Welcome to the Community Rules for Archival Description (RAD)! This website was created by Grace Phippard in 2026 as part of a project at the University of British Columbia. The primary objectives of this project are :

  1. To make RAD more accessible, easier to navigate, and easier to reference for anyone working with archives;
  2. To facilitative discourse about arrangement and descriptive practice;
  3. To generate suggestions for the revision of RAD through openly accessible and transparent discussions

On this website, you can browse RAD by chapter (textual records, graphic materials etc.) or browse by section (archival description area, notes area, etc.). You can also search the website if you don’t know what part of RAD you are looking for.

Each section of RAD has a corresponding comment section, but there are also a number of forums dedicated to specific topics. Please see the below section on commenting for more information on how to comment

Commenting

To comment on this site you will need a GitHub account. To create an account, all you need is an email, username, and password. You can create an account here or follow this tutorial for additional instructions.

When you want to comment, sign-in to Github using your account credentials. When you comment, your GitHub username will be displayed and your account will be connected to any comments you make.

More information about GitHub is included below, but all you need to comment on this website is an account. You do not need to use the GitHub platform or have a robust understanding of how it works to use this site, but guidance is provided for those who are interested.