I just looked back over my blogs
for the past year and a half and it seems I have neglected to talk about the
actual activities that are part of an archivists duties. There are four core jobs - appraisal
and acquisition; arrangement and description; preservation and migration; reference
and public programming (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archivist ). These duties are also articulated in the
Academy of Certified Archivists website (www.certifiedarchivists.org/) and
provide the basis for testing to obtain certification. To simplify those duties
even further, an archivist’s job is to take care of collections and make the
information in them available to the public. Today I’ll briefly explain appraisal and acquisition
and I’ll talk about the others in subsequent blogs.
We’ve actually talked about
appraisal before. Appraisal should
be the first assessment of the collection. Initially the goal of appraisal is to determine the
collection’s appropriateness for a particular archive and its condition. Does
it fulfill the archive’s mission statement and collection policies? Are there adequate facilities and
resources to care for the collection? Will the donor sign a deed of gift
relinquishing ownership to the archive? What will be necessary to make this
collection accessible for use? Does
it have sufficient research value to preserve? Once the archive decides that
the collection is appropriate for their institution then they move to acquire
the papers. One hopes that the
acquisition is accompanied by some monetary donation to help pay for the
processing of the papers. For most
archives funding is essential if they are going to be able to process and
preserve the collection.
That is the ideal. - appraisal
first and acquisition second. Unfortunately most of the time a collection has
not been appraised when it is given and accepted by the archive. In fact in many archives collections
are simply stored sometimes for many years with little or no accompanying information.
Sometimes you don’t even know who gave the collection to the archives. There are no deeds of gift, no
permissions for release of information, nada.
A Deed of Gift is essential for the
acquisition process. The Deed of
Gift protects the institution if the donor or their heirs want to remove the
papers. I can’t tell you how many times that has happened to museums where I
have worked. The Deed of Gift helps
avoid an expensive court case and the potential loss of an important
collection. The Deed of Gift provides an opportunity for the donor to specify
limitations on access as Lady Byrd Johnson did with Lyndon Johnson’s
papers. They could not be released
until after her death. Some
material may be of a very personal nature and the donor may not wish that
released during their lifetime. Restrictions as long as they are reasonable are certainly
acceptable. The Deed of Gift
should also allow for the publication and use of the material. The Deed of Gift does not replace
copyright protections. A
researcher wishing to publish copyrighted material is responsible for obtaining
all necessary permissions. That
means that the archives must also have permission for the use of copyrighted
material, especially in the age of digitization.
Often the acquisition process is
accompanied by a monetary appraisal.
Professionals who are unaffiliated with the university or the donor are
hired and paid for by the donor to conduct the appraisal. The IRS requires an appraisal
requesting income tax credit for all gifts valued at over $5000. A monetary appraisal is also
helpful to the institution for insurance purposes.
That’s a quick summary of initial
appraisal and acquisition. At
least it gives you some idea of what those duties involve. If the acquisition occurred before the
appraisal then the archivist reviews the collection and determines what steps
are necessary to either preserve, process, or dispose of the material. Remember not everything should be kept.
Sample of a Deed of Gift
DEED OF GIFT
(Institution)
I
(we) _____________________________________________________________
Of
(address) _________________________________________________________________
Am
(are) the owner (s) of the property described as follows:
I
(we) desire to transfer said property as a gift to the (Repository or institution
name)
I
(we) do hereby irrevocably assign, transfer, and give all of my (our) copyright
rights and right, title, and
interest in and to the above described property
to (Institution or repository
name)
Should
I not agree to transfer and assign all copyrights I do give permission to the
(repository name) to use
reproductions for their catalogs, publications and
other fair use purposes.
Are
materials confidential and/or use restricted in any way? ______Yes ______No
If
yes, please describe the nature of confidentiality and the length of
restriction. We cannot accept
materials
that need to be permanently restricted from access by readers.
I
agree that this material may be made available for research according to the
established procedures of the
archives and including the Worldwide Web, subject
only to restrictions otherwise listed.
Date:_________________________
Signed:___________________________________
Donor
The
(Archives name) hereby gratefully accepts this gift in accordance with the
conditions specified above
Date:_______________________ Signed:____________________
Title__________________________
*
Adapted from Lowell, Waverly and Tawny Ryan Nelb. Architectural Records. Chicago: Society of American Archivists,
2006, p 86.
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