INTRODUCTION
Every day archivists must make decisions about how much physical and intellectual control collections need on a case by case (or collection by collection) basis. Processing levels allow us to expand on the notion of what a "processed" collection looks like and outline the basic intellectual and physical tasks to undertake for each collection depending on an archivist's assessment of the material's research value and physical needs. The following levels detail the physical and intellectual control that an archivist can assign to accessions and collections of both tangible and digital materials.
Distinctive Collections strives to make collections accessible to all researchers as quickly as possible. Employing More Product Less Process (MPLP) means that all collections have a basic level of access. To do this, archivists must make decisions about the appraisal, arrangement, and description of collections before processing. The processing levels on this page give archivists flexibility in available practice and allows space for more intensive processing work for collections with higher research value. Our goal is to share these decisions in order to be more transparent to our users and our successors about why we did the level of work we did.
The table below provides an overview set of tasks and criteria for each processing level. Each collection requires advanced decision making skills on the part of archivists to determine its immediate appraisal, arrangement, and description needs. It is up to the archivist to determine the level of processing a collection warrants either upon accessioning or during reprocessing, and then to create a plan of action for that set of materials.
There are a number of factors to take into consideration when determining the processing level. Researcher interest, related collections, the size and formats of the collection, the amount of free space we have on site, special funding, donor expectations, MIT and federal restrictions, and staff availability are all important factors to keep in mind when determining the processing level for a collection.
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Level 1 - Minimum This level is for low priority accessions; for new collections, this may mean providing description only at the collection level. There are many collections for which this level of processing is the best and most appropriate level. | Material Type | Physical Control | Intellectual Control |
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| Analog + Digital | Transfer materials | Create accession record Create or update resource record description at Collection level Create file/container list at series or box level (for analog, only if high level information is provided by the donor/creator) Update resource record with instances at Collection level | | Analog | Rehouse boxes only if necessary (if original boxes are too large for the shelves or if they are in poor condition) Weed only very obvious duplicate materials Add labels and barcodes to boxes Transfer boxes to HD or ASC storage | | | Digital (physical media + born digital) | Document digital media and where it exists within the collection in accession record | Run virus scan Package content and generate checksums Record technical metadata |
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Level 2 - Baseline This is the baseline level of processing for most collections. | Material Type | Physical Control | Intellectual Control |
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| Analog + Digital | Transfer materials Survey accession | Create accession record May create processing proposal or work plan Add/update container list and collection level description Add instances in container list | | Analog | Rehouse boxes as necessary Folder loose material, refolder Pendeflex, refolder for preservation (moldy, water damage) Weed only very obvious duplicate, non-archival, or transactional material Screen at series, box, or folder level Add labels and barcodes to boxes Transfer boxes to HD or ASC storage | Label, date, add collection, box and folder number to all folders Basic physical arrangement may be done Intellectual arrangement may be done Describe at series, box, or folder level in ASpace | | Digital (physical media + born digital) | Document digital media and where it exists within the collection May migrate materials off of physical media depending on volume, staff resources, and format | Run virus scan Package content and generate checksums Record technical metadata Scan for PII within the files
Delete/deaccession files with PII where appropriate Identify file formats Record software or tools for viewing or use Create series in the finding aid for digital material |
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Level 3 - Moderate Use this level for accessions / collections with determined extra importance - taking into consideration historical value, researcher interest, extra levels of funds or support. | Material Type | Physical Control | Intellectual Control |
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| Analog + Digital | Transfer materials Survey accession | Create accession record Create work plan Add/update container list and collection level description Add instances in container list | | Analog | Rehouse boxes as necessary Folder loose material, refolder Pendeflex, refolder for preservation (moldy, water damage) Weed duplicate, transactional, and non-archival material Screen at folder level Add labels and barcodes to boxes Transfer boxes to HD or ASC storage | Label, date, add collection number, box number on all folders Physical arrangement may be done Intellectual arrangement may be done, if done add folder numbers Describe at series and folder level in ASpace | | Digital | Document digital media and where it exists within the collection Migrate materials off of physical media for formats with established workflows, may migrate materials without established workflows depending on volume, staff resources, and format Photograph physical media House media in format-specific containers | Run virus scan Package content and generate checksums Record technical metadata Scan for PII within the files (if born digital) Delete/deaccession files with PII where appropriate Identify file formats Record software or tools for viewing or use Create series and upper level folder list in the finding aid for digital material, create series in the finding aid based on intellectual content
Perform file format normalization/migration with ready pathways/services in Archivematica
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Level 4 - Intensive This level is reserved for grant funded or special projects. | Material Type | Physical Control | Intellectual Control |
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| Analog + Digital | Transfer materials Survey accession Screen at item level | Create accession record Create work plan Add/update container list and collection level description Add instances in container list Intellectually arrange series so physical and digital are together Possible item level description High level of research undertaken resulting in detailed notes at all levels (collection to item) | | Analog | Rehouse boxes as necessary Folder loose material, refolder Pendeflex, refolder for preservation (moldy, water damage) Weed duplicate, transactional, and non-archival material Add labels and barcodes to boxes Transfer boxes to HD or ASC storage | Label, date, add collection number, box number, folder numbers to all folders Physical and intellectual arrangement match Describe at series, folder and/or item level in ASpace | | Digital | Document digital media and where it exists within the collection Migrate materials off of physical media Photograph physical media House media in format-specific containers | Run virus scan Package content and generate checksums Record technical metadata Scan for PII within the files (if born digital) Delete/deaccession files with PII where appropriate Identify file formats Record software or tools for viewing or use Create series and container list in the finding aid for digital material File format normalization/migration with ready pathways/services in Archivematica Create series in the finding aid based on intellectual content Redact files with PII File format normalization/migration for material outside of Archivematica or proprietary formats Create Dissemination Information Package (DIP) - mostly create DIP at access request by researcher |
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