Understanding Archives and Manuscripts; Archives and Archivists

摘要

Understanding Archives and Manuscripts is a revised version of the book of the same title written by James O'Toole and published by the Society of American Archivists (SAA) in 1990. The first edition1 formed part of the SAA's Archival Fundamentals series, to which it acted in effect as an introductory volume, and this new edition-co-authored by O'Toole and Richard Cox-serves the same role in Archival Fundamentals series II. The new edition has five chapters and a concluding bibliographic essay. Chapters 1-4 will be familiar to readers who already know the first edition: they have the same titles and cover the same ground as the corresponding chapters in 1990, with a slightly expanded text but fewer illustrations. Chapter 5 is new, and the bibliographic essay has been completely rewritten. We aren't told who wrote what, but Chapters 1-4 retain large parts of O'Toole's original text, while the new bibliography shows some similarities to the bibliographic essay that has been available for several years past on Cox's website.