In many institutions, each collection has been processed as if it were a unique entity. Or collections are described with biographical or historical notes and folder lists, without including a description of the hierarchical arrangement of the records. Or depending on the contents of a collection, series may have names that vary only slightly or are arranged differently. This subjective arrangement and description is hard on the staff, hard on the researchers, and hard to input electronically. People and computers both like consistency.
Standards are good.
It is the role of the archivist to first determine the level of description for a collection of architectural records. This might be based on the size and scope of the archives or the size and scope of a collection. Once this has been determined, the architectural records should be described using a standard hierarchical structure and standard terminology. This presentation will describe different levels of description available for architectural records and demonstrate a standard method developed for use at different levels. The speaker will also illustrate how standard description played a key role in establishing a formal archival program for the College of Environmental Design at the University of California, Berkeley.