Factors influencing the description and access points of personal archival items in finding aids, catalogues, and indices at three Christchurch collecting archives

Abstract

This research paper considers the chain of events that involve the description of a given archival item, and in this case, letters or correspondence, as received and processed by an archival repository. The procedures that are followed, (or not) as the case may be, can have a profound effect on the way in which an item is described and catalogued into the various types offmding aids that document the holdings of repositories. As a result, the perceived information that is available to a researcher may range from the record of a holding that is precise, through to one that is inadequate or even entirely misleading. To address this issue requires a method of standardisation of access points to the given fields of information available. With ambiguity of terminology ever-present in this particular field of archival description, this research defines, as nearly as possible, the constitution of private/personal archives/ manuscripts and collections through a qualitative approach to access points may reduce some confusion over both item constitution and entry to it.