Control Files
Most repositories maintain physical or digital administrative files for each collection. Control files typically contain gift or acquisition agreements, relevant correspondence with donors or dealers, preliminary file lists or other descriptions, collection summaries from the point of acquisition, name authority work documentation, and preliminary research materials. Wherever or how these files are kept, it is important that they are kept and maintained in a place that is accessible to all staff. Control files are a central resource for collection documentation and often the first place to start research when processing.
Accruals
An accrual, sometimes called an accretion, is additional material that forms part of an existing collection but arrives at a repository separately. Integrating accruals both physically and intellectually with related collection material is time-consuming. Because of this, a majority of accruals may remain unprocessed and inaccessible. With a few small adjustments to accessioning workflows, accruals, just like any accessioned material, need not enter into a processing backlog.
A time-saving measure can be to create a separate series for the accrual in the existing finding aid. The series can remain unprocessed, accessible only at the series level, or it can be minimally arranged and described assuring access beyond the series level. The collection level description can be updated to reflect any changes to extent, date, and scope and content.
Facilitating Accessioning as Processing
By maximizing communication and coordination with staff responsible for acquiring collections, technical services staff has the opportunity to streamline description by repurposing already collected data into accession records, bibliographic records, and finding aids, thus making accessions publicly accessible in a much faster and more efficient timeframe.
Aiming to accession materials at the optimum level may require staff who acquire collections to share notes on donor interactions, compile insights on how the collection was packed or transferred, and ask donors and/or transferring offices to create box/folders lists.
Repurposing Preliminary Description
Collection Summaries/Acquisition Reports
Collection summaries or acquisition reports created by acquisitions staff can be customized to accompany all types of accessions, including personal papers, university records, and records of associated organizations.
These documents provide contextual information for accessions, including historical and provenance details, highlights of the collections, related collections at the acquiring institution and beyond, and potential hazards or preservation issues. The information recorded in this documentation may give technical services staff additional information which could affect the manner in which it is described.
Research and public services staff may also find summaries and acquisition reports very helpful for providing reference assistance to accessioned (but minimally processed) material.
Lists Generated by Donor, Dealer, and Transferring Office
By acquiring or creating these lists at the point of accession, intellectual control of the collection or records is attained, and technical services staff can manipulate this data into finding aids and make it discoverable to users.
Depending on the donor, it can be advantageous to ask the donor or assisting party to create a box or folder list for the acquisition. Technical services staff can provide a template with instructions, and the donor can fill in the requested information. If this is not possible, acquisitions staff, and often student workers, can list these accessions at the box and/or folder level upon arrival at the repository. In essence, any documentation received from the donor can greatly assist in both accessioning and further downstream in processing.
Similarly, when working with offices on campus to transfer their records, archivists should recognize that these are Harvard University records that are subject to Harvard University restrictions preventing access to the records for fifty to eighty years, depending on content. By a Harvard Corporation vote of 1995, University records “include all forms of recorded information regardless of physical characteristics, created, received, recorded, or legally filed in the course of University business or in pursuance of the University’s legal obligations.” When acquiring these records, archivists should consult the General Records Schedule to determine the permanent disposition of the records once their retention period has passed since the GRS applies to all faculties and academic centers, departments, affiliates and allied institutions, projects, and initiatives of the University.
Requiring an office to submit an electronic box and folder list to transfer records to the repository can save staff time especially for these University records which may not be available to researchers for several decades. It also allows for easier GRS review of the contents by archivists and more streamlined access to the records for research and public services staff fielding questions from the transferring office after accessioning.