Designing Archival Programs to Advance Knowledge in the Health Fields

Because of the vast quantity of records being generated in the contemporary health fields and the limited resources for archival preservation, archival programmes must resort to new strategies for appraisal and selection. To assure that an intellectually significant, yet manageable, portion of the contemporary record base is preserved, they need to build acquisitions more selectively on a smaller scale. At the same time, they must accommodate the broadened base of knowledge in the health fields by widening the scope of collecting to include new areas of scientific and clinical practice, as well as new types of formats and media. In this book, archivists Nancy McCall and Lisa A. Mix bring together a broad range of specialists to explore ways of balancing these conflicting demands through reforms in collection development, collection management and user services. The authors describe the principles by which repositories may develop acquisition policies, as well as methodologies for collecting, which may be adapted to meet the particular evidential and information needs of their parent institution. Based on documentation strategies for institutions in the health fields, their approach concentrates on the major functions of these institutions: health care delivery, teaching and research. They address a variety of special needs and challenges in the contemporary health fields, from managing computerized records, to protecting confidentiality, while promoting the wider use of clinical and scientific data in research. The authors conclude with a look at standardizing the administration and management of archival holdings in the health field.