The Management of Information from Archives (2nd ed.)

Citation

Layzell Ward, P. (2000), "The Management of Information from Archives (2nd ed.)", Library Management, Vol. 21 No. 9, pp. 501-508. https://doi.org/10.1108/lm.2000.21.9.501.7

Michael Cook has a richly deserved reputation as a noted archivist, educator, and contributor to the literature of archival practice. This is the second edition of a standard treatise. The expectations of the reader are therefore high – and the author meets these expectations in providing an authoritative, and a readable, text. With moves at a government level in the UK to bring the interests of archivists, librarians and museum curators together, linked with the growing number of directorates in local authorities covering a range of departments in the cultural and information fields, the text is published at a time when there is a need for library managers to understand contemporary approaches to archives.

Michael Cook starts from the perspective of describing the management of information derived from archival media. He makes the point that archives have always been regarded as a branch of management, and not even in earliest times as “an auxiliary science of history”. There is a need to co‐ordinate archives and records management.

The readership for which he writes comprises students on first qualification courses in archives; and those not trained in archives, but who need to understand the field as part of a wider knowledge of document or information management. Chapters cover: archival management in an information context; archives services: their general nature, structure and function; records management; acquisition and archival appraisal; archival arrangement; general principles of archival description; the structure and form of data in archival descriptions; the organisation of information in archival systems; computing for archival management; and access and use.

The relationship between records management and archives is considered at a number of points in the text, and librarians will find the discussion on the structure and form of data in archival description of interest for the way in which it draws in AACR. The reviewer found this chapter particularly helpful in providing a clear description of the state‐of‐the‐art. The chapter that could be expanded in the next edition – the field is fast moving – is that on computing. It would have been helpful to learn more about the management issues that spring from the evaluation and selection of packages in this field, and their implementation. For students of archives there could be merit in adding a chapter on collaboration and the management of this process, as this will increasingly become important.

But it is an excellent and readable text, providing definitions, references and a bibliography. The bibliographic citations draw on the literature of a number of countries, including Australia, Canada, the UK, and the USA. Michael Cook is both widely read and widely travelled. This text succeeds because he is able to take both an overview of his field, and provide enough detail to provide a sound introduction to the field.