Happy (almost) Preservation Week, friends!
But what is "archival processing"?
The Society of American Archivists defines archival processing (n.) as “preparing archival materials for use” (SAA, n.d.-b).
Preparing a collection for use includes rehousing materials in non-acidic enclosures, making preservation surrogates of materials that are acidic or otherwise detrimental to the collection, organizing the material in a way that respects the original order while making it findable to researchers, and describing the collection in a “finding aid.” This is the work that some of the BDC's volunteers and I do every week, chipping away at a sizable backlog of collections to be made public to researchers. I think I’ve made great progress during my first year, but there is still more to go! [And as Cassi's supervisor, I agree. She has made great progress so far. As of my editing this post on 31 March 2025, Cassandra had created 12 new Finding Aids of varying size and complexity and updated 7 other Finding Aids. Given our overly ambitious local history program schedule (July 2024- March 2025) and serving for 5 months as both the processing archivist & front-room clerk, that's a lot of archival Finding Aid progress.- gmc]
Each collection is its own adventure into our history and in preservation practices; no collection is identical to another and comes with its own preservation challenges or surprising connections to larger historical events. Preparing a collection for use is a multistep process that I've condensed into a four-point list (to coordinate with the number of shelves we have in the display):
- Evaluate the Potential New Collection
- Accession and Make a Plan
- Arrange and Rehouse Materials
- Describe the collection in a "Finding Aid" to be made available to researchers
The first step is to evaluate the collection being offered to determine if it fits our collection scope and the capacity of our institution to care for it. This decision-making process is informed by the BDC’s Collection Development Policy (2023) as well as industry guidelines, like the report Total Cost of Stewardship: Responsible Collection Building in Archives and Special Collections by OCLC Research Library Partnership’s Collection Building and Operational Impacts Working Group (Weber et al., 2021). The BDC upholds the values of responsible stewardship of our collections, meaning we make “informed, ethical, and transparent decisions” regarding what we can realistically take care of given our current resources (Weber et al., 2021, p.1).
In order to make this decision, we perform a brief inventory of the items to get a feel for what they are, what issues may arise during processing or storage, what supplies might need to be purchased to house them, and to understand the donor's method of organization (if discernible). Ideally, this would be an archival field appraisal for large collections; you can see a sample form for these appraisals in the display. We also ask the following questions – called the “Big 4” by Grace: 
- Would the donor consider donating their materials to the BDC? Usually, the answer to this question is obvious and thus answered by the time we get to this process.
- Do the donor’s documents meet the BDC’s collection development policy? This is where we compare the proposed collection’s inventory to our policy and see what and how much overlaps.
- Does the BDC have the organizational capacity to take good care of the donor’s documents? At this stage, we discuss what level of processing, preservation, and even conservation might be needed on the items, how large the collection is and whether it can be stored within our current storage area, whether staff or volunteers can process/digitize it within a reasonable amount of time, etc.
- Does the donor own the documents? This is a big concern – we cannot accept items that have dubious origins or on long-term loan to the donor as it causes issues if someone seeks to reclaim the item. Clear title is necessary before we can accept materials.
In addition to the “Big Four” questions we ask ourselves, Mirjam Foot’s essay “Preservation Policy and Planning” in Preservation Management for Libraries Archives and Museums, edited by G.E. Gorman and Sydney J. Shep (2006), goes into further depth about whether a collection meets an organization's collection development policy. Among the considerations to evaluate are the monetary and historical value of the items, the rarity, its potential research use, the condition of the materials, and the financial costs of preserving and maintaining those collections continuously.
Once we’ve considered all these and ultimately said "yes," we can move on to step two.
Shelf Two: Accession & Make a Plan
The next step is to formally accession the items, perform a more in-depth inventory and create a processing plan. We begin with filling out an Accession Form with information we’ve gleaned from the earlier brief inventory and discussion with the donor. Using the information from the accession form, we write-up a Deed of Gift to be signed – I've included a facsimile of our most recent Deed on the shelf. The Deed of Gift is a legal document between the donor and the BDC showing that the material was freely given by the donor to the BDC, and outlines what our rights are to the item and any restrictions. A Legal Primer on Managing Museum Collections by Marie C. Malaro (1998) has a chapter solely on accessioning items which is helpful in guiding repositories during this process and outlines key issues like why to accession and seek title, navigating restrictions, and applicable federal laws. Once the Deed is signed, we add the Deed to our permanent files, assign the material an “Accession Number,” and move on to developing a processing plan.
A sample of materials commonly encountered during processing like photos, print documents, handwritten correspondence, prints, and newspaper clippings are included on the shelf. I’ve also included a sample processing plan. While writing a processing plan, you perform a more in-depth survey of the items in a collection and make note of what you see, what details of the organization/family/creator come to light, any preservation or privacy concerns, what supplies might need to be purchased to house the items, etc. This is also when processing archivists identify the series within a collection. A series in the world of archives is "A group of similar records" akin to "a file group"(SAA, n.d.-c). This will come into play during the arrangement and rehousing stage, but the initial identification and decided-upon arrangement is noted in the Processing Plan.
The processing plan also feeds into rehousing of materials, as decisions for that step are also made clear in the document.
After accessioning and writing a processing plan, we begin arranging and rehousing the materials. This stage is when we begin rehousing materials in non-acidic enclosures, making preservation facsimiles of materials that are acidic or otherwise detrimental to the collection (like newspaper or magnetic scrapbooks), and arranging the material in respect to those series. When processing, it is vital to respect the established order and relationships between materials in a collection. Archivists, of which I am not quite yet but hope to be, are expected to maintain the original order of a collection, as it keeps the objects within their intended context and maintains associations between records. Arrangement also sets the stage for access by researchers, and we strive to make collections as accessible to researchers as possible. Sometimes original order (or disorder) is not conducive to research, so we try to find a balance between these two standards while arranging.
Rehousing includes placing papers into acid and lignin free folders, photographs and negatives into polypropylene or polyester sleeves, and then organizing them all into acid-free boxes. Careful consideration must be made to size, condition, and any issues that might arise with the objects in the future. Some materials we use when rehousing included on the shelf are:
- Samples of archival quality materials used when rehousing or reformatting like Bristol – chemically inert material used in archival folders, Permalife – an acid-free paper, Mylar – used in sleeves for print materials, Reemay – a lining and backing material, and Buckram – book cover material.
- Archival folders used in collection boxes and for the BDC’s vertical files.
- Mylar and polypropylene sleeves, showcasing the ideal ways a photo could be archivally stored.
We get these materials from a variety of archival supply vendors, listed on our vendor sheet in the display. We also follow advice from Gaylord Archival outlined in their resources blog and their Guide to Collections Care (2016). I have our physical copy of the guide opened to page 22 in the display, showing how materials like photographs can be housed – first in an archival-safe plastic or paper sleeve, then in an acid-free folder within an archival box. This is the general formula, but adaptations can be made as needed. Preservation of Library and Archival Materials by the Northeast Document Conservation Center (1999) also offers guidelines on the preservation of archival materials, including environmental considerations, proper storage methods for of a variety of formats, and basic conservation treatments. These guidelines can also be found online in the form of individual Preservation Leaflets on the NEDCC website. I also added the "Why Archival?" flyer by Gaylord, which explains why archival-safe materials are the right choice and what it all really means.
From this... ...To this!
Depending on the materials within the collections and any preservation issues they may have, rehousing can be the longest stage of the process, but also one of the most rewarding as you can start to see the difference that your work has made in the long-term survival of the collection.
Shelf Four: Describe the Collection
Once everything else is done, I describe the collection in a published “finding aid.” The SAA defines “finding aids” as “a description that typically consists of contextual and structural information about an archival resource” which “places archival resources in context by consolidating information about the collection....” (SAA, n.d.-a). An example of a finding aid is included on the shelf. This finding aid is the one most recently published on our Links, Lists, and Finding Aids blog – the Sage Society Records, 2015 – 2025 Finding Aid. We create physical and digital finding aids for our archival materials to increase the accessibility of the items for potential researchers. As you can see from the example finding aid, in a finding aid I give detailed information on the collection including a list of the materials in the boxes and folders, while also describing preservation methods I used and adding a bit of a historical context to the collection through a bit of research usually within the collection itself and select outside sources.
We try to adhere to industry standards as much as possible when writing finding aids and other descriptions. As I said before, we keep books and manuals in our Professional Reference section for guidance on processing, preservation, and description of collection materials. One of these books is Extensible Processing for Archives and Special Collections: Reducing Processing Backlogs (2015) by Daniel A. Santamaria. This book is a guide to processing collections that have been backlogged in a repository for some time in a quick yet effective manner so that patrons can gain access to the materials. Section 3 of Chapter 5 and all of Chapter 6 discuss the ways to describe collections and the various standards and schemas for those descriptions, like SAA’s Describing Archives: A Content Standard. DACS is the current best-practices schema for writing finding aids and replaced the earlier Archives, Personal Papers, and Manuscripts: A Cataloging Manual for Archival Repositories, Historical Societies, and Manuscript Libraries by the SAA (1989), which we have a copy of in our reference section. I’m sure there’s a joke to be made here about an archive “archiving” old archival guides, but I’m a bit too lazy to make it!
These finding aids are then posted to the BDC WordPress blog so researchers can easily search and find our archival collections. From time to time, we also highlight our published descriptions on our Facebook page on "Finding Aid Fridays."
I hope that this short breakdown of the “process of processing” has given you a bit more insight into the work done every day at the BDC. We don’t just sit and wait for customers or spend hours reading old history books. We are actively working to preserve the historical record of the Lowcountry, a long-term commitment that the BDC staff and volunteers not only take seriously but find enjoyable and worthy of the effort. We hope that you can visit our collection to see the fruits of our labor the next time you have a local history question!
References
Society of American Archivists. (n.d.-a). SAA Dictionary: Finding aid. Retrieved March 17, 2025, from https://dictionary.archivists.org/entry/finding-aid.html
Society of American Archivists. (n.d.-b). SAA Dictionary: Processing. Retrieved March 17, 2025, from https://dictionary.archivists.org/entry/processing.html
Society of American Archivists. (n.d.-c). SAA Dictionary: Series. Retrieved March 17, 2025, from https://dictionary.archivists.org/entry/series.html
Weber, C. S.; Conway, M.O.; Martin, N; Stevens, G; and Kamsler, B. (2021). Total Cost of Stewardship: Responsible Collection Building in Archives and Special Collections. Dublin, OH: OCLC Research. https://doi.org/10.25333/zbh0-a044.
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