6615-week iii-arrangement and description
TRANSCRIPT
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Week III & IV:
Accessioning, Arrangement &
Description
February 16, 2011
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Acquisitions & Accessioning
(Hunter, Chapter Four) Acquisitions
Physical Custody (possession)
Legal Title (ownership)
Five Bases for Acquisition Statue
Administrative Regulation
Records Retention Schedule
Permissive Policy Statement
Acquisition Policy Approved by a GoverningBody
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Three Methods of Acquisition
Transfer Within An Agency or Institution
Purchase
Gift
A Clear Offer
Acceptance of the Offer
Delivery of the Item(s)
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Why Develop An Acquisition Policy?
Collection might be so scattered as tohave no internal unity (chaos reigns)
Might not be a critical mass of
information in any one area to supportresearch
Might squander scarce resources oncollections it probably should not have
acquired in the first place Several repositories may compete in one
collecting area ignoring other areas
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Maynard Brichfords Five Ideals
An institution should collect in areas that Extend research strengths, interests and
needs in a logical manner
Anticipate future research needs
Support the institutions extensive holdingsof published or unpublished materials
Show a high ratio of use to volume and
processing costs (high research value) Do not directly compete with another major
collection in the same region
Maynard Brichford is University Archivist Emeritus at
The University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana
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Six Other Questions from Hunter?
What are the financial resources of thearchives?
How much space do you have?
What is the quality of the staff?
Who are the patrons (both now and in
the future)?
What formats or types of materials would
the archives like to collect?
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Accessions and Accessioning
Act and Procedures involved in Transferof Legal Title and taking records or papers
into the physical custody of an archival
agency Attempt to establish control over a
collection:
Legal Physical
Intellectual
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Legal Control
Oral Agreement (Poorest)
Purchase Agreement
Exchange of Letters (Detail???)
Will (May be unwanted)
Deposit Agreement
Statement of Intent to Transfer Title at some
Date
Deed of Gift Agreement (or Contract)
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Discussion Questions???
Should oral agreements be an acceptable form ofobtaining legal control over archival materials?Should oral agreements only be used as a stop-gap measure until something is put in writing?
When discussing purchase agreements, Huntermentions, the documentation for a purchase maybe as simple as a bill of sale or as complex as aformal contractit is essential that legal consulreview them before signing (103). Which party
absorbs the cost of hiring a lawyer? In whatcircumstances would you require a formalcontract as opposed to a simple bill of sale?
Explain the concept of establishing IntellectualControl over a record. Why is that important to
the archivist?
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Deed of Gift Agreement Basic
Elements:
Name of donor as well as donorsrelationship to the creator of the records
Name of the recipient Date of transfer of title Detail on the materials conveyed by the
deed of gift Transfer of rights to the physical and
intellectual property (most
importantcontrol) Statement of restrictions of use Disposal criteria and authority Signatures of donor and recipient
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Physical Control
Shipping Arrangements
Documenting Receipt of Collections
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Accession Number: 1991 2
ADMINISTRATIVE INFORMATION
Date of Receipt: January 28, 1991
Source Name: Irwin, Bill
Source Address/Phone: 1931 West 74th Avenue, Vancouver, B.C., V6P 7P4, 272-8844
Accession Type: Gift
In event of disposal: discard
Processing Status: Unprocessed
Remarks: Related accessions: 1990 26; 1990 27
Location: 7 4 3 4
DESCRIPTIVE INFORMATIONCannery production and fishing boat photographs [graphic]. -- 1990.
38 photographs.
Bill Irwin is a fisherman and 40-year resident of Steveston.
Accession consists of images of cannery production line technology, fishing vessels and
other cannery industry images.
Provenance: Bill Irwin
Custodial History: NoneArrangement: None
Conditions of Use: None
Access Restrictions: None
Conservation Notes: Re-housing required.
Archivist's signature _________________________ Date _________
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Personal Papers
(Megan Floyd Desnoyers)
Who is Desnoyers?
Supervisory Archivist for the KennedyPresidential Library
Author ofErnest Hemingway: A StorytellersLegacy
Curator of the Ernest HemingwayCollection
Has also worked for the FDR Library as wellas the National Archives
Received her M.L.S. from Rutgers University
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Personal Papers
Differences:
IndividualsPapers
Organizations
Records Acquisitions
Collecting Policy
Solicitation
Initial Control
Processing
Arrangement
Preservation
Screening
Description
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Discussion Questions??? Desnoyers argues that deteriorating documents should be
photocopied and replaced by that copy if the original doesnot hold intrinsic value (pg. 89). If a photocopy replaces theoriginal, then do originals ever really need to be retained?Would it be less expensive in terms of preservation to ditchthe original? If so, what would happen to the concept of thereal thing? Are archivists just getting lazy, not wanting toengage in preservation work? Or are there other factorshere that Desnoyers is not commenting on?
Desnoyers states that archives should not provide financialappraisals for collections. However, the archive does need tohave the collection appraised on their behalf (i.e. insurance).
Can the archive and donor share that appraisal and/or splitthe cost? Is there a difference between an appraised valuefor tax purposes and for insurance purposes?
In her first paragraph, Desnoyers defines three categories ofmanuscripts, the first being bodies or groups of personalpapers with organic unitythe archives of a person, family,
or organization. Why include organization in this definition?
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Arrangement
(Hunter, Chapter 5) Provenance (France, 1840s)
Respect des Fonds (Respect for Property)
Archives of a given records creator must
NOT be intermingled with those of otherrecords creators
Did not catch on immediately in France
(50 years after French Revolution plusmuch trail and error)
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Original Order
Prussian State Archives 1880s
Hunter feels it is the ONLY way to gain
control over large, modern collections
Sounds easy to implement BUT whymight it sometimes be hard to do???
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Five Levels of Arrangement
Repository Gore Ctr, Rutherford Co Archives, National
Archives, etc.
Record Group (Collection) & Subgroup
Political Papers of Sen. Albert Gore or BartGordon
Series File Unit
Most common is file folder Item
A letter, document, report, memo, etc.
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Series
Group of files or documents maintainedtogether as a unit because of somerelationship arising out of their creation
Usually identified by common filing order,subject matter or physical type (example:invoices or minutes)
Most crucial? Why?
Expresses the character of the collection Work on subordinate levels refines the order
Description relies/focuses heavily on series
Researchers are usually directed to specific series
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File Unit
File folders tend to be arranged in one ofseveral common schemes:
Alphabetically (by what)
Chronologically (by what) Geographically
Subject
Numerical
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Arranging a Collection
Prepare to process a collection Review the accession register and other
acquisitions documents
Go through entire collection withoutrearranging anything (take notes!!!)
Develop the processing plan
Sort the collection into series
Process each series to the filing unit level Lock in final arrangement
Prepare a rough box and folder listing
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Ten Hints
Box records yourself prior to transfer When in doubt, chicken out
Remember the test of creation
Records follow function
What do you do if there is no original order? Less ismorestay simple
What about manuscript collections? (Four mainways)
Avoid establishing more than one system within any
one collection Arrange series in order of the value of the
information they contain
Order within file folders
Create folder titles that are complete but terse
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Discussion Questions???
In the Desnoyers article, she argues that there aretwo reasons that original order cannot be used toarrange a manuscript collection. One of thosereasons is that not all original order is rational, norare all people who create/collect papers orderly.
(87). Likewise, Hunter argues, in agreement withFrank Boles, that there is no point maintaining anunusable original order, (126). Should a manuscriptcurator/ an archivist change the order of a collectionsimply because the original order is not rational/ isunusable? Why or Why not?
On a related note, are there any situations in whichthe two primary principles of archival arrangement,provenance and original order, should not or cannotbe used when arranging an archival collection?