Transcript Who’s Ready to Surf the Next Wave? Perceived Challenges to

Who’s Ready to Surf the Next Wave?
Perceived Challenges to Implementing
New and Revised Standards for Archival
Description
Frank Lambert
Karen F. Gracy
School of Library and Information Science
Kent State University
What’s the “Next Wave”?
 Revised DACS standard (2nd ed., 2013)
 Revised EAD standard (currently in beta, slated for
2014 release)
 EAC-CPF (2011, mostly early adopters at this stage)
 RDA (2010, replaced AACR2, impacting MARC records
for archival collections)
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Convergence!
 New/revised standards mean:
 Increased interoperability among archival, library and
museum information systems;
 Improved sharing of archival information about records
and creators;
 Improved access to archival information about records
and creators;
 Opportunities to link archival information to outside
data sources.
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Are We Ready?
 What are the barriers to acceptance of new
standards?
 New knowledge, skill sets, and resources
 How can we overcome these barriers?
 What will it take to get buy-in, or get “over the hump”
of adapting and adopting to change?
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Goals for This Study
 Assess archivists’ familiarity with current descriptive
standards;
 Gauge archivists’ perceptions about readiness to
adapt to changes in standards and new standards;
 Identify possible technical challenges (affecting
workflows and systems);
 Identify other institutional barriers, such as needs for
additional human or financial resources, or for CE/inhouse training in the application of the new standard.
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Research Questions
 What types of challenges do information organizations
responsible for the care of archives encounter when adopting a
new standard for describing information resources in a
collection?
 What sorts of pressures, if any, are placed on the organization’s:
 a) staff and personnel;
 b) financial resources; and,
 c) technological resources and tools used for organization and
access to archival information?
 What problems are perceived as barriers to successful adoption
of new standards and adaptation to change in existing
standards?
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Survey Methodology
 Population for this study: SAA members
 Exclusions: students, faculty, and retirees
 Sample size = 1,724 members
 Number of valid, completed questionnaires = 345 (20%
response rate)
 Findings have 95% degree of confidence, ± 5%
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Findings
 Level of Education as Independent Variable
 Strong predictor of:
 likelihood that the archivist has knowledge of and about
FRBR (X2=6.804)*
 likelihood that the archivist has knowledge of and about
RDA (X2=17.004)*
*p<0.05
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Findings, 2
 Type of Education as Independent Variable
 Strong predictor of:
 likelihood that archivists create finding aids, inventories,
MARC records, etc. (X2=5.601)*
 likelihood that the archivist will use or has used DACS
(X2=4.121)*
 likelihood that the archivist has knowledge of and about FRBR
(X2=6.804)*
 likelihood that the archivist has knowledge of and about RDA
(X2=17.023)*
*p<0.05
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Findings, 3
 Length of time using DACS as an Independent Variable
 Strong predictor of:
 likelihood of one’s organization adopting the updated 2012
version of DACS (rs=.299)*
 an archivist’s greater confidence in the possibility of having to
use the updated 2012 version of DACS (rs=.303)*
 an increased likelihood of using EAD (X2=22.158)*
 with an increased likelihood of having heard about or
encountered RDA (X2=11.538)*
*p<0.05
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Findings, 4
 Use of EAD in archives as an Independent Variable
 Strong predictor of:
 likelihood that archivists use EAC also (X2=5.750)*
*p<0.05
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Conclusion
 Archivists are most familiar and comfortable with changes to the
standards landscape if they had a firm grounding already in the
purpose, nature, and implementation of standards.
 Standards adoption is often dependent on graduate education
in LIS, archives, or a related field, or through previous
experience in the field with a standard such as DACS.
 What about other factors, such as …
 the type of archive and its relation to a parent institution?
 technical and financial limitations that may preclude standards
adoption?
 the amount of support provided by the archive or parent
institution to provide training to its staff?
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Thank You!
 For more information, please contact:
 Frank Lambert, [email protected]
 Karen F. Gracy, [email protected]
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