ABSTRACT
A structured description which contains a set of data elements laid out in the form of one of the models for an archival description provides a useful basis for the management and retrieval of information from archives. This is because the data elements can be made to facilitate techniques for searching. This is true whether these techniques are manual (scanning, browsing), or automated (on-line search). Since particular data elements can be labelled by tags, or identified from their position on the page, searches can be concentrated on those sections of the description which are most likely to contain the information sought. Because of this, archival descriptions will normally contain an apparatus of some kind which enables each data element to be easily identified (Section 9.6).
