Overview of the processing workflow - smith-special-collections/sc-documentation GitHub Wiki

Here is the overall processing workflow for students, who are involved in steps 3-11. See this page for the staff workflow.

  1. CHOOSING A COLLECTION One of the archives staff recommends a collection for processing. This is usually because it is difficult for researchers to use, it cannot be open for research because there are restricted materials mixed in, or we received grant/donor money to process it.
  2. PROCESSING PLAN The processing archivist surveys the collection, reviews its custodial and legal documents, and decides what will be done during processing. They write a processing plan that is then approved by their supervisor and the curator of the collection.
  3. MEETING ABOUT THE PLAN Before processing begins, everyone who will be working on the project meets with the processing archivist to go over the plan, decide on how to divide the work, and decide where to start. Sometimes you will be processing on a team of staff and student workers, and sometimes you will work on smaller projects alone. If you are working alone, the meeting will be with just you and the processing archivist. After the meeting, we bring boxes into our work space to begin the project.
  4. ARRANGEMENT We generally start by arranging materials, removing any restricted/low value materials, and doing any rehousing work. We may do different levels of detail for different sections, and we may decide to arrange intellectually instead of physically
  5. CONTENT DESCRIPTION We create an inventory of everything in the collection in ArchivesSpace, in as much detail as necessary (the level of detail is proposed in the plan). We reuse any existing description where possible.
  6. COLLECTION AND SERIES DESCRIPTION We update the overall description of the collection and the series. This includes adding notes about what we changed or got rid of, the history of the collection, and legal restrictions on viewing or publishing the materials.
  7. CONTAINER CONTROL We start on container control, i.e. we barcode boxes, print new updated labels, and put boxes away. Locations, barcodes, and box sizes are recorded in ArchivesSpace.
  8. EDITING A draft finding aid is edited by the processing archivist and then sent to other staff members for review.
  9. POST-PROCESSING REPORT Everyone who worked on the project meets to discuss how the project went and whether we need to change any of our practices. The processing archivist writes a report on processing, which discusses what differed from the plan, any last minute decisions that were made, who did what work, etc. The aim of this report is to make it clear to future archivists what we did and did not do during the project and why. This report is sent to the collection steward and the Head of Technical Services.
  10. DISCARDING DEACCESSIONS We record any material that was removed from the collection, including how much was removed, why, and what was done with the material. We then remove the materials, by discarding it (shredding if appropriate) or returning it to the donor.

Contents for Tech Services student manual