Foreword
Introduction
Part I. Archival Principles, Archival Practices
Archival Documentation
What is Documentation?
Why Document?
What Does Archival Documentation Involve?
Archival Materials and Information
The Nature of Archival Information
Principles of Archival Documentation
Archival Materials: How Characteristics Shape Practices
Part II. Archival Analysis, Archival Description
Gathering and Analyzing Archival Information
Assembling Documentation
What Information Is Collected?
Archival Description
Description: Conveying Information to Users
Descriptive Tools
Archival Information Systems: Delivering the Goods
Standards for Archival Description
About Standards
Different Types of Information Standards
Descriptive Standards for Finding Aids
Descriptive Standards for Catalog Records
Descriptive Standards for Inventories/Registers
Part III. Putting It All Together: How an Archivist Works
Archival Processing
What Is Processing?
Gathering and Analyzing Information
Organization and Arrangement
Creating Descriptions in the Form of Catalog Records and Inventories/Registers
Part IV. What's Ahead in Description and Access
The Future
Tutorial: An over-the-shoulder view of an archivist at work
Glossary
Acronyms
Bibliography
Web Resources

Michael J. Fox is an archivist at the Minnesota Historical Society.

Peter L. Wilkerson is an archivist at the South Carolina Historical Society.

Susanne R. Warren is an independent consultant.