In order to assess the potential utility of establishing a standard for archival information management systems, the author analyzes seven functional requirements statements written either as general instruments or to implement specific systems in particular institutional or network settings. He acknowledges the importance of the different environments in which archival information systems must operate and describes the components of an information system that a standard would need to address. He concludes that guidelines could be effective as a model for vendors to use as a baseline for system design and could serve as a foundation for other descriptive standards.

Technical standards developed by national and international standards-setting organizations to facilitate the exchange of data among computer systems could provide archivists with mechanisms for ensuring long-term access and use of information stored in electronic form. Staff at the Canadian and United States national archives and the United Nations have conducted several valuable studies in this area as well as contracting for additional investigations by outside experts. The author digests the findings of several of these studies, describing the organization of and processes followed by the principal national and international standards developers and summarizing the elements of thirteen standards identified as having the greatest potential for archival use.

The archival profession's attention has been focused on the USMARC Format for Archival and Manuscripts Control (AMC), which is part of the USMARC formats for bibliographic data, to the exclusion of the other two USMARC formats: authorities and holdings. The author examines the implications of adopting the USMARC formats for authorities and holdings by looking at the purposes and structures of the two formats, analyzing how they relate to archival description practice, discussing the changes required for the two formats to meet archival descriptive needs, and exploring strategies for the adoption of the USMARC formats to be used in archival information exchange.

By the conclusion of its first meeting, the Working Group on Standards for Archival Description had identified no standards that could be defined as external data structure guidelines. The absence of standards in this cell of the group's matrix may reflect either the non-existence of such standards affecting archival description, or the profession's inability to recognize them. The author discusses the role of such standards, offers some examples from the library community, and suggests strategies for influencing their development to support archival requirements.

Archivists have never succeeded in developing a framework that would provide consistently formatted descriptive information about archival holdings. This has resulted in confusion and inefficiency for staff members and researchers alike. The author analyzes widely used manuals of archival description, discussing the elements of information recommended for inclusion in various kinds of finding aids and the implicit "data structures" intended to contain those elements. She also reviews recent developments, mostly related to automation efforts, that have led to more explicit definitions or data structures and presents issues that must be addressed in order to to define a general archival information system standard.

The Working Group's definition of archival description encompasses not only bibliographic data and finding aids, but also the collection and analysis of administrative and statistical data about archival institutions and their holdings. The author examines several efforts at standardizing library and archival statistical gathering processes, focusing in particular on the recent efforts by the National Association of Government Archives and Records Administrators and its 1987 Program Reporting Guidelines.

Archivists and others faced with the cataloging of special materials have been searching for ways to resolve existing conflicts among a number of special descriptive cataloging manuals that have been prepared to clarify or expand upon rules presented in the Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules 2nd edition (AACR 2). The author discusses the problems, issues, and conflicts that surfaced when cataloging rules in AACR 2 and the special manuals were compared with each other and with the 5XX fields (the "containers" available for notes) in the USMARC format. Three manuals used widely by archivists in their own repositories and in bibliographic networks that include archival materials receive special attention: Archives, Personal Papers, and Manuscripts; Graphic Materials; and Archival Moving Image Materials.

Certain recurrent types of information (e.g., dates, times, geographic locations, languages) are so broadly used in data processing that standard code lists (data values) or standard formats for entering the information (data contents) have been developed and widely adopted. Many of these have direct applications in archival information systems. The author summarizes the issues to be considered by the archival community before adopting these standards. Several specific standards are described as examples and are evaluated, using the criteria developed by the Working Group on Standards for Archival Description.

The numerous vocabulary lists that are available for use in cataloging often present difficulties when applied in the cataloging of archival and manuscript material, sometimes because archivists have had little to do with the creation, maintenance, and revision of the lists, and at times due to the lack of sufficient application guidelines for otherwise appropriate vocabularies. The author discusses these problems and proposes possible solutions by examining subject access tools used for USMARC fields 072 (subject category code), 600-654 (subject added entries), 655/755 (index term—genre/form and added entry—physical characteristics), and 656 (index term—occupations).

The author summarizes the descriptive standards development process under way in Canada, which focuses on rules for description and means of providing access points to archival descriptions.

Archival theory too often is trivial, overwrought, unnecessary, or irrelevant. While theory in other disciplines can produce new insights and stimulate intellectual progress, theory in archives cannot play an analogous role and cannot advance the archival profession. It tends to oversimplify that which is complicated and to overcomplicate that which is simple. Much archival theory is public relations Babbitry that threatens to overstratify the profession.

Social service case files provide a virtual biography of individuals who otherwise would leave few written records of their life experiences. These files also raise issues of confidentiality and access for archivists and depositing or donating agencies as well as for researchers seeking such files. This case study profiles the Urban Archives Center at Temple University and its efforts in collecting and providing access to social service agency case files from the late nineteenth century to the present.

British progress in developing standards of archival description has been embodied since 1984 in an Archival Description Project, based at the University of Liverpool. In contrast to the United States and Canada, where work on archival descriptive standards has focused on bibliographic exchange, the British archivists have concentrated on developing standards for the system of finding aids within a repository. The author discusses the recently-published Manual of Archival Description, 2nd ed. (MAD2), including its levels, table of data elements, modes, and model finding aids. He also discusses the development of a draft UK MARC format for Archival and Manuscripts Control (AMC) and the potential for MARC-based data exchange projects in Britain.

The Technical Service of the Archives de France, an office in the government's central administration, mediates in the construction and furnishing of archival buildings throughout France, at the national, departmental, and municipal levels. This concentrated responsibility and continuing interaction with architects and engineers has allowed the assemblage of considerable documentation on archival buildings and the development of technical and dimensional standards (a summary of which is appended to the article).

Archivists in the Danish state archives have addressed the issue of professional identity by emphasizing the archivist's standing as a member of the historical research community. Traditionally, historical research has been seen as a part of the archivist's duties, and a portion of the work week is designated for that purpose. The author describes the way that the policy has been implemented and assesses its effects.