Home

This is a repository for documenting the evolving policies and practices of the Smith College Special Collections.

The pages under "ArchivesSpace Manual" were started in 2017 as staff training materials to support our adoption of ArchivesSpace. They included guidance both on using ArchivesSpace as a tool, as well as on the standards for how we create description in ArchivesSpace.

The pages under "Description Guidelines and Requirements" are the beginning of the process of separating out the descriptive guidelines from the ArchivesSpace application documentation. As descriptive guidelines are added to this section, we are attempting to remove them from the ArchivesSpace Manual as much as possible, and instead linking to this new section. This process is ongoing and currently driven by immediate need for specific guidances.

The "Accessioning Manual" section does the same for workflows and procedures around the accessioning process, which uses both ArchivesSpace and descriptive guidelines.

All of these pages are subject to change as we learn new things, so printing them for reference is probably not a great idea.

---

Planned (but not prioritized) Wiki Updates

• Add instructions for use of:
  • Accruals note
  • Collection identifiers (expand existing page on component unique identifiers?)
  • Custodial history note
  • Date calculator
  • Existence and location of copies/originals notes
  • Language of materials note
  • Separated materials note
  • Setting defaults in ArchivesSpace
• Revise pages on:
  • Landing page
  • Roles and permissions
• Clean up sidebar