Making maps of records: what cartography can teach us about archival description

ABSTRACT This article explores maps as a conceptual metaphor for archival description. Drawing on insights from some classic works in the field of critical cartography, we examine five ways in which maps can help us to understand the nature of archives catalogues: (1) as tools for orientation and sense-making of interconnected archival landscapes; (2) as involving abstraction, selection and privileging, not direct reproduction, of information; (3) as making propositions or claims about records; (4) as ongoing archival labour, where metadata and description have mixed or multiple provenance and continue to evolve; and (5) as intrinsically interdisciplinary. Inverting the metaphor, we propose that the moral defence of the record as an ethical framework is also insightful for cartography. We further suggest that thinking of finding aids as metaphorical maps can help to reinvigorate archival description and inspire better catalogues.