Forty‐TWO Heads are Be1er then One: PACSCL’s Approach to a Cross Repository Processing Program SAA Na9onal Conference, Chicago August 24, 2011 Courtney Smerz, Project Archivist
Forty-two heads are better than one
Dec 25, 2014
Society of American Archivists, Chicago, IL
Session 408: Cooperation Makes it Happen: Collaboration in Museum Archives
Museum archives and other small shops are facing the challenges of the 21st century creatively by joining forces and collaborating with colleagues. This panel discussion examines six innovative projects that utilized shared resources and mutually beneficial goals, resulting in a greater overall impact for participants than could have been achieved by one archives going it alone. The speakers, who represent a variety of repositories, examine both in-house projects and collaborations between and among institutions.
Susan K. Anderson, Chair, Philadelphia Museum of Art
Michelle Elligott, Museum of Modern Art
Susan J. von Salis, Harvard Art Museum
David M. Dwiggins, Historic New England
Alfred Lemmon, CA, Historic New Orleans Collection
Courtney Smerz, Philadelphia Area Consortium of Special Collections Libraries
Session 408: Cooperation Makes it Happen: Collaboration in Museum Archives
Museum archives and other small shops are facing the challenges of the 21st century creatively by joining forces and collaborating with colleagues. This panel discussion examines six innovative projects that utilized shared resources and mutually beneficial goals, resulting in a greater overall impact for participants than could have been achieved by one archives going it alone. The speakers, who represent a variety of repositories, examine both in-house projects and collaborations between and among institutions.
Susan K. Anderson, Chair, Philadelphia Museum of Art
Michelle Elligott, Museum of Modern Art
Susan J. von Salis, Harvard Art Museum
David M. Dwiggins, Historic New England
Alfred Lemmon, CA, Historic New Orleans Collection
Courtney Smerz, Philadelphia Area Consortium of Special Collections Libraries
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Transcript
Forty‐TWOHeadsareBe1erthenOne:PACSCL’sApproachtoaCrossRepositoryProcessingProgram
SAANa9onalConference,ChicagoAugust24,2011
CourtneySmerz,ProjectArchivist
PACSCLHiddenCollec<onsProcessingProject
• FundedbyCouncilonLibraryandInforma9onResources’“CatalogingHiddenSpecialCollec9onsandArchives”ini9a9ve
• 23par9cipa9ngrepositoriesacrossPhiladelphia,PA– 6museums,7universi9es,3historicalsocie9es,4private
ins9tu9ons,3publicins9tu9ons
• Eliminateprocessingbacklogandexposehiddencollec9ons– Processed123hiddencollec<onsofmanuscriptsandarchives– Converted83LegacyfindingaidstoEAD
• Centralizedprocessingteam– ProjectManager,ProjectArchivist,severalteamsofpart‐9me
studentprocessors,1part‐9mecataloger
Experimenta<oninProcessing
Weprocessed3,897linearfeetin2years
• Employed“MPLP”strategyasintroducedinGreene’sandMeissner’s2005ar9cle“MoreProduct,LessProcess…”– Testedoncollec9onsrangingthe17thtothe21stcenturies– Goalof2hoursperlinearfoot9meframe– CombinedphilosophyofMPLPwithRobertCox’s2010“Maximal
Processing…”tomakethemostofourlimited9mewithcollec9ons– MPLPisnotjustfor20thcenturybusinessrecordsanymore
• UsedTheArchivists’Toolkitdatabase
• Usedstudentlabor– Developed“ArchivalBootCamp”totrainstudents
PACSCLFindingAidsSiteCreatedacentralonlinefindingaidsite
– DevelopedbytheUniversityofPennsylvaniaLibraries
– Findingaidsfromall23repositoriesinoneplace
– Keywordandfacetedsearching,andsearchinginindividualrepositories
– WillonedaybecomeprimaryresearchpointinPhiladelphia
findingaids.pacscl.org
42Headsarebe1erthan1
23RepositoryReps
+2full9meprojectstaff+16part‐9mestudent processors
+1part‐9mestudent cataloger_______________
42Stakeholders
TheBenefitsofaProjectTeam
• Centralizedstaffnecessarytoensureadherencetostandardsacross23ins9tu9ons
– HollyMengel,ProjectManager
– CourtneySmerz,ProjectArchivist
– Teamsofstudentprocessors
TheBenefitsofaProjectTeam
• ProjectmanagerandProjectarchivist– Developedprocessing
program– Ensuredstandardsupheld
across23repositories– Createdprocessingplansfor
eachcollec9on– Developedtrainingprogram– Editedfindingaids– Completedallauthoritywork
• StudentProcessors– Processedamajorityofthe
collec9ons– Thoughaulcollaborators
Commi1eeWork
Sharedknowledge,sharedexperience
• StandardsCommibee
• OversightCommibee
• TechnicalCommibee– Mostac9vecommibee– DevelopedMSExcelspreadsheet,forimpor9ngdataintoTheArchivistsToolkit
RealityofLargeScaleCollabora<on
• Collabora9vepar9cipa9onvaried– Studentsupervision– Coordinatedon‐sitetechsupport
– Providedfeedback
• Projectteamfacilitatedcollabora9on– solicitedfeedback
PACSCL‐WideBenefit
• 206unhiddencollec9onsregionwide– 7+ateachrepository
• 3,897LFofbacklogeliminated
• FindingAidSite– Researcherbenefit– Repositorybenefit
BenefitBeyondPACSCL
• Developedworkflowforelimina9ngbackloginarchivesfaster– Outlinedonprojectwebsite:clir.pacscl.org
• Developedtrainingprogramtogetthemostoutofstudentworkers
• Establishedguidelinesforeffec9veselec9onofcollec9onsforMPLPprocessing
• ProjectblogdisclosedsuccessesandfailuresofMPLPprocessingandTheArchivist’sToolkit
SeekPartnershipsEverywhere!
Despiteourdifferences,Weallhavehiddencollec<onsandprocessingbacklogincommon!
clir.pacscl.org
findingaids.pacscl.org‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐
www.pacscl.org
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