Workbook on Digital Private Papers > Arranging and cataloguing digital and hybrid archives > Indexing and authority files
Indexing and authority files
ISAAR (CPF)
ISAAR (CPF) provides guidance on creating archival authority records for corporate bodies, persons and families associated with the creation and maintenance of archives. The description of individuals, families and organisations that create records is a key component of the preservation of the documentary evidence of human activity. Identifying record creating entities; recording the names or designations used by and for them; and describing their essential functions, activities and characteristics, and the dates and places they were active is an essential component of the management of archival records. Creator description facilitates both access to and interpretation of records.
Archival authority records may be used to describe these entities; to control the creation and use of access points within an archival description; to document relationships between the entities and the records created by them; and to link to other resources about, or by, them. For an example of an ISAAR (CPF) record see International Standard Archival Authority Record for Corporate Bodies, Persons and Families: ISAAR CPF.
International Standard Archival Authority Record for Corporate Bodies, Persons and Families: ISAAR (CPF), 1st edition, Beijing, 1996, 2nd edition, Canberra, 2004 can be downloaded from the website of the International Council on Archives.
