It’s another of those
famous lines from a Sherlock Holmes story “Data! data! data!" he cried
impatiently. "I can't make bricks without clay.” (The Adventure of the
Copper Beeches) but it can be applied to many areas including archival practice
particularly digitisation. Archives @PAMA recently covered the topic of digitisation
in their blog Why Don’t Archivists Digitise Everything? Part of their argument covered Meta Data and how
important it was to give archives context before digitisation. This has
inspired us, in this week’s blog I would like to look more at the importance of
cataloguing records before digitising them in relation to the Royal Voluntary
Service Archive and Heritage Collection.
What is cataloguing?
Cataloguing is the
process of creating a formal description of records held within an archival
collection. This is based on a hierarchical structure showing where Items,
files and series best fit within a collection and describes details such as the
content, context, admin and custodial history, date and access details.
Cataloguing records can help to make collections more accessible with details
and keywords which help researchers find what they are looking for and link
different records together on the same topics. If you would like to know more
about Archival description why not read Organising Archive material HeritageBulletin Volume 6.
Why is it important for digitisation?
Cataloguing is
important to digitisation because it turns a single item on its own which may
not tell us much about the activities of an organisation into a record which
has context, a history of its own and links it to the rest of the collection.
For example when cataloguing photographs, publications or posters if there are similar
items or a series relating to each other we record their references in the
Related Material Field. This helps lead researchers in looking at all the
material available on a chosen topic. Recording this data before digitising
records also gives the archivists the opportunity to assess the preservation needs
of the material and repackage it into archival standard folders, boxes, papers
etc.. It also allows of consultation on the need to digitise material and if digitised
material could be published online depending on condition, content and
copyright. This work can be very important in terms of preservation and access.
Our Collections and how cataloguing has helped make them more
accessible
Cataloguing different
parts of the Archive & Heritage Collection has allowed us to publish the catalogue records online for people to search for themselves. This work has
given the team a greater knowledge of what materials are held in the collection
and led in some case to digitisation.
Photographs and Posters
The Archive has been
focusing on cataloguing and digitising records since 2010 and started with a
collection of publicity photographs. Creating detailed descriptions of
photographs allows researchers to find photographs easily and quickly by
searching key words. Cataloguing also allows the Charity to record useful data
about copyright holders and to distinguish which images can be used in
promoting its rich history and heritage in many of the services it provides
today. The Poster collection was catalogued and digitised in 2012 which has
provided the same advantages as the photographs.
WVS/WRVS Bulletin/Magazine and WRVSAssociation
Newsletters
Over the years Royal
Voluntary Service has produced a number of publications including magazines
containing news stories and information about its activities and that of the
Association (1971-2013). Using the description field on our catalogue to its
advantage and OCR software we were able to record all the information in each WVS/WRVS
Bulletin/Magazine and WRVS Association Newsletters and make it searchable. Being
able to do such a specific search can save time in trying to find articles
covering particular services or activities. Recording months and dates also allows
us to pin point key dates such as the first Trolley shop or mobile canteen.
Narrative Reports
Between March 2012
and March 2014 we catalogued all the Narrative Reports held in the collection
which were written between 1938 and 1965. The information recorded included the
areas the reports were from and this work enabled the archive to develop the
Kickstarter Project Hidden histories of a million wartime women. The £27,724
raised via the crowdfunding site meant we could digitise all the reports
written between 1938 and 1945 and publish them online. This allows more people
access to these hugely important documents and it all started with a
cataloguing project.
In General
The items mentioned
above are also very fragile and cataloguing means we can pinpoint the exact
records we are looking for without rifling through a number of documents before
finding the correct information. Digitisation which leads on from this helps us further in preserving fragile items
as digital images are used as preservation copies for research meaning we
reduce handling the original. Cataloguing also assist with the creation of
finding aids such as the Guide to Archive Online; using data and description
fields from the catalogue means we can assist researchers in their search for
more knowledge about WVS/WRVS.
I have not included
Voice of Volunteering Oral Histories in this week’s Blog as they are born
digital records and in a future blog we’ll look at the difference between
digitisation and born digital.
Conclusion
Cataloguing is the
process of creating a formal description of records held within an archival
collection. It is important to create these records before digitising to
provide context and allow archivists to assess the need for the material to be
digitised. Working on a project to both catalogue and digitise material can
also help with preservation and digitisation which are very important activities
in archives. Since 2010 Royal Voluntary Service has been working to catalogue
its collection which as a result has led to some interesting digitisation
projects including photographs, Narrative Reports and publications. However
without the first stage of creating information about the these records this
work could not have been carried out.