n. (also cataloguing)the act of creating a concise description of an archival or library resource, especially one that adheres to a descriptive standard with the intention of adding the description to a compilation of such descriptionsFitzpatrick 1913, 25Cataloguing.—Briefly stated, the catalogue entry for a manuscript consists of every descriptive or bibliographic detail except the calendar or brief of the contents.Hamer 1942, 85A function of the Division of Cataloging was to make use of the descriptive inventories produced by the custodial divisions and the classification plan devised by the Division of Classification for the development of a great central catalogue which would “facilitate the use of all archival series” and “aid searchers in locating specific subject information in the various archival collections.”Church 1943, 184The theory that there exists a necessity, stronger in archival cataloguing than in library cataloguing, for setting out the full history of agencies and their transfer of functions is, I believe, untenable. Library cataloguing, while allowed certain short cuts, must always trace the full history of an agency on its authority cards, if it is to approach cataloguing intelligently. The library which houses and catalogues the documents of a government is, consequently, a better source for the history and development of that government than a sister archival agency where cataloguing is undeveloped.East 1953, 301–302In so far as is known this system of cataloging, which combines standard library indexing methods, archival techniques of records description, and modern methods of reproducing catalog cards, represents the most comprehensive attempt yet made to bridge the gap between the traditional calendar and ideal inventory of the archivist and the general catalog of the librarian.Schellenberg 1968, 159The advanced course should pertain chiefly to arrangement and description, which are the archival equivalent of library classification and cataloging.White-Hensen 1984, 1The purpose of this manual is to provide instructions for describing (cataloging) materials held by film and television archives, with this work done within the framework of the International Standard Bibliographic Description as reflected in chapter 7 of the Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules, 2nd edition (AACR 2).APPM2 1989, 3These rules are intended for use in the construction of catalogs by archival repositories, or by libraries or other institutions that wish to provide archivally oriented cataloging for materials that may be among their holdings.APPM2 1989, 4Archival description or cataloging, as prescribed in this manual, is based on certain assumptions about the nature of archival materials and the way archivists manage them.Wisser 2011a, 34–35While archival description enjoys a long history, archival cataloging with the MARC format began in the 1980s with the publication of the first edition of Archives, Personal Papers, and Manuscripts by Steven L. Hensen for the Library of Congress.