{"id":1741,"date":"2026-03-23T08:23:18","date_gmt":"2026-03-23T12:23:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/assessment\/?p=1741"},"modified":"2026-03-23T08:23:18","modified_gmt":"2026-03-23T12:23:18","slug":"12-years-of-special-collections-archival-processing-tracking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/assessment\/2026\/03\/23\/12-years-of-special-collections-archival-processing-tracking\/","title":{"rendered":"12 Years of Special Collections\u00a0Archival\u00a0Processing\u00a0Tracking\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Over a decade\u00a0ago, Assessment on the Ground<\/em> was launched.\u00a0The\u00a0first post was an\u00a0interview with Katy Rawdon<\/a>,\u00a0Coordinator\u00a0of Technical Services in the Special Collections Research Center. Katy\u00a0shared with us the many ways she used assessment to improve the management of\u00a0archival\u00a0processing, accessioning, and surveying.\u00a0Katy\u00a0continues to coordinate technical services for SCRC,\u00a0and while many things\u00a0have stayed the same, I expected some changes as well.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last week\u00a0we\u00a0met again, and\u00a0Katy reflected on the environment in which she started her assessment work \u2013 the tracking of\u00a0special collections processing and cataloging and how that was instrumental in the planning of our move from Paley to Charles. While she now has new tools, like Aeon and\u00a0ArchivesSpace,\u00a0that support this work, the fundamentals and value of the work\u00a0continues – much still conducted manually. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

How It All Began<\/strong> <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Katy: The day I started at the libraries, Margery Sly (then SCRC Director) asked me to prepare our collections to move out of Paley and into the new library. At Paley, collections were located in many different storage areas. There was a lot of stuff we had no record of, with no location information. We developed a DB\/Textworks database to enter collections information. We needed to know, for each collection, the number of boxes and how big they were. We needed to target locations for each collection to move to \u2013 in Charles or Kardon. We needed to know what collections needed to be re-boxed for storage in the ASRS.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A big question was, \u201cWill we be able to survey all of these materials in time for the move? So, tracking the quantity of surveying required and the time that would require was essential.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The good news was that we learned we could do it in time. And having that end goal, knowing the project was realistic, was very motivating in getting it done.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nancy: Since the move, you\u2019ve implemented some new systems, like Aeon and ArchivesSpace. Has that changed the kinds of data you have in making decisions?  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Katy: Yes, implementing Aeon (a circulation and request system for special collections) and in particular ArchivesSpace (a collection management system for archives) have really improved our collections management. After the move to Charles, we planned to apply the same process to the survey of materials at Kardon. But Covid hit, so we\u2019re now just getting started with that work. Using ArchivesSpace allows us to generate better reports, but we still use a spreadsheet for year-end numbers. It\u2019s actually the same exact spreadsheet, shared so that everyone adds their own numbers.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nancy: New reporting tools allow for new questions. What questions do you have for the future?   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Katy: What I\u2019d like to start looking at is how much NEW archival material we\u2019ve taking in each year, and how much archival processing are we getting done. Is our archival processing keeping up with what we are acquiring? Ideally, we should be processing more than we are taking in.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We always have had to balance our acquisition of new collections with the need for addressing our backlog. Having this good data about the time required and costs of processing means that we can advocate for new staff. It means that we may take in fewer collections but consider those potential acquisitions in a more mindful way. We are much more discerning.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We may also ask for funding support for the processing. The Philadelphia Folklore Collection is an example, where we were able to hire an archivist specifically for that collection.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Improving the User Experience<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Katy: For archival processing, the thoroughness and accuracy with which a collection is processed directly relates to the user experience. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nancy: That\u2019s interesting. Can you expand on that idea?   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Katy: Every patron wants items described at the finest detail possible. We generally describe, or catalog, collections at the folder level. This means that the folder titles need to be very clear, so patrons know what they are looking at.  It saves time for patrons when they are searching for something specific, and for staff in retrieving that information for them.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Archives can be challenging for users, because they are physically arranged differently from general collections, and they\u2019re not browsable via open stacks. We\u2019d like more information on how users experience our finding aids, which are the records we create describing our archival collections. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the end of the day, we want the experience to be as easy as possible.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nancy: Thanks, Katy. Talking with you is always interesting. And you make a great case for the use of\u00a0data in making decisions about the management of special collections,\u00a0demonstrating\u00a0their use and value, and continually improving the user experience in accessing these unique collections.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Over a decade\u00a0ago, Assessment on the Ground was launched.\u00a0The\u00a0first post was an\u00a0interview with Katy Rawdon,\u00a0Coordinator\u00a0of Technical Services in the Special Collections Research Center. Katy\u00a0shared with us the many ways she used assessment to improve the management of\u00a0archival\u00a0processing, accessioning, and surveying.\u00a0Katy\u00a0continues … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4680,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[81,44,77],"tags":[80,16,4,89],"class_list":["post-1741","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-collections","category-data-driven-decision-making","category-statistics","tag-continuous-improvement","tag-special-collections","tag-technical-services-2","tag-user-experience"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/assessment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1741","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/assessment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/assessment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/assessment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4680"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/assessment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1741"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/assessment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1741\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1743,"href":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/assessment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1741\/revisions\/1743"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/assessment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1741"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/assessment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1741"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/assessment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1741"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}