SPELL OUT numbers less than 100.    Ex: "He was twenty years at sea… "

Letters vs. correspondence:

• Use “correspondence” to describe back-and-forth communication.    Ex:  "Consists of correspondence with colleagues..."
• Use “letters” to describe one-way communication.    Ex: "Includes letters from Henry Bigelow's son..."

When describing collection/series/subseries use phrases like: 

• Consists of...
• Chiefly consists of....
• Also included are...  / Also includes....
• Do NOT use "Contains..." (only boxes or folders may "contain" items)

Don't use double L's for words with two accepted spellings (in other words, use the preferred American spelling).

• Use "traveled" not "travelled"
• Use "penciled" not "pencilled"
• Use "unlabeled" not "unlabelled"

Geographic locations:

• When referring to a city always include the state using the full state name rather than the abbreviation: New York, New York.
• When referring to an organization (employer, school, etc), always include the the city and state (and country if it is outside the United States): Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts.
• Within a descriptive element, once you have referred to the location of an organization or the state in which a city is located, you do not need to include that information again in a second reference. 

USE “With” and “Accompanied by” as follows: 

• "With" for items that are clearly linked intellectually but are separate physical items, e.g. a letter that says "I am sending you two tickets to my lecture" in a letter with two tickets to a lecture enclosed.
• "Accompanied by" for separate physical items found in an envelope together but which have no clear intellectual link, e.g. a letter about an appointment to go to the doctor and a drawing of a cat. 

USE the following terms as defined: 

• SEMINAR: A small group of students, as in a university, engaged in advanced study and original research under a member of the faculty and meeting regularly to exchange information and hold discussions; a meeting of such a group. 
• CONFERENCE: A meeting for consultation, deliberation, discussion, or interchange of opinions often supporting constituents/membership. 
• SYMPOSIA/SYMPOSIUM: A meeting or conference for the discussion of some subject, esp. a meeting at which several speakers talk on or discuss a topic before an audience. A collection of opinions expressed or articles contributed by several persons on a given subject or topic. 
• WORKSHOP: A seminar, discussion group, or the like, that emphasizes exchange of ideas and the demonstration and application of techniques, skills, etc. 

DON'T USE "a number of," as in, she belong to a number of professional organizations (this is admittedly a minor pet peeve of sedg). Use instead: "numerous," "several," "various," "multiple" etc. as appropriate. 

Naming

Name changes: When writing a Biographical Note, use the name that the creator or secondary subject (people other than the collection creator) primarily used.  

• In cases where a person has changed their name, indicate this by writing “[Primary name] was born [birth name]” (Example A). This does NOT apply to deadnames for people who are transgender.  

• When describing creators’ spouses who changed their surnames after marriage, identify them by their pre-marital name ONLY in the sentence “[Collection creator] married [premarital name] in [year].” In subsequent mentions, use the spouse’s first name only (Example B).  

• When describing other secondary subjects whose names changed after marriage, include the former name in parentheses (Example C). Do not use parentheses if the person used both names after marriage.  

Disambiguation: When a Biographical Note describes secondary subjects who share the last name of the primary subject, it is important to disambiguate in a clear and consistent way.  

• The shared last name should be used to refer to the creator.  

• For secondary subjects with the same last name, use that person’s full name (first and last names) upon first mention. For subsequent mentions, use the secondary subject’s first name only (Example D).  

• If both the creator and the secondary subject are mentioned together, use the creator's first name to avoid confusion (Example E). 

• If the finding aid describes co-creators with the same last name, or equally describes two people with the same last name, use both people's full name (Example F).

• If there is no relationship between the two people who share a last name, clarify by indicating “(no relation).” 

• Do not use personal titles like Dr./Mr./Mrs./Ms./Mx., unless it would clarify the identity of someone whose first name is unknown.

Examples: 

A. Fanny “Fan” Bowditch Katz was born Fanny Bowditch in Boston, Massachusetts in 1874. 

B. Cannon married Cornelia James (1876-1969), a novelist who also advocated for birth-control on eugenics and women’s-rights grounds (3, 4), on June 21, 1901. [...] Walter died on October 1, 1945, in Franklin, New Hampshire, where he and Cornelia owned a vacation home.

C. Walter Bradford Cannon was born on October 19, 1871 in Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin, to Colbert Hanchett Cannon, a railroad official, and Wilma (Denio) Cannon, a high school teacher.  

D. Wright was born on July 23, 1891, in LaGrange, Georgia, the son of Ceah Ketchan Wright and Lula Tompkins. Ceah was born with enslaved status. 

E. The collection contains a significant amount of correspondence with Zerka Toeman Moreno, Moreno’s wife and professional colleague and collaborator. From 1949, Jacob and Zerka worked together personally and professionally. 

F. Together, Robert H. and Suzanne W. Fletcher served as co-directors of the International Clinical Epidemiology Network (INCLEN) training center from 1986 to 1990 at the UNC School of Medicine. The Fletchers co-founded and led the CRN Scholars Program from 2007 to 2012. Suzanne Fletcher’s research focused on breast cancer screening and prevention as well as clinical epidemiology; Robert Fletcher’s research focused on colon cancer prevention, clinical epidemiology, and the effectiveness of peer review in academic journals. 

• L: letter. An unsigned letter in the hand of a clerk or person other than the author. 
• LS: letter signed. A letter in the hand of a person other than the author, but signed by the author. 
• AL: autograph letter. A letter in the hand of the author, but not signed 
• ALS: autograph letter signed. A letter in the hand of and signed by the author. 
• TL: typed letter. Any mechanically reproduced letter, such as mimeograph, offset, ditto, or diazo. Printed letters would more logically be cataloged as broadsides. Include here letters signed with rubber stamp, mimeograph, or any other artificial means of reproducing the author's signature. 
• TLS: typed letter signed. A typed letter signed by the author 
• D: document. Any paper of legal or official nature such as an indenture, deed, certificate, receipt, etc. Include here printed documents of the type described above with manuscript additions. Also include documents signed by a clerk or other person in the name of the author. 
• DS: document signed. A document written by another person, but signed by the author. 
• AD: autograph document. A document written by the author, but not signed. 
• ADS: autograph document signed. A document written and signed by the author. 
• TD: typed document. Typed or other mechanically reproduced (except printed) document. 
• TDS: typed document signed. Typed document signed by the author. 
• MS: manuscript. Unsigned manuscript, non-legal or nonofficial, in hand of a person other than the author. (Older records may have the variant Ms.) 
• AM: autograph manuscript. Non-legal or nonofficial papers such as speeches, biographical sketches, sermons, reminiscences, writings, and other items of a generally narrative nature, in the hand of the author but unsigned. 
• AMS: autograph manuscript signed. Manuscript in the hand of and signed by the author. (Older records may have the variant AMsS.) 
• TMs: typed manuscript. Typed manuscript not signed by the author. 
• TMsS: typed manuscript signed. Typed manuscript signed by the author. 
• C: card. Postcard, picture postcard, or greeting card. 
• AC: autograph card. Unsigned handwritten card or message on a printed greeting card. 
• ACS: autograph card signed. Any card with a handwritten message by the author and signed. 
• TC: typed card. An unsigned typed postcard or printed greeting card. 
• TCS: typed card signed. Entire card, or a message, typed and signed by the author. 
• AN: autograph note. Any unsigned fragment. This designation is rarely used, and then only to identify a manuscript in the hand of a famous person. 
• ANS: autograph note signed. A line or two, at most a page, or any fragment that could not be classified as AMsS, such as signed memorandum. 
• TN: typed note. Any unsigned typescript fragment . 
• TNS: typed note signed. A signed typescript fragment. 
  

Legacy institution names

When referring to a historic institution that is now closed or has a different name, use the historic name with the updated name in parentheses.

Examples:

Wright graduated as the 1912 valedictorian of Clark University (now called Clark Atlanta University), Atlanta, Georgia, a school founded to primarily serve African American students. (Louis Tompkins Wright papers, re-described by Charlotte Lellman)

Between 1951 and 1985, Murray served as Director of the Surgical Research Laboratory at Harvard Medical School and at Peter Bent Brigham Hospital (now Brigham and Women’s Hospital). (Joseph E. Murray papers, processed by Bryan Sutherland)