CASE STUDY
Carondelet Historical Society Archival Policies & Procedures
Backlog worked with the Carondelet Historical Society (CHS) in St. Louis, Missouri, to write archival policies and procedures tailored to their specific needs and goals. First, we conducted an Archival Needs Assessment. We spent time with CHS staff to learn about what they saw as their current strengths and weaknesses, and listened to what they hoped to gain by creating archival policies and procedures.
From this assessment, Backlog identified several areas of need, including:
Clarifying practices around accessioning and deaccessioning materials, in conjunction with a well-defined Collection Development Policy.
Issue:
Deciding whether to keep or return/dispose of certain items often took hours of the Board of Directors’ limited time. Questions also arose about the relevance of an existing collection of dolls, and whether to continue accepting such gifts.
Solution:
Backlog created a well-defined Collection Development Policy to ensure that, going forward, CHS collects materials consistent with its mission to preserve and present the history of Carondelet. A clear Deaccession Policy guides collection reviews on an ongoing basis, while a clear Accession Policy outlines acquisition methods and specifies that all incoming materials must meet the criteria laid out by the Collection Development Policy.
Ensuring robust documentation exists for donations, research requests, and visitor data.
Issue:
CHS lacked documentation for many of its materials, meaning the terms of donations were unclear or unknown (e.g., did the donor or donor’s family want items back?). Sometimes, the donor themself was unknown. CHS also did not have a consistent visitor log or research registration process, which limited their ability to collect information on collection usage, reach out to like researchers, and provide visitor data for grant applications.
Solution:
CHS now has a Deed of Gift form and Donation Log, a Researcher Registration form with clear research guidelines, and a Collection Use Log, all of which help to document information about the archives, such as which collections are being used and visited, by whom, for what purpose, and how often.
Streamlining disparate procedures for how museum and archival items are processed.
Issue:
CHS uses PastPerfect collection management software, but over time their museum and archival items have been described differently, or sometimes not entered at all. Different numbering systems have been used, and different levels of archival preservation have been applied to paper collections.
Solution:
Backlog created a Processing Manual to provide guidance on how to process newly acquired collections. The manual includes background on terminology and detailed instructions for the three phases of outlining and assessing, arranging, and describing the collection.
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Since working with Backlog, Carondelet Historical Society is working to put these policies and procedures into place in 2022, and has had Backlog staff on-site to train new volunteers. CHS’s next step is updating and implementing a Digital Archive Solution with Backlog.