IMR 659

Chapter 4
Developing Collections
 Learning Outcomes
• At the end of this chapter, students should be able to :-
• Understand the components of manuscripts
administration and the process of acquisition.

CONTENT:
• Components of manuscript administration
• Acquisition
• Collection development
• Preservation
 Definition
Acquisition definition:
The process by which archives/manuscripts add to their holdings by
accepting material either by the process of transferring, donation,
loan or purchase.

Collecting policy (acquisition policy): 

An official statement issued by authorities managing the archives/
manuscripts which identifies the kinds of materials the archives will
acquire or collect and the conditions or terms which affect the
acquisition or collection of such materials
Solicitation:
Plead for something – to try to get
something by making insistent (firm)
request or please.
 Manuscripts are also called personal
papers repositories as opposed from
archival repositories. The differences are
in term of:
• size of holdings,
• staffing, and
• types of work done
Manuscripts repositories gather their holdings
from a multiplicity of outside sources.
– Rarely do come from single source
– Must define the focus of their institutions
– Solicit (request) of manuscripts/ personal papers
– Negotiate the donation
– Terms of access
• It will be focused through-out & provide carefully defined
objectives for rational collecting program.

• Consideration are on the available institutional resource,

existence of other collections of research materials on
the same subject elsewhere in their geographical area
and the public they serve now and want to attract in
the future.
• While solicitation can be done with implementing
collecting programs. It should have one page, a
very clear statements prepared by the
institutions.
• Solicitation can be done in two ways: mass
communication or field work. Collecting efforts
should be publicize through local-interest
interviews in newspapers and magazines,
speaking to groups, and sending
solicitations letters.
• The next stage of solicitation is the field
work where they identify, locate, negotiate
for, and secure collections for their
institutions.
• This is done individually if the institution is small or
groups by following all lead to gather data about
perspective donors and types of documents and subject
in their collections.

• Field representatives need to keep very careful records,

maintain files of leads on log sheets or cards and
reminder of the next steps required.
• Solicitation program should be examined periodically to
determine the approach is adequate and successful.

• Negotiation makes take long and often personalized.

First contact may be through letter or telephone call and
records be kept in each contact. Follow up should be
often after first contact and at same time being polite
toward and sensitive of donor’s feeling.
• Field representative should also be familiar with the
market for papers if the donors want to sell the papers or
tax law benefits for deductions allows with respect to
gifts.

• In other case, Institution should prepare lists of

reputable, independent appraisers who will act on its
own behalf to avoid conflict of interest to do the
appraisal.
 Processing of the collection:

1. Receive the collection

2. Appraise the collection
3. Create an accession folder with the collection
name on it
4. Search Research Libraries Info Network (RLIN)
for a record
5. Enter a record for the collection, or update the
existing record
6. Assign an accession number to the collection – field 541
7. Print out the RLIN record for the accession folder
8. Fill out an accession form
9. If the collection is a gift, write an acknowledgment letter
to the donor
10. Give the accession folder to the processing Collections
Assistant (put it in the in box on her desk)
11. The processing Collections Assistant or the
Technical Services Archivist will pass the RLIN
record to Voyager and create a Voyager
holdings record
12. The processing Collections Assistant prints out
the RLIN record for the accession folder and for
the front of the printed guide
 Methods of arrangement
• The processes of arrangement and description
constitute the major aspects of bibliographic
control of manuscripts, but also included is the
preparation of ancillary record such as the
donor, accession and collection files.
• If the curator or archivists has the opportunity to
set up his own system, he should strive to keep
it as simple as possible.
• Arrangement and description means what happens to a
manuscript collection from the time it is accession until it
is ready for cataloging and preparing finding aids.

• Processing steps can be facilitated if the collections are

carefully boxed and the information about the collection
and the person they deal is noted by the recipient.
 Arrangement
• Business records will fall into series, i.e., day books, ledgers, payroll
records, minutes of managerial bodies, and then in chronological
sequence with series
• Diaries will follow a simple chronology
• Only compilation or materials assembled by a collector will be
suitable for ordering by subject. If a man’s papers consist of
materials he has collected on a number of aborigine tribes and
practices, it makes sense to keep them together by tribe or practice
rather than arrange them through some artificial chronological
ordering
 Ordering Chronologically
• Ordering must performed by trained persons. He must
go through the collections that he gets the feel of the
papers and the man or institution which created them.
Make notes on the order which the paper were received
if this is to be disrupted later. Occasionally a preliminary
inventory will be useful.
• Also be able to date with relative accuracy
many undated materials, thereby
preserving their usefulness & their
coherence (logic) in a collection.
• Enclosures should be fastened to the
documents with which they were enclosed.
• When so handled they continue to make sense and
function in telling the story. At this time papers should be
sorted into decades, for chronological ordering of
materials of any bulk is most easily handled in a series of
steps.
• Once this step is complete all further steps in
chronological arrangement can be performed. Sorting is
by decades, then year, by month and finally by day, at
which time papers can be placed in their permanent
folders legend typed.
• It is important that quantity of materials
each folder be limited not more than 25
items, so that if materials in a folder are
disarranged they are still found or
reordered.
• Larger quantities, when disarranged, result
in much greater inconvenience.
 Processing Procedures
1. Record each acquisition in the collection management
system or using an accession record sheet
2. Develop a preliminary biographical sketch or
administrative history of the creator of the collection
3. Conduct a preliminary inventory by reviewing the
collection
4. Discuss the collection's arrangement or lack of order
with the appropriate supervisor
5. Rebox and refolder the collection
6. Prepare a preliminary scope and content
statement for the collection
7. Prepare a written finding aid for the
collection describing materials to the folder
level within each series
 Preservation
Take proper care when handling flat works
on paper by:
• Having clean hands and a clean work area
• Keeping food and drink away
• Using pencil, not ink, to make any necessary marks or
inscriptions; in addition, only make inscriptions when the
paper is on a clean, hard surface, to avoid embossing
the inscription into the paper, which will be visible
from the other side
• Not using paper clips, other fasteners,
"dog ear" folding to mark or organize
leaves
• Not using rubber bands, self-adhesive
tape, and/or glue on paper
 PROPER STORAGE OF WORKS ON PAPER

• A cool (room temperature or below), relatively

dry (about 35% relative humidity), clean, and
stable environment (avoid attics, basements,
and other locations with high risk of leaks and
environmental extremes)
• Minimal exposure to all kinds of light; no
exposure to direct or intense light
• Distance from radiators and vents
• Supportive protective enclosures*
• Unfolded and flat or rolled storage for
oversized papers
• Individual/isolated storage of acidic papers
to prevent acids from migrating into the
other works on paper
QUESTIONS?