Laurie,

            Bruce Stark has published some estimates of processing rates in his 2001 __Guide For Processing Manuscripts Collections__ (pp. 53-54), which I’ve found very useful.  While acknowledging that processing rates differ from collection to collection, he identifies four categories of collections with descending processing rates relative to the complexity of the material.  The range is broad:  from 40 hours per linear foot for collections that have to be described at the item level to 10 hours per linear foot for collections that have no significant organizational problems and mainly need reboxing, refoldering, listing, and describing of the contents of the papers.  Four hours per linear foot does not seem reasonable to me for processing any collection on average. 

 

 

I’ve been asked to calculate some estimates to finish processing one of our collections (the non-political papers, photos, memorabilia, etc. of a former politician) and to re-process another collection (political papers and other material of a former politician). I’m to use my salary and benefits to calculate the labor. But we’re unsure of the amount of time to use. One formula we’ve been told is 4 hours per linear foot. Does that seem reasonable for processing additional boxes of papers and other material, as well as updating the current finding aid?

 

As for supplies for both collections, I can estimate the number of record storage boxes we’d need – we use the legal by letter size archival boxes. But I’m unsure of how many folders to estimate as an average per box, as it can vary from 10 or 12 per box to 30 or 40. I also need to guesstimate supplies for other formats, such as photos, audio and visual material, and artwork.  

 

Re-processing may not be quite the right word for the one collection – it’s approximately 250-300 linear feet of political papers plus family memorabilia, artwork, and other miscellaneous items. It was indexed quite extensively 40 years ago, but the collection has undergone many changes over the years. It needs to be re-housed in archival folders and boxes and other storage containers. Also, the massive index needs to be corrected and updated as the collection is worked through. Would the 4 hours per linear foot be a workable estimate for this type of project? (In the handling of this collection, files have gotten out of order – some may have been misfiled, but we’re afraid that others have disappeared forever.)

 

Is there anything else we haven’t thought of? Any suggestions and advice will be greatly appreciated!

 

Laurie Langland

University Archivist/Director of Service Learning

Layne Library, Dakota Wesleyan University

1200 W. University Ave.

Mitchell, SD 57301