Manual of Archival Description

’MAD3’ and Its Latest Edition

’MAD3’ is the third and latest edition of the influential Manual of Archival Description, revised to take account of a decade of developments in national and international descriptive practice. Many improvements have been made as a result of wide consultation with archive professionals. The Manual remains the only comprehensive British guide to the theory and practice of listing archives held in any format, from letters, photographs and maps to electronic multimedia.

New Features of the Edition

New features of this edition include: additional information on national and international standards which have appeared since the last edition, including data elements mapped to the General International Standard Archival Description - ISAD(G) - which appears as an appendix

coverage of developments in archives administration theory and new access delivery initiatives

extensive updating of sections covering audiovisual material

rewritten chapter on electronic archives

updated dictionary in line with the 1999 ICA definitions

additional examples of listing practice

Intended Audience and Purpose

This standard, authoritative guide to listing and cataloguing is for both generalist repositories and other organizations with archives to manage. As online cross-repository searching becomes a reality, the new edition will enable both professional archivists, records managers and other information professionals to standardize archive listing.