Describing Archives

New Haven Memory Lab

In this session, archivist Jennifer Coggins of Yale’s Beinecke Library will discuss professional description practices in the archives field and how you can use these practices as you preserve and share the materials that matter to you. This discussion will also be useful for those who use archives for genealogical and other historical research.

When we make the choice to preserve materials that document a person, event, organization, or place, it is important not only to preserve the materials themselves, but what we know about them. A significant part of the archivist’s job is to describe the collections they preserve – writing an inventory and notes that help people know what’s in a collection and how to find it. How archives are described affects what history is easily accessible and how it is understood, so this work must be done with care.

Please register in advance to attend.