Archival Representation

Archival representation refers to both the processes of arrangement and description and is a fluid, evolving, and socially constructed practice. This research is an analysis of the organizational and descriptive schemas, tools, and systems as a means of uncovering archival representational practices. I argue that the term 'archival representation' more precisely captures the actual work of archivists in (re)ordering, interpreting, creating surrogates, and designing architectures for representational systems containing those surrogates than previous terminology and conceptions of this work (i.e., processing, arrangement and description, archival cataloging).

Investigator: Elizabeth Yakel

Article: E. Yakel, (2003), "Archival Representation," Archival Science.

Return to Knowledge Representation research projects

Return to Research projects and interests