INFO 6800 Archives (Winter 2013) – Week Ten Seminar | 1

INFO 6800 Archives – March 11, 2013 Week Ten – Acquisitions and Accessioning

Objectives

1. Discuss the challenges with acquiring archival materials 2. Examine donation agreements and accession forms 3. Explore the relationships between donors, users, and archival repositories 4. Examine mandates, collection policies, and acquisition strategies

Activities: Tour of Dalhousie University Archives

Required Readings

Crush, Peter J. “Chapter 6: Acquisition.” In Keeping Archives, Third Edition, edited by Jackie Bettington, Kim Eberhard, Rowena Loo, and Clive Smith, 207-225. Melbourne: The Australian Society of Archivists, 2008.

Council of Nova Scotia Archives. Cooperative Acquisition Strategy. Halifax: Council of Nova Scotia Archives, 2001. http://www.councilofnsarchives.ca/node/334.

Hyry, T., Diane Kaplan, and Christine Weideman. “Though This Be Madness, Yet There is Bethod in ‘t: Assessing the Value of Faculty Papers and Defining a Collection Policy. American Archivist 65.1 (2002): 56-69. http://archivists.metapress.com/content/c01107u676225hq3/fulltext.pdf.

Shapley, Maggie. “Chapter 7: Accessioning.” In Keeping Archives, Third Edition, edited by Jackie Bettington, Kim Eberhard, Rowena Loo, and Clive Smith, 226-251. Melbourne: The Australian Society of Archivists, 2008.

Optional Readings

Jackson, Laura Uglean and D. Claudia Thompson. “But You Promised: A Case Study of

Deaccessioning at the American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming.” American

Archivist 73.2 (Fall-Winter 2010): 669-685.

Prepare for Discussion

1. What are the components of an acquisition policy? What needs to be explicitly

stated and what can be left to the discretion of the archivists?

INFO 6800 Archives (Winter 2013) – Week Ten Seminar | 2

2. What kind of documentation is needed to accept an archival donation? What are the strengths and weaknesses of each type of document?

3. What are the components of a deed of gift?

4. Some archivists (e.g., Timothy Ericson) have called for inter-institutional lending of archival materials and have observed that libraries and even museums have been lending unique materials for years with little problem. Do you think collaborative lending strategies can help archivists develop better acquisition strategies? Or would it place the materials at too great a risk to justify?

5. How can archivists collaborate on the development of acquisition policies? How can collaboration with other institutions help archives better document their communities?

6. What are some of the financial and administrative considerations an archivist

must make when considering an acquisition?

7. What kind of information should be included in an accession record?

8. Some acquisitions receive monetary appraisals so the donor can be issued a tax

receipt, others (e.g., institutional records transfers) do not. How does this affect

the acquisitions and accessioning process? Do archivists need different policies

and procedures for handing donations that receive monetary appraisals?

9. Some acquisitions must be certified by the Canadian Cultural Property Export

Review Board (CCPERB). How does this affect the acquisitions and

accessioning process? Should donors contribute to paying for the certification

process?

10. Deaccessioning is increasingly playing a major role in archives collection

management. What impact will this have on the preservation of our documentary

heritage and collective memory? What considerations should be made when

considering deaccessions?

11. How does deaccessioning affect donor relations? How should deaccessioning

activities be documented and what kind of information should archives make

publicly available?