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Current practice at the Schlesinger is for the curators (Kathy, Kenvi, and Susan) to do all communicating with donors before material arrives at the Library. They should have an idea of what is coming when, and theoretically hopefully they may have sent a copy of our (very basic) container list spreadsheet for the donor to fill out. When curators communicate with the accessioning archivist, they are Curators seem to be in the habit of filling out an accessioning worksheet that gives asks for some information about restrictions, whether they expect more accruals, etc. (I think this worksheet could eventually use some updating, but is fine for now). Curators don't always pass on all the information archivists may need to make accessioning decisions; thus archivists should be in the habit of reading through any available paperwork or correspondence and/or having a conversation with the curator about the material if they need more information. Current record keeping practice is for deeds of gift to be scanned and added to DOG tracker. This may not have happened when accessioning occurs - so archivists should ask curators for a copy of the deed if they need it.
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The Harvard Joint Processing Guidelines contain suggested accessioning practices, at Schlesinger we will do our best to accession material to an optimal level. One of the key points of the Joint Processing Guidelines is that "good accessioning can result in collections processed to a Level 1."
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- all small As and Bs
- smaller collections (1 to 2 file boxes) with no restrictions that are well described in a bibliographic record
- collections of any size with no restrictions, and materials in folders that have a (however basic) online container list
We should strive attempt to make an online container list for any new accession that is open to research and larger than a small A or B. This will help us going forward as our systems shift and change and collections that are open to research become requestable to researchers through Aeon (using an ASpace resource record and inventory). See the separate page on accessioning work with new collections for further specific guidance.
Recent examples of collections with online container lists made upon accessioning include Dorothy Frauenhofer papers, Jennifer Finney Boylan papers, Ana Maria Simo papers (all container lists should be online in December).
Reasons to close collections to research on accession:
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Collections that are closed to research until processed may still benefit from the creation of a container list - in this case, it's the future archivist we are helping here. As larger collections come in, and the space we have in which to process is shrinking, we should record as much information as possible at the point of accession.
Recent example of this are the two Cyril Means container lists on G.
Anne's other comments on random occurrences:
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