Reading List - Paper I

Data Driven Indexing to Address Item Level Challenges in Organizing Sports Documentary Multimedia Collections

Literature Review

Geoffrey Yeo. Continuing Debates about Description

Mentions the future directions of digital archives including the descriptive challenges of digital records. Some argued that "they need significantly more metadata than their paper counterparts, particular at item level". It talks about the requirement for a fundamental shift away from collective description, as it is evident that users would welcome more information at item level. At the same time, to describe the resources at item level would create much more burden on the archival institutions. "As archives become increasingly digital, automated capture of descriptive information can be expected to offer the most promising economic solutions".

While on the other hand, it also mentions that most preservation and access strategies for digital records requires item level metadata alongside or within the records.

David Bearman (1996). Item Level Control and Electronic Recordkeeping

It mentions that "automatic context and structure description within the metadata of electronic records at the item level would serve user needs better than collective description". And "Item level information is fundamentally more valuable because it can generate more valid collective level data in addition to serving the needs of item documentation."

Mark A. Greene & Dennis Meissner (2005), More Product, Less Process: Revamping Traditional Archival Processing

It is argued that the processing productivity will increase by avoiding "content description, beyond simple file lists, below the series level".

Ian G. Anderson (). Are You Being Served? Historians and the Search for Primary Sources

When asked about the single thing they would most like an archive to do, 37 per cent of the historians would want to add greater detail to finding aids, particular at the item level.

Burt Altman & John R. Nemmers. The Usability of On-line Archival Resources: The Polaris Project Finding Aid

The researchers indicated that they will be more satisfied when they have the ability to search at the item level rather than the folder level.

Sabre & Hamburger. A Case for Item-level Indexing: The Kenneth Burke Papers at The Pennsylvania State University

Though some collections contain repetitious or unorganized materials would better be processed on a series level, in instances of collections with many disparate items, the item level description provide more concise information to assist reference staff in service and researchers in discovery. Also certain benefits to item level indexing of collection can counterweigh processing time and cost.