Development of visual analytics technologies to support archival analysis, such as that conducted during arrangement and description, requires an understanding of the analytic task that the technology is being designed to support. Visualization technologies developed for archival application currently pay little attention to the analytic, cognitive and perceptual aspects of the design process. This paper, based on first results from a cognitive task analysis using verbal protocols, provides a broad brush description of archival analysis during arrangement and description. It then suggests some possible leverage points where visual analytics technology might be applied to support archival arrangement and description practices.published or submitted for publicationis peer reviewe
