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Creating a new collection (legacy)

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Megan O'Shea edited this page Mar 7, 2024 · 2 revisions

LEGACY PROCESS, FOR REFERENCE ONLY

Rehouse materials (if necessary)

See this page for more information on rehousing (replacing folders, replacing boxes, etc.)

Describe accession

Create archival object(s) in the ArchivesSpace resource record following standard practices for description.

Container control

Create container profiles (type of box), give containers barcodes, and shelve the containers. For more information on container control see this page.

Enter the following information in the resource record at the collection level

See this page for more information on collection level description

  • Title
    • Example: “Martha Tolles papers”
    • Level of Description: Collection
  • Finding Aid Data information
    • Finding Aid Title: write “Draft of Finding Aid to [name of collection]” until finding aid goes through review process
      • Example: Draft of the Finding Aid to the Martha Tolles Papers
    • Finding Aid Date: current year
    • Finding Aid Author: your name
  • Extent subrecord
    • Use the extent calculator to generate new extent at the collection level (if the generator displays “NO PROFILE,” you need to add all missing container profiles first)
  • Date subrecord
    • Use date calculator to generate new inclusive dates
    • Generally do this at every level: collection, series, file
  • Related Accessions
    • Under related accessions, link to accession record
  • Agent Links
    • Source, who donated the accession
    • Subject, what or who the collection is about
    • Creator, who created the material in the collection
  • Subjects
    • Can browse in ArchivesSpace for appropriate subjects
    • Genre/Form: denoted by a floppy disc icon, this is the type of material in the collection
    • Topical: denoted by a tag icon, this is what/who the collection is about. When creating an SSC collection us at least one subject from this Category list

Add the following notes to the Collection level

See this page for more information on finding aid notes.

  • Immediate Source of Acquisition note - reference provenance in accession record
    • Example: “Donated by Joe Schmo, 2023.”
  • Processing Information note
    • “Accessioned by Claire Clusin, 2023.”
  • Scope and Content note
  • Abstract note
    • Often first sentences of biographical/historical and scope and content notes
  • Biographical/Historical note
  • Appraisal Note
    • Describe any material discarded during accessioning, excluding duplicates
  • Preferred Citation note
    • [name of the resource], [name of the collecting unit], [MS number], Smith College Special Collections, Northampton, Massachusetts.
  • Related Materials note
    • If there are relevant related collections add them here
    • Make sure to link to the collection page on the public interface, not the staff interface
    • Example:

Publish the collection and add an event to the accession record

Hit “publish all” at the collection level, unless told otherwise by your supervisor. Once everything else is complete, add an accession event to the accession record and change the status of the Airtable record to “Complete.”

Contents for Tech Services student manual

References

ArchivesSpace User manual

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