This Archival Processing Guide by Steve Duckworth is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Based on a work completed by PACSCL.
Archival collections are each unique and require varying levels of attention and description. This guide should serve as a basis for standard levels to strive for, but make sure to discuss the collections and your processing decisions with the University Archivist throughout the process, whenever a question arises, or even when something catches your attention as rather unique or interesting.
Archival processing provides greater intellectual and physical access to collections. It promotes preservation and enables good collections management. Generally speaking, during processing, records are appraised, weeded, arranged, described, and provided with archival quality housing and basic preservation.
Additional readings of use to processors:
In addition, parts of this guide stem from work originally completed by the Philadelphia Area Consortium of Special Collections Libraries' (PACSCL) Hidden Collections projects. More information on these projects is available on the PACSCL project site.
