46 · Survey Results: Survey Questions And Responses
train someone to process collections without too much supervision. Less experienced staff process smaller, less complex
collections.
Content knowledge and abilities of available staff, including (often importantly) graduate or other assistants. Overall
not the most important factor, but in some case it may be deciding: if you have the requisite skills to assign, it is efficient
to get a project done now — particularly since it may otherwise be years before the peculiar combination of skills and
knowledge recur.
Current or anticipated use of materials for course projects, both for research and as practical project for library and
archives studies students.
Donor agreements.
Donor agreements that include processing deadlines and donor funding for processing are important considerations
when setting our processing priorities.
Donor expectations are sometimes considered, if a collection is particularly important. We do try not to make promises
about when a collection will be processed, but it sometimes comes up in certain donor-related situations.
Donor expectations, although not encouraged, are honored within reason. Appraisal requests and preparation is
occasionally a factor.
Donor relations might influence priorities. Funding from donors would almost certainly allow us to give greater priority
to these collections.
Donor requests transmitted through curators. Complexity or special needs of a particular collection meshing with
available processors.
Donor’s wishes.
Ease of processing/complexity of collection.
Funded collection.
Funding gifted for the purpose of processing moves an item higher in the priority list. The same team conducts
processing for seven repositories so priorities are set across all the repositories using these criteria.
If donors provide funding for processing, collection may rise to the top if staff is available for the project.
In the Canadian context the most important factor that determines our processing priorities is tax receipting. Under
Canadian tax law creators can make gift-in-kind donations of their papers for tax receipting, and this drives our
processing, as we try to meet donor expectations to receive their receipts in a timely fashion. The donation has to be
almost fully processed to enable the monetary appraisals to be carried out. Purchases are sometimes assigned a lower
priority because of the need to process the gift donations relatively quickly, and the fact that inadequate staffing levels
limits the amount of processing that is possible each year.
Opportunity plays an enormous role in setting priorities for example, a manuscripts cataloger fully trained through her
work on an NEH grant was kept on to catalog our remaining German-language manuscript material.
Other factor: we accept donations and accruals to be processed for appraisal in a specific tax year. Appraisers (National
Archival Appraisal Board for cultural property as well as other appraisers for specific material types) come once a year
for their purposes all material must be fully processed, a finding aid available and the memorandum of agreement
signed at least a month before the appraisal date. In effect, our processing priorities are determined the moment we
decide to acquire something.