116 · Survey Results: Survey Questions And Responses
Challenge 1: Challenge 2: Challenge 3:
Not enough staff compared to backlogs. No content management system for
photographic holdings.
Likely budget cuts impacting staff and
archival supplies.
One challenge is deciding on physical vs.
Intellectual arrangement of a collection
when materials are made with a variety
of media and deviate significantly in
size.
Another challenge is deciding to what
level we will process a collection. We
understand the value of “More Product,
Less Process.” We do use this theory as
we process some collections. However,
we feel we need to spend more time
and process some collections in more
detail to make them more usable for
patrons. This is a fine line and we find it
challenging to make the decisions.
Some collections come with archival
issues attached. For instance, a
collection that might otherwise assume
lesser importance may be moved up in
the queue for preservation reasons.
Overcoming traditions and past
institutional practices that hinder the
development of new directions and
workflows.
Electronic media, reformatting, and
remaining current on technology.
Recovering or searching for
documentation on collections, such as
Deeds of Gift.
Overwhelmed and overworked staff. Pre-appraisal needs for backlogged
collections.
Storage needs for current collection
levels.
Preservation issues—what to do with
endangered materials or obsolete
formats.
Electronic records—how to make
them accessible for current and future
researchers.
Digitization—balancing processing
materials with the demand for digital
copies.
Resources and staffing dedicated to
processing.
In approximately 3 years or so we will
be moving into a new special collections
building, so inventorying, organizing and
preparing collections for the move is a
challenge at the moment.
Currently, space limitations is a major
problem and requires us to disperse our
collections to multiple locations this
should be resolved in several years with
the completion of our new building.
Retrofitting hundreds of finding aids
created generations ago so they can
be encoded online in EAD, a task that
potentially involves physical reworking
of collections and for this reason
and others slows the processing of
a growing backlog of unprocessed
material.
Coping with the backlog of unprocessed
material by resorting to minimal
or lower-level processing of some
collections or parts of collections.
Stabilizing, migrating, describing, and
maintaining born-digital collection
material, the new frontier portending
major changes in the method and
prioritizing of manuscript processing.
Severely unorganized collections. Need for staff with special skills to
process manuscript and archival
collections.
Difficulty to estimate the future use of
some collections.
Space, staff. Volume of backlog. Knowledge of foreign language and
subjects the staff are unfamiliar.
Staffing. Funding. Collaboration.
Challenge 1: Challenge 2: Challenge 3:
Not enough staff compared to backlogs. No content management system for
photographic holdings.
Likely budget cuts impacting staff and
archival supplies.
One challenge is deciding on physical vs.
Intellectual arrangement of a collection
when materials are made with a variety
of media and deviate significantly in
size.
Another challenge is deciding to what
level we will process a collection. We
understand the value of “More Product,
Less Process.” We do use this theory as
we process some collections. However,
we feel we need to spend more time
and process some collections in more
detail to make them more usable for
patrons. This is a fine line and we find it
challenging to make the decisions.
Some collections come with archival
issues attached. For instance, a
collection that might otherwise assume
lesser importance may be moved up in
the queue for preservation reasons.
Overcoming traditions and past
institutional practices that hinder the
development of new directions and
workflows.
Electronic media, reformatting, and
remaining current on technology.
Recovering or searching for
documentation on collections, such as
Deeds of Gift.
Overwhelmed and overworked staff. Pre-appraisal needs for backlogged
collections.
Storage needs for current collection
levels.
Preservation issues—what to do with
endangered materials or obsolete
formats.
Electronic records—how to make
them accessible for current and future
researchers.
Digitization—balancing processing
materials with the demand for digital
copies.
Resources and staffing dedicated to
processing.
In approximately 3 years or so we will
be moving into a new special collections
building, so inventorying, organizing and
preparing collections for the move is a
challenge at the moment.
Currently, space limitations is a major
problem and requires us to disperse our
collections to multiple locations this
should be resolved in several years with
the completion of our new building.
Retrofitting hundreds of finding aids
created generations ago so they can
be encoded online in EAD, a task that
potentially involves physical reworking
of collections and for this reason
and others slows the processing of
a growing backlog of unprocessed
material.
Coping with the backlog of unprocessed
material by resorting to minimal
or lower-level processing of some
collections or parts of collections.
Stabilizing, migrating, describing, and
maintaining born-digital collection
material, the new frontier portending
major changes in the method and
prioritizing of manuscript processing.
Severely unorganized collections. Need for staff with special skills to
process manuscript and archival
collections.
Difficulty to estimate the future use of
some collections.
Space, staff. Volume of backlog. Knowledge of foreign language and
subjects the staff are unfamiliar.
Staffing. Funding. Collaboration.
