n.the arrangement and description of archival resources at the aggregate levelBerner 1978, 175Each is clearly influenced by practices in NARS, recognizing the importance of collective control through arrangement of modern manuscripts into record series.Cushing 2010, 302How individuals will manage digital collections over a lifetime presents a series of challenges that must be addressed or such information may not remain within our collective control.Nye 2011, 12Distinguished from library, museum, and historical manuscripts traditions by the principles of provenance, original order, and collective control to preserve the materials’ authenticity, context, and intellectual character.Theimer 2012bThe principle of collective control is dependent on understanding the provenance of the aggregate of materials.Theimer 2012bPerhaps the most prominent feature of collective control is that archival collections are described as aggregates (again, as record groups, collections, and series) but rarely, if ever are the individual items in an aggregate described.Niu 2015, 186Traditionally, the intellectual control of archival materials includes aggregate control and item-level control. The former means describing archival materials collectively on aggregate levels (fonds/collections/record groups and series). The latter means describing individual items (records or filing units). Aggregate control provides context and supports browsing and navigation. Item-level control supports searching for and discovery of individual records. David Bearman named these two kinds of control as collective control and item-level control.Trace 2020, 109As a result of adopting the practices of the HRS, the notion was firmly established from the outset that conditions required archivists to have collective control of records, rather than the item-level approach favored by librarians.
