What is the best way to document your materials?
Whether or not a repository will accept materials is dependent on that institution’s collection policy and their capacity to steward the collection. Providing curators with an inventory of items is a tremendous help to them when deciding whether the collection would be a good fit for their archives. Furthermore, having intellectual control enables you to better manage and save your own materials, cull personal items that an archivist wouldn't take, and organize them in a meaningful way (by subject, era, department, program, etc). Depending on the volume of materials, it may not be practical to itemize them all, but rather note the general contents of a folder or box. This applies to electronic records as well.
A basic inventory for print materials should provide specific information that includes the following:
- Formats (letters, photographs, photos, etc.)
- Number of boxes or containers
- Condition
- Historical background (brief description of where materials came from and what they document)
A basic inventory for audiovisual materials should include the following:
- An ID number for each item
- Formats (cassette, CD, Betamax, Umatic, VHS, etc)
- General content such as program titles, interview subjects, speech topics
- Dates
- Notable names, topics, events
- Producer/provenance (station, network, individual, program series, etc.)
