Developing International Cataloging Standards for Archival Holdings: Rosarkhiv-RLG-Hoover Project, 1994-1997

This article describes the first joint international cataloging project designed to develop mutually acceptable standards of exchanging Russian archival descriptions through the Research Libraries Information Network (RLIN) using MARC AMC format. The participants in the project were the Federal Archival Service of Russia (Rosarkhiv), which selected appropriate archival repositories and supervised the project's implementation in Russia; the Hoover Institution Archives, which performed quality control for all RLIN records created by Russian archivists; and the Research Libraries Group, which provided a wide range of technical support and the RLIN database to host the created records. The authors discuss project standards and methodology, work organization and implementation, as well as the need to develop mutually acceptable international bibliographic and subject standards to facilitate information exchange through the international multiscript databases.