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More Product, Less Process 

- Concentrate efforts on creating a collection or subgroup level record for ALL materials before proceeding to series and file level processing; 

- Maintain original order of collections whenever possible;  

- If there is no discernible original order, arrangement should only be done to the series level;  

- Keep weeding to a minimum. For example, remove duplicates only if they are obvious, such as a folder holding 5 copies of the same publication;  

- In general, it is best to keep collections whole, that is, don’t separate out parts and pieces to disperse to other collections or storage areas. A few exceptions should be considered: 

- Materials with special storage needs, for example, audio/video tape or photographic negatives, could be stored in a common area that supports their collective need for cooler temperatures and drier humidity; 

- Select serial publications such as yearbooks or student newspapers will be more useful to researchers (and easier for staff to retrieve), if kept together as a set. Use this exception with care; not all serial materials should be separated; 

- Oversize items that have special housing needs may need to be stored in a common area;  

- Loose photographs and ephemera which have no clear relationship to an existing collection could be placed in a browsing file, arranged by subject and/or date;  

- Do not remove metal fasteners such as staples and paper clips unless they are actively damaging the paper (i.e., rusting, obscure the text, or the paper is extremely brittle;  

- Do remove rubber bands and place materials in a file folder;  

- Replace file folders and other covers only if they are in poor condition themselves and no longer provide adequate support for the contents;  

- Preservation steps such as re-housing into archival quality folders, boxes, sleeves, and wraps should be decided on a case-by-case basis, depending on the intrinsic value, condition or anticipated use of a collection;  

- Remember that exceptions can always be made when based on sound reasoning and professional judgment. 

Collecting Levels

Collecting levels in Archives were created by the Research Libraries Group (RLG) among other standards and practices. This system is intended to aid archivists in performing uniform evaluation of collections in their Archives. Thus, this set of descriptors is often employed in archival collection development policies.

1. Out-of-Scope: the Library does not collect in this area.
2. Minimal Level: a subject area in which few selections are made beyond very basic works.
3. Basic Information Level: a collection of up-to-date general materials that serve to introduce and define a subject and to indicate the varieties of information available elsewhere. It may include dictionaries, encyclopedias, selected editions of important works, historical surveys, bibliographies, handbooks, a few major periodicals, in the minimum number that will serve the purpose. A basic information collection is not sufficiently intensive to support any courses of independent study in the subject area involved.
4. Instructional Support Level: a collection that in a university is adequate to support undergraduate and most graduate instruction, or sustained independent study; that is, adequate to maintain knowledge of a subject required for limited or generalized purposes, of less than research intensity. It includes a wide range of basic monographs, complete collections of works of more important writers, selections from the works of secondary writers, a selection of representative journals, and reference tools and fundamental bibliographical apparatus pertaining to the subject.
5. Research Level: a collection that includes the major published source materials required for dissertations and independent research, including materials containing research reporting, new findings, scientific experimental results, and other information useful to researchers. It is intended to include all important reference works and a wide selection of specialized monographs, as well as a very extensive collection of journals and major indexing and abstracting services in the field.
6. Comprehensive Level: a collection which, so far as is reasonably possible, includes all significant works of recorded knowledge (publications, manuscripts, and other forms), in all applicable languages, for a necessarily defined and limited field. This level of collecting intensity is one that maintains a " special collection." The aim, if not achievement, is exhaustiveness. Older material is retained for historical research.

From: The Library of Congress .