The name of the process by which records are received
in an archives is accessioning. Accessioning is the first step
in organizing your records, in giving you control over your holdings
- legal, physical, and intellectual control.
Each item or group of items that is accepted by an
archives is called an accession and is given an accession number,
a number unique to that item or group of items. You may use any
numbering system. Many archives use the last two digits of the
year plus a number for each new accession. The first accession
of 1990 will be 90.1, the second 90.2 and so on.
The number is written on the containers in which that
accession is stored. The number also goes on an accession record
that describes the item or group of items, tells from whom they
came, gives the date, and indicates where they will be kept.
Accession records may be kept in a book or on separate sheets
of paper. A sample is in Appendix A and a blank form is in Appendix
Accession records are kept in numerical order. But
you may find it handy to have this same information filed by
the name of the donor or of the office from which the records
were transferred. Statement of gifts, correspondence, and other
papers relating to gifts or transfer of records should be filed
with the appropriate accession records.
Accession everything in your archives. You may find
that your convention, union, or body already has a historical
collection, records that someone had the foresight to keep but
did not accession. Assign a number and make an accession record
for each record series, in order to establish a written record
of what is where in your archives.
B. Arranging and Describing
Accessioning makes it possible to find things. Arranging
and describing gives you better control over your archival holdings.
1. RECORD GROUPS
Archivists arrange official records by record groups,
so the first step in arranging your holdings is to establish
your groups. Consider how your convention, union, or body is
organized. Prepare an organizational chart. Include every board,
agency, or department that creates or receives records. Consider
offices that no longer exist but whose records you want; does
some current office have the same or similar responsibilities?
Expand your chart to include all units that ever created or received
Name a record group for each unit of your convention,
union or body that has or had authority to carry on activities
in a somewhat independent manner. These are the units that will
have unique records. Your first record group, for example Record
Group 1, will be that of your governing body. A second, Record
Group 2, might be your board of missions; a third, your board
Record groups are subdivided into subgroups. Your
first record group would include subgroups for each office within
your governing body: 1A for president; 1B for secretary; 1C for
treasurer. You may subdivide subgroups and will probably find
it necessary if you have a complicated organizational chart.
Once you have established your record groups, keep
them. Do not change your arrangement scheme every time your convention,
union, or body reorganizes. Consider the functions of new units
and fit them into your scheme. If, however, new units have entirely
new functions, establish new subgroups or record groups.
2. RECORD SERIES
Within each subgroup are many record series. If you
have forgotten what a record series is, look back on page 7.
Archivists do not arrange record series but keep them arranged
as they were used in the office. The user has already established
an arrangement scheme, usually chronological or alphabetical.
The archivist discovers the scheme and uses or adapts that arrangement
Within a record series there may be sub-series. For
example, annual meetings would be a series; one year's annual
meeting would be a sub-series. One year's meeting generates many
records, and these would be in file units arranged as the person
who was responsible for that meeting used them. To maintain them
as they were used allows the future researcher to most fully
understand that meeting.
Unfortunately, not all records will reach your archives
neatly arranged. When they do not, you will have to establish
order. Discover the source of the records to determine the record
group: What unit in your organizational chart created or received
them? Consider the subject or form of the records to determine
the record series. Look at the file units of that record series
you already have. Do the new records contain new valuable information?
If so, arrange them to fit in with the already established arrangement.
You rearrange the records of your convention, union,
or body as little as possible. You keep them in a manner that
reflects its organizational structure and workings. The arrangement
tells part of the story.
3. PERSONAL PAPERS AND RECORDS OF OTHER ORGANIZATIONS
Personal papers and records of organizations other
than your convention, union, or body are different. They are
not your records and do not belong to any of your record groups.
You will want to establish separate arrangement schemes for them.
You might call all of them collections and assign
them numbers and/or names. For example, you might establish presidents'
collections as Collection Group 1. Each president would be a
subgroup. In each subgroup could be that president's own personal
papers plus donations from other people of items that relate
to that president.
Arrange items within a collection in the manner that
seems most reasonable. Arrangement could be by types of materials:
diaries, letters, photographs, clippings. It could be alphabetical
or chronological. If items are already arranged, leave them as
If organizations other than your convention, union,
or body designate you as their official archives, you will want
to establish for each of them a record group arrangement. Follow
the same procedures as in arranging your own organization's records.
For more help in the hands-on work of arranging materials,
see under "Processing".
Arrangement helps you get records into permanent storage.
Description helps you find them again.
Description is the preparation of finding aids. Description
is writing the answers to these questions: Whose records were
these? What activities do they document? When were these records
made? What is their format? How many are there? How much storage
space do they take? Are they in good condition? Are there restrictions
on their use? Where are these records? How are they arranged?
You prepared the first finding aid for items in your
archives when you accessioned them. You made an accession record
that answered several of the questions listed above. As you process
(see below), making decisions about the arrangement of those
items, you will learn more about them and can answer more of
the questions. You can add that information to the accession
record and enhance its value as a tool. See the samples in Appendix
A to see how an accession record can be altered after the items
have been arranged.
You can add lists of file units to your accession
record. You may never have time to list every folder title in
every record series, but you may find it helpful to have lists
for record series that are most popular with researchers. An
example of a list is in Appendix A and a blank form in Appendix
B. Lists can be added to inventories. A complete inventory of
your archival holdings would begin with a brief history of your
convention, union, or body and a description of its organizational
structure and its major activities. The inventory would continue
by describing Record Group 1, giving the history, structure,
and functions of the offices whose records are in that record
group. It would describe each subgroup and record series. It
would indicate the dates and quantity of records in each record
series and sub-series and how they are arranged. Then it would
go to Record Group 2, 3, and all that you have. For a sample
of a partial inventory, see Appendix A.
Inventories and accession records, even with lists
added, are finding aids for those who are acquainted with organizational
structure and know which office would have been responsible for
the records they seek. Most researchers would prefer subject
indexes. Unfortunately, indexing is very slow work and cannot
be a priority for a new archives.
Some archives provide subject access to archival holdings
with a card catalog similar to that used by libraries. The card
should include the collection/accession number, title or main
entry, size (number of items or dimensions), brief description
of material, access restrictions and subject headings. The catalog
card may also refer to a more detailed inventory, index or listings
available to researchers.
Make copies of this card. One copy will be filed numerically
by the accession number. This file corresponds to a librarian's
shelf list of books. Other copies will be filed alphabetically
in the main file: one copy by title; each of the other copies
by one of the listed subjects. Before filing, you will have typed
each of the subjects on the top of a separate card. See examples
in Appendix A.
Descriptions of all your holdings, even if those descriptions
are brief, are preferable to detailed descriptions of only a
few record series. Complete accession records for everything
in your archives before you begin work on other kinds of finding