Accessioning Photograph Collections

Below are general guidelines for accessioning collections that are entirely or primarily photographs.  Input from Joanne, the curators, and the accessioning team may call for slightly different steps depending on the unique nature of the collection you are accessioning.

When accessioning a collection that contains mostly photographs, you should make an appointment with Joanne to review the material and to make final decisions on how to proceed.  Prior to your meeting, assess the collection to help determine whether the collection should be identified as an MC or PC.  Some questions to think about while reviewing the collection and to address with Joanne:

Is the collection majority photographs?

Is it a collection of a photographer?

Are people/places, etc., in the photographs identified?  (This will help in determining the value of item-level cataloging)

If the collection also contains non-photographic materials, can you tell if the valuable part of the collection is visual?  Do the non-photo materials mostly support the photographic content?

If it’s determined that the collection should be a PC, Joanne will give you the photo number, which will look like PC#  (no space).

There are two possible workflows for Photo Collection description which is mostly dependent on the size of the collection.

If the collection is just a photo album or a few photographs Joanne will want to send the collection out to Imaging Services for digitization.  So, the accessioner does not need to create a bib record for the collection since it will be created in and imported from JSTOR Forum by Joanne.  The accessioner should folder or box (where appropriate) and label the collection and give it to Joanne for cataloging.  She should give Joanne the barcode sheet as well. Joanne will identify where materials will be shelved.

For larger photograph collections (e.g. usually more than one box) the accessioner will be responsible for the descriptive work.  Collections that are open for research use and would benefit from being described more extensively will need a finding aid. As with MC collections, if the collection is closed until processed the accessioner will create only a bib record and maybe an internal container list. For open collections the accessioner can create both the bib record and the online finding aid.

For the bib and FA:

For many small photo collections, the extent is listed at the physical item-level as, for example, 36 stereographs : black and white ; 3.25 x 4.5 in. from Berkshire Knitting Mills Stereographs record.

However, for collections with extensive photographs, the extent can mirror the type of container level description that we use for MC finding aids but there should be some more description about the number and types of photos in the scope note.  For example, see Photographs of Jessie Tarbox Beals

For these larger PC collections, Joanne should review the bib record and finding aid drafts in addition to the accessioning team (bib) and Mark/Kelcy (FA).  The barcode sheet can then go to Johanna, following the same workflow as with MC processing.