claudia’s presentation · film video. archives and manuscript collections archival activities:...

Archives and Manuscript Collections

Archives: Records of an organization or governmental entity with lasting value. They usually come to the archives filed in an organized file system and are saved because of their legal, evidentiary, or historical value.

Definitions:


Manuscript Collections: Personal papers collected by an individual. These often come to the depository without an observable organization and are saved because they have important cultural value.

Definitions:


Multiple Formats:

Electronic Records: Storage medium

and software necessary to read files

Petroglyphs Stone Tablets Papyrus

Paper: Letters, memoranda, diaries,

newspapers, financial and legal records

Photographs Audio Recordings: Wax cylinders,

vinyl records, analog tape, compact disks

Film Video


Archival Activities:

• Accessioning and Appraisal of Materials

• Arrangement and Organization

• Description; Creation of Finding Aid

• Preservation

• Reference Services to Provide Access


Accessioning and Appraisal of Materials:

Keep careful solicitation and accession records. •Get deeds of gifts on collections. •The deed should specify any restrictions, allow for disposition of unwanted materials, and specify what rights (such as copyright) are transferred with the physical property. •Beware of taking collections “on deposit.” •Be sure the donor has legal title to the materials.

Physically evaluate the materials before bringing them into your institution. Be sure they are free of mold and insects.


Guiding Principles of Archival Arrangement:

Provenance: •Maintain materials from a creator together.•Maintaining the provenance of a collection will:

•provide historical context,•allow us to learn about the creator,•enhance evidentiary value.

Original Order, also known as “Respect des fonds”: Maintain original order unless it cannot be discerned.

•This will make the collection more useable,•provide additional context for each document, •contribute to ease of retrieval,•provide evidence of the work process.


Arrangement:

• Archival collections are usually divided into logical “series” either by activities, chronology, or record types. For example:

• Financial records• Contracts• Inventory records• Correspondence files• Personnel records.

• Manuscript collections may be divided into series by document types, functions, topics, or other logical divisions. If a manuscript collection has no arrangement, the archivist will have to devise an arrangement plan to make the collection useable.


Arrangement:

• “Do no harm”: If you rearrange materials keep a record of the changes; make sure changes can be reversed.

• Weed out duplicates and unwanted materials.

• When the materials have been arranged, be sure they are stored in properly labeled folders and boxes.


Arrangement:


Elements:•Name of the collection•Accession number •Donor and provenance information•Volume in linear and/or cubic feet•Inclusive dates of the collection•Biographic or institutional information•Collection Scope and Content Note can include:

•reason for creation of the collection,•information about arrangement,•topics covered by collection,•significant people and events, and•Types of documents found in the collection, such as correspondence, memoranda, newspaper clippings, photographs, maps, and ledgers. (These are sometimes covered in a separate note rather than the scope and content note.)

•Series titles/descriptions•Box and folder lists.

Description and Creation of Finding Aids


Sample Finding Aid


• Unfold materials, flatten them, and place them in acid free folders.• Substitute photocopies made on bond paper for newspaper clippings.• Place fragile documents in archival polyethylene or mylar sleeves.• Label folders preserving original folder titles and information found on the folder.• Re-house the collection using acid-free manuscript boxes.• You may want to remove or replace staples, particularly if they are rusting.• Use “spacers” to assure that folders of documents do not “slump” in the box.• Store the collection where there are adequate temperature and humidity controls.

Preservation


Preservation

Newsprint Thermo-fax Thermo-fax


Good descriptions and finding aids are the keys:

•to maintaining intellectual control of the collection and •to providing access.

Providing Access


• Create collection, series and item level description. • Problems presented by AV collections:

• Obsolete Media• Obsolete Technologies/Playback Machines

• Opportunities for digitization of dynamic media• Storage of AV materials.

Audiovisual Collections

President Johnson and Tom WatsonMarch 16, 19654:19pm



• Society of American Archivists (SAA)

• Society of Southwest Archivists (SSA)

• Association of Moving Image Archivists (AMIA)

• Association of Recorded Sound Collections (ARSC)

• American Institute for Conservation (AIC)

• Amigos Library Services

• Northeast Document Conservation Center (NEDCC)

Resources

claudia’s presentation · film video. archives and manuscript collections archival activities:...

Documents