I began to put my processing plan into action last week. After surveying the collection, I believe the entirety of the materials can be arranged into six series, with assorted sub-series throughout. Since a great deal of audio-visual material is embedded among research notes and publications, I considered creating a seventh series solely for audio-visual; however, I ultimately chose to leave the materials listed with associated research. The six series are very broad as to encompass as much material as possible: academic life, publications, professional organizations, other works and projects, general correspondence, and finally, personal life. Of course the names of those series are subject to change. In any case, I chose to take my container lists and began slotting folders into proper series and sub-series. I did find a few instances where I either needed to completely change, add, or subtract a sub-series. I was pleased to find most of materials easily fit into my arrangement scheme.
Comparing my notes from my first day to today was an eye-opening experience. My notes at the beginning are vaguer; in fact, a few are completely unhelpful in retrospect. I find this a bit frustrating, as I pride myself on my detail-oriented nature, but I can understand the reasons behind it. As I began my internship, I did not have the knowledge of what specific details were most helpful. Secondly, I did not know the scope and content of the collection as a whole; consequently, I did not note potential series or sub-series as readily early on. In the future I believe I should take more care to note possible series, even if I scrap them later. The more detail, the better. Conversely, my notes from last week are precise, with folders arranged in my notes as I listed them. My ability to recognize folder relationships streamlined the arrangement process, at least on paper! I believe the next go-round with a collection will be much less stressful and certainly more efficient.
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