58 · Survey Results: Survey Questions And Responses
folder level. Each collection will be described at the series level where appropriate, and every collection is described at
the collection level.
All collections have to be minimally processed, which means the creation of either a collection-level record or a series-
level record. Curators are then encouraged to fully process the collection at the needed level (we have specifically asked
that the curators not take a sausage factory approach in which every series is processed at the same level). A fully
processed collection could theoretically have one series described at the series-level, one series described at the folder-
level and one described at the item level. Although it is a curatorial decision as to which level to process at, if item-level
description is desired it must be approved by the Board of Curators.
All collections present differing processing needs, with a variety of factors (e.g., if it is to be digitized, its physical
condition, anticipated research use) influencing processing decisions.
All parts of a collection are processed at the same level unless there are components of a collection that are at high risk
for loss (electronic records) or theft (autographs), in which case these will receive more detailed processing.
All receive a collection level description depending on whether it is full or minimal, a collection will receive subgroup,
series, sub-series, etc. Description: folder level usually occurs in the container list and then, rather than listing each
folder, we try to collapse a run of folders with the same label or contents when at all possible (ex: rather than listing
folder 22, correspondence 1845–1847, folder 23 correspondence 1848–1850, and folder 24, correspondence 1850–
1865, we list folder 22–24, correspondence 1845–1865) item level is used in conjunction with higher levels to highlight
items deemed to be of significant interest, or otherwise most often with photographs.
All that makes sense for the collection or needs. Typically process to folder level but have collections processed to series,
box and item level.
Archives: to be fully processed, a collection will be described to the folder/file level. RBSC: level varies with the
collection.
As a moving image archive we typically need to catalog at the item level. We do use collection level cataloging and
records as well, to describe for example a group of home movies.
Collections comprised of one folder are described at the collection level, as are collections of ca. 5–10 document
cases that contain only one or two types of easily described material. Currently, it’s rare that we describe to the item
level now and in the past it would invariably be limited to key series, such as special correspondence (although our
Presidential Papers are indexed to the item level). Standard practice is to describe to the folder level.
Congressional Papers are processed at the folder level. Congressional memorabilia at the item level. Photographs often
receive group-level processing. Some large collections with large, complex series demand sub-group level.
Could be any combination of levels, although we seldom process to item level except in the case of stand-alone letters,
diaries, etc.
Depending on size of collection, all four levels are used with smaller collections often described to the item level.
Otherwise, it is mainly folder level.
Depends on the types of materials and the importance of the collection.
Folder level.
Folder-level processing is the most common. Item level is used only for small and/or extremely valuable collections.
Series-level is rarely used in recent years. Collection-level is used only for accessioning a newly received collection.
Fonds, series, and folder-level descriptions are created for each collection using the Canadian descriptive standards as