Processing Decisions for Manuscripts & Archives, SPEC Kit 314 (November 2009)

Hackbart-Dean, Pam; Slomba, Elizabeth

110 · Survey Results: Survey Questions And Responses
Challenges of Making Processing Decisions
21. Please describe up to three challenges you have experienced (or anticipate experiencing) in making
decisions for manuscript and archival collections in your unit/department/library. N=69
Challenge 1: Challenge 2: Challenge 3:
Adequate funding. Adequate staffing levels. Weighing available resources against
patron demand on the one hand and
archival standards on the other.
An ongoing challenge is trying to
process collections with insufficient
staff. Acquisitions continue, but staffing
remains at unchanging levels. We utilize
School of Information graduate students
in Directed Field Experience projects
and internships, but this also involves
a teaching/learning environment which
requires a time commitment from
the Head of Archival Processing and
Cataloging.
With an upcoming large-scale
processing project (ca. 1,000 linear ft.),
well thought out but difficult decisions
will need to be made regarding the
level of processing. The level will, most
likely, vary from series to series while
still striving to maintain an intelligible
arrangement.
With no standards or “best practice”
guidelines in place, it has been
challenging to reformat, and find
suitable digital storage space for,
archival audiovisual material.
Availability of staff. Availability of funding. Space considerations.
Balancing competing demands and
shifting priorities.
Addressing space constraints, especially
for space to do the actual processing of
large fonds/collections.
Address a historical lack of coordination
and consistency of approach in making
appraisal decisions.
Born digital material: We haven’t
encountered it yet, but handling
“born digital” items I’m sure will
be a challenge for us, particularly
as one of our collecting areas is
contemporary American authors.
Writers’ use of computers and word
processing software, not to mention
the proliferation of blogs, wikis, email,
and other types of content, pose a huge
challenge to the archival community.
Online content decisions: Users
increasingly want and expect to access
actual content (not just finding aids)
online, and we are increasingly giving
it to them. But institutions that can
provide lots of online content may
potentially “drown out” smaller/
poorer institutions that can’t (e.g.
Local historical societies). Related to
this, our choices of what to digitize
may — intentionally or not — privilege
some collections over others and make
nondigitized collections and items
less visible or less attractive. (See
for example “Does Google suppress
controversy?” http://firstmonday.org/
htbin/cgiwrap/bin/ojs/index.php/fm/
article/view/1111/1031)
Access tool selection: Shoving more and
more information online is only as useful
as the tools we provide to access it. The
standard search-with-return-of-hit-list is
great so far as it goes, but we need to
explore more powerful and flexible tools
that let us look at our collections in new
ways see for example, archivesz (http://
www.archivesz.com/) or NNDB (http://
mapper.nndb.com/) or our Elastic Lists
prototype (http://library.syr.edu/digital/
guides/elasticlists-EAD/binv3/index.
html).

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SPEC Kit 314: Processing Decisions for Manuscripts & Archives (November 2009) resources

Extracted Text (may have errors)

110 · Survey Results: Survey Questions And Responses
Challenges of Making Processing Decisions
21. Please describe up to three challenges you have experienced (or anticipate experiencing) in making
decisions for manuscript and archival collections in your unit/department/library. N=69
Challenge 1: Challenge 2: Challenge 3:
Adequate funding. Adequate staffing levels. Weighing available resources against
patron demand on the one hand and
archival standards on the other.
An ongoing challenge is trying to
process collections with insufficient
staff. Acquisitions continue, but staffing
remains at unchanging levels. We utilize
School of Information graduate students
in Directed Field Experience projects
and internships, but this also involves
a teaching/learning environment which
requires a time commitment from
the Head of Archival Processing and
Cataloging.
With an upcoming large-scale
processing project (ca. 1,000 linear ft.),
well thought out but difficult decisions
will need to be made regarding the
level of processing. The level will, most
likely, vary from series to series while
still striving to maintain an intelligible
arrangement.
With no standards or “best practice”
guidelines in place, it has been
challenging to reformat, and find
suitable digital storage space for,
archival audiovisual material.
Availability of staff. Availability of funding. Space considerations.
Balancing competing demands and
shifting priorities.
Addressing space constraints, especially
for space to do the actual processing of
large fonds/collections.
Address a historical lack of coordination
and consistency of approach in making
appraisal decisions.
Born digital material: We haven’t
encountered it yet, but handling
“born digital” items I’m sure will
be a challenge for us, particularly
as one of our collecting areas is
contemporary American authors.
Writers’ use of computers and word
processing software, not to mention
the proliferation of blogs, wikis, email,
and other types of content, pose a huge
challenge to the archival community.
Online content decisions: Users
increasingly want and expect to access
actual content (not just finding aids)
online, and we are increasingly giving
it to them. But institutions that can
provide lots of online content may
potentially “drown out” smaller/
poorer institutions that can’t (e.g.
Local historical societies). Related to
this, our choices of what to digitize
may — intentionally or not — privilege
some collections over others and make
nondigitized collections and items
less visible or less attractive. (See
for example “Does Google suppress
controversy?” http://firstmonday.org/
htbin/cgiwrap/bin/ojs/index.php/fm/
article/view/1111/1031)
Access tool selection: Shoving more and
more information online is only as useful
as the tools we provide to access it. The
standard search-with-return-of-hit-list is
great so far as it goes, but we need to
explore more powerful and flexible tools
that let us look at our collections in new
ways see for example, archivesz (http://
www.archivesz.com/) or NNDB (http://
mapper.nndb.com/) or our Elastic Lists
prototype (http://library.syr.edu/digital/
guides/elasticlists-EAD/binv3/index.
html).

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SPEC Kit 314: Processing Decisions for Manuscripts &Archives · 109
project to completion. Ability to organize large amounts of information and to write clear descriptions. Ability to think
creatively about how to arrange, describe, and preserve large amounts of material. Specialized knowledge of subjects
and/or formats found in collections. If staff do not have this knowledge, the ability and initiative to acquire it would be
needed.
Resilience, flexibility, and intelligence: processing is as much art as craft, and _somebody_ has got to see the big picture
before launching themselves on the they myriad parts. In my experience, staff either have the instincts to be a useful
processor or they don’t. If they don’t, doesn’t matter how much “training” you throw at them: they still don’t get the
point.
Some level of subject knowledge and knowledge of the research process are essential to good processing. The technical
aspects of processing can be trained fairly effectively. The most important skills needed are appraisal and description
understanding and training.
Sound knowledge of archival practices and principles for all media.
Strong organizational skills, attention to detail, planning for project.
Subject and language expertise.
The art of arrangement and description, which includes the ability to assess quickly the organizational scheme of a
collection the ability to summarize the research value of a collection through a well-written scope and content note
and the ability to balance overview with detail when making decisions throughout the processing work.
The most important skills are curiosity about the origins and relationships of documents in collections, and
understanding their context, an analytical ability to understand the hierarchical nature of collections, and some historical
knowledge. In addition, an inclination to focus on the collection and its overall attributes rather than the intrinsic interest
of individual documents is similarly important.
The most important skills include knowledge of historical context, research methodology, archival hierarchy, description
standards, and concept of original order.
They need to understand the importance of creating minimal descriptions for everything acquired by the department.
They also need to understand how to determine which level of description is appropriate to which part of the finding aid
when they decided to fully process a collection. They also need to be able to apply DACS.
Training, dedication, expressed interest, and attention to detail.
Triage for tackling inherited backlogs communication skills for persuading others that new approaches are needed to
provide at least some level of access to all archival collections skills in appraisal (and re-appraisal).
Understanding of concepts of provenance, original order, record series, and how to apply it in practice.
Understanding, analysis, ability to compare and contrast, research, synthesis, communication.

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SPEC Kit 314: Processing Decisions for Manuscripts & Archives (November 2009) resources

SPEC Kit 314: Processing Decisions for Manuscripts &Archives · 111
Challenge 1: Challenge 2: Challenge 3:
Building and acquiring staff and
technical support for publishing
accession records on the Web.
Balancing processing staffing and
resources across seven archival
repositories, five of which have backlogs.
Retaining sufficient curatorial staffing
while the larger organization conducts
furloughs and reductions in force, or
transitions existing staff lines to digital
library development. Curators are
needed to provide descriptive metadata
for the content.
Challenge of scarce resources and doing
more with less.
Running out of space to store
collections.
Challenge of digital preservation.
Challenging the way it’s always been
done. The operation I took over was
mired in 40+ years of no change. Layers
and layers and layers of “sameness”
infected the entire unit. So MPLP not
only spurred questions, but outright
hostility. “Patrons won’t like it.” “This
is the way we’ve always done it.” “This
is absolutely impossible!” With an 8
mile backlog staring me in the face I
had little choice but to rip off the band
aid and make it happen. Bottom line:
Patrons love it. THIS is the way you do
things now. 1/2 miles processed in one
fiscal year. You just can’t rationally argue
with success like this.
The speed and quality of processing
spiked so dramatically, that those
overseeing finances in administration
wanted to know why all of a sudden we
need an order of 50,000 folders why
we ordered 1,000 boxes multiple times
each year. This spike in productivity
impacted every other unit in the library:
grants, binding, digital—their work
was increasingly exponentially because
we were suddenly on the move. We
were no longer the dead books and
manuscripts department processing 9
feet a month—we were a productive
and vital unit that was open for business
and ready to make a mark on the world.
Space. Manhattan. Until I worked in
Manhattan I couldn’t appreciate the
scores of space jokes I had heard over
the years. Butler library was built in
1932 with stacks that hold up the
building that were made for books,
not archives. 2/3 of our collections live
offsite. Accessions come in, have to
be surveyed, and sent offsite. Whole
collections are processed and the
archivists never seen them in their
entirety. It’s a 3-D chess game. Also staff
space is limited so we’ve had to be
creative, offices are shared, and even a
section of the stacks was emptied and is
now devoted to processing space.
Choosing which collections to digitize,
should it be based on patron demand,
or on the need to preserve at-risk
collections?
Currently, my biggest challenge is
having the curator of manuscripts be
a part of the acquisition process from
as close to the first step as possible.
Colleagues/bibliographers are foolish
simply to “dump” manuscripts on
manuscripts staff without first getting
their evaluation of the material and
getting them invested and thinking
about processing strategies from the
get-go.
Too little staff and staff space for the
5,000+ linear feet of backlog and 100+
linear feet of growth per year.
Processing grants are getting harder
and harder to receive as agencies such
as the NEH look for model projects and/
or digital projects and/or collaborative
projects.

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Page 7Survey Results click to expand contents

Page 123Representative Documents click to expand contents

Page 125Job Description of Processing Decision Maker click to expand contents

Page 129Job Descriptions of Processing Staff click to expand contents

Page 133Processing Policy click to expand contents

Page 137Processing Procedures Manuals click to expand contents

Page 143Processing Worksheets click to expand contents

Page 151Procedures for Prioritizing Processing click to expand contents

Page 155Collecting Processing Statistics click to expand contents

Page 159Sample Statistics Reports click to expand contents

Page 163Selected Resources click to expand contents

SPEC Kit 314: Processing Decisions for Manuscripts & Archives (November 2009) resources

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SPEC Kit 314: Processing Decisions for Manuscripts & Archives (November 2009) resources

SPEC Kit 314: Processing Decisions for Manuscripts & Archives (November 2009) resources