Information subject treatment in archival description instrument

Abstract

The study analyzes the Archival Description Instrument developed in different countries, in order to verify the description of content in these documents. It talks about the theoretical aspects of the Information Subject Treatment: subject cataloging, indexing and subject analysis, as well as their respective objects: products, instruments and processes. It presents theoretical currents of archival thinking: traditional, records management and integrated, as well as, it discusses the history of archival description and the development of manuals, norms and guidelines that were created in order to standardize the process of archival description. It carries out surveys of Archival Description Instrument in different countries, having been collected and characterized 12 that present themselves in Portuguese, Spanish and English. Among these, eight Archival Description Instrument were selected, which contemplate the description of content in its structure, thus, enabling the analysis of the existence or not of characteristics of the theoretical aspects of the Information Subject Treatment and the identification of the aspects indicated in the literature of the Information Subject Treatment area: processes, products and instruments. It concludes that archival documents have specific characteristics, which need to be analyzed in a different way from the bibliographical ones; however, it is possible to establish a dialogue between Information Subject Treatment and Archivology areas, in order to improve the access to information. It contributes to the transposition of these concepts and theories, originating from Information Science to the context of the archival document, and to the discussions about the theoretical and practical development of Information Subject Treatment in Archivology.