Archival description (and resource

Archival description (and resource description in general) is dependent on available communication technologies. As new methods of representing and communicating information become available, they offer the opportunity to re-envision archival description. This re-envisioning generally emphasizes separating and interrelating key components of description to accommodate the production of familiar and proven modes of access and at the same time open new paths into and present new perspectives on described resources. Two interdependent motivations for the separation are commonly cited: improving the economy and accuracy of description; and enhancing access to and understanding of the described resources. Communication technologies that emerged in the last two decades of the twentieth century have gradually been transforming the methods used by archivists to describe and provide access to them. Both markup (XML and related standards) and relational (SQL) technologies, in particular, have enabled many archives to successfully transition from paper-based production of finding aids to computer-based production. As powerful as the two technologies have been, much and perhaps most real world information is not represented well in either one or the other. Archival description, particularly in the single fonds-level description, is adequately but not optimally accommodated by database technologies in some parts and in other parts by markup technologies.