Changing Times: Changing Traditional Processing Practice

May 28, 2004 Susan K. Soy Austin History Center [email protected]

Changing Times: Changing Traditional Processing Practice

Teaming Up to Process Collections: Closed Thursdays at the

Austin History Center

Society of Southwest Archivists

San Antonio, Texas

May 28, 2004 Photo of boxes containing papers from the four processing projects.[Austin History Center CT001]


Environmental Scan

• Pressures to perform -- budget cuts

• Staff cooperation• Volunteers• Support organization• Unique closure due to

budget cuts and organization advocacy

Susan K. Soy Austin History Center [email protected]

May 28, 2004

Planning & Setting Criteria

• Priorities for acquisition – African American materials -- gaps in

collection– Hispanic American materials -- gaps– Austin Business -- high tech industry gaps– Old Favorites -- heavily used collections


May 28, 2004

Collections Selected

• Moya Papers– First Hispanic elected

official in our County - well organized with 160 notebooks in chronological order

• Villager Photographs– Ongoing acquisition of

about 800 items each year with no organization

• Tracor Business – Austin’s 1st Fortune

500 company; many public information office photos, official documents

• McCallum Papers– Amazing and popular

woman; suffragette; Secretary of State


May 28, 2004

Collections Added

• Flower Hill -- Heritage Society records• Susan Toomey Frost -- EAD nearly

complete Pease Papers -- volunteer interest• Student projects -- many unfinished, but

nearly finished projects• Photolab processing to accompany program

development• MAIN -- electronic and paper records


Reporting to one another

Archives Processing Manual

Learning EAD

Reporting to one another -- weekly reports // Processing log books

Muddling through thick

and thin


Using VolunteersPreserving the history of the community will enable future generations to understand and connect their lives to the past. The Austin History Center archives provide a valuable record of how ideas and community goals have prospered and changed over time in Travis County.

AHC volunteer working on a preliminary finding aid.[Austin History Center CT010]

Removing plastic sheets, separator sleeves,and sorting photographs [Austin History Center, CT006]


Closed Thursdays

• Web site to explain what is going on

• Invited Moya, editor of the Villager, former employees, new volunteers

Political literature from the Moya Collection. [Austin History Center, AF-Biography]

Photo of Richard Moya and Sue Soy - AHC Archivist/Manager. [Austin History Center CT002]


Web Site Reference PointsAccession and register materials received from the creator or donor

Create a preliminary inventory for the material briefly describing the essential features of the donation

Preserve the material; a process that includes refoldering, preservation copying, and rehousing the materials while maintaining the original order of the material

Arrange and fully inventory the material

Create the creator sketch (biographical notes) and the scope and content notes to provide an overview of the materials and other elements of the finding aid

Label the boxes and place in the archives

Create the Encoded Archival Finding Aid and place on the web site

Announce availability of the finding aid


May 28, 2004

Labor and Supply Costs• McCallum $ 7,945• Villager $ 8,769• Moya $10,170• Tracor $10,835

Rate for volunteer service$17.19/hr

COSTS FOR ALL

0

5000

10000

15000

Villager McCallum Moya Tracor


Results

• October - May 2004– Complete except for EAD -- Moya & Villager– Frost EAD -- under final review– Pease, Tracor & McCallum underway– Flower Hill initial inventory done– MAIN underway


Humor and Flexibilityworking together

• Smaller than many but larger than some

• On the verge of developing the electronic repository

• Huge opportunities


Reference ListAbraham, Terry, Stephen E. Balzarini, and Anne Frantilla. “What Is Backlog Is Prologue: A Measurement of Archival Processing.” American Archivist 48 (Winter 1985): 31-44.

Austin History Center, Austin Public Library. Archives and Manuscripts Manual, version 4.6. Prepared by Rebecca Rich-Wulfmeyer with updating by Austin History Center staff. Austin History Center: Austin, TX (2004) http://www.wiredforyouth.com/downloads/archivesmanual4_6.doc (accessed May 29, 2004).


Reference ListAustin History Center, Austin Public Library. Closed Thursdays. Prepared by Amaris Vigil with revisions by Austin History Center staff. Austin History Center: Austin, TX (2004) http://www.ci.austin.tx.us/library/ahc/processingthursdays.htm Accessed May 29, 2004.

Bain, George W. “Visualizing the Archival Work Process: A Survey and Interpretation.” Archival Issues: Journal of the Midwest Archives Conference 21, no. 1 (1996): 47-60.


Reference ListBauer, G. Philip. The Appraisal of Current and Recent Record. National Archives Staff Information Circulars No. 13 Washington, DC: June 1946. Boles, Frank, in association with Julia Marks Young. Archival Appraisal. New York: Neal-Schuman, 1991. Cook, Sharon Anne. “Connecting Archives and the Classroom.” Archivaria 44 (Fall 1997): 102-117.

Ericksen, Paul and Robert Schuster. “Beneficial Shocks: The Place of Processing-Cost Analysis in Archival Administration.” American Archivist 58 (Winter 1995): 32-52.


Reference List

Independent Sector Coalition. “The Estimated Dollar Value of Volunteer Time Is $17.19 per Hour for 2003.” http://www.independentsector.org/programs/research/volunteer_time.html (accessed May 29, 2004). Maher, William J. “The Importance of Financial Analysis of Archival Programs.” Midwestern Archivist III, no. 2 (1978): 3-23.

Maher, William J. “Measurement and Analysis of Processing Costs in Academic Archives.” College & Research Libraries 43, no. 1 (January 1982): 59-67.

Wilsted, Thomas. Computing the Total Cost of Archival Processing. Mid-Atlantic Regional Archives Conference Technical Leaflet No. 2 (1989).


• Austin History Center

• PO Box 2287 Austin Texas 78768

• 512-974-7388

• [email protected]

• Volunteer forms at

http://www.ci.austin.tx.us/library/libvol.htm

Contact Information

Documents

Changing Times: Changing Traditional Processing Practice