Rallying Cry of Simplicity

I neglected to mention in my last blog that my processing plan was given the go-ahead with some alterations. I created a seventh series for journals and writing logs. Organizationally this makes sense to me, as those don't necessarily fit into correspondence. This change brought the total number of series in the collection to seven, with each possessing at minimum two sub-series each. At times, materials simply cannot be grouped under an established record group. Simplicity does not mean forcing a small number of series into existence; simplicity means the formulation of the best method for arrangement and use. Ideally researchers will visit this collection time and again, and my task remains to aid those future researchers by doing good work today.

While the series are now set, essentially in stone, I have chosen to tune up my sub-series as I move through the folders once more. The best example of a change is a sub-series of book and article reviews written by Professor Nugent. I chose to slot these under the series 'Other Work and Projects', as I felt it proper to definitively distinguish original published works researched and written from reviews written. Two sub-series exist within the 'Publications' series--monographs and articles and essays. Yet as I began in earnest to think about the the book and article reviews, I could not deny the facts at hand: 1. each is an original work by the creator of this collection, 2. each review is a published work. Therefore, I have chosen to move the sub-series 'Reviews' into the 'Publications' series. I have debated whether to split the book reviews from article reviews to create sub-groups within the sub-series. However, I believe that would be unnecessary. I want to create a functional and accessible system without making it convoluted. Simplicity, after all, is a decent rallying cry. I dare to believe I can accomplish that goal as I continue processing.