One of the issues we discussed in class that I’ve enjoyed thinking about is the article, “More Product, Less Process: Revamping Traditional Archives Processing” by Mark A. Greene and Dennis Meissner. We also discussed how archives typically have a backlog of material and insufficient funds. My original thoughts after reading this article and discussion in class were well maybe we just need more archivists, but that runs into the problem that there just isn’t enough money to pay more archivists to do the work. It seems like a solution to get through the backlog of material would be to have more people in the field, but there isn’t money to pay the workers so this can’t happen. The article discusses how more product and less process can be practiced with twentieth-century archival collections.
The article raises an interesting point about how some archivists have been resistant to change, and the example they give is how there has been an influx of material from the 1950s forward that is creating backlogs. Margery said in class how she worked for an institution that was already practicing more product and less process. Something I’ve been thinking about since has been what institutions have adopted this practice, and why. Is it because they are doing it to meet demands and release more products, or is it because they don’t have the resources to devote too much time to each collection? I think it would be interesting to survey archives in the tri-state area and see what practices they are following. This would be a difficult and long process, but maybe some data could be found in regards to why organizations have adopted or refuse to do this.