COMMA 2011-2 – Standards for records and archives
Standards are looked on in different ways – as frustrating, limiting, worthwhile – to name a few, but however they are perceived, standards are a broad topic. In ICA’s definition they include precise technical standards as well as manuals, guidelines, models of best practice, principles, legislation, terminology, computer software and so on. They are related to a wide range of functions and specialisations that are either carried out by archivists or managed in archival institutions. The standards archivists use come into existence by many routes. Some are developed locally, some are borrowed from other professions or developed jointly with them, some are driven by the marketplace, some result from the work of experts in areas that archivists administer, and some are the exclusive domain of the archivist.[...]