The Arrangement and Description of Archives amid Administrative and Technological Change: Essays and Reflections by and about Peter J. Scott

Abstract

items. Discussion of description takes the form of guidance, which is often more prescriptive than the standards from which it is drawn. Thus, for example, in terms of arrangement, Millar offers a definition of series which might elsewhere be defined as a functional sub-fonds: compare for example Millar’s identification of the ‘Marketing’ and ‘Advertising’ records of a company as two series (p. 147), with Williams’s identification of ‘Sales and Marketing’ as a sub-fonds (Williams, p. 83). Millar’s system has a rationale in associating fonds level with creating agency, series level with functions, file level with original record-keeping structures and item level with documentary content: however, others might cavil that this system combines and thus potentially confuses different types of information. For example, in practice, series are normally identified through their structural properties (such as similarly titled files or similarly structured content in volumes) because their function is rarely recorded. Indeed, as proponents of the series system and the creators of the standard for describing functions are aware, single series may perform several functions either simultaneously or across the course of their use. Nevertheless, for institutions adhering to ISAD(G), Millar’s logical guidance should be welcomed. In summary therefore, Millar’s book provides a straightforward, deliberately noncontroversial guide to the principles on which the archival functions of most archival institutions are based. The importance of wider or non-archival factors such as legislation, economics, staffing and stakeholders are recognized, as is the importance of activities for which no common principles have (yet) been articulated by the archival community, but these are treated in less detail, being subservient to factors too varied for codification. It is neither a call to arms, nor a strategic campaign document, but this is not its aim. Following her own guidance, Millar’s text achieves its defined objectives elegantly and lucidly, taking appropriate account of its likely audience and context.