Pragmatic Processing: Diverse Approaches to Different Collections

Melissa McMullen

Jon Palmer

Erik Stolarski

Ben Covell

New York Archives Conference 2017

To use MPLP: The False Choice

• The spirit of MPLP is freedom to choose
• No more monolithic solutions
• Honest look at resources

Processing is Resource Management

• Arrangement, Description, Preservation is costly
• We will never have enough resources
• Must ask, “How will this effort help researchers?”
• Detailed Processing is often Lazy

Extensible Processing

• Baseline minimum of access
• Focus on meeting legal requirements
• Can manage restrictions during requests
• Prioritization based on real use, not imagined importance

Give up things that don’t enable use

• Avoid arrangement
• Preservation interventions only when necessary
• Focus on effective description

“How will this effort help researchers?”

This is Hard

Pragmatic Examples

• Melissa McMullen: Managing complex restrictions
• Jon Palmer: Processing at small historical library
• Erik Stolarski: Reading Room Collections
• Ben Covell: Different processing within one collection