Todd Ellison, Instructor
ARCHIVAL THEORY AND PRACTICE
Final Exam Review Notes (content covered after the mid-term)
by Todd Ellison
Archival preservation terminology:
preservation: "a coordinated set of activities associated with maintaining library and archival materials for use, either in their original form or by converting to another usable medium, to provide protection for and continued availability of use of these documents."
conservation = the use of physical or chemical treatments to stabilize and thus to extend the useful life of documents
restoration = returning an item to a condition somewhat close to its original state
permanence = the stability of an item's chemical properties, e.g. the degree to which paper withstands impurities in its chemical composition; it's permanent if it retains its original chemical form indefinitely
durability = the physical properties of the material, i.e. how much physical strength it retains through use
Factors that have impact on the conditions of documents:
1) factors inherent in the materials themselves
a. inherent instability from historical factors, built in from the moment of production, internal causes of deterioration within the constituent materials, "inherent vice"
inherent vice introduced to the manufacture of paper:
change in acidity - alum rosin sizing, bleaching , and reduced fiber length
2) factors external to the materials:
b. environmental factors and their effect on constituent materials
(1) temperature
(2) relative humidity - has a symbiotic relationship with temperature
(3) light
(4) airborne pollutants such as dirt and dust (which can cause acidic attacks, "foxing" = little brown specks on paper as it reacts with metallic elements in the paper), sulfur dioxide (car emissions, catalyzed in moisture to form sulfuric acid); insects and rodents like dark and dirty environments
c. biological agents: mold, vermin, insects
d. storage, security, and use/handling:
- use only pH-neutral materials for storage; boxes should be airtight (see above discussion of microenvironments)
security = concern about potential damage from people and from the elements (esp. fire)
What would be the perfect environment?
- totally dark and away from people, with no change of temperature or relative humidity and no pollutants
Six basic components of an archival conservation program:
1. environmental controls - 50% r/h, 70 degree temperature, low sunlight, timer switches for lights in stacks, nonfluctuating temp. & humidity (use hygrothermograph to monitor)
2. stack maintenance - routine dusting (use Dust Bunny), emptying trash, keeping shelving neat and shelf dividers in proper places
3. disaster preparedness - for before, during, and after a disaster; making the archives disaster-proof; practicing the plan and distributing it to the staff
4. processing procedures for the collections, for housing them properly, for routine materials for treating and reformatting; recognize that preservation is a strategy for increasing circulation and for stretching collection resources
5. staff/user education - rules regarding use of pencils instead of pens, no eating and drinking in archives; no marking documents; using a limited number of folders, books or boxes at a time; registration procedures; maintaining the order of the materials
6. physical treatment of collections - very expensive; only for the most valuable documents
Recent efforts and trends in archival preservation:
1. collection-level treatment, including preventive measures
a. archival emphasis on the group is important in conservation; value of archival documents is associative, and archival collections tend to be large (LC has 40 to 50 million items)
b. forced by the incomprehensible scope of the problem, including growth of collection volume, inherent vice, and fiscal constraints
2. cooperative approaches
3. limited funding for preservation
Records management—made in the US
modern American records mgmt. began with the federal government, esp. after World War II
records management: 'The systematic control of all records from creation or receipt through processing, distribution, maintenance and retrieval, to ultimate disposition."
records manager = one who controls active records (those in immediate use or needed for immediate access)
records centers hold still active but low use records of an organization; these records aren't necessarily permanent; the records center is a half-way house, purgatory
a good records management system is the basis for an effective archives program
90% of records are never consulted again after their first use
less than 1% (some say 3-4%, see The Archivist, Sept.-Oct. 1984, p. 5) of any business or government records should be saved
Six reasons why records management is important:
1. papers tend to accumulate, and there's a limit to the quantity an office can handle
2. elimination of valueless data improves your ability to handle the valuable stuff
a. filing errors are reduced and retrieval is speeded
b. office costs are lowered
3. "a good records management program protects the organization in case of litigation" (p. 23)
a. ensures the preservation of records that should exist, readily accessible
b. ensures the destruction of records that should NOT exist, including items "previously maintained outside the scope of normal business activities...which may later prove detrimental in litigation" (p. 23)
4. "ensures compliance with the multitude of laws affecting records retention, microfilm, computer data, and other records matters. The federal government alone has issued over ten thousand laws affecting recordkeeping. ... The fifty states and territories plus some foreign countries have issued their own rules for recordkeeping--compounding the problem even more." (p. 24-25)
5. protects your institution from a loss of rights; failure to maintain the appropriate records may cost a company money it could have collected in debts owed it or awards made possible through legal action
6. an archivist should be familiar with the theory and skills behind the management of records in all stages of the life cycle of records
Two goals of the record manager
A. save money
B. raise efficiency
life cycle is the most important concept relating to records management:
pre-creation (forms design, planning) leads into the cycle of creating, actively using (in office), passively using (at the records center) and disposing (to trash or to archives) of records;
some records have a rapid life cycle (e.g. checks)
retention schedules, otherwise known as records schedules, are a tool for agencies to report on what sort of records they have, and which ones must (by law) and which should (due to research value) be retained
records retention period: "'The period of time during which records must be maintained by an organization because they are needed for operational, legal, fiscal, historical, or other purposes. Records should be destroyed after the termination of the retention period.'" (Skupsky, p. 45)
Collection development: "the process of building an institution's holdings of historical materials through acquisition activities."
ARCHIVAL THEORY AND PRACTICE
Final Exam Review Notes (content covered after the mid-term)
by Todd Ellison
Archival preservation terminology:
preservation: "a coordinated set of activities associated with maintaining library and archival materials for use, either in their original form or by converting to another usable medium, to provide protection for and continued availability of use of these documents."
conservation = the use of physical or chemical treatments to stabilize and thus to extend the useful life of documents
restoration = returning an item to a condition somewhat close to its original state
permanence = the stability of an item's chemical properties, e.g. the degree to which paper withstands impurities in its chemical composition; it's permanent if it retains its original chemical form indefinitely
durability = the physical properties of the material, i.e. how much physical strength it retains through use
Factors that have impact on the conditions of documents:
1) factors inherent in the materials themselves
a. inherent instability from historical factors, built in from the moment of production, internal causes of deterioration within the constituent materials, "inherent vice"
inherent vice introduced to the manufacture of paper:
change in acidity - alum rosin sizing, bleaching , and reduced fiber length
2) factors external to the materials:
b. environmental factors and their effect on constituent materials
(1) temperature
(2) relative humidity - has a symbiotic relationship with temperature
(3) light
(4) airborne pollutants such as dirt and dust (which can cause acidic attacks, "foxing" = little brown specks on paper as it reacts with metallic elements in the paper), sulfur dioxide (car emissions, catalyzed in moisture to form sulfuric acid); insects and rodents like dark and dirty environments
c. biological agents: mold, vermin, insects
d. storage, security, and use/handling:
- use only pH-neutral materials for storage; boxes should be airtight (see above discussion of microenvironments)
security = concern about potential damage from people and from the elements (esp. fire)
What would be the perfect environment?
- totally dark and away from people, with no change of temperature or relative humidity and no pollutants
Six basic components of an archival conservation program:
1. environmental controls - 50% r/h, 70 degree temperature, low sunlight, timer switches for lights in stacks, nonfluctuating temp. & humidity (use hygrothermograph to monitor)
2. stack maintenance - routine dusting (use Dust Bunny), emptying trash, keeping shelving neat and shelf dividers in proper places
3. disaster preparedness - for before, during, and after a disaster; making the archives disaster-proof; practicing the plan and distributing it to the staff
4. processing procedures for the collections, for housing them properly, for routine materials for treating and reformatting; recognize that preservation is a strategy for increasing circulation and for stretching collection resources
5. staff/user education - rules regarding use of pencils instead of pens, no eating and drinking in archives; no marking documents; using a limited number of folders, books or boxes at a time; registration procedures; maintaining the order of the materials
6. physical treatment of collections - very expensive; only for the most valuable documents
Recent efforts and trends in archival preservation:
1. collection-level treatment, including preventive measures
a. archival emphasis on the group is important in conservation; value of archival documents is associative, and archival collections tend to be large (LC has 40 to 50 million items)
b. forced by the incomprehensible scope of the problem, including growth of collection volume, inherent vice, and fiscal constraints
2. cooperative approaches
3. limited funding for preservation
Records management—made in the US
modern American records mgmt. began with the federal government, esp. after World War II
records management: 'The systematic control of all records from creation or receipt through processing, distribution, maintenance and retrieval, to ultimate disposition."
records manager = one who controls active records (those in immediate use or needed for immediate access)
records centers hold still active but low use records of an organization; these records aren't necessarily permanent; the records center is a half-way house, purgatory
a good records management system is the basis for an effective archives program
90% of records are never consulted again after their first use
less than 1% (some say 3-4%, see The Archivist, Sept.-Oct. 1984, p. 5) of any business or government records should be saved
Six reasons why records management is important:
1. papers tend to accumulate, and there's a limit to the quantity an office can handle
2. elimination of valueless data improves your ability to handle the valuable stuff
a. filing errors are reduced and retrieval is speeded
b. office costs are lowered
3. "a good records management program protects the organization in case of litigation" (p. 23)
a. ensures the preservation of records that should exist, readily accessible
b. ensures the destruction of records that should NOT exist, including items "previously maintained outside the scope of normal business activities...which may later prove detrimental in litigation" (p. 23)
4. "ensures compliance with the multitude of laws affecting records retention, microfilm, computer data, and other records matters. The federal government alone has issued over ten thousand laws affecting recordkeeping. ... The fifty states and territories plus some foreign countries have issued their own rules for recordkeeping--compounding the problem even more." (p. 24-25)
5. protects your institution from a loss of rights; failure to maintain the appropriate records may cost a company money it could have collected in debts owed it or awards made possible through legal action
6. an archivist should be familiar with the theory and skills behind the management of records in all stages of the life cycle of records
Two goals of the record manager
A. save money
B. raise efficiency
life cycle is the most important concept relating to records management:
pre-creation (forms design, planning) leads into the cycle of creating, actively using (in office), passively using (at the records center) and disposing (to trash or to archives) of records;
some records have a rapid life cycle (e.g. checks)
retention schedules, otherwise known as records schedules, are a tool for agencies to report on what sort of records they have, and which ones must (by law) and which should (due to research value) be retained
records retention period: "'The period of time during which records must be maintained by an organization because they are needed for operational, legal, fiscal, historical, or other purposes. Records should be destroyed after the termination of the retention period.'" (Skupsky, p. 45)
Collection development: "the process of building an institution's holdings of historical materials through acquisition activities."