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Before beginning work on the processing plan, review the different models of processing addenda.
doing so, and determine which one It may be obvious to you which model most suits the collection you have. 're working with. If not, take a look at the issues and prompts below in the processing plan, and see if those make it clearer.
Questions to ask include:
What Has any of the addenda I am I processing ? Has any of it been publicly listed (on OASIS)?
Has A/V been processed separately before?
Will I add A/V to those collections or incorporate here?
Have photographs already been cataloged?
Has material in an existing finding aid been digitized and are there many digital objects linked in the finding aid?
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Existing folders, description, order:
FIRST describe the state of the existing collection, then the unprocessed addenda.
Example: A finding aid was created in 1995 for 10 accessions; this is online with a call number made of accession numbers. The material was arranged in 10 series. This material is in a mixture of legal and letter-size folders, and is housed in cartons. Folders are numbered sequentially (1-100) and there is a container list in the finding aid. 4 cartons of addenda include material in folders grouped by project title.
Example: A finding aid was created in 2010. It has an MC# and folders are numbered in the #1.2 fashion. There is a separate finding aid for audiovisual material. Addenda contains 2 cartons of unfoldered board minutes, and 1 carton of audiotapes.
Does any of this exist? Is the material in folders? Are most of the folders titled? Will you use the donor's titles in the inventory, or put the donor's titles in quotation marks? Has the donor grouped material in any way you can discern (binders, colored folders, etc.)?
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Photographs from some older finding aids may have been digitized.Check HOLLIS to see if this is the case for the finding aid you are working on. If photos have been digitized, changing the call number and/or the folder umbers numbers may affect these digitized photographs. Discuss options with your team lead and Joanne if necessary.
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In past years, collections that were reprocessed or had addenda added to them may have been kept in the chronologically numbered folders (1-2300, not 1.1, 1.2). For many recently processed collections of addenda, Ellen has asked that archivists change the entire numbering schema to our current 1#1.1 way. Every collection is different and may have unique challenges. Recommend what you think is the best way forward and then discuss possibilities with your team lead and with Ellen if necessary.
ARRANGEMENT
Propose arrangement for the material you are working with. Depending on the model you are following, this may be more or less important. Sometimes you might add all or most addenda into a new series. Sometimes you migth list folders intellectually where they belong and file at the end. See non-addenda processing plan for more on arrangement if you need more prompts of how to think about this section.
Propose an arrangement for the collection. Make sure to include the general sizes of each series. Ideally, you should list the series with sizes, and then underneath provide a more complete description of what kinds of materials will go in each series.
LESS IS MORE: Small collections (2 LF and below) may not need any kind of series arrangement, depending on their content.
In the general scope above, you may have said the collection contained correspondence. Here is the place to note that it contains extensive correspondence with Andrea Dworkin. (And you should be that specific). If you have only popped open the lids of cartons and looked at the folder titles, you are not ready to write a processing plan.
EXAMPLE:
Series I. Biographical and Personal (4 cartons)
Series II. Diaries (7 cartons)
Series III. Correspondence (12 cartons)
Series IV. Writings (3 cartons, 2 file boxes)
Series V. Photographs (6 cartons, 8 folio boxes)
In this example, each series would be more fully described below. You can also intersperse the series descriptions with the list should you prefer. The description of Series III might include information about the correspondents, rough dates of the correspondence, some topics covered in the letters, etc. as well as information about the physical realities of the series, e.g.: "most filed alphabetically in letterboxes"; "most correspondence is loose"; "all correspondence is in labeled folders"; etc.
Please also give an indication of how material will be arranged in series.
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Mainly this section is meant to give the processor and their team lead an idea of when the work may be complete, as well as help plan for any future meetings or check-ins. It is meant to be an estimate, but can also be a way to determine which parts of processing go more or less quickly for each archivist.
It can be a good idea to build timeframes into the above workplan to help you plan your time. For example "Refolder and describe Series I (4 days)." Plotting this out can help you plan your work, as well as assist you in noting what particular tasks take the longest in general for you, or for each specific collection. Being able to plan and then reassess and adjust work timetables is an important project management skill for archivists.
SUPPLIES
Do you need letter size boxes or folders? Acid-free paper for interleaving? Anything out of the ordinary should be noted. If the collection is large and you need a stamp, make sure to note that.
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