6615-Week III-Arrangement and Description

8/6/2019 6615-Week III-Arrangement and Description

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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Support the institutions extensive holdingsof published or unpublished materials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?

6615-Week III-Arrangement and Description

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