114 · Survey Results: Survey Questions And Responses
Challenge 1: Challenge 2: Challenge 3:
It is difficult not to feel discouraged and
overwhelmed by a backlog that grows
each year. I am very interested in new
tools and approaches for turning this
around. I hope that big backlogs will
become less accepted, and, even better,
that we will substantially reduce them in
the fairly near future.
Poor recordkeeping, especially
documentation of ownership and
appraisal decisions, is a daily challenge.
Anticipating the long-term
consequences for myself, present
colleagues, and successors, of my
decisions is another major challenge.
I learn each day by living with the
consequences of decisions made by
my own colleagues and predecessors,
which helps, but this is very difficult. I try
to compensate by making one radical
departure from past practice: I strive
to document my decisions, to make
it easier for successors to understand
them, and modify them in the future if
necessary.
Lack of adequate funding. Student assistants cannot sometimes
finish processing project before needing
to leave the job due to graduation or
other circumstances.
Lack of adequate space (stack space
and processing space).
Lack of enough staff who are
knowledgable about archival processing.
Lack of funding for archival supplies
(preservation supplies).
Lack of space for growth of collections.
Lack of information about collections
in the backlog to be able to make
processing priority decisions. Some
collections have been in the backlog
for 30+ years. The control folder may
or may not contain any clue as to what
the collection contains or the topics it
addresses, and even if it does, since our
accessioning and processing database
only began about 15 years ago, any
“browsing” of accession description
requires physically reviewing each
folder. Further, the quality and quantity
of information about an accession in
the database varies widely. In general,
not having a good handle on the size,
character, and content of our backlog.
Need more people to process and space
for them and collections.
Uncertain legal status of some
collections—indefinite loans and
deposits that have been hear 50+ years,
for example. Spend time processing
something we don’t “technically” own?
Lack of staff. Space for processing and housing
collections.
Moving to an automated on-line system
of processing collections and creating
EADS.
Large political archives continue to be
an issue due to the space requirements,
restrictions on use, and cost for
processing.
Access to and preservation of born
digital materials are presenting
increasing challenges.
Preservation costs.
Challenge 1: Challenge 2: Challenge 3:
It is difficult not to feel discouraged and
overwhelmed by a backlog that grows
each year. I am very interested in new
tools and approaches for turning this
around. I hope that big backlogs will
become less accepted, and, even better,
that we will substantially reduce them in
the fairly near future.
Poor recordkeeping, especially
documentation of ownership and
appraisal decisions, is a daily challenge.
Anticipating the long-term
consequences for myself, present
colleagues, and successors, of my
decisions is another major challenge.
I learn each day by living with the
consequences of decisions made by
my own colleagues and predecessors,
which helps, but this is very difficult. I try
to compensate by making one radical
departure from past practice: I strive
to document my decisions, to make
it easier for successors to understand
them, and modify them in the future if
necessary.
Lack of adequate funding. Student assistants cannot sometimes
finish processing project before needing
to leave the job due to graduation or
other circumstances.
Lack of adequate space (stack space
and processing space).
Lack of enough staff who are
knowledgable about archival processing.
Lack of funding for archival supplies
(preservation supplies).
Lack of space for growth of collections.
Lack of information about collections
in the backlog to be able to make
processing priority decisions. Some
collections have been in the backlog
for 30+ years. The control folder may
or may not contain any clue as to what
the collection contains or the topics it
addresses, and even if it does, since our
accessioning and processing database
only began about 15 years ago, any
“browsing” of accession description
requires physically reviewing each
folder. Further, the quality and quantity
of information about an accession in
the database varies widely. In general,
not having a good handle on the size,
character, and content of our backlog.
Need more people to process and space
for them and collections.
Uncertain legal status of some
collections—indefinite loans and
deposits that have been hear 50+ years,
for example. Spend time processing
something we don’t “technically” own?
Lack of staff. Space for processing and housing
collections.
Moving to an automated on-line system
of processing collections and creating
EADS.
Large political archives continue to be
an issue due to the space requirements,
restrictions on use, and cost for
processing.
Access to and preservation of born
digital materials are presenting
increasing challenges.
Preservation costs.
