Historic Record Keeping Practices

Note: wherever "Houghton" is referenced, it should be understood to include all curatorial departments, unless practices differ and are noted separately.

Beginning in July 1, 2006, the Manuscript Section has made accession records in MARC format for all curatorial departments. The previous database, HMA (Houghton Manuscript Accessions, an Access database created for the Manuscript Department ca. 1999 from the original MARC-based BibBase), was frozen at that time. (Bonnie Salt completed a project to create MARC records for all earlier materials appearing only in HMA.) Until approximately 2006, the Harvard Theatre Collection maintained separate accessioning practices and files; these are not covered in detail here but will be cited below where necessary for clarification.

In recent years accessioning became a backlog-preventive measure. Since April 1, 2011, preliminary box lists for accessioned collections were posted to OASIS (pending curatorial review). Legacy box lists in Word and other formats were occasionally converted to EAD and ingested into ArchivesSpace.

Until June 30, 2017 every item, collection, or collection accrual entering Houghton received a MARC accession record; collections of approximately two or more boxes may, additionally, have received a box list in EAD. Both of these records were derivative of the rules for full, standards-compliant Houghton cataloging of single items and collections.

Philosophy

Workflows

New Collection (Gift)

Material donated to Houghton for which we have no related gifts or purchases

• Collection materials comes to Houghton/HD via the collecting curator

• Collecting curator fills out web form

• Accessioning archivist creates accession record in ArchivesSpace

• Accessioning archivist spawns accession record into resource record in ArchivesSpace

• Accessioning archivist assigns call number

• Accessioning archivist creates baseline level access to collection

• Accessioning archivist creates event record in ArchivesSpace; marks collection as minimally processed

• Accessioning archivist exports MARCxml and ingests into Aleph

New Collection (Purchase)

Material purchased by Houghton for which we have no related gifts or purchases

• Collection materials comes to Houghton/HD via the collecting curator

• Collecting curator fills out web form

• Acquisitions creates stub MARC record in Aleph

• Accessioning archivist exports MARCxml from Aleph and imports into ArchivesSpace accession record

• Accessioning archivist spawns accession record into resource record in ArchivesSpace

• Accessioning archivist assigns call number

• Accessioning archivist creates baseline level access to collection

• Accessioning archivist creates event record in ArchivesSpace; marks collection as minimally processed

• Accessioning archivist updates Aleph record

Accrual to a Processed Collection (Gift)

Material donated to Houghton for which we have a related collection that has been described in a finding aid

• Collection materials comes to Houghton/HD via the collecting curator

• Collecting curator fills out web form

• Accessioning archivist creates accession record in ArchivesSpace

• Accessioning archivist links accession record to related resource record in ArchivesSpace

• Accessioning archivist adds accrual as series to related resource record

• Accessioning archivist updates existing Aleph record

Accrual to an Unprocessed Collection (Gift)

Material donated to Houghton for which we have related collection(s) that have not been described in a finding aid

• Collection materials come to Houghton/HD via the collecting curator

• Collecting curator fills out web form

• Accessioning archivist creates accession record in ArchivesSpace

• Accessioning archivist spawns accession record into resource record

• Accessioning archivist assigns call number

• Accessioning archivist finds all related unprocessed accessions

• Accessioning archivist exports MARCxml for all accession records in Aleph and imports them into accession records in ArchivesSpace

• Accessioning archivist links all accession records to related resource record in ArchivesSpace

• Accessioning archivist describes each accession as a series in resource record

• Accessioning archivist, in conjunction with end processing, assigns new and consecutive box numbers to collection

• Accessioning archivist updates existing Aleph record

• Accessioning archivist cleans old accession records in Aleph, transferring necessary information, alerting Associate Library for Technical Services about consolidation

Accrual to a Processed Collection (Purchase)

Material purchased by Houghton for which we have a related collection that has been described in a finding aid

• Collection materials comes to Houghton/HD via the collecting curator

• Collecting curator fills out web form

• Acquisitions links invoice to appropriate Aleph record

• Accessioning archivist creates accession record in ArchivesSpace

• Accessioning archivist links accession record to related resource record in ArchivesSpace

• Accessioning archivist adds accrual as series to related resource record

• Accessioning archivist updates existing Aleph record

Accrual to an Unprocessed Collection (Purchase)

Material purchased by Houghton for which we have related collection(s) that have not been described in a finding aid

• Collection materials come to Houghton/HD via the collecting curator

• Collecting curator fills out web form

• Acquisitions links invoice to appropriate Aleph record

• Accessioning archivist creates accession record in ArchivesSpace

• Accessioning archivist spawns accession record into resource record

• Accessioning archivist assigns call number

• Accessioning archivist finds all related unprocessed accessions

• Accessioning archivist exports MARCxml for all accession records in Aleph and imports them into accession records in ArchivesSpace

• Accessioning archivist links all accession records to related resource record in ArchivesSpace

• Accessioning archivist describes each accession as a series in resource record

• Accessioning archivist, in conjunction with end processing, assigns new and consecutive box numbers to collection

• Accessioning archivist updates existing Aleph record

• Accessioning archivist cleans old accession records in Aleph, transferring necessary information, alerting Associate Library for Technical Services about consolidation and clean-up with invoices

Single Item (Gift)

Single item donated to Houghton that will be individually cataloged in Aleph

• Item comes to Houghton via the collecting curator

• Curator fills out the web form

• Accessioning archivist creates accession record in ArchivesSpace 

Single Item (Purchase)

Single item purchased by Houghton that will be individually cataloged in Aleph

• Item comes to Houghton via the collecting curator

• Curator fills out the web form

• Acquisitions creates stub MARC record in Aleph

• Accessioning archivist exports MARCxml and imports into accession record in ArchivesSpace

• Accessioning archivist assigns call number

• Accessioning archivist updates Aleph record

• Accessioning archivist routes item to manuscript cataloger

Catchall (Gift)

Single item donated to Houghton that will be incorporated into an existing catchall finding aid

• Item comes to Houghton via the collecting curator

• Curator fills out the web form

• Accessioning archivist creates accession record in ArchivesSpace

• Accessioning archivist describes item in catchall finding aid

• Accessioning archivist updates Aleph record if appropriate

Catchall (Purchase)

Single item purchased by Houghton that will be incorporated into an existing catchall finding aid

• Item comes to Houghton via the collecting curator

• Curator fills out the web form

• Acquisitions links invoice to appropriate Aleph record

• Accessioning archivist creates accession record in ArchivesSpace

• Accessioning archivist describes item in catchall finding aid

• Accessioning archivist updates Aleph record if appropriate