n.a characteristic of an archival resource that enables its identification and locationFear 2010, 30When users have been studied, findings typically address the discoverability and navigation structure of collections rather than item-level information.Sternfeld 2011, 562The overall effect is an archive that engenders little confidence in discoverability. Tags are misspelled (two terms for “chocolate city” and “chocalate city” [sic]) or follow no rules for consistency in subject headings, names, or places (“francesco di santis,” “francisco,” and “francisco di santis”).Mayer 2013, 23Other projects incorporate user-contributed keywords to enhance discoverability of items within collections. . . . “The resulting set of user-contributed metadata is a valuable source of descriptive information that may be utilized for information retrieval, resource identification, and outreach.”Schaefer and Bunde 2013, 13Website designers may choose to place navigation in different areas, but going against the conventional placement may affect the usability of that website because such an action violates user expectations. User expectations greatly influence discoverability; the more standardized the format within which information is captured, the more a user can learn about searching for that information. Williamson, Vieira, and Williamson 2015, 511With WordPress, tags play a key role in discoverability. Not only are tags a way for users to find a post, they play a part in the indexing of posts in search engines.Mayernick et al. 2017, 1353A related open question is what impact the assignment of persistent identifiers will have on the discoverability and retrievability of these resources over time. Velte 2018, 125Two respondents said they have another discoverability tool in addition to finding aids; one uses the Wayback Machine and the other uses the public link provided by Perma.cc. In summary, half of the participating archivists described activist social media collections in archival finding aids, and one-quarter reported using online tools to display activist social media collections online.Sweetser and Orchard 2019, 332With the development of the MARC AMC (Machine Readable Cataloging Archives and Manuscripts Control) standard, the archival profession added a new tool to increase discoverability of archival materials.Oestreicher 2020, 80To increase discoverability, repositories participate in digital collections portals, which harvest metadata from institutional platforms. The Mountain West Digital Library, Montana Memory Project, Arizona Memory Project, and Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) are a few examples.Gentry et al. 2021, 67As Dickinson College’s example proves, greater discoverability of these small Wade Hall manuscript collections is possible through enhanced description, rearrangement into subject-based collections, and metadata harvesting and search engine indexing of ArchivesSpace and CONTENTdm.Laurent, O’Neill, and Wright 2022, 112Uniting is doing more description work to improve the visibility and discoverability of records about individual children in institutions. This work involves reviewing its legacy archival documentation to identify any mentions of residents in administrative records and updating Uniting’s indexes so that this information can be shared with Care Leavers applying for their files.Zohar 2023, 410Such an initiative can work toward highlighting American entanglement in the Gulf without requiring the more granular but unrealistic efforts that item-level redescription would entail. Embarking upon an item-level redescription might mean parts of these collections remain effectively “hidden” for years, hampering their discoverability and access.deGraffenreid 2024, 297Simultaneously, archivists must also revise offensive or obfuscating descriptions to be more accessible and discoverable to researchers. Moving forward, they must create ethical and inclusive description that considers and prioritizes the preferences and self-identifications of creators and communities to build a more representative repository. Accomplishing both is necessary to responsibly steward collections as well as to build trust with a broader researcher community. Doing nothing and maintaining existing insufficient or offensive description is not feasible, as it alienates researchers and reduces the discoverability of collections.Dundon, Bennett, and Larkin 2025, 79Retrospective accessioning is a specific approach to collection management that seeks to establish baseline intellectual and physical control over archival material that lacks the foundational controls typically required by most modern archives programs. It is rooted in the theory and practice of accessioning as a mode of ensuring downstream discoverability and access through identifying baseline information about collections.
