The Conceptualization of Archival Materials Held in Museums

Archives, libraries and museums preserve collections containing diverse material.
In managing these collections different standards are used, each developed
inside their own professional community. While searching for material
preserved in different institutions users shouldn’t stumble over inability to
cope with different descriptive standards and access points defined by these
standards. As this research suggests, the path to any kind of interoperability
starts with people who implement standards. This exploratory study investigates
curators’ understandings of archival and documentary materials held in
their museums (i.e. rather than in archives) by analyzing and describing their
attitude towards records that surround them in their daily professional practice.