The Illusion of Omniscience: Subject Access and the Reference Archivist

Current theories of subject and information retrieval are predicated on the experience and needs of libraries and information centers and do not effectively address the needs of archives. Both libraries and archives seek to aid users in locating information. The problems faced by the two institutions, however, are as different as their materials, organizing principles, and descriptive techniques. A comparison of the two institutions illustrates some of the difficulties facing the reference archivist seeking subject retrieval of archival and manuscript materials arranged according to the principles of provenance and original order. Archives and libraries differ most obviously in the materials they collect. For the most part, libraries collect books and other published materials which are produced in multiple copies in relatively uniform sizes and formats. Generally, a book is created quite deliberately by an author, as a literary product treating a particular topic. On the other hand, archives accession unique documents w ich vary widely in size and format. The documents are usually created by many authors as the byproduct of personal and organizational activity. Rarely are they self-conscious literary productions. Unlike a book, which can stand alone as an author's thoughts on a single topic, archival documents generally make sense only as part of a group of records. Record groups reflect the many activities which created them and may be useful for many subjects. Retrieval of individual books relating to a specific subject is a primary goal for the library, and librarians have devised both classification and cataloging techniques to accomplish subject retrieval. On the other hand, subject retrieval of individual documents has not been a primary goal for most archivists. Library classification brings books treating the same subject together on the shelf, thereby creating one important and powerful mode of subject access. The classification notation gives