Put yourself in the position of a researcher — an academic historian, say — who is in the early stages of a research project. In threshing the web to find manuscript collections that may be of use you soon discover that while standards such as EAD and DACS are now widely used, they do not lead to uniformity.
In the course of your research, you have located finding aids for five collections that may be of interest, but you feel the need to communicate with THOSE people — the archivists — to convey your thoughts on how effective their finding aids are at meeting your research needs. In five pages or less, consider the following questions and, in the end, identify one finding aid (with or without modification) as your beau ideal:
Does the finding aid convey all the information necessary for you to assess whether you might wish to use this collection?
Is any critical information lacking? Are there parts of the finding aid that could be usefully expanded? Are there parts that could be reduced? Would a MARC record in an OPAC suffice? Defend your conclusions!
How effective is the design of the finding aid at conveying the information? What do you like and dislike about the display? In what ways does the display enhance or detract from your ability to locate the information you need?
Is a finding aid the best way to inform you about the contents of the collection or would something else do better?
What other considerations should archivists take into account when thinking about the efficacy of their finding aids?
The following be ye pigeons:
