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 3-10. See this page for the staff workflow.

  1. CHOOSING A COLLECTION: Special Collections staff recommends collections for processing. Common reasons for processing collections include researchers experiencing difficulty using the collection due to lack of description or organization, addressing restricted material, or because we have received funding for processing.
  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 collection steward.
  3. MEETING ABOUT THE PLAN: Before processing begins, the processing team will meet with the processing archivist to review the processing plan, assign roles and responsibilities, and decide where to start. Student workers may process collections as part of a team or independently.
  4. PROCESSING: Processing generally starts with arranging materials, removing any restricted/low value materials, and rehousing materials. The degree of processing often depends on the type of materials, with some requiring more detailed description and some only needing a basic level of description. Materials may be arranged intellectually instead of physically.
  5. CONTENT DESCRIPTION: Inventories of collection contents are created in ArchivesSpace, in as much detail as necessary (the level of detail is outlined in the processing plan). Existing description (often provided by collection donors or dealers) is reused whenever possible.
  6. COLLECTION AND SERIES DESCRIPTION: We update the overall description of the collection and its series in ArchivesSpace. This includes adding notes about the contents of the collection, about the creator or subject of the collection, and about the the history of the collection (aka provenance); as well as documenting what was removed from the collection (aka deaccessioned), and outlining any restrictions on handling, viewing, or publishing content from the collection.
  7. CONTAINER CONTROL: To ensure physical control over the collection, boxes are barcoded, updated box labels are printed, and the boxes are shelved in the Special Collections vaults. Locations, barcodes, and box sizes are recorded in ArchivesSpace.
  8. EDITING: A draft finding aid is revised and edited by the processing archivist and circulated to Special Collections staff members for review.
  9. POST-PROCESSING REPORT: The project team meets to discuss outcomes of the project and lessons learned. The processing archivist writes a report on processing, which discusses what differed from the original processing plan, addresses decisions made, identifies who performed what work, etc. The aim of this report is to document what we did or did not do during the project and why. This report is sent to the collection steward and the Head of Technical Services for feedback before final edits are made.
  10. DISCARDING DEACCESSIONS: Material removed from collections is referred to as deaccessioned material, or deaccessions. It is important to record any material that was removed from the collection, including how much was removed, why, and what was done with the material. We then deaccession the material by discarding it, shredding when appropriate (such as in the case of sensitive material or PII), or returning it to the donor.

Contents for Tech Services student manual