Appraisal
Archival collections are unique and require varying levels of attention and description depending upon the content and importance of the collection being processed. The level of processing and description a collection undergoes is determined by appraising the materials. Appraisal is a formal assessment of the enduring and research value of a collection and the materials within a collection, which includes selecting a level of processing intensity and involving deaccessioning or return of materials to the donor if necessary. Broadly, the WVRHC seeks to follow a more product, less process (MPLP) approach that emphasizes access over in-depth processing of all materials due to limited resources.
Note: fully born digital collections may begin the process of appraisal immediately following accessioning procedures, but hybrid collections of born digital and analog materials require coordination with the person charged with processing or supervising the processing of a collection.
Conduct appraisal by briefly reviewing the incoming collection documentation and cursorily examining the media, keeping in mind the selection criteria and notes outlined in the table below. The lowest level of processing is chosen based on the quantity of materials, perceived research value, and level of description necessary to make the materials accessible. Multiple levels of processing may be used on different groups of materials within a collection. An outline of selection criteria to aid the processor in determining the appropriate level of processing is below as well as the result of processing at that level. Specific information about how the “Result” column is applied via description within ArchivesSpace can be found in the Description section.
| Level of Processing and Description | Selection Criteria and Notes | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Minimal | This is the most used level of processing. Suitable where media content is relatively homogenous in subject matter and structure regardless of research value. Most likely to be used for large collections; may be used as an initial step in iterative processing. Examples may include: A hard drive with 500 photos of the same event with little metadata at the image level or 12 CDs of music with album titles created by a single person | Media item level description. Description at this level will describing the broad content of a media item. Description may be enhanced in the future in line with iterative processing approaches based on changing priorities, time, or patron use. |
| Enhanced | Suitable where media content may be of middle or high research value with media content falling between being homogenous and heterogenous in nature. Materials may be organized by the creator at the folder level, but item level information may be less consistent. One example: A hard drive of local history research files organized by county or project | Folder level description. Description at this level will involve describing the content of the folders present within each transfer. Some of this work may be automated via tools used during processing. Only select higher level folders may be described depending on the collection. |
| Intensive | This level is rarely used. Suitable where media content is of high research value, heterogenous, and may or may not have detailed metadata present as well as collections in which there is only a handful of files. This level is rare for most collections of media, unless the materials are particularly high-value for research purposes, and more likely for smaller collections with few born digital items. Examples may include: A floppy disk of drafts of literary works or Two files sent in an email transfer with donor provided metadata within a collection with no other digital media | Item level description. Description at this level will involve describing the individual files. Much of this work may be automated to harvest file types and file names for upload to ArchivesSpace. |
Once appraisal is completed, the Appraisal event will need to be recorded in the PREMIS Spreadsheet for the collection. Be sure to include the level of processing selected and why that level of processing was selected. Note: some collections may contain multiple levels of processing within a collection. For instance, a collection may contain a hard drive of unique unpublished materials of high research value but also include commercial DVDs. These materials would likely require intensive and minimal processing respectively. Create one appraisal note for each group of materials being appraised.Create an unpublished note in the Accession or Resource Record for the collection to indicate the completion of the appraisal report.
Check off the relevant task in the Born Digital Processing Checklist for the collection.