Processing Levels
- Betts Coup
A level of processing is a designation that includes a set of practices to employ on any given collection or portion of a collection. Each processing level dictates the amount of arrangement, description, preservation & housing, and appraisal the archivist should perform on the collection.
Generally speaking, you will process with arrangement, description, appraisal, and preservation in harmony. However, it’s important to keep in mind that there may be instances when the level to which you appraise, arrange, describe, and preserve materials within a collection may not always match. For instance, a collection may contain a box of audiovisual material that you describe individually at the item level but you don’t physically arrange at all nor do you perform any preservation measures.
Houghton processes at three levels, in keeping with the Joint Processing Guidelines:
Level I
Arrangement: little to no physical arrangement, if easily identifiable, series and/or boxes may be put into rough order
Description: collection level MARC record and collection level finding aid, finding aid may
contain a listing of boxes and box contents, or a series structure
Preservation and Housing: little to no rehousing or preservation, collection may be reboxed if unusable in current boxes; house loose items, replace binders, folders, envelopes only if unserviceable.
Appraisal: no appraisal, if privacy is a concern, restrict entire collection or applicable
series and review for users on demand
All new accessions will be processed to Level I.
Examples of Level I processing:Peter Whitmer papers, Richard Fuller papers
Level II
Arrangement: put folders in rough order. Preserve original order when usable. Perform rough sort of loose items
Description: collection level MARC record, more detailed finding aid including file
listings. Reuse existing description when possible. Subject analysis and authority control at collection level and if appropriate at the level to which subject/agent best applies
Preservation and Housing: reuse existing boxes and folders when possible, collection
materials can be refoldered or reboxed if unusable in current condition
Appraisal: appraise at the folder level, avoid finer weeding, segregate folders with privacy concerns
Most collections will be processed to Level II.
Examples of Level II processing: Christopher Durang papers, Jamaica Kincaid papers
Level III
Arrangement: Put folders in order, impose new organization scheme if necessary or
make significant improvements, sort loose items into folders
Description: collection level MARC record, detailed finding aid with exhaustive file level
description, subject analysis and authority control beyond collection level
Preservation and Housing: fully rehouse folders and boxes, comprehensively address
fragile items, reformat audiovisual material, image born digital material
Appraisal: item level weeding appropriate, segregate items with privacy concern
Level III processing will be rare and usually justified by high research value or
accompanying funding.
Examples of Level III processing: Maurice Blanchot papers, José María Castañé collection of Sergei Smirnov photographs
A collection may have portions that are processed to one level and other portions processed to a different level. For instance, a series of high research value correspondence may be more fully arranged and described to a Level III. While a series of printed ephemera might fall into Level I or II. The Elena Bonner papers and the George Hoyningen Huene papers are good examples of collection with series processed to different levels.