I'm thinking
collections with email, web sites, databases and the like. Is it possible to
"translate" electronic records processing to cubic feet? Or do we need a new way
of applying a meaningful measurement to electronic collections processing?
Have found myself more confounded by this than anything and
am happy to hear all comments, questions, thoughts, etc. about
it.
Thanks,
Kathy
Kathleen Jordan
Electronic Records Archival
Coordinator
The Library of Virginia
800 East Broad Street
Richmond, VA 23219
804-225-3699
I
would recommend reading Tom Wilsted's booklet,Computing the Total Cost of
Archival Processing, Technical leaflet No.2,(Mid-Atlantic Regional
Archives Conference: N.p., 1989)
There
is also a brief discussion of some of the relevant literature in Paul Ericksen
and my article, Shocks: The Place of Processing Cost Analysis in Archival
Administration" in the American Archivist. Vol. 58,
No.1, Winter 1995
Some
of our experience at the BGC Archives on calculating processing costs
(including labor, materials, storage) can be found online at:
http://www.wheaton.edu/bgc/archives/ar/2004/17.html
Our
average for eleven years, including all types of collections, was 7.4
hours per cubic foot, $181 per cubic foot. You might also want
segregate the different types of processing you are doing, since costs can
differ widely depending on whether you are processing a huge collection of
hundreds or thousands of boxes, updating an existing collection, adding a
few individual items to a collection, working on a collecting that
includes oral history interviews as well as other types of material, etc.
Bob
Shuster
BGC
Archives
------- End of forwarded message
-------
A posting from the Archives & Archivists LISTSERV
List sponsored by the Society of American Archivists, www.archivists.org. For
the terms of participation, please refer to
http://www.archivists.org/listservs/arch_listserv_terms.asp.
To subscribe or unsubscribe, send e-mail to [log in to unmask] In
body of message: SUB ARCHIVES firstname lastname *or*: UNSUB ARCHIVES To post a
message, send e-mail to [log in to unmask]
Or to do *anything* (and enjoy doing it!), use the web interface at
http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/archives.html
Problems? Send e-mail to Robert F Schmidt <[log in to unmask]>
A posting from the Archives & Archivists LISTSERV List sponsored by the Society of American Archivists, www.archivists.org.
For the terms of participation, please refer to http://www.archivists.org/listservs/arch_listserv_terms.asp.
To subscribe or unsubscribe, send e-mail to [log in to unmask]
In body of message: SUB ARCHIVES firstname lastname
*or*: UNSUB ARCHIVES
To post a message, send e-mail to [log in to unmask]
Or to do *anything* (and enjoy doing it!), use the web interface at
http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/archives.html
Problems? Send e-mail to Robert F Schmidt <[log in to unmask]>