Bastian / Yakel (15 July 2004) ICA Vienna 11
The 373 courses on the websites of these 62 schools or departments covered a wide
range of archival areas. Table 2 indicates this range as well as the type of program that
offered the course. There are some courses that are available only in LIS schools. These are:
Appraisal, Archival Automation, Diplomatics, Electronic records, Legal Issues, Reference,
and Topical seminars. History departments are the only ones to offer Historical editing and
Public history. Other concerns include the low number of archival appraisal (8) and
reference (6) courses.
Identifying the Core
While the overall number of courses offered in a graduate program might determine
the breadth of archival study, the depth must be assessed by examining fundamental or core
archival knowledge. To evaluate this coalescing of specifically archival knowledge, we
placed courses into twenty categories and designated these as either core or complementary.
These designations were based on the Guidelines for a Graduate Program in Archival
Studies as well as our own knowledge of the archival field. Our designations differ from past
assessments done by both Ericson and O'Toole. This process resulted in the following list:
Table 3. Core and Non-Core Archival Courses
Core Archival Courses
Complementary Archival Courses
Advanced Introduction
Archival Automation
Appraisal Diplomatics
Arrangement and Description
Field Experiences / Practica / Internships
Electronic Records
Historical Editing
Introduction Management
Legal Issues
Oral History
Preservation Public
History
Records Management
Rare Books
Reference Research
Methods
Special Media / Special Archives
Topical
Seminar
