Workbook on Digital Private Papers > Arranging and cataloguing digital and hybrid archives > EAD templates for a personal archive
EAD templates for a personal archive
Suggested templates for the arrangement of a personal archive
Chapter 03 Working with record creators outlines the kind of material typically encountered in a politician's digital archive. However, every archive is unique, as is every archivist, so there is often more than one equally valid approach to arranging a digital or hybrid personal archive.
The personal archives of some politicians accessioned by Paradigm fell into obvious groupings based on the division between their Westminster and constituency offices, each of which were staffed by different people; each office therefore represents a sub-fonds as defined by ISAD(G): 'a subdivision...containing a body of related records corresponding to administrative subdivisions in the originating agency...or...geographical...functional...or similar groupings of the material'.
In other cases, the project only accessioned constituency papers because the records produced by the politician in their Westminster capacity fall within the Public Records Act. Here, the principal division may be between different record types (e.g. email correspondence) or different members of constituency office staff; for instance, in one example a principal member of staff was responsible for the MP's diary, some constituency casework files, monitoring local issues of interest, maintaining the main email directory and filing system; a second member of staff was responsible for logging casework and general administrative work; and another maintained the politician's website.
Two possible templates for arrangement might look as follows:
Example 1:
| Structure | ISAD(G) level | EAD encoding |
|---|---|---|
| Politician | Fonds | collection level |
| Member of politician's staff | sub-fonds | <c01 level=“subgroup”> |
| Folder (e.g. subject folder held on staff member's c: drive) | series | <c02 level=“series”> |
| Sub-folder | subseries | <c03 level= “subseries”> |
| Individual files | item | <c04 level=“item”> |
Example 2:
| Structure | ISAD(G) level | EAD encoding |
|---|---|---|
| Politician | Fonds | collection level |
| Constituency office | sub-fonds | <c01 level=“subgroup”> |
| Email directory/subject folder | series | <c02 level=“series”> |
| Email folder/subject sub-folder | subseries | <c03 level= “subseries”> |
| Individual file/email | item | <c04 level=“item”> |
These models of arrangement may differ for other politicians and would differ again if the kind of personal archives generated by an individual outside of their official capacity were taken into account.
