Contents



1. Introduction -1-

Manual Mission Statement -1-

Acknowledgments and Personnel -1-

Project Scope and Background -1-

Collection Conditions at Onset of Project -1-

2. Collection Processing Procedures -2-

Initial Survey -2-

Identifying Collections: Provenance and Original Order -2-

Definition of Collections -2-

Identification of the Museum's Collections -3-

Some Examples of Collections -3-

3. Accessioning Collections -4-

The Accession Form -4-

Donor Forms -4-

Assigning Collection (Catalogue) Numbers -4-

4. Collection Description and Finding Aids -5-

Collection Description -5-

Finding Aids -5-

Database Entry -5-

Advantages of a Database Approach -6-

5. Preservation Concerns -6-

Northeast Document Conservation Center -6-

Stabilizing Photographs -7-

A Word of Caution -8-

6. Collection Use -8-

Promoting Collection Use -8-

Reproduction of Photographic Materials -9-

Copyright Issues -10-

Scanning -10-

Security -10-

Appendix I: Cataloging Projects -12-

Appendix II: New Acquisitions -13-

Appendix III: Sample Forms -14-

Appendix IV: Bibliography -19-

Appendix V: Organizational Resources -20-

Appendix VI: Archival Product Vendors -21-



Collection Processing Procedures

A sample Accession Form appears in the Appendices.



Collection Description and Finding Aids

Finding aids are a result of processing, in one sense the goal of processing, and vital to promoting use and information retrieval. A finding aid may be defined as "The descriptive media, published and unpublished, created by an archival repository, to establish physical or administrative and intellectual control over records and other holdings." (Keeping Archives, Ann Pederson, p. 361). Finding aids include databases, library catalogues, inventories, item lists, indices, and collection guides. For this project, we created a database and produced a guide to the collections based on their records in the database.



Database Entry

Information on the collection may either be entered directly into an electronic database or a worksheet may be filled out first. We have provided a worksheet for use if this is the method chosen. Our worksheet is a printout of the database entry form. This facilitates data input. If the computer is in the collections storage area, as ours was during the project, it may be easier and more efficient to enter material directly into the database using the on-screen input form. If a person with little knowledge of the material (or of the database) is doing the data entry, it may be preferable to have them work from a worksheet completed by (or at least reviewed by) someone more knowledgeable. A sample of our database entry form appears in Appendix III.