Policy on New Repositories

Last updated and approved by DASC: 2026-07-23

A. Procedures and requirements for participation

Discover Archives is intended for U of T libraries and archives with a current or historic mandate as a repository to preserve and provide access to archival material that has been legally transferred to the unit and requires hierarchical archival description.

To join Discover Archives, repositories must continually employ a staff member familiar with RAD or ISAD(G) who can serve as a member of the Steering Committee and maintain the repository’s data. The staff member should have a demonstrated understanding of privacy and copyright legislation, web accessibility, and contemporary ethical concerns within the archival field, such as reparative description, reciprocal collecting practices, and equitable access. Prior involvement in the Canadian archival community is an asset.

Repositories that are unable to send an eligible representative to at least two of the committee’s meetings annually, or do not consistently comply with DASC policies, risk having their descriptions unpublished by DASC. This requirement helps ensure ongoing maintenance of descriptions and prevents this responsibility from falling to other DASC members. Any compliance issues will be flagged by DASC members to the repository during monthly or annual data reviews.

Established repositories wishing to participate in Discover Archives should notify the Steering Committee (via this Microsoft Form; contact discoverarchives@library.utoronto.ca if you have any issues with submission) and the Steering Committee will decide when/if the repository will be added, on a case-by-case basis.

B. Training for new repositories

New repositories joining Discover Archives will:

Meet with DASC co-chairs for an introduction to Discover Archives, the documentation, reporting technical issues to ITS, and the listserv;
Review policies, documentation, and any mandatory onboarding training;
Work with DASC co-chairs to add their repository into the system by following the requirements for institutional profiles (see Policy on Repository Profile Requirements - forthcoming). The repository’s institutional profile will be added to the Discover Archives –test site before it is published onto the production Discover Archives site;
Set up user accounts for their staff (see Policy on Users);
Identify an individual to join DASC who has the capacity to remain a member in good standing.

C. Definitions

Archives Repository: A permanently established organization or department mandated and assigned relevant legal authority to keep and preserve archival material and make it accessible to the public.

Adapted from: Canadian Council of Archives Institutional Guidelines for Archives, p. 1 and ISDIAH, p. 12

Archival description: The creation of an accurate representation of a unit of description and its component parts, if any, by capturing, analyzing, organizing and recording information that serves to identify, manage, locate and explain archival materials and the context and records systems which produced it. This term also describes the products of the process, such as a finding aid.

From: ISDIAH, p. 12

Finding Aid: The product of archival description and based in archival standards. Typically consists of contextual and structural information about an archival resource. Most often arranged by provenance and containing a summary description, inclusive dates, physical volume, physical location, access restrictions, dates acquired, and a summary narrative description of records legally transferred to an archival repository. Finding aids provide essential information about the holdings for users and enables the archivist to retrieve materials – they are more than simply a file listing or collection description. UTL uses the Discover Archives service, built with the archival standards-based AtoM platform, for finding aid management and end-user discovery.

Adapted from: https://dictionary.archivists.org/entry/finding-aid.html

Authority record: The authorised form of name combined with other information elements that identify and describe the named entity and may also point to other related authority records. Authority records function as name access points in Discover Archives.

From: ISDIAH, p. 12

Staff members appointed to DASC: Staff members appointed to DASC and representing a Repository must not be impermanent (student staff or those in short-term temporary roles cannot be appointed as a member of DASC) due to the time commitment and training involved in participating in DASC. Similarly, staff with significant supervisory responsibilities may encounter time commitment issues due to participation requirements for initiatives related to maintenance of Discover Archives data and the records this data represents.