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Hi Rachel, 

I am in the same boat. I have found a lot of great information in Organizing Archival Records by David W. Carmicheal.


They explain both methods and help to identify what works best for each archival. It has example documents for what it talks about to. 

Can't recommend enough!

Shelby

------------------------------
Shelby Miller
Curator/Dr. of Education and Outreach
Galena History Museum
Galena IL
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 07-16-2019 02:56 PM
From: Rachel Regelein
Subject: Numbering archival documents

We are a small history museum with thousands of documents, from letters and  personal records to legal papers. My question is how far down should we label and record individual documents? Does each document need to be separately numbered and cataloged, or can they be grouped together (e.g. personal records of John Doe including topics such as x, y, and z) in folders?

Thank you!

--

Rachel Regelein

Registrar and Collections Manager

Log House Museum

Pronouns: she/her/hers

www.loghousemuseum.org

(206) 350 - 0999

Operating Hours: 12- 4pm Thursdays - Sundays

Rachael,

The answer, regretfully, is it that it depends, largely on the documents and collections.

In most cases, numbering (if you mean describing) down to the folder level (which would contain like documents, say a set of correspondence) would be the most granular one would have to go. But, depending on the CMS, one may only need to go to the collection level (due to its size or content). On the other hand, one may have a case where each item should be numbered due to its higher historical value, tracking needs, or some other criteria.

A solid, basic book like Shelby recommended will go a long way. Another helpful set of reading are selections from the Archival Fundamentals Series published by the Society of American Archivists (SAA). Finally, bringing in an archivist for a consult might be another avenue as they could give you a better idea once they've laid eyes on the collection. 

Let me know if you would like to speak further.

Best,

------------------------------
Marc Levitt MLS
Archivist
National Naval Aviation Museum
NAS Pensacola FL
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 07-16-2019 02:56 PM
From: Rachel Regelein
Subject: Numbering archival documents

We are a small history museum with thousands of documents, from letters and  personal records to legal papers. My question is how far down should we label and record individual documents? Does each document need to be separately numbered and cataloged, or can they be grouped together (e.g. personal records of John Doe including topics such as x, y, and z) in folders?

Thank you!

--

Rachel Regelein

Registrar and Collections Manager

Log House Museum

Pronouns: she/her/hers

www.loghousemuseum.org

(206) 350 - 0999

Operating Hours: 12- 4pm Thursdays - Sundays

Hi Rachael,

In addition to the Archival Fundamentals Series, which is great, I recommend checking out DACS (Describing Archives: A Content Standard). It's also put out by SAA and I refer to it all the time when processing collections!

Very rarely in my experience do you need to go to item-level description, folder level almost always suffices, which is key as a lone arranger because otherwise I would do nothing but process all day every day! The one major exception is that if you want to digitize the collection, you will need to describe it to the item-level. Feel free to email off list if you have any questions about this or about using DACS most effectively.

All the best,
Emily

------------------------------
Emily Pastore, MLIS
Archives and Collections Manager
Sealaska Heritage Institute
Juneau AK
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 07-17-2019 10:39 AM
From: Marc Levitt
Subject: Numbering archival documents

Rachael,

The answer, regretfully, is it that it depends, largely on the documents and collections.

In most cases, numbering (if you mean describing) down to the folder level (which would contain like documents, say a set of correspondence) would be the most granular one would have to go. But, depending on the CMS, one may only need to go to the collection level (due to its size or content). On the other hand, one may have a case where each item should be numbered due to its higher historical value, tracking needs, or some other criteria.

A solid, basic book like Shelby recommended will go a long way. Another helpful set of reading are selections from the Archival Fundamentals Series published by the Society of American Archivists (SAA). Finally, bringing in an archivist for a consult might be another avenue as they could give you a better idea once they've laid eyes on the collection.

Let me know if you would like to speak further.

Best,

------------------------------
Marc Levitt MLS
Archivist
National Naval Aviation Museum
NAS Pensacola FL

Original Message:
Sent: 07-16-2019 02:56 PM
From: Rachel Regelein
Subject: Numbering archival documents

We are a small history museum with thousands of documents, from letters and  personal records to legal papers. My question is how far down should we label and record individual documents? Does each document need to be separately numbered and cataloged, or can they be grouped together (e.g. personal records of John Doe including topics such as x, y, and z) in folders?

Thank you!

--

Rachel Regelein

Registrar and Collections Manager

Log House Museum

Pronouns: she/her/hers

www.loghousemuseum.org

(206) 350 - 0999

Operating Hours: 12- 4pm Thursdays - Sundays

Original Message------

Hi Rachael,

In addition to the Archival Fundamentals Series, which is great, I recommend checking out DACS (Describing Archives: A Content Standard). It's also put out by SAA and I refer to it all the time when processing collections!

Very rarely in my experience do you need to go to item-level description, folder level almost always suffices, which is key as a lone arranger because otherwise I would do nothing but process all day every day! The one major exception is that if you want to digitize the collection, you will need to describe it to the item-level. Feel free to email off list if you have any questions about this or about using DACS most effectively.

All the best,
Emily

------------------------------
Emily Pastore, MLIS
Archives and Collections Manager
Sealaska Heritage Institute
Juneau AK
------------------------------

As Marc noted, you may want to have a consult.  As the archivist for Glencairn Museum, we generally don't catalog individual items (with certain exceptions).  Using a hierarchy will help you create subdivisions that can be described on a group level.  For example: Collection - Personal papers of Dr. John Doe,  with a description of that collection ("Letters and journals belonging to Dr. Doe.  Major topics include WWI, climbing Mr. Everest and Petey, his pet parrot.").  A lot depends on if you are using software (Past Perfect?  MS Access?  Excel?) to do your cataloging.  We use specialized archival software, but it may not be the right solution for a small historical society.  Happy to help any way I can (I used to be on the board of a couple small historical societies and ran a historic house museum.)

Greg Jackson, CA
Bryn Athyn Historic District Archives
Glencairn Museum

------------------------------
Gregory Jackson
Archivist
Glencairn Museum, Academy of The New Church
Bryn Athyn PA
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 07-16-2019 02:56 PM
From: Rachel Regelein
Subject: Numbering archival documents

We are a small history museum with thousands of documents, from letters and  personal records to legal papers. My question is how far down should we label and record individual documents? Does each document need to be separately numbered and cataloged, or can they be grouped together (e.g. personal records of John Doe including topics such as x, y, and z) in folders?

Thank you!

--

Rachel Regelein

Registrar and Collections Manager

Log House Museum

Pronouns: she/her/hers

www.loghousemuseum.org

(206) 350 - 0999

Operating Hours: 12- 4pm Thursdays - Sundays

Hi Rachel,

One of the things I would say first is that to label and catalogue each individual document is going to take forever and cause a lot of aggravation, and I would not recommend it. Most archives do not catalogue and describe to the individual document, rather they stop at the folder level like your John Doe example.

I know it might be a moot point already depending on how your records are stored but keeping the records in their original order (how the creator of the records had them stored) is very important when labeling and cataloguing them. Sometimes the way that the creator had their files stored tells a researcher more about that person or organization than the information in the documents. So I would definitely recommend having boxes labeled along the lines of "John Doe Papers, 2018-2019 Box 1" and then documents pertaining to John Doe in that box would be labeled things like "Correspondences from March to April 2018" and "Documents pertaining to lectures". 

I hope that makes sense!

If you need clarification or have any more questions feel free to email me at rachelemoats@gmail.com

------------------------------
Rachel Moats
Archives Technician, QualX Corporation
Masters of Information Archives and Records Management
Masters of Museum Studies
Rachelemoats@gmail.com
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 07-16-2019 02:56 PM
From: Rachel Regelein
Subject: Numbering archival documents

We are a small history museum with thousands of documents, from letters and  personal records to legal papers. My question is how far down should we label and record individual documents? Does each document need to be separately numbered and cataloged, or can they be grouped together (e.g. personal records of John Doe including topics such as x, y, and z) in folders?

Thank you!

--

Rachel Regelein

Registrar and Collections Manager

Log House Museum

Pronouns: she/her/hers

www.loghousemuseum.org

(206) 350 - 0999

Operating Hours: 12- 4pm Thursdays - Sundays

It might also be useful for you to look at More Product, Less Process by Mark A. Greene and Dennis Meissner, which describes a different approach to archival processing, that doesn't drill down to the item level.    For funding assistance you could apply for a Preservation Assistance Grant for Smaller Institutions from the NEH; the next deadline is January 2020.

------------------------------
Janice Klein
EightSixSix Consulting

Tempe AZ
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 07-17-2019 05:39 PM
From: Rachel Moats
Subject: Numbering archival documents

Hi Rachel,

One of the things I would say first is that to label and catalogue each individual document is going to take forever and cause a lot of aggravation, and I would not recommend it. Most archives do not catalogue and describe to the individual document, rather they stop at the folder level like your John Doe example.

I know it might be a moot point already depending on how your records are stored but keeping the records in their original order (how the creator of the records had them stored) is very important when labeling and cataloguing them. Sometimes the way that the creator had their files stored tells a researcher more about that person or organization than the information in the documents. So I would definitely recommend having boxes labeled along the lines of "John Doe Papers, 2018-2019 Box 1" and then documents pertaining to John Doe in that box would be labeled things like "Correspondences from March to April 2018" and "Documents pertaining to lectures".

I hope that makes sense!

If you need clarification or have any more questions feel free to email me at rachelemoats@gmail.com

------------------------------
Rachel Moats
Archives Technician, QualX Corporation
Masters of Information Archives and Records Management
Masters of Museum Studies
Rachelemoats@gmail.com

Original Message:
Sent: 07-16-2019 02:56 PM
From: Rachel Regelein
Subject: Numbering archival documents

We are a small history museum with thousands of documents, from letters and  personal records to legal papers. My question is how far down should we label and record individual documents? Does each document need to be separately numbered and cataloged, or can they be grouped together (e.g. personal records of John Doe including topics such as x, y, and z) in folders?

Thank you!

--

Rachel Regelein

Registrar and Collections Manager

Log House Museum

Pronouns: she/her/hers

www.loghousemuseum.org

(206) 350 - 0999

Operating Hours: 12- 4pm Thursdays - Sundays