Processing - smith-special-collections/sc-documentation GitHub Wiki

This page is intended as a brief outline of the processing team's workflow.

1. The processing archivist creates a plan for how the collection will be arranged and described. To complete this plan, the processing archivist must meet with the steward, and if this is not possible the process pauses here.
2. The manager and then the steward review, suggest edits, and approve the processing plan. The collection is added to the backlog to wait for processing.
3. Once the collection is selected for processing, the processing team meets to discuss the collection and go over the plan together. The processing plan lays out the roles of processing team members, but in this meeting we work out specifics, divide work, and decide how we want to start.
4. As soon as a start date for processing is determined, the processing archivist will send out an email informing staff that the boxes will not be available to researchers and updates the Conditions Governing Access note on the collection to inform researchers. The text should appear in bold and read:

This collection will be processed starting on [date]. All contents of the finding aid are subject to change and researcher access will be limited. Contact Special Collections for details.

5. Collection gets processed as discussed in the plan.
6. If during processing, the team wants to propose restrictions or separations that were not included in the processing plan or that are not covered by the separation policy, the processing archivist will notify the steward. The steward should reply within 3 working days with either a decision or with instruction on how the processing team should handle the material until a decision is made. If there is no reply at the end of the 3 days, the decision goes to the manager. If moldy materials are found in the collection, the Processing Archivist should send a report to the steward following the Moldy Materials procedure.
7. Once the processing team receives the steward's decision, they will carry out any required actions, update the description, and finish the collection level descriptions, including notes on what was removed or altered in the collection and why. The separations, once finalized, should be discarded following the Separation Policy.
8. When the final organization is complete, we update box labels, barcodes, and locations in ArchivesSpace.
9. Once a full draft of the finding aid is complete, it is circulated for comments according to our review process. If a major change is required, the decision goes to the manager about if, how, and when the change will be made.
10. The processing team meets for a retrospective, where we discuss what went well, what did not go well, and what we will be changing in our workflow or policies.
11. The processing archivists writes a report on what in the processing deviated from what was written in the plan. The report should note any decisions made by the steward about restrictions and separations. This report is shared with the manager and the steward.
12. The processing archivist uses the external document field in ArchivesSpace to link to the processing plan and the report. These reports are stored on the google drive in the appropriate folder in the Collection Development section.