Collection level description - smith-special-collections/sc-documentation GitHub Wiki

Basic Information

This section includes basic information about the collection.

Title

The title of a collection usually reflects its creator, whether that is an individual or an organization. Ask your supervisor if the title doesn't seem to reflect the materials.

Identifier

Also known as the collection number, an identifier is made up of the collecting repository (Sophia Smith Collection, Smith College Archives, Mortimer Rare Book Collection), MS (short for manuscript, meaning an archival collection), and a unique five-digit number. For example, SSC-MS-00458.

Level of Description

This field tells us whether we are looking at a collection, a series within a collection, or a file within a collection. See structure of collections for more information.

Language

In this field we enter data on what language(s) appear within the materials of a collection. For each language we enter both the “language” and (if known) the “script”. If you cannot identify the script, use “undetermined script.”

Publish?

Publishing a collection allows researchers to view it online. With rare exceptions, we publish finding aids for all collections, even if they are completely closed. The processing archivist will let you know if you work on a collection that is one of the rare unpublished exceptions.

Date of materials

This subrecord tells the researcher what dates the collection covers. If they are interested in material from the 1920s, we want a collection from 1900-1987 to come up in their search, so the dates are written in a way that is understandable to humans and to our computer database that helps with searching.

To make the dates understandable to the computer, we write the date in the following format: YYYY-MM-DD.

See this page for more information on assigning dates.

Extent of materials

An extent explains how big a collection is. We measure collections in linear feet, i.e. how many feet of shelf space does the collection take up. This means that if there are two collections with ten boxes each, but one is made up of tiny boxes and the other large, we can still tell that one is a larger collection and takes up more shelf space than the other.

It is possible to auto-generate extents if you have already created/linked all the boxes in the collection.

Finding aid data

This section is data about the finding aid, not the collection.

  • Finding aid title- This is the title that will appear on our website.
  • Date- this is the current year, i.e. the year you are writing the finding aid.
  • Author- Your name, i.e. who is writing/editing the finding aid.

Agents

Agents are the people or organizations involved in the collection. Types of agents are:

  • Creator- This is the person who is responsible for the existence of the collection. This usually means that they made/wrote the documents, but they could also have collected them together.
  • Source- This is the person who sent the materials to us. For example, sometimes someone was the creator, but their heir sends the materials after they have died. The heir would be the source. For donations, the agent should have a relator of “donor.”
  • Subjects- This is who the collection is about. For example, the Gloria Steinem papers are about Gloria Steinem, but also about Ms. Magazine and other organizations she founded. For another example, if someone collects Sylvia Plath letters, they are the creator, but Plath is the subject.

Generally, when you start typing an agent name, it should automatically appear as an option to click on and link. If you want to add an agent that doesn't come up when you search, talk to your supervisor so they can put the person/organization in the system for you.

Subjects

Subjects help researchers find everything related to the topic, subject, or format they are looking for. The terms we use follow strict rules, so that someone can search using the same terms in multiple archives and so that computer systems can create one large database made up of many archives' materials. In most cases, we follow the Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH), so if there is a term you want to use, but you don't see it in your search, ask one of the archivists to find the right term for you.

Subjects should only be put on a collection if there is enough materials related that a researcher wouldn't be disappointed by the collection. For example, if you are working on an activist's papers and she has one letter from a president and you put "United States- Presidents" as a subject, a researcher coming from Austria would be disappointed if they came all the way here to research presidents using the collection. However, if the activist had a sister with autism and they wrote many very personal letters to one another, "Autism" might be a suitable subject to help researchers find materials. The general rule of thumb is that at least 20% of the collection should be related to a topical heading.

There are three main types of subject terms:

  • Topical terms- these describe what the collection is about.
  • Genre/form terms- These explain the kind of materials in the collection, like documentary films or correspondence. Ask "what is the material?", rather than "what is the material about?".
  • Identify and social role terms- These describe the creator(s) of the collection. For more details, see this page.

REMEMBER- subjects can help point out hidden information and under-documented people in the collection. For example, if you have the papers of a rancher, researchers interested in farming will see the collection, but if the rancher employed slaves, or had a gay son, or wrote a bunch of political letters, the only way a researcher would know this is if you note it in the finding aid. People who rarely have collections of their own, like slaves, are often hidden in the margins of the collections of the powerful, so keep a sharp eye and note it when you see it.

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