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Survey on the use of Rules of Archival Description
This survey can be completed by both active and retired archival professionals. Please answer as many questions as relevant. No field is required. Thank you!
1. Where is your institution located?
1.a. Province or Territory
Please Select
Alberta
British Columbia
Manitoba
New Brunswick
Newfoundland
Northwest Territories
Nova Scotia
Nunavut
Ontario
Prince Edward Island
Quebec
Saskatchewan
Yukon
1.b. City
2. What are your institution's service languages? Select as many as apply.
French
English
Other
3. Institutional information (size)
What is the number of full-time equivalents engaged in archival functions?
0-5
5-11
12-25
26 -100
More than 100
4. Collecting mandate and sector
4.a. Sector:
Private archives
Public archives
Other
4.b. Does your institution actively acquire records created by entities other than your sponsoring body?
5. Does your institution have a policy or policies to address archival descriptive standards?
Yes
No
6.a. Does your institution have documentation to support the application of archival descriptive standards?
Yes
No
6.b. Can you share these documents with CCA? If yes, please upload.
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7. Does your institution have a formal process for creating archival descriptive standards? (Committee/standards officer/other?) Please describe.
8. What system/software does your institution use to describe records?
9.a. If your institution collects both private and institutional records, do you use the same system to describe both?
Yes
No
N/A
9.b. If “No”, identify the different systems used at your institution:
10.a. Does your institution have a public access catalogue?
Yes
No
10.b. If “Yes”, can you share the link to your public access catalogue with CCA?
11. If your institution uses RAD, how long has it been the institutional standard?
0-4 years
5-10 years
10-20 years
More than 20 years
N/A
12. What is your current position at your institution?
13. Have you participated in the work of establishing and updating Canadian archival descriptive standards in the past? Select as many as apply.
Original work to establish RAD
RAD 2.0
2008 update
2016 Meetings
2024 Ad Hoc Meetings
14. Have you participated in the work of other archival descriptive standards? Select as many as apply.
Describing Archives: a Content Standard (DACS)
International Standard for Archival Description – General (ISAD(G))
Records in Contexts (RiC)
Other standards
15. How would you rate your knowledge of RAD on a scale of 0-5?
0 - Wait, we have descriptive standards?
1 - Beginner
2 - Developing
3 - Competent
4 - Advanced
5 - Expert
16. Is archival description a significant part of your job? Please indicate how frequently you describe archival records.
Daily
Weekly
Monthly
When and as needed
17. What role best describes your work with archival description? Select as many as apply.
Practitioner
Standards Officer
Internal Committee Member
Educator
Other
18.a. Do you create name headings?
Yes
No
18.b. Please describe:
19.a. Do you create subject headings?
Yes
No
19.b. If “Yes”, please indicate the reason you create them, as well as any controlled vocabulary that you use (e.g. Canadian Subject Headings, Library of Congress Subject Headings):
20. How often do you consult RAD directly?
At least once a week
At least once a month
At least once a year
Never or almost never
21. If you consult RAD, what do you consult it for? (e.g. General Rules for Description such as dates of creation, physical description, class of material (Part I); Specific specialized media chapters (Part I); Headings and References (Part II))
22.a. Does your institution have documents, policies, or directives on how to adapt archival descriptive standards when describing records?
Yes
No
22.b. What types of adaptions have you found necessary?
23. How often do you consult your institutional descriptive standards documentation?
At least once a week
At least once a month
At least once a year
Never or almost never
N/A
24. If possible, please upload your institutional descriptive standards documentation to this survey:
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25.a. Have you described digital archival records?
Yes
No
25.b. What are the advantages/disadvantages of using RAD for describing digital records? Please explain.
26.a. Have you described specialized media records? Select as many as apply.
Graphic Materials
Cartographic Materials
Architectural and Technical Drawings
Moving Images
Sound Recordings
Philatelic Records
26.b. What are the advantages/disadvantages of using RAD to describe these specialized media records? Please explain.
27.a. Have you described objects?
Yes
No
27.b. What are the advantages/disadvantages of using RAD to describe objects? Please explain.
28. Do you have any thoughts on the use of RAD to describe Government or Private records?
29. What are RAD’s strengths, from your experience?
30. What are RAD’s weaknesses, from your experience?
31. Any other comments about RAD or archival descriptive standards?
32. Could you please prioritize the future work of the CCA Standards Committee and the work on RAD considering the context that the Reconciliation Framework informs all components of this work. Please provide only one answer per row in the table below.
Rows
Update Records in Electronic Form section
Update Part II - Headings and References
Collate data shared regarding how RAD is not used and recommend updates based on community input
Other
Priority 1
Priority 2
Priority 3
Priority 4
33. Would significant changes to RAD be an impediment to modifying the system you currently use for descriptions and would this create a major obstacle to implementing changes?
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