External Technical Standards for Data Contents and Data Values: Prospects for Adoption by the Archival Community

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.