTERNAL DOCUMENTATION

 

 

DEFINITION:           

This category contains information about organizational histo­ries, registers, agency histories, and other documentation that has been created independently of this organiza­tional description and which are sources for additional factual and interpretive informa­tion about the described organization. [other forms to include?]

 

DISCUSSION:         

Independent works that describe the organiza­tion and its history and activities are im­portant sources for more detailed informa­tion or for additional perspectives beyond those represented in the organizational descrip­tion.

 

            >>Purpose:               

The information provided in the organization­al description represents the repository's selection of available information and per­spective that it feels describes the organi­zation adequately for its purposes.  Depend­ing on those purposes, however, there will be some quantity of additional documentation, created by others for other purposes, that the repository has not selected for inclu­sion.  This category provides a means of alerting the researcher to the existence of those additional sources of information.

 

            >>Nature:                  

The minimum information recorded in this category is citation information sufficient to lead the reader to identify and retrieve the related documentation from another source.  Additional information might include an evaluation of the related documen­tation, with attribution; excerpts from the documen­tation; and explicit links to bibliographic descriptions or full content repre­sentations of the cited materials.

 

SOURCES:              

Identification of related documentation may come from existing bibliographies, citations in other works, leads from researchers work­ing on related topics, or background research undertaken in conjunction with archival pro­gram activities.

 

USES:                       

Archivists may use the information in this category to identify works that they should consult as part of their appraisal, pro­cess­ing, or reference activities related to the described organiza­tion.  Researchers may use the information to help define the scope of their own research topics by evaluating work already completed as well as to identify additional sources for informa­tion on their topic.

 

ACCESS:                 

For maximum utility and retrievability, the information in this category should be repre­sented as standard bibliographic data ele­ments to allow effective linking to other systems where the cited works may be repre­sented, as well as to permit use of the in­formation in standard bibliographies.

 

TERMINOLOGY:

 

EXAMPLES:

 

INTERCHANGE:    

Interchange of this information must provide for maintaining the rela­tionship among the various sub-categories, if used.

 

RELATIONSHIPS:  

Attribution of information recorded in other categories will often cite sources documented more fully in this category.

 

PRACTICE:

 

ISSUES:       

How much information should be recorded on where to find the cited documentation, espe­cially if the repository has copies readily available.  Ideally, images of the documenta­tion would be available directly from the system by a hypertext-type link.  Short of that, however, location information would be very useful for many users, especially for hard-to-find materials.