PUTTING ARCHIVAL AV MEDIA INTO CONTEXT: An Archival Approach to Processing Mixed-media Manuscript Collections MEGAN MCSHEA ARCHIVES OF AMERICAN ART SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION SAA ANNUAL MEETING 2014

PROJECT GOALS Planning Tools:  Benchmarks  Metrics  Ratings Processing Guidelines:  Re-housing and seating  Arrangement and description Megan

PROJECT DOCUMENTS Project documents in draft form: AV Levels of processing AV ratings AV re-housing instructions EAD guidelines Project overview: Links to finding aids for completed collections Future home of project documents Megan

PLANNING TOOLS: BENCHMARKS Defining AV Levels of processing: 1.Preliminary – performed upon accession 2.Minimal – standard level of processing at AAA 3.Intermediate – for some grant-funded processing in special subject areas 4.Full – when collection is expected to be digitized, or special attention to AV Megan

PLANNING TOOLS: METRICS Average Processing Rates: Minimal processing of Non-AV collections: 8.3 hours/linear foot Full processing of Non-AV collections: 18.5 hr/lf Full processing of CLIR collections: 12 hr/lf Full processing of AV portion: 20 hr/lf Median extent increase of AV portions:27% Megan

PLANNING TOOLS: RATINGS Factors that affect rate of processing: 1.Need to re-house audiovisual media, or to store in special containers 2.AV media requires playback and analysis to arrange and describe to the planned level of processing Megan

PLANNING TOOLS: RATINGS AV Housing Ratings: 1.Poor – large AV portion and most needs re-housing 2.Fair – large AV portion and more than half needs re-housing 3.Good – little AV re-housing needed 4.Very Good – AV is scattered and re-housing not a significant factor 5.Excellent – AV already preserved and re-housed as necessary Megan

PLANNING TOOLS: RATINGS AV access ratings: 1.Poor - bulk of AV items need to be played/inspected in order to be described/arranged 2.Fair - some media must be played/inspected 3.Good - bulk of AV items do not need to be played/inspected 4.Very good - Small amount of AV material in the collection, not significant impact 5.Excellent - bulk of AV Items digitized, with item records Megan

ESTIMATING PROCESSING RATE: AN EXPERIMENT 1. AV housing rating + AV access rating ÷ 2 = overall AV rating 2. Using the average pieces of media per hour for each rating, determine pieces/hr estimate e.g.: poor rating = 2 pieces/hour, excellent rating = 40 pieces/hour 3. Total pieces of AV ÷ pieces per hour rate = total AV processing time 4. AV extent in linear feet X 127% (median extent increase of AV series) = post-processing AV extent 5. Total AV processing time ÷ post-processing AV extent = hrs/lf AV processing Megan

PROCESSING GUIDELINES: RE-HOUSING Repository should have AV re-housing supplies available Minimal processing exempt from re-housing General principles:  replace acidic or damaged housing as you would for anything else  Photocopy original housing before it’s discarded Media-specific instructions for:  Magnetic media  Motion picture film  Grooved discs  Optical discs Megan

GUIDELINES: ARRANGEMENT AND DESCRIPTION Principles and peeves:  If you don’t get it, neither will the researcher  Don’t automatically put all the AV in a series  Don’t be afraid to describe in the aggregate  A format is not a title  Don’t be afraid to leave things out that don’t enhance access  Don’t list copies  Keep your code clean Megan

PROJECT DOCUMENTS Project documents in draft form: AV Levels of processing AV ratings AV re-housing instructions EAD guidelines Project overview: Links to finding aids for completed collections Future home of project documents Megan