How to use the Application Guidelines
Navigation
The site can be browsed linearly using the arrows and links in the
headers and footers of its pages, or readers may wish to hop in and out
of parts of sections of interest. The vertical arrows after section
headers will take you to the top of the page. Diagrams will expand when
clicked upon.
Themes
The various parts of these
Application Guidelines fall into two broad categories. Firstly, those
with RiC as a whole as their subject — its benefits, implementing it,
and how it relates to other standards. Secondly, those giving guidance
on how RiC might be used in practice — examples and diagrams. Different
routes through the site may be appropriate for different readers:
- For those mainly interested in high-level matters — leaders and
managers for instance — the sections §1 and §3 on the benefits of RiC, and
strategies for implementing it, might be particularly relevant. These
could be followed by §4, on how RiC
relates to other standards, or by browsing §2 or some of the FAQs,
starting with §6a,
to become more deeply acquainted with RiC.
- For somebody learning how to use RiC in practice, perhaps with
concrete modelling questions, the section §2, all of the FAQs (starting
with §6a),
and the sections §7,
and §8
might be most relevant.
- For a beginner, we suggest to begin with §2, and then to browse the
introductions of the FAQs, starting with §6a,
for indications of appropriate further material. The section §5 might be continually useful as a
reference.
- An intermediate to advanced user of RiC may wish to hop straight
into some of the FAQs, the case study §7,
or the extended example §8.
The modelling examples are frequently quite rich, and might have points
of interest beyond the immediate matters under discussion.
- RiC and the Application Guidelines are intended for both records
managers and archivists, but a few sections have a particularly records
management flavour. The FAQs §6.2.4,
§6e, §6d.3
may especially be of interest.
- For theoreticians and others primarily interested in how RiC
challenges and goes beyond traditional conceptions of archival
description — whilst remaining compatible with earlier approaches — the
case study §7
may be of particular interest, perhaps followed by the extended example
§8
or some of the more advanced discussion within the FAQs.
- More or less all parts of the Application Guidelines have both a
digital and an analogue focus, including a mixture of examples.
Material
There is currently a predominance of examples drawn from UK,
Scandinavian, and Spanish material. This is an accident of circumstance
rather than by design; EGAD has members from most corners of the globe,
and RiC is intended to be equally applicable in diverse cultural
contexts. As discussed in the Preface, we see
the Application Guidelines as a living document; we hope that examples
will be contributed from other parts of the world which we can add.
Supplementary material
The source code for the Application Guidelines, including for all
diagrams, can be found at
GitHub. We intend to add further supporting material there as time
goes on.
Providing feedback
We welcome feedback, and encourage entering into discussion of the
material in the Application Guidelines! A good place to start a
discussion would be the RiC mailing
list. The Issues tab at
GitHub can also be used to make suggestions and give feedback.
