More Product, Less Process Why it Matters to Archivists, Librarians, and Researchers Dennis Meissner Minnesota Historical Society 1 "Moving the Past into the Future," Oxford, UK, October 13, 2010

The Problem Archival processing does not keep pace with the growth of collections Unprocessed backlogs continue to grow Researchers denied access to collections Our image with donors and resource allocators suffers 2 "Moving the Past into the Future," Oxford, UK, October 13, 2010

Hypotheses Increasing breadth and scale of contemporary collections Failure to revise processing benchmarks to deal with problem 3 "Moving the Past into the Future," Oxford, UK, October 13, 2010

Methodology Literature review Repository survey (100 repositories) Grant project survey (40 NHPRC grants) User survey (48 researchers) Review related surveys 4 "Moving the Past into the Future," Oxford, UK, October 13, 2010

Findings Processing benchmarks and practices are inappropriate to deal with problems posed by large contemporary collections Ideal vs. necessary Fixation on item level tasks Preservation anxieties trump user needs 5 "Moving the Past into the Future," Oxford, UK, October 13, 2010

Recommendations General Principles for Change Establish acceptable minimum level of work, and make it the benchmark Don’t assume all collections, or all collection components, will be processed to same level 6 "Moving the Past into the Future," Oxford, UK, October 13, 2010

Recommendations Arrangement In normal or typical situations, the physical arrangement of materials in archival groups and manuscript collections should not take place below the series level Not all series and all files in a collection need to be arranged to the same level 7 "Moving the Past into the Future," Oxford, UK, October 13, 2010

Recommendations Description Since description represents arrangement: describe materials at a level of detail appropriate to that level of arrangement Keep description brief and simple Level of description should vary across collections, and across components within a collection 8 "Moving the Past into the Future," Oxford, UK, October 13, 2010

Recommendations Conservation Rely on storage area environmental controls to carry the conservation burden Don’t perform conservation tasks at a lower hierarchical level than you perform arrangement and description 9 "Moving the Past into the Future," Oxford, UK, October 13, 2010

Recommendations Productivity A processing archivist ought to be able to arrange and describe large twentieth century archival materials at an average rate of 4 hours per cubic foot 10 "Moving the Past into the Future," Oxford, UK, October 13, 2010

Lessons learned What do our users really need and expect? Access Online discovery tools Effective finding aids 11 "Moving the Past into the Future," Oxford, UK, October 13, 2010

Lessons learned What are the essentials of effective arrangement work? Respect des fonds + Original order → Series-level arrangement 12 "Moving the Past into the Future," Oxford, UK, October 13, 2010

Lessons learned What preservation activities are truly necessary? Protection from light Protection from atmospheric pollutants Protection from excessive heat Protection from moisture 13 "Moving the Past into the Future," Oxford, UK, October 13, 2010

A better model Make user access paramount: Get most material available as quickly as possible in some usable form 14 "Moving the Past into the Future," Oxford, UK, October 13, 2010

A better model Establish acceptable minimum level of work, and make it the processing benchmark 15 "Moving the Past into the Future," Oxford, UK, October 13, 2010

A better model Expend the greatest effort on the most deserving or needful materials 16 "Moving the Past into the Future," Oxford, UK, October 13, 2010

A better model Embrace flexibility: Don’t assume all collections, or all collection components, will be processed to same level 17 "Moving the Past into the Future," Oxford, UK, October 13, 2010

A better model Embrace ambiguity: Stop pretending that you know what will be important in the future User needs and interests Access and description needs See every collection as a potential work in progress. Let future events drive further work 18 "Moving the Past into the Future," Oxford, UK, October 13, 2010

A better model Don’t allow preservation anxieties to trump user access and higher managerial values 19 "Moving the Past into the Future," Oxford, UK, October 13, 2010

A better model Establish good risk management models Risk is unavoidable Risk is amenable to being managed assess mitigate budget respond 20 "Moving the Past into the Future," Oxford, UK, October 13, 2010

What MPLP is not A manual for arrangement, description, and conservation specifics A set of fixed upper limits Inflexible, absolutist, or simplistic 21 "Moving the Past into the Future," Oxford, UK, October 13, 2010

What MPLP really is Stern advice about resource management Prioritizing goals Achieving high-level program objectives Maximizing ROI Practical approaches, not millenial ones A profound change in approach and perspective 22 "Moving the Past into the Future," Oxford, UK, October 13, 2010

Stern advice about resource management Making use the preeminent objective What MPLP really is 23 "Moving the Past into the Future," Oxford, UK, October 13, 2010

And what do users want? Access to collections trumps precise arrangement, granular description, and interpretation of content Access to what? Online finding aids For all types of collections, via common discovery & access tools Digitized collection materials 24 "Moving the Past into the Future," Oxford, UK, October 13, 2010

Stern advice about resource management Making use the preeminent objective Opening the blinds, and throwing away the cookie cutters Transparency about collection holdings Openness to archival innovation Institutional practice limited only by resources (no straitjackets) What MPLP really is 25 "Moving the Past into the Future," Oxford, UK, October 13, 2010

What can MPLP mean for Special Collections? Broad approach to leveraging our collective ability to provide access to research collections Extensible to deal with novel problem spaces Brevity in resource description is positive benefit in networked environments Economic approaches are driving innovations in practice: Description; archival approaches; digitization 26 "Moving the Past into the Future," Oxford, UK, October 13, 2010

Early Implementers University of Montana—Missoula Donna McCrea No physical work within file folders Uniform collection-level descriptive access No weeding below series level for backlog No notable user acceptance problems 2 hours per linear foot on average 27 "Moving the Past into the Future," Oxford, UK, October 13, 2010

Early Implementers American Heritage Center, Univ. of Wyoming NHPRC grant funded 1 processing archivist for 2 years 700 collection-level MARC records added to OPAC »175% performance to budget 265 EAD finding aids for larger collections »132% performance to budget Significant increase in discovery and use Public service impact: »Positive outcomes overall »Requires more reference involvement from other staff »Follow-on Innovation: Process on Demand 28 "Moving the Past into the Future," Oxford, UK, October 13, 2010

Early Implementers University of Alaska—Fairbanks Anne Foster Series level processing of extensive photographs Lets use drive more intensive processing Involves donor in processing continuum Solicits $$ donations from donors for more processing 29 "Moving the Past into the Future," Oxford, UK, October 13, 2010

Early Implementers University of Wisconsin—Oshkosh Joshua Ranger Series level processing of digitized collections High-speed bi-tonal scanning of photocopied collection materials The perfect is the enemy of the good Move metadata level from item to folder level 30 "Moving the Past into the Future," Oxford, UK, October 13, 2010

Minnesota Historical Society Walter Mondale Papers NEH “We the People” Project High productivity + high-value products 31 "Moving the Past into the Future," Oxford, UK, October 13, 2010

Mondale Papers finding aid 32 "Moving the Past into the Future," Oxford, UK, October 13, 2010

Mondale Papers finding aid 33 "Moving the Past into the Future," Oxford, UK, October 13, 2010

Minnesota Historical Society Walter Mondale Papers NEH “We the People” Project High productivity + high-value products Rethinking items as collections Photographs (albums and loose images, as well) Sheet music Bound publications Maps Oral histories Audio and moving image materials ??? 34 "Moving the Past into the Future," Oxford, UK, October 13, 2010

Photograph collections 35 "Moving the Past into the Future," Oxford, UK, October 13,

Minnesota Historical Society Walter Mondale Papers NEH “We the People” Project High productivity + high-value products Rethinking items as collections Photographs (albums and loose images, as well) Sheet music Bound publications Maps Oral histories Audio and moving image materials ??? Use PDFs to inexpensively bundle and present complex objects 36 "Moving the Past into the Future," Oxford, UK, October 13, 2010

PDFs: low-cost digital carriers 37 "Moving the Past into the Future," Oxford, UK, October 13,

PDFs: low-cost digital carriers 38 "Moving the Past into the Future," Oxford, UK, October 13,

Indictments of MPLP approaches Loss of item-level control Specious argument; item-level control has never dominated archival processing Exposure of “sensitive” and third-party materials Vulnerability to litigation and public/donor displeasure greatly overstated Unfair burden imposed on researchers MPLP seeks a fair distribution of costs between all transaction parties Invitation to document thieves Rely on reading room security, not on collection inventories Professional status of archivists is weakened Please! Professional status should not be based on finding aids 39 "Moving the Past into the Future," Oxford, UK, October 13, 2010

“Insanity is when you do things the way you’ve always done them, but expect a different result.” -- adage ascribed to both Albert Einstein and Ralph Waldo Emerson 40 "Moving the Past into the Future," Oxford, UK, October 13, 2010

“The best time to plant a tree is twenty years ago. The next best time is now.” --African proverb quoted by economist Dambisa Moyo 41 "Moving the Past into the Future," Oxford, UK, October 13, 2010