More Product, Less Process:

Mark A. Greene, American Heritage Center

Dennis Meissner, Minnesota Historical Society

Mark Greene Director,

American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming

Why did we work on this? My experience at four repositories

with significant backlogs of unprocessed materials: Carleton College, Minnesota Historical Society, Henry Ford Museum, AHC

Dennis’ experience as processing manager at MHS

The Problem Archival processing does not keep

pace with the growth of collections

The Problem Archival processing does not keep

pace with the growth of collections• Unprocessed backlogs continue to grow

The Problem Archival processing does not keep

pace with the growth of collections• Unprocessed backlogs continue to grow• Researchers denied access to collections

The Problem Archival processing does not keep

pace with the growth of collections• Unprocessed backlogs continue to grow• Researchers denied access to collections• Our image with donors and resource

allocators suffers

Findings Processing benchmarks and

practices are inappropriate to deal with problems posed by large contemporary collections

Findings Processing benchmarks and

practices are inappropriate to deal with problems posed by large contemporary collections

• Ideal vs. necessary

Findings Processing benchmarks and

practices are inappropriate to deal with problems posed by large contemporary collections

• Ideal vs. necessary• Fixation on item level tasks

Findings Processing benchmarks and

practices are inappropriate to deal with problems posed by large contemporary collections

• Ideal vs. necessary• Fixation on item level tasks• Preservation anxieties trump user needs

Findings Arrangement

•Practice: Still often at the item level

Findings Arrangement

• Practice: Still often at the item level•Warrant: Literature mixed, but much

advises against item level work

Findings Description

Practice:• Weak commitment to online access• Little focus on item level

Findings Description

Practice:• Weak commitment to online access• Little focus on item level

Warrant:• Describe all holdings, in general, before

describing some in detail• Descriptive level follows arrangement level• Level varies from collection to collection

Findings Conservation

•Practice: Strong commitment to item level work

Findings Conservation

•Practice: Strong commitment to item level work

•Warrant: Item-focused conservation prescriptions often contradict advice on arrangement and description

Findings Metrics

•Literature: Range of 4-40 hours per cubic foot

Findings Metrics

•Literature: Range of 4-40 hours per cubic foot

• However, a convincing body of experience coalesces at the high-productivity end:

• Maher, 1982 (3.4 hours per cubic foot)• Haller, 1987 (3.8 hours per cubic foot)• Northeastern University Processing Manual

(4-10 hours per cubic foot)

Findings Metrics

•Literature: Range of 4 - 40 hours per cubic foot

•Grant Project Survey: 0.6 – 67 hours per cubic foot (Mode = 33 hours ; Mean = 9 hours)

Findings Metrics

•Literature: Range of 4 - 40 hours per cubic foot

•Grant Project Survey: 0.6 – 67 hours per cubic foot (Mode = 33 ; Mean = 9)

•Survey of Archivists: 2 – 250 hours per cubic foot (Mode = 8 ; Mean = 14.8)

Recommendations General Principles for Change

Recommendations General Principles for Change

• Establish acceptable minimum level of work, and make it the processing benchmark

Recommendations General Principles for Change

• Establish acceptable minimum level of work, and make it the benchmark

• Don’t assume all collections, or all collection components, will be processed to same level

Recommendations Arrangement Description Conservation Productivity

Recommendations Arrangement

• In normal or typical situations, the physical arrangement of materials in archival groups and manuscript collections should not take place below the series level

Recommendations Arrangement

• In normal or typical situations, the physical arrangement of materials in archival groups and manuscript collections should not take place below the series level

• Not all series and all files in a collection need to be arranged to the same level

Recommendations Description

• Since description represents arrangement: describe materials at a level of detail appropriate to that level of arrangement.

Recommendations Description

• Since description represents arrangement: describe materials at a level of detail appropriate to that level of arrangement

• Keep description brief and simple

Recommendations Description

• Since description represents arrangement: describe materials at a level of detail appropriate to that level of arrangement

• Keep description brief and simple• Level of description should vary across

collections, and across components within a collection

Recommendations Conservation

• Rely on storage area environmental controls to carry the conservation burden

Recommendations Conservation

• Rely on storage area environmental controls to carry the conservation burden

• Avoid wholesale refoldering• Avoid removing and replacing metal fasteners• Avoid photocopying items on poor paper

Recommendations Conservation

• Rely on storage area environmental controls to carry the conservation burden

• Don’t perform conservation tasks at a lower hierarchical level than you perform arrangement and description

Recommendations Productivity

• A processing archivist ought to be able to arrange and describe large twentieth century archival materials at an average rate of four hours per cubic foot

The goal of all this… …is to make our

patrons, donors, administrators, and funders happy, proving that repositories can use the resources they have to the best advantage and with the greatest efficiency.

Questions