Arrangement

I ended last week with thinking about the arrangement of my collection on paper.  I actually looked up some different series possibilities in the SAA Glossary and by reading some completed finding aids.  I decided that there were items in the administrative files series that didn't quite belong.  I then discovered program files.  This series worked well for some floating files that didn't quite fit where they were.  This series particularly worked well for the Package Library materials, which make up a large chunk.  I felt like I had a better handle on the what the arrangement should be after doing some research and creating the new series.

Once I was satisfied with my arrangement on paper (or Word), it was time to tackle physical arrangement.  This was a daunting task.  Materials were scattered throughout the boxes so I had to spread out.  Lesson learned, arrangement can require a lot of space.  Luckily I was able to steal a cleared table next to mine and then clear it again when I was done for the day.  IU is fortunate to have the processing space that they have, but I really think that any archival institution could always use more.

There was a whole box of personnel records (and a few more files scattered about).  They are arranged where they would be intellectually in the finding aid.  That is to say, if they were not restricted that is where it would make sense to find them.  They are currently not in my equation for physical arrangement, though.  They are sorted into a box that I'm keeping under the table to give me more space.  When I'm finished arranging they will be the last box.  In the finding aid, as always, they are marked in bold, "Restricted" denoting to the archivist that they are at the end of the collection and not in the box with the other files that it is described with.

We also questioned whether or not the reference requests should be restricted.  Now library records are considered private because what people read and research could potentially be used to cause harm to that person.  Carrie and I talked to Phil and it was decided that these records from the 1960s were okay, though.  Restricting them would be acting over-sensitively.  The question then became do we need two boxes of these reference requests or could we sample them, or only keep some to represent the whole.  I thought that they could definitely have research value in that you can see what people in a certain area were researching and asking for in that time period.  It was decided that since it was just two boxes and not twelve that it would be okay to just go ahead and keep them all.  This means less work for me, even though we could potentially save a little space by only keeping a sample.

Arranging this collection is taking longer not only because the size, but also because I have had to put a lot of things into new folders or into folders at all.  This is more time consuming than what you would initially think, especially when you have a few boxes worth of folders to create.  I can see how not refoldering if you don't have to can save time, but also how it is necessary at times.  Even though I had it arranged on paper beforehand I still made a few slight changes as I went.  Actually looking what was in the folder again instead of at just the folder name gave me a different perspective on some files.  The process is coming along, though.