Rules for Archival Description

The Rules for Archival Description (RAD) is the Canadian archival descriptive standard. It is overseen by the Canadian Committee on Archival Description of the Canadian Council of Archives. Similar in structure to AACR2, it was last revised in 2008.

RAD provides archivists with a framework for generating archival descriptions and finding aids. It is a multi-level descriptive standard structured to reflect the context of a group of records based on manner in which they were created, used and managed.

RAD takes a top-down approach to archival description beginning with a general description of the records at the fonds-level and becoming more specific as description progresses at lower levels. The six levels of RAD descriptions are the fonds, sous-fonds, series, sub-series, file and item. Completed descriptions vary in depth but often include a biographical sketch about the creator of the records, information about the physical extent of the material, and an overview, in the form of a scope and content note, about what the archival fonds consists of.

"Rules for Archival Description". cdncouncilarchives.ca. Canadian Council of Archives. 

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