Special Collections 
Archival Procedure Manual

PREFACE
History of archival processing work at Fort Lewis College's Center of Southwest Studies
Collection strengths
Organizational scheme

PROCEDURE MANUAL
I. INTRODUCTION
A. Purpose of this manual
B. General archival principles

II. INITIAL STEPS
A. Define collection and distinguish series
B. Inventory the contents of the collection
C. Compile biographical information
D. Document the history of the collection
E. Locate all the contents of the collection
F. Deaccession inappropriate materials

III. ARRANGEMENT AND DESCRIPTION
A. Assign collection numbers
B. Arrange series within collection
C. Complete processing checklist
D. Process clippings/photographs files
E. Flatten rolled items
F. Sort and identify photographs
G. Arrange and describe photonegatives and prints
H. Store materials in proper archival enclosures
I. Label the folders/envelopes
     definitions of frequently used or misunderstood terms for manuscript and photograph materials
     how we form call numbers for our special collections
J. Create MARC: AMC records
    manuals for Machine Readable Cataloging in the Archival and Manuscripts Control format
    work form for a folder-level description
    work form for a collection-level description 
    MARC: AMC data entry instructions
    tags, indicators, and subfields we use in MARC: AMC cataloging at the Center of Southwest Studies
    commonly used tags, and usage reminders for MARC: AMC cataloging
K. Label the boxes
L. Complete activities checklist

APPENDICES
Appendix 1: Common Headings for Describing Manuscripts
Appendix 2: Common Headings for Describing Photographs
Appendix 3: Thesaurus of Colorado Photographers

It is dangerous to lose the knowledge of one's past; the role of the Center of Southwest Studies is to keep this from happening.  1994 was the thirtieth anniversary of the Center's founding in 1964.  Its birth was envisaged by Fort Lewis College President John Reed, funded by Arthur and Morley Ballantine with a supplemental contribution from Mr. A. M. Camp, and facilitated by Fort Lewis College's contribution of space and staffing.  The Ballantine family was eager to have primary research materials of the Southwest located at the Fort Lewis College Center.  The Center's first Director, Fort Lewis College history professor Robert W. Delaney, served for twenty-two years, dividing his time between the Center and other College commitments including teaching and (from 1971 to 1984) directing the affirmative action program on campus.  Staffing--the Director, a Secretary (part-time for the first twenty odd years) and limited student help--grew to include an archivist in August of 1991.  (Todd Ellison established the archival program of the Center and managed the move of all of the collections into the new building in 2000/01.  After 17 years, Ellison took an early retirement at the end of February of 2008 to pursue broader archival career opportunities, and is available for archival freelance consulting.) A local advisory committee was active by 1965, assisting with development and with such projects as Southwest Days, an annual cultural affair sponsored by the College.  Faculty members from the History, Anthropology, Art, Southwest Studies and Spanish departments assisted as adjunct personnel.  History professor Duane Smith in particular has contributed a great deal, especially in the area of archives and manuscripts collections development.  After Dr. Delaney's retirement in 1985, Smith was employed as a temporary replacement until Dr. Richard Ellis was hired as the second director of the Center in 1987.  In 1995, Duane Smith and Phil Duke replaced Ellis as associate directors of the Center.  In 2000, following a national search, Andrew Gulliford was selected as the director, serving in that capacity through March of 2005.  In 2001 the first Center's first curator (Jeanne Brako) joined the team, along with Elayne Walstedter as the Librarian effective with the Center's move from Reed Library into its own building (open for service by September of 2001).  Effective April of 2005, Ms. Brako was appointed the Center's Interim Director.  After another nationwide search in 2007-08, Dr. Kevin Britz, who was trained as a museum curator, was selected as the next director, effective July 1, 2008.

According to Dr. Delaney (in his "Observations on the Center of Southwest Studies" dated June 1985 from which much of this history is drawn), "the original and stated purpose of the Center was `to collect, collate, and have ready for use by qualified users, all aspects of the history of the Southwest.'"  This scope was broadened to include a museum aspect after the termination of the services of College Museum curator Homer Root in 1969-70.  At that time, all of the College-owned artifacts became the responsibility of the Center.  This reinforced the original intent, as noted in the College President's semi-annual report to the State Board of Agriculture in December of 1964, that the Center would be the "crown jewel of Fort Lewis College", a nucleus around which many facets of the curriculum would cluster, a unit for preserving historically significant objects and materials, a focus for better understanding the Southwest, and an instrument for attracting gifts to the College and for "abundantly enriching the experiences of many students and faculty members at the College."

The Center's first home was a temporary lean-to attached to the northern side of the Academic Building (Berndt Hall) which then housed the general library.  According to an editorial in the Durango Herald on 25 September 1964, the Center was in operation there for the fall 1964 trimester.  It boasted "an enormous circular desk which should give Dr. Robert Delaney, the director, ample space upon which to store the material he acquires."  The Center outgrew those quarters almost immediately, but fortunately a two-story library building (later named Reed Library) was being designed.  The College added a third floor to the building plans and designed the space "up there"--the highest point on campus--for the Center. It was to be (in Delaney's words) "a unit juxtaposed to the Library spatially but discrete from it functionally."  The Center moved to the top of Reed Library in 1967.  Its space included two offices (one for the Director, the other for the part-time Secretary), a workroom/laboratory, a large conference room, built-in wooden storage cabinets for printed materials and other documentary-type holdings, wooden shelving at both ends for library holdings, and a central display/research area called the Southwest Room.  A huge ceramic tile mosaic map of the Southwest (designed by Delaney and library building architect James M. Hunter, with research assistance by College Library staff member Marguerite Norton who valiantly worked at the Center for several years) dominates the north wall in the center of this room.  The decorative tile floor is from Monterey, Mexico; the blown glass/wrought-iron wall lamps are typical of a Spanish hacienda, and the conference room paneling was from the hundred-year old farm of Ward Gilmore, a local rancher.  In May of 1980, the research/exhibit room was renamed the Arthur Ballantine Southwest Research Room in honor of the late publisher of the Durango Herald who supported the college before and after its move to the Durango mesa from Hesperus.

By 1985, the Center had run out of space on the top of Reed Library. It had acquired an impressive collection of documentary materials for research, and more artifacts than could be displayed or stored on the third floor.  A federal grant of $107,000 in 1967 provided for substantial collection development--including the purchase of hundreds of rolls of historical National Archives documents and regional newspapers on microfilm.  The central area had become a maximally utilized exhibition area for Navajo weavings and a variety of other artifacts.  A cage in the basement of the library building was filled with artifacts and research materials; a storage vault in the basement contained other collections; cabinets ringing the Ballantine Room were filled with additional collections; the work room/laboratory was given over to collections storage; institutional archives of the College were in file cabinets in a former janitor's closet under a stairway in the basement; microfilm was housed on open shelving in the same storage area as Library Periodicals in the basement--and until 1991 few of the materials were stored or described to current archival or museum standards.  Few of today's standards for environmental control and archival housing of collections were commonly understood in this country as recently as twenty or thirty years ago.

Nonetheless, the Center was soon recognized far and wide as a repository whose collections are actually and potentially invaluable for understanding the origins and development of the Southwestern U.S. and especially Durango and the Four Corners region.  From the start--as acknowledged by the State Board of Agriculture minutes from the mid-1960s in which donations to the Center were itemized--not only primary but also secondary source materials on the Southwest were located within the Center itself rather than with the general library collection downstairs.  Library Director Richard Gobble noted in 1975 (Library and Museum Committee minutes, 4 April 1975) "that the integrity of the Southwest Collection depended on maintaining in a single location all materials related to the Southwest."  A guide to archival/ manuscript/ microfilm holdings, Opportunities for Research, was published in April of 1969, with revisions issued in February of 1972 and November of 1979.  Delaney's plans in 1985 for a new Guide to the Manuscript Collections were not effectuated until the issuance of a special collections guide in 1994.

In 1989, the Colorado Commission on Higher Education recognized the importance of the Southwest Studies Center, selecting it from hundreds of applicants as one of five programs of excellence in state funded higher education.  The honor came with five years of special appropriations, part of which were utilized for collection development, purchase of proper storage supplies and equipment, and the first two years of salary for the Center's archivist.  Between August of 1991 and February of 2008, the Center's archives used approximately 62,600 Perma-Safe polypropylene sleeves; 76,850 archival folders (not counting the folder paper inserts), and 7,622 archival boxes.  The Center had not a single one of these when the archives program started in 8/1991.  In recent years the staff of the Center have established the solid foundations of a historical and cultural repository that will serve the needs of the broader College community for decades to come.  In 2001, the Center moved into a $7.5 million 49,825 SF purpose-designed facility that is part of the Southwest cultural complex on the north end of campus.  The building includes collections exhibit, storage, and research areas, along with classrooms and offices of the departments of Southwest Studies, Anthropology, and Community Services.

This manual is derived from a 1990 manual that Todd Ellison produced at the Boulder Public Library’s Center Branch Library for Local History, with grant funding from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC), a branch of the National Archives.
 

Collection strengths: The Center's special collections holdings are strongest in the areas of historically significant materials pertaining to--

• Native Americans of the Southwest (especially their artifacts, artistic and ethnographic works, and government relations)
• local/regional affairs (including newspapers, community, business and government)
• mining of coal and precious metals in the Four Corners region (including gold, silver, uranium and vanadium)
• water and water rights in the Four Corners region
• electricity generation and transmission
• narrow gauge railroads

Prefix.....Code........Media category/ explanation
B.... BOOKS....published volumes in the Center's library
C.... MAPS....  cartographic materials
D.... DIG....     materials that are born-digital, or that the Center only possesses in digital form (for example, items that were loaned to the Center for digitization)
F.... ARTFCT....clay pots, rugs, paintings and other graphic art objects and other artifacts
I....  MICROF.... microfilm and microfiche
M....MSS....    paper-based archival and manuscript collections
P....PHOTO.... photos, including prints and film, positives and negatives, photographic and digital
U....AUDIO....  data contained in an audio-visual medium; e.g., oral history tapes, videotapes, CDs, DVDs, etc.

For more details of collection numbering systems, click here.

A. Purpose of this manual

This manual is presented to instruct staff, student interns and volunteers in the Center's established procedures for arranging and describing historical materials. Our intent is to provide a clear and concise guide to our most common archival procedures, and also to offer a conceptual framework for deciding how to proceed with problems and challenges not specifically discussed here.

Some parts of this manual are more applicable to staff, while other parts address procedures in which students and volunteers are an indispensable asset in enabling the Center to preserve significant historical materials and to make them easily accessible to researchers. We try to match the talent with the task. Appendix 4 explains a useful and fun tool for better understanding the skills and aptitudes of individuals, to achieve their most satisfactory placement.

We hope that this manual will be useful to persons beyond the Center, though that is not its primary function. 

B. General archival principles

The two objectives of an archivist are to preserve permanently valuable historical materials and to improve the accessibility of the information in them. Usually the archivist works at these two halves of the archival task--preservation and access-- simultaneously. The physical and mental challenges they present are both a source of variety and of satisfaction in bringing order and long-lasting usefulness to important sources of documentation of the past.

"Do No Harm" is a primary archival principle. Any processes should be reversible. We avoid doing anything to historical materials that cannot be undone. Thus, we use pencil, not ink, when working with documents. Neither do we staple, fold, laminate, or apply ordinary tape to them. It is inadvisable to store historically important materials in filing cabinets or in regular office folders, because the sharp edges of file drawers can tear pages, and the high acidity of normal folders discolors and embrittles documents. Archival preservation involves housing historical documents and photos in pH-neutral folders and boxes that are specially made for archives. Paper clips and other commonly encountered metal fasteners are removed from important records, because the iron in these fasteners oxidizes and stains paper. Likewise, cellophane tape invariably leaves its mark on paper, and should be removed. Instead, we mend torn documents with removable non-yellowing archival tape. Especially valuable documents can be encapsulated in Mylar Type D, a tough plastic sheeting.

Another basic archival principle is that of respecting the original order and the provenance of historical materials. This means that archivists generally maintain the original order of items in a collection, because the interrelationship of historical materials often provides helpful information that otherwise would be absent or difficult to perceive. If the contents of a box or folder seem to be in no reasonable order, however, it is appropriate to arrange them as explained in section III below.  Archivists also look on the incoming boxes of historical materials and in the materials themselves for clues as to the history of ownership of the materials being processed.

It is important to regulate the temperature and humidity in the Center.  In an uncontrolled environment, the fibers in paper may expand and contract and eventually break.  Exposure to harmful levels of heat, cold, high or low humidity, or light can result in brittle paper.

A few words about hygiene.  It may surprise you how often you will need to wash your hands when working with old documents.  You may find it wise to wear a smock to protect your clothes.  The Center provides clean cotton gloves to wear when handling photographic materials.  Also, we keep food and drink away from the materials, and we keep crumbs out of the work area.

Also, a word about accuracy.  Being able to type accurately and rapidly is a necessary skill for most anyone in the 21st century, and is an important aspect of archival exactness.  Someone doing a keyword search of an archival collection inventory online may fail to find an important document if the name or the date or some other data was typed incorrectly.  For a superb method to increase your touch-typing speed and accuracy in a short time, see the description of Zoom-Type at TypingTutorCourse.com.  It is produced by a woman-owned business, which various state governments including the State of Colorado have recommended as a desirable feature when selecting a vendor.

II. INITIAL STEPS

A. Define the collection
When confronted with unaccessioned historical materials (that is, items that have not yet been described or numbered for systematic retrieval), we begin with the broadest level of archival description: the collection.  A collection is defined as a group of related materials acquired for the purpose of historical research.  It may be materials collected by or about a certain person, institution, or event.  A collection often comprises numerous donations; their all having come from the same source unites them as one collection, not many.  When first examining unprocessed materials, then, we consider two questions: what collection is this, and what part of the collection is it?   (Note: this assumes that the repository has already accessioned the material.  Click here to see our accessioning flow chart (requires a current version of the Adobe Reader free software).

Next, we distinguish series -- the building blocks of archives.  More on that, shortly.

B. Inventory the contents of the collection
To establish rough control over the contents of each box and to establish which collection(s) it belongs to, writing a container inventory is necessary, unless such a list arrived with the collection.  This inventory is a rough and rapid description of the contents of each box. An example of a completed inventory sheet appears at the end of this section.

These are the steps for completing a BOX INVENTORY:

1. Start a new page for each container, writing on one side only.

2. On the first line, write the number of the box you are describing and any identifying information you see on the container, including the name of the collection if that is apparent.

3. As you begin the inventory, glance through the contents of the box.  Do they all relate to the same collection? If they do, write the collection name at the top of your page and continue with step 4.  If they do not, then the sections of your inventory sheet are going to describe discrete collections. Your first words at the left side of the page will be the first collection name.  If you are dealing with a box of folders, this may be the title written on a folder label, or the first part of the title that appears on a number of folders.  For instance, if you see five folders about the Kiwanis, one for each of five years 1971-75, your first entry (the collection name) will be "Kiwanis."

4. Having distinguished the collections, our next task is to look for well-defined or clearly recognizable categories. Archivists call these series (at this point, click here to study the concept of an archival series).  A series is defined as the general categorization of the type of materials.  It is what you find on the outside label of a filing cabinet, such as "business correspondence," "payroll records," or "Henry Lansdowne Development Project."  (For further definition and examples of series, click here.)  (See also the Glossary of Archival and Records Terminology that was compiled by Richard Pearce-Moses for the Society of American Archivists.)

Write the series name at the left of your page.  If the materials within each collection are in no apparent order, you will need to group them by series.  If they are in folders, you may simply rearrange the folders within their box; if the materials are loose, it is best to take them out of the box and pile them together by series. For example, put all the business correspondence of Sandy Lott together, and all the photographs together.  Then, your inventory sheet will only list a given series once, though those materials may have been dispersed when you opened the box.  Remember to retain the order in which you find the items in each series--if they were in order.  For example, keep all the chronologically arranged correspondence in the arrangement in which you found it.

Common SERIES TITLES include:
 

*Accounting statements	Field notes, or Field books	Price lists
*Applications	Financial documents (ledgers, notes, payroll lists)	Printed material (booklets, books, brochures, certificates, clippings, directories, flyers, programs)
Audio recordings	Journals	Proceedings
*Bank statements	*Leases	*Receipts (financial)
*Bills (financial)	Legal documents (agreements, briefs, contracts, deeds, depositions, estate inventories, insurance policies, mortgages, petitions, title abstracts, wills)	Registers
*Blank forms	Literary works (research notes, manuscripts, memoirs, reports, speeches, sermons)	Research files
*Cancelled checks	Maps	*Sales literature (junk mail)
Case files	Menus	Scrapbooks
*Cash books	Minutes and agenda	Sketches (including drawings, etchings, cartoons)
Charts	Newspapers	Subject files
*Class notes	Notebooks	*Supplies
Clippings	Personal files	Survey files
Correspondence (personal or business, including greeting cards, invitations, letters, letter books, telegrams)	Photographs (ambrotypes, daguerreotypes, glass plate negatives, roll film, negative and positive prints, slides, tintypes...)
Diagrams	Postcards	*Tax returns/ receipts
Diaries	Posters	*Worksheets

5. After the series title, describe its contents as follows.  Write the years it covers, and a rough estimate of the quantity of the materials (i.e. the number of folders, volumes, linear feet of shelf space, or items).  If what you have written does not describe the materials sufficiently, add a few words (such as a list of book titles) to briefly describe the contents.  The information should be concise; in most cases, it will fit on one or two lines.

To review: this is the format for an inventory by series:

6. Repeat this format for each category of materials in a box.

7. This is an example of a CONTAINER INVENTORY:

Dean Collection, Box 1

Booklets, 1898-1920, 10 booklets of recipes.
Greeting cards, circa 1910, circa 30 cards, of M. Dean, Newkirk, Okla.; mostly valentines.
Postcards, circa 1910-1940, circa 30 cards, many of Colorado.
Photographs, circa 1900, 30 prints, portraits.
Personal correspondence of Mattie Dean, 1910-1943, 30 letters.
Posters, circa 1920, 8 items, advertising Pears' Soap, etc.
Books, 1890?, 3 primers on cloth.
Ledger of R. H. Dean, 1863-1868, with recipes glued in.
Newspapers, 8 June 1953, Rocky Mountain News.
Personal correspondence of Calvin Dean, circa 1919-1924, 40 letters.
Receipts, circa 1940, .5 linear feet.
Legal documents, 1906-1910, 1942, circa 10 deeds and leases.

C. Compile biographical information
One of the first tasks in working on a collection is to do a little background research.  Before processing a collection, one ought to study the person who is its subject or creator. If it were a major collection, this might entail reading a definitive biography.  The person who works on a particular collection should quickly become a specialist in that field.  This will help the processor decide the significance of the various contents of that collection, understand the organization of the materials, and write a brief biographical sketch for the guide to the collection.  Potential sources for this information include the Online Public Access Catalog (OPAC) database, the card catalog, city directories, the vertical file, books on local history, information in the collection itself, the local newspapers (on microfilm), and census records and other research tools available in the Center's census records and elsewhere.

D. Document the history of the collection
A related task at this stage is to learn about the history of the materials in the collection.  Who created them, when?  Who has owned them between the time of their creation and the time they were given to the Center?  What were the terms of the donation?  Is there written documentation of the donation?  We place any such documentation of provenance in the folder for the respective collection in our "collection case files" series in the Archivist’s office.  Provenance is an archival term meaning the origin and history of ownership of a collection.  In establishing provenance, we want to discover the person, family, firm, or office that created or accumulated the materials in a collection, and we want to learn where the collection resided from that time until it was placed in our custody.

E. Locate all the contents of the collection
Before beginning to arrange and describe a collection, check that you have assembled all of its contents in one place.  Any written agreements that documented the donation, along with the packing lists or container inventories, will help you to make sure that you have located all that belongs in the collection.  This documentation is kept in the file folder that we maintain concerning each collection.

F. Deaccession inappropriate materials
Another aspect of this preliminary work is deaccessioning, which means removing materials that are not suitable for inclusion in the collection.  The basic question here is, does this come under the scope of our acquisitions policy?  An acquisitions policy states an institution's criteria for what types of materials it will collect.  The Center of Southwest Studies collects permanently valuable historical materials that concern the Four Corners region which are useful for research.  They include manuscripts, photographs, maps, oral histories (tapes and transcripts), scrapbooks, microforms and printed matter.  The Center’s policy is spelled out in form SW-3, the Special Collections Policy Statement.  Click here to see our accessioning flow chart (requires a current version of the Adobe Reader free software).

The Center generally excludes the following types of materials from its special collections:

* bank statements and cancelled checks.

* bills, receipts, purchase orders, requisitions and vouchers, unless they document the financial dealings of a significant individual or institution.

* items that do not concern the Four Corners region.

* drafts/previous versions of factual non-creative documents in the collection (but the Center does retain all literary creations, to study the development of a writer's style).

* duplicate copies and supplies.

* envelopes, unless they give useful information (such as a postmark or address) not on their contents.

* newspapers and serials that are already available in the Center, or which are already on microform.

* undated newspaper clippings and unidentified photographs, unless they are a significant collection on a particular subject or are a unique source of information within the Center's acquisition policy.

In addition, the Center generally will deaccession all the asterisked items in the list of series titles.  In most cases, the Center will deaccession housekeeping items (bills, cancelled checks), minor ceremonial items (like personal, insignificant invitations and greeting cards), and items that are of no direct relation or uniqueness to the individual who is the subject of the collection.  The basic question is, would a researcher come here to find this information?

Obviously inappropriate materials discovered in the container inventory can be deaccessioned at this stage.  Other items may be deaccessioned during the course of the actual processing of the collection.

The Center's initial agreement with the donor of the particular materials determines how they will be deaccessioned, whether by returning them to the donor or by transferring them to another branch or institution.  All decisions regarding deaccessioning must be approved by someone with authority to do so.  In our case, we describe on a deaccession form all items that do not fit the Center’s acquisitions policy.  We present our deaccession proposal to the Center's Accession/Deaccession Committee, which makes a recommendation.  The Center's Director, in conjunction with the Accession/Deaccession Committee, must sign off on any authorization to transfer materials directly to a more appropriate repository that has requested them.  Items under 3 linear shelf feet, and/or of value under $500, do not require review by the Committee or the Director; the Archivist can make the determination in those cases, but may request review by the Committee and/or the Director.

III. ARRANGEMENT AND DESCRIPTION

A. Assign collection numbers
First, we assign collection numbers.  Manuscripts, photographs and oversized items are housed at separate locations, and therefore receive distinct collection numbers, even if they are part of the same group of materials.  The 580 tag in a MARC record serves as a separation record, referring researchers to the location of items formerly filed with the other materials described in the MARC record.

If a collection amounts to just one folder, it will be considered part of a grouped collection, as follows:
P 015 Small Photographs collections
M 053 Small Manuscripts collections

Please note that although the Center does have a General Photographs collection (P 001), that is a vestige of past practice.  We adhere to the principle of provenance, thus we attempt to keep materials that were produced by the same entity together, even if it is only a few items.

Every collection of two folders or more is housed in its own box or boxes.  The boxes in each collection are numbered starting with 1. The numbering of folders in each box likewise starts with 1.  To maximize storage capacities in the Center stacks, we try to arrange collections so we can stack document cases that are lying on their sides (because they contain bound volumes) two cases high, and likewise we stack the large drop-front boxes two (or three) boxes high.  We can place six 5" document cases on a shelf.  Two 2 1/2" document cases equal one 5" case, and one case on its side is the equivalent of two 5" cases.

Items whose dimensions exceed 20" x 24" are stored in a flat file/ map case/ steel case.  If related items fill more than one folder, they are considered a collection.  Otherwise, they are included in an oversized collection, such as:
C 001 Southwest map collection
C 005 Southwest mining and engineering maps (located in SW 168 in flat file drawer 2.32)
M 143 Southwest posters collection

B. Arrange the series within the collection
Generally, we broadly arrange the contents of a collection by types of material (which archivists call series). Ten basic types of series we encounter (as listed in the Society of American Archivists' Basic Manual Series guide to Archives and Manuscripts: Arrangement and Description, 1977) are:

 Manuscripts:

• Correspondence (incoming and outgoing letters, greeting cards, letterpress copybooks, telegrams, etc.)
• Financial documents (account books, budgets, ledgers, etc.)
• Legal documents (agreements, contracts, mortgages, policies, wills, etc.)
• Literary works (manuscripts, memoirs, reminiscences, reports, research notes, sermons, speeches, etc.)
• Printed materials (brochures, certificates, clippings, pamphlets, programs, proofs, etc.)
• Records (diaries, minutes, etc.)
• Scrapbooks

• Audio recordings (tapes and disks)
• Maps (also including oversize charts, diagrams, etc.)
• Photographs (positive and negative film and prints, slides, movies, etc.)

Arrangement and description box checklist

Alternatively, we temporarily attach the following checklist to every box to remind us what action is needed to complete the processing of the materials inside.

CASE PROCESSING CHECKLIST:
____ clippings photocopied
____ documents cleaned & mended
____ folders numbered
____ box labeled
____ biography done
____ entered in OPAC
____ documents numbered

D. Process the newspaper clippings/photographs files
Sometimes, a collection contains newspaper clippings and the glossy photographs and negatives that were used with the articles. Typically, they are arranged by subject and then in folders by year. For example, there is a box of clippings about the World War II war effort in Durango, with a folder for "World War II clippings--Dogs for Defense, 1943-1944."

We are organizing these newspaper files and separating out the photographs, using the following procedure.

1. Arrange the box's folders in chronological order with the earliest year of each subject in front, and pull out the first folder, placing a box divider in its place.

2. Process the clippings (anything on newsprint paper).

a. Write the date neatly in black ink on the top of each clipping, thus: 12 Apr. 1934 (i.e. date, abbrev. month, full year). (No need to do this if the date already is legible on the clipping, in dark ink.)

b. Arrange the clippings within each folder in chronological order.

c. Tape the dated arranged clippings to legal size paper. Using both sides of the paper and a 1/4 inch margin on all sides, fit as many clippings on each side as possible, ALL facing the same way on the page, using just enough tape to hold each clipping in place. These pages will be photocopied later.

4. Process the photoprints and photonegatives. Often, the newspaper used these photos with its articles. You will be able to locate the matching newspaper pictures quickly by looking through the arranged clippings.

a. Using pencil, transcribe all of the pertinent information from the article onto the back of the photo starting in the upper left corner (leaving the bottom right corner free). NOTE: be careful to write lightly, sliding the pencil across the page, so as not to damage the print. All available information should be written in this order:
(1) Name of group or institution (generally, this is the same as the folder title, e.g. Boy Scouts).

(2) Event or occasion for which this photo was taken (generally, the first phrase in the newspaper's caption).

(3) Date of the newspaper article in which the photo appeared.

(4) Names of people (listed from left to right, so individuals can be identified); write "l-r:", then names.

b. Clip matching photoprints and negatives (kept in their envelopes) together and place them in a folder, labeled the same as the folder of printed materials, with the word Photos added to the folder title.

Then, we are photocopying the thousands of newspaper clippings onto acid-free paper to preserve a very useful research source. Newsprint is short-lived paper, and loose clippings are impossible to organize. We photocopy clippings onto archival quality paper to preserve them and to make them easier to use.

Our goal is (1) to copy all of the text of all of the relevant clippings, (2) in chronological order, (3) economizing by fitting as many clippings as possible onto a single sheet of photocopy paper. This is our photocopying procedure:

1. Locate the box of clippings that you will be copying. You will use the special acid-free photocopy paper that is in the back of that box. Fill the legal size compartment with this paper. Place our paper in the cartridge with the felt side up. This expensive paper is only for the use of this project. If another person comes by to make a copy, help them to do so, but DO NOT let them use even a sheet of this paper.

2. We work on one folder at a time. Pull out the first folder that is behind the divider in the box of clippings. First, check that the clippings in that folder are in reasonably close date order, with the oldest date on top and the most recent on the bottom.

3. Fold under the front cover of the clippings folder, and place the folder on the gray shelf on the upper right of the copier. Lift up the top of the machine and arrange the first page of clippings face down on the glass, flush with the left edge of the glass and centered top to bottom (the arrow on the left edge points to the center). The long end of the page of clippings goes to your right.

4. Make your selections:

a. Change the copier from "READY" to "COPY" by typing in our code on the control box that sits on the upper right corner of the machine.

b. Select paper size 8 1/2 x 14", for 1 copy.

c. Copy everything two-sided, except for items that only have clippings on one side, and tricky oversize copies. Push the one-sided to two-sided key. After you have copied the first side, somersault the clippings page so that the end that was on the left is now on the right. (Press the "even number" button a second time to copy something onto just one side.)

d. If you are copying a page that is larger than 8.5 x 14", push the zoom key (it reduces down to about half of the original size). Remember to push the zoom key afterwards to resume copying at full size.

e. The exposure should be okay as is; check the darkness of each copy and press the manual exposure keys if necessary.

f. Finally, push the green start key to print.

 6. As you make each copy, make two separate piles, facing down: one of the clippings you have copied, on the gray shelf just below the left top surface of the machine, the other of your copies and other materials you encountered in the folder, on the table to the left of the machine. The folder should end up containing two chronologically arranged piles: your copies with the other materials, and the clippings on the bottom. The items in each pile should be arranged in date order-- oldest date on top.

7. Problems? If the photocopy machine malfunctions, read the instructions first, then ask the closest secretarial staff or phone the Archives office.

8. Finished? Pull out the 8 1/2 by 14" cartridge, return the remainder of our blank archival paper to the back of the clippings box, and re-fill the cartridge with regular legal size paper. Please report to the reference desk librarian when you arrive and when you leave, so we can keep track of your volunteer work hours.

E. Flatten rolled items
We are flattening rolled items, using the following procedure (this is our daily routine, once the system has been started):

1. Plug in the large water heater pot (making sure it is full).

2. Set aside the weighting boxes and the two thin boards from the flattening table, and remove the dried items from between the blotters. Set the blotters in one pile, and place the items in the archival folders where they belong (if they will be stored in the map case, bring them over to the Center). Mend any tears, using document repair tape. Place related items in the same folder; retain all clues as to provenance.

3. Remove limp humidified items from the humidifying tank and place them between blotters, making sure that the items are not folded over or creased. Replace the two thin boards and the heavy boxes.

4. [After every three rotations of this cycle, bail the cold water out of the tank, using the black plastic trash can.] Remove the plastic grating, pour in the boiling water, replace the grating, and place the rolled items on the grating, making sure that they will not touch the tank or the water. Separate the items as much as possible, to maximize the surface area exposed to vapor. Quickly replace the plastic sheeting, and cover it with the cardboard top to seal the cover. Re-fill the red water heater for next time, but do not plug it in.

5. Repeat the process after twenty-four hours, or after the items in the humidification tank feel limp (which tells your that the paper fibers relaxed).

F. Sort and identify photographs
In a large collection of sundry photographs, where there is no provenance for assigning them to particular collections, the first step is to sort them into meaningful subject categories. Categories can be broad, with the organization within the grouping giving further order. For instance, the subject category of Durango streets, which consists of photographs of houses and buildings, is further organized by street name, block and house/building number.

Having arranged the photographs into categories and sub-categories, some research is then necessary to firmly identify or corroborate identifications. It is important that all work be accurate and verified. The resources for doing this research are all available at the Center. The most commonly used reference sources for photo identification are:

1. The Web-based public access (OPAC) computer catalog, to locate related photos & info about the subject. (For info on how to access special collections that are housed at the Center of Southwest Studies, see the web page notes at http://swcenter.fortlewis.edu/accessing_swcolls.htm)

2. Durango city directories, which confirm names and addresses at a specific time, and which also list the names of local organizations, churches, societies and businesses.

3. Other collections at the SW Center itself, including:

*La Plata County Assessor's records, to confirm the identity of buildings' owners and their addresses.

*Sanborn fire insurance maps. These are particularly helpful for figuring out the location of a building in Durango and other cities in the Four Corners between about 1890 and 1920. Most are only on microfilm; several original maps of Durango are part of the Southwest maps collection.

*maps in the Southwest maps. Includes 1894 and 1913 topographic wall maps of Colorado which are on display in the Delaney Library, and several early blueprint maps of the city of Durango.

*Southwest newspapers for building construction dates and identity of builder.  Most are on microfilm; the originals of about 100 newspaper titles are in the collection.

*U.S. census records for the Four Corners states, for a person's arrival date and residence.

4. Reference books at the Center, such as:

• Culhane, Albert E.  History of the Settlement of La Plata County, Colorado. Thesis, University of Colorado, Boulder, 1934. 100 p. Bound volume at the Center.
• Cummins, Densil H. Social and Economic History of Southwestern Colorado, 1860-1948. Dissertation, University of Texas, 1951. Bound volume at the Center.
• Daughters of the American Revolution. Colorado. Sarah Platt Decker chapter, Durango. Pioneers of the San Juan Country. Colorado Springs: The Out West Printing and Stationery Company, 1942). 5 volumes.
• Smith, Duane.  Rocky Mountain Boom Town: A History of Durango. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1980. 215 p.
• Smith, Duane.  Sacred Trust: The Birth and Development of Fort Lewis College. Niwot, Colorado: University Press of Colorado, 1991. 173 p.

5. Our lists of Durango and vicinity chronological events/landmarks.

Always cite the source when including information from a particular source. Verify everything; never speculate! Do not guess! Using other photographs for comparison is a good way to confirm identification or to date an image. The important information to note on a photograph, in addition to the source, is:

* correct current address or locale.

* the year built and original owner of a building.

* names of people shown.

* date the photograph was taken.

* name of the photographer (see our list).

* name of original owner and date built (if a house).

* dates in business (if a business).

Everyone handling photographs and negatives must wear gloves at all times. Use a #2 pencil (never ink!) to print information lightly on the back of the photograph, leaving the bottom right corner free for the call number. BE CAREFUL TO PRINT LIGHTLY, sliding the pencil across the paper so that you do not damage the print on the other side.  Standard graphite pencils won’t write on the slick surface of some modern photoprints, but something like the A.W. Faber Castell Magicus pencil will.

G. Arrange and describe matching negatives and prints
Many of our collections contain negatives. In some cases, we only have the negative of a view. If the image is historically significant and the negative is in printable condition, we generally will produce an archival contact print. When a researcher requests a copy of a print in the Center's holdings, we pull the matching negative; if we do not have a negative for that print, we produce a copy negative which is then available for meeting future requests for copies of that photograph. The following are guidelines for arranging and describing matching photo negatives and prints.

1. Arrangement of matching negatives and prints:

a. If a negative is historically valuable, we place it in an archival envelope; see the following notes regarding the proper type of enclosure for each type of negative. Choose the smallest archival envelope that will house all of the negatives in that series. It is particularly important to re-house historically valuable negatives that currently are in brittle/acidic envelopes. We keep a negative in its original envelope if the envelope already is labeled and if transferring the information to a new envelope would be time consuming and if the negative lacks significant research use; we are not spending the money and time to place such negatives in archival enclosures.

b. When placing a negative in an envelope, make sure that the emulsion side (the duller surface, containing the filmed image) is against the best surface (i.e. not against a fold in the envelope). Also, it's best if the emulsion is facing away from the front of the envelope where we write.

c. Store glass plates on edge--not flat.  Glass retains its strength best when on edge.

d. Generally, we house negatives by collection number, in properly labeled archival boxes (see instructions on next page). Nothing fancy, just filed in collection number order. One box may contain many collections; each collection of negatives in such a box should be in its own labeled archival folder.

e. If the negatives in a collection have not yet been arranged sequentially, arrange them in the following order:

+ all nitrate negatives together, grouped by size.  It is especially important to isolate nitrate from other types of negatives -- preferably in a separate building.  If you aren't sure whether a negative is nitrate, see our online photonegatives film identification notch codes and other tips.

+ all glass plate negatives together, grouped by size.

+ all other types of negatives together, grouped by size.

+ all similar images of the same negative type together; generally, we place duplicate images in the same envelope. An envelope could hold any number of negatives, if the identifying information is the same for all of them.

f. After the negatives in a collection have been printed and their envelopes have been cross referenced with the new prints (see next section), we pull all of the nitrate negatives of that collection and store them (by collection number) in a cabinet, apart from the other types of negatives. We keep all negatives off-site.

a. Please remember to wear cotton gloves when handling photos, and to use pencil only. Also, you may find it helpful to use the light box for examining the negatives.

b. Write at least this information on the upper left of each negative envelope, preferably in this order:

+ negative envelope number (see notes below about assigning numbers).

+ descriptive title of envelope contents.

+ size (height x width, in inches) and type (i.e. glass plate, safety, or nitrate) of negative[s].

+ number of negatives in envelope.

+ the words: "(have print)" or "(no print)".

+ note which negatives are to be printed (if not all).

c. Once the print has been made, write its call number on the upper right of the negative envelope (see format example below).

d. If the negative envelopes have not already been numbered, then assign envelope numbers, starting with number 1 for the first envelope in each collection.

e. There is no need to re-number the negative envelopes if they already are numbered sequentially.

f. Cross reference matching prints and negatives thus in the upper right corner:

+ on (Print: P 0 + on back (Neg: ___ negative 170 of each 170 envelopes: Box 1 print:#26) Env. 3)

*NOTE: prints and negatives always have the same collection number, but negatives are numbered strictly sequentially, while prints are numbered by box and envelope #.

• For a short concise description of how to arrange and describe family papers and photographs, see my Preserving and Arranging Your Family Papers: guidebook, which is also available as an E-Book.

For manuscripts, we use acid-free, minimum 3% alkaline buffered, lignin- and reducible sulphur-free folders, envelopes and boxes composed of fully bleached paper manufactured from alpha cellulose pulp. The pH of this paper should be between 8.5 and 10.2.

Most photo conservators today question the wisdom of placing most types of photographs in direct contact with buffered materials. ONLY nitrate-based photographs, early safety film negatives, brittle prints and prints on brittle acidic mounts, and photos housed in uncontrolled/ polluted atmospheres containing acidic gases should be housed in buffered paper enclosures. All other types of photographic materials, most especially including color images, cyanotypes and albumen prints, should be placed in nonbuffered envelopes.

Generally speaking, then, acid-free, unbuffered, pH-neutral lignin- and sulphur-free papers and boards should be used for archival photographic storage. When housing photographs it is preferable to use an unbuffered product rather than a buffered one, except where acidity is known to be present as an active contributing element.

We use the same size folder or envelope in any given box. Thus, when beginning to place a collection of materials in folders or envelopes it is important to choose the smallest enclosure that will hold the largest item in the box that will house that collection.

As a rule of thumb, we limit the number of items in one folder to 20 items. The greater the value of the item[s], the fewer the number of items per folder or envelope. Thus, many photograph envelopes will only contain 1 to 5 items. Similarly, we will isolate items that need more careful storage because they are deteriorating or because (like newspapers or nitrate negatives) they are endangering the longevity of other materials.

I. Label the folders/envelopes
Folders and envelopes should be labeled on the top margin as follows. Note that we place all essential information on the top margin, so that it can be read most easily.

Generally, the FOLDER TITLE is composed of three parts:

1. The name of the person or institution predominantly associated with, or responsible for, the materials in that folder.

2. The type of materials included.

3. The date or inclusive dates during which the materials were created. In most cases, this will be a year or span of years. If it is more than that, write the date in this order:

year month day (e.g. 1892 Nov. 12)

Following are definitions of some of the more frequently used or misunderstood TERMS for manuscript and photograph materials:

Account books..... Ledgers of customer accounts, organized by customers' names.

Aerial photographs.....Photographs taken from an airborne vehicle.

Cityscape photographs..... Broad photographic views of cities or towns or sections of them, usually made from an elevated or distant vantage point.

Collection..... Materials of various genres gathered together to form a research resource unit.

Correspondence.....Use instead of Letters, generally.

Daybooks..... Ledgers that list daily sales or expenses; the equivalent of a cash register receipt.

Group portraits..... Graphic representations, especially of the face, of two or more people, usually posed; the people are the main subject of the picture, not simply part of the scene.

Handbills..... Small single sheet notices, usually unfolded, intended for mass distribution.

Landscape photographs..... Broad or general photographic views of natural scenery; if figures or man-made objects are in view, they are of secondary importance to the composition of the photo. Usually taken from an elevated or distant vantage point, such as from a hilltop.

Leaflets..... Unbound volumes that contain less than 5 pages.

Letters..... Generally, use the term Correspondence instead; use Letters for mass mailings and for single items of correspondence.

Pamphlets..... Published non-periodical volumes of 5 to 49 pages that have no cover or a paper cover.

Panoramic photographs..... Photographs that provide a continuous view of a broader section of the horizon than customarily could be photographed in one exposure. They may be separate photos or one wide photo produced by using a special camera.

Papers..... The writings of (or collected by) an individual.

Photograph collection..... We add the word "Photograph" if one of our manuscripts collections otherwise has the same title.

Photographs..... A general term for items produced by any photographic process.

Photonegatives..... Photographs in which the tonal values are the opposite of those in the subject photographed; used for producing positive photographic images of the subject.

Postal cards..... Postcards with preprinted postage on them.

Postcards..... Cards, often having a picture on one side, on which a message can be written for mailing without using an envelope.

Records..... The paperwork generated by an institution.

Registers..... Numerical listings, possibly of sales tickets or of checks issued.

Snapshots.....Photographs that appear to have been produced quickly by amateurs to serve as a remembrance of people, places or events.

The CALL NUMBER is comprised of the following four elements:

1. The letter designating the type of collection (M= manuscripts, P= photos, etc.).

2. The collection # (always three digits).

3. The word "Box" and the box #, or "Dr." and the drawer #.

4. The word "Fol." and the folder #, or "Env." and the envelope #.

(NOTE: we write the call number just as it appears in the computer, including the same number of zeroes.)

J. Create MARC: AMC records

We are using the following manuals for Machine Readable Cataloging in the Archival and Manuscripts Control format:

• Betz, Elisabeth W. Graphic Materials: Rules for Describing Original Items and Historical Collections. Washington, D.C.: Library of Congress, 1982. 155 p.
• Evans, Max J., and Weber, Lisa B. MARC for Archives and Manuscripts: A Compendium of Practice. Chicago: Society of American Archivists, 1985. 1 v.
• Gorman, Michael, and Winkler, Paul W., eds. Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules. Second edition. Chicago: American Library Association, 1978. 620 p.
• Hensen, Steven L. Archives, Personal Papers, and Manuscripts: A Cataloging Manual for Archival Repositories, Historical Societies, and Manuscript Libraries. Second edition. Chicago: Society of American Archivists, 1989. 196 p.
• Hickerson, Thomas, and Engst, Elaine. Form Terms for Archival and Manuscripts Control. Stanford: The Research Libraries Group, Inc., 1985, February. 6 p.
• Library of Congress. Library of Congress Subject Headings: Free- floating Subdivisions. Release numbers H 1095 (topics; rev. 1-29-87), H 1100 (classes of persons; rev. 1-27-87), H 1105 (corporate bodies; rev. 1-29-87), H 1110 (persons; rev. 1-9- 87), H 1140 (places; rev. 1-29-87), H 1151 (educational institutions; rev. 1-16-87), and H 1597 (family names; rev. 8-2-85). Washington, D.C.: Library of Congress, 1985-1987.
• Library of Congress. Subject Cataloging Manual: Subject Headings. Eleventh edition. Washington, D.C.: Library of Congress, 1988. 3 v. 4,164 p.
• Parker, Elisabeth Betz. LC Thesaurus for Graphic Materials: Topical Terms for Subject Access. Washington, D.C.: Library of Congress, 1987. 591 p.
• Sahli, Nancy. MARC for Archives and Manuscripts: The AMC Format. Chicago: Society of American Archivists, 1985 and updates. 1 v.
• The Society of American Archivists. Quick Reference Guide to the MARC AMC Format. Chicago: Society of American Archivists, 1987 March 1. 20 p.
• Zinkham, Helena, and Parker, Elisabeth Betz. Descriptive Terms for Graphic Materials: Genre and Physical Characteristic Headings. Washington, D.C.: Library of Congress, 1986. 135 p.
  

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(TAG)

(008) FIXED LENGTH DATA ELEMENTS: [short cut--delete the tag description and enter this:]

(00-05) YYMMDD entered (06) date type: i k n q r s (07-10) 1st YYYY (11-14) 2nd YYYY

(040) ^a

(092) CALL NO. "Coll M _ _ _ b _ _ f _ _ "

(1_ _) CREATOR _1 ^a Name ^d Years _ _ _ _ - _ _ _ _ {1st indic. = type of name} {2nd indicator = 0 if not subject heading, 1 if subject heading}

(245) FOL. TITLE 0_ {2nd indicator = # nonfiling characters} ^a Title* ^k Type ^f Incl.Years _ _ _ _ - _ _ _ _ ^g "(bulk _ _ _ _ - _ _ _ _ )" *{if first segment of title is same as 1XX ^a, then skip 245 ^a and just use ^k Type of materials}

(300) PHYS. DESCR. ^a # __ ^f unit type ____ ^c item size __cm. x __cm. (or ^g unit size __cm. x __cm.)

(351) ARRANGEMENT ^b "Arrangement: ____________." [e.g. "Chronological"]

(505) INDEXED CONTENTS NOTE ^a

(520) SCOPE/CONT. ^a

(580) LINKING NOTE ^a "Neg. # ____."

^a "Oversized maps have been placed in C 001 c5 d1 f1."

(6_ _) SUBJECTS _0

(655) GENRE b/7 ^a .^2 "aat"

[repeat tag as necessary]

(7_ _) ADDED ENTRY __ ^a Name {1st indic. = type of name} {2nd indicator = type of added entry}

(755) TYPE b/b/ ^a Term .^2 "gmgpc"

[repeat tag as necessary]

(773) COLL.NAME 0b/ ^t

[same as tag 245 ^a on collection level form, except REMEMBER TO replace ^a with ^t]

Rec.Type: "b" Bib.Level: "c" [except use "m" if collection = a single item] (TAG) (008) FIXED LENGTH DATA ELEMENTS: [short cut--delete the tag description and enter this:] (00-05) YYMMDD entered (06) date type: i k n q r s (07-10) 1st YYYY (11-14) 2nd YYYY

(040) ^a "BPL/10"

(092) CALL NO. "coll. BHS _ _ _ " [add the BHS only if applicable]

(1_ _) CREATOR _1 ^a Name ^d Years _ _ _ _ - _ _ _ _ {1st indic. = type of name} {2nd indicator = 0 if not subject heading, 1 if subject heading}

(245) COLL. TITLE 0_ {2nd indicator = # nonfiling characters} ^a Title ^kType ^f Incl.Years _ _ _ _ - _ _ _ _ ^g "(bulk _ _ _ _ - _ _ _ _ )"

(300) PHYS. DESCR. ^a # __ ^f unit type ____ ^c item size __cm. x __cm. (or ^g unit size __cm. x __cm.)

[e.g. ^a5^fboxes (12 folders) --for description that progresses from larger to smaller unit

OR ^a33^fphotographs, in 20 envelopes. --for description from smaller to larger unit]

(351) ARRANGEMENT ^c Arch.level [e.g. "Folders"] ^b "Arrangement: ____________." [e.g. "Chronological"]

(506) ^a"Noncirculating."

(520) SCOPE/CONT. ^a

(541) DONOR ^a Name "Donor: ..." ^c "Gift" ^b Address ^d Date ^f Owner

(545) BIO./HIST. ^a Note

(561) PROVENANCE ^a History ^b Incl.Years

(580) LINKING NOTE ^a"Forms part of the Fort Lewis College archives" [if such is the case.] ^a"Photographs from this collection have been placed in P ___."

(6_ _) SUBJECTS _0

(655) GENRE b/7 ^a Term .^2 "aat"

[repeat tag, ^a and ^2, as necessary]

(7_ _) ADDED ENTRY __ ^a Name {1st indic. = type of name} {2nd indicator = type of added entry} [enter tags that end ",^edonor." and ",^ephotographer." as appropriate]

(755) TYPE b/b/ ^a Term .^2 "gmgpc"

[repeat tag as necessary]

(851) LOCATION ^a "Fort Lewis College,"^b "Center of Southwest Studies,"^c "1000 Rim Dr., Durango, CO.," ^d "USA."

We use the following in-house data entry instructions.

1. Starting up and exiting:

a. TURN CAPS LOCK KEY ON.

b. Enter password, then 1 or 2, then 7 (Manuscripts format).

c. Once you have entered INNOPAC, always use Q to leave.

a. To work on an existing record, choose modify mode 1 from the initial menu. Choose add mode 2 to enter a new record, and use delete mode 3 to delete a record. Don't use mode 4.

b. To create a new MARC record similar to one already in the database, enter add mode, call up the existing record, modify it, process it (P), and write it (Y). The result will be the original record plus your new record.

c. Only type P and Y to process a MARC record once in add mode--but do type P and Y as often as you want to save changes you have made in modify mode. Then, after typing Y, disregard the request for item #; just tap the enter key and continue.

d. To remove a tag: choose the line # of the tag to be deleted, tap the home key, then type the letters d e l.

e. Start most words in lower case. Except: capitalize all proper names and the first words in each tag and in the ^x subfields in 6XX tags. We use lower case for the first word of most subfields, including ^e, ^f, ^g, ^k, and (in 655 and 755) ^2.

f. End most text fields with a period. The period follows the last field that makes sense to the researcher (i.e., after the genre term in tags 655 and 755). Except: use no ending period with any tags that start with 0 or 4 (notably call number tag 092), at the end of tags 535 and 541, or after a dash, or after a period and parenthesis. We do always put a period in front of a ^b subfield.

g. See AACR2, p. 550-59, for abbreviations (p. 556 for states).

h. Enter dates thus: 1955 Nov. 30. Place this information in the ^f subfield in the 245 and 7XX tags; after ^y elsewhere.

i. If you are unsure whether to fill an indicator, don't.

a. 31 is the maximum number of name-searchable tags we can we can enter in one record. The whole tag counts as one name. Tags 100, 110, 111, 600, 610, 611, 700, 710, and 711 are name-searchable.

b. 409 is the maximum number of word-searchable words we can enter in one record. Every word in the following tags counts as a word, EXCEPT articles and prepositions. Tags 130, 245, 505, 630, 650, 651, 655, 69X, 730, 740 and 755 are word-searchable.

c. 120 is the maximum number of tags we can enter in one record.

5. Particular tags in MARC:AMC:

a. Tag 008: DATES

+ no period at the end of this tag.

+ short cut: write this over the tag name (but delete some of that text first) in the upper right hand space: 880712i19191965 [for example].

+ enter today's year, month and date, then the inclusive years for this record--with no hyphen.

+ you MUST enter one of the date code letters; for an undated item, use "q" followed by the earliest and latest years if you can guess them, or "n" if you can't.

b. Tag 040: CATALOGING SOURCE
+ enter our office's code; no period at the end of this tag.
c. Tag 092: LOCAL CALL NUMBER
+ no period at the end of this tag.

+ for a collection-level record, begin with coll., a space, and the 3-digit collection number. Add another space and the word Photo if it is a photograph collection.

+ for a folder-level record, begin with coll. [letter, space, and 3 numbers],another space, the 3-digit collection number, a space, the letter b or d and the number, another space, and the letter e, f or p and the number.

+Note: all box, drawer, folder and envelope numbers must have the same # of digits as the largest respective box, drawer, folder and envelope numbers in that collection.

d. Tags 1XX, 6XX, and 7XX: MAIN, SUBJECT AND ADDED ENTRIES
+ BASIC RULE: these are name-searchable fields, which must all be entered according to standardized form (check PAC and printouts for names already in our database).

+ enter a person's name (100, 600, or 700) inverted (surname first), and if you know the person's birth/ death years, precede the ^d with a comma.

+ put Relator info in tag 545 or 561; we rarely use ,^e, usually for a person who was a compiler or a donor.

e. Tag 100: MAIN ENTRY - PERSONAL NAME
+ 1st indicator usually is 1 (single surname).

+ 2nd indicator also will be 1 if the item is about the person as well as by that person; otherwise, it is 0.

f. Tags 110, 610, and 710: CORPORATE NAME
+ see appendices 1-3 (p. 35-51), PAC, AACR2 section 24, and Hensen manual for the form of corporate name entries.

+ the indicators usually will be 20 (or, in a 710 tag, 21).

+ always spell out Company, Corporation, & (use and), etc. + put no space between corporate bodies' initials. Do not use ^z; if the place of business is not part of the firm's corporate name, add the city and abbreviated state name after the company name, within the ^a subfield. For example, ^aG.B. Blake and Company (Durango, Colo.). Consult Hensen's manual and AACR2 for more guidance.

g. Tag 245: TITLE STATEMENT
+ write bulk dates thus: ^g(bulk 1923-1929).

+ do not use ^h (tag 655 takes care of this).

+ precede a ^b title subdivision with a colon and no space, and start the subdivision title in lower case, not capitalized, unless it is a proper name. For example, ^aValentine Hardware Store:^bbaseball window display. + use ^k for types of material, but not for a descriptive title; do not capitalize the first word unless the 245 tag starts with ^k (this would be the case where the name following ^a would repeat the main entry 1XX field in a folder level record; we do repeat the author's name in a collection level record).

+ all words except the first word and proper names should be in lower case. ONLY capitalize proper names.

+ if the date is unknown, use ^fundated.

+ add /^c by and the name in direct order after the ^f subdivision if the author's name is given on the title page or equivalent chief source of information.

h. Tag 300: PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION
+ two examples: ^a1^fv. ^a1^fbox.

+ include # units in ^a and standard type of unit in ^f.

+ abbreviate p. and v.; spell out most other units (see AACR2, p. 551-554).

+ generally, give dimensions in inches and feet, in this order: height x width [x thickness].

+ no need to give dimensions of standard size containers. We only mention the width if it is less than half the height or more than twice the height.

+ repeat this tag to describe more than one type of material measured in different ways.

i. Tag 500: GENERAL NOTE
+ use this tag for general notes, in narrative form. j. Tags 520 and 545 and other unformatted fields: the text field will only hold 7.5 lines; enter lengthy text by saving a screenful (tap F2), then start next paragraph on another screen. These tags are repeatable.

k. Tag 541: IMMEDIATE SOURCE OF ACQUISITION

+ begin with Donor: and use direct name order (not inverted), both in subfield ^a.

+ if donation date ^d is unknown, say so.

+ put no period at the end of this tag or of 535 tag.

l. Tag 580: LINKING ENTRY COMPLEXITY NOTE
+ enter (in collection level records only, if it applies): Forms part of the Southwest textiles collection.

+ enter ^aNeg. #241. for the number of our matching negative in an item-level or folder-level description.

+ enter ^aPhotographs from this collection are filed with collection BHS 128. (if such is the case) m. Tag 6XX: SUBJECT ADDED ENTRIES

+ use these added entry tags liberally and choose them-- and the appropriate free-floating subdivisions from our LC lists--carefully! Think of all the ways--both general and particular--that a researcher might be led to this material. For example, in cataloging an envelope of photos of Engine No. 30, add 650 tags for "transportation," "Steam-engines" and "locomotives," and use a 610 for "Engine No. 30."

+ the 2nd indicator always is 0, because we use LC format.

+ unless the free-floating subdivision list says otherwise, put the place name before the free-floating subdivision.

+ unless there is a need to distinguish like names by adding a place name, omit adding the place name.

+ when entering the added entries for a collection for which we are also entering folder-level MARC records, only enter the broad subjects; leave the detailed added entries for the folder-level records.

+ enter year cataloged material was created, after a ^y.

+ do not enter dashes. Replace LCSH dashes with subfield indicators, but use commas just as in LCSH.

+ use tag 651 if the entry starts with a place name and has no .^b separating levels of an institution (in which case, use 610).

n. Tag 600: SUBJECT ADDED ENTRY - PERSONAL NAME
+ use the most common form of a person's name.

+ do not use nicknames; if appropriate, do a 693 "see" reference from the person's nickname to the proper name.

+ enter a space between personal name initials in this tag. + do not generally use ^c; leave out titles such as Dr. and Judge. Add ,^cMrs. when using husband's given name.

+ always check the name authority file for authority on established usage. Do a name search in PAC.

o. Tag 610: SUBJECT ADDED ENTRY - CORPORATE NAME
+ see section f instructions above for tags 110, 610, 710.

+ describe a subordinate part of a corporate body with .^b.

p. Tag 650: SUBJECT ADDED ENTRY - TOPICAL HEADING
+ source for these entries: bold-print subjects in large red volumes of Library of Congress subject headings, and the Library of Congress list of free-floating subdivisions.

+ for added entry fields involving a town name, ^zColorado^zDurango is the correct order if some other term starts the text (unlike the 651 tag).

+ see examples in appendices 1 (terms for describing manuscript materials) and 2 (terms for describing photographs).

q. Tag 651: SUBJECT ADDED ENTRY - GEOGRAPHIC NAME
+ ^aBoulder (Colo.) is the pattern, followed by any relevant subfields. See list of free-floating subdivisions.

+ enter an address thus: "300 block Main Street (Durango, Colo.)"

+ also enter a tag for "300 block Main Street (Durango, Colo.)"

+ write out "Street", "Boulevard", "Drive", "Road", etc.

+ see examples in appendices 1 (terms for describing manuscript materials) and 2 (terms for describing photographs).

r. Tags 692 and 693: LOCAL SUBJECT ADDED ENTRIES
+ these are in-house added entry tags; use them sparingly.

+ use a 692 tag for word-searchable tags not allowed by LCSH.

+ use a 693 tag for "see" or "see also" name-searchable tags.

s. Tag 700 or 710: ADDED ENTRIES - PERSONAL AND CORPORATE NAMES
+ at the collection level, enter a 700 tag with the inverted name of the donor, the birth and death years if known, and end the tag with ,^edonor.

+ enter the name of the photographer here if that name is not in the 1XX tag. Use the format from our Thesaurus of Colorado Photographers. We add the phrase (Photographer) within the ^a subfield; this way, a name search in PAC will pull up the names of all of the photographers, by name, showing the number of MARC record references to each photographer.

+use ^t in these tags (preceded by ^a and the author's name if known) to enter titles of pamphlets, booklets, etc.contained in the materials being described by this record.

t. Tag 773: HOST ITEM ENTRY
+ use ^t, instead of ^a, for the collection title.

+ use lower case, except for proper names and the first word.

+ first indicator should be 0, to display a note.

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K. Label the boxes
We use acid-free acrylic-based self-adhesive removable labels, size 4 x 1.5".

When typing the box labels, start with the left edge of the label at the second red vertical bar and the top of the label even with the top of the plastic guide on the typewriter.

Box labels for manuscripts should follow this format: ______________________________________________

M 001 Fort Lewis College archives --justify the left

Box 1 [may put box contents here] margins of the

call # and the

collection name.

(Forms part of the Small Manuscripts Collections) --if such is true.

______________________________________________

The box label format for the skinny document cases is slightly different, because those labels have to go on vertically:

________

 Box labels for photographs should follow this format: ____________________________________
 
Labels for boxes of negatives follow this format:

We affix the label to the bottom half of the front of the document case.  The bottom edge of the label should be 1 1/4" up from the bottom of the box, on the end that has the pull tie.  That is even with the crack between the fourth and fifth reinforcing circles on the document cases.  It should be centered left and right.  For boxes that are lying on their sides, cente