Readings: Managing Congressional Records

For my first chunk of readings I read a handbook published my the SAA and written by Cynthia Pease Miller. It was entitled Managing Congressional Collections, and covered the basics on how to set up a repository for acquiring, processing, and managing a Congressional Collection. The handbook had five chapters and I have written summaries/abstracts on them as follows:

Chapter 1: Soliciting or Donating Congressional Records

When acquiring a Congressional collection steps need to be taken for appraisal reasons. Many things need to be looked at when making these decisions. The archivist needs to look at the member’s stature on the national and international scene. Things that can influence this are if they served on a committee or subcommittee, was a majority or minority whip or leader, a caucus leader or even served for an extended period of time. Congressmen who had these kinds of service should be persons of high interest.
When looking at the quality of content of a collection some areas must be looked at. Besides the obvious areas like files dealing with committee, subcommittee, legislative, press, subject, and projects, things like office procedures, invitations, staff, campaign, and “personal” files should be included in a collection. Other areas of importance would be areas that the congress member took great interest in when dealing with legislative issues, as well as materials that cover the non-congressional components of the members career. The collection should also be one that covers a long span of time, which would give context to the members career and views/policy on certain issues. Another very important aspect is that no portion of the collection should have been transferred to committeed to another repository.
Some other things that need to be taken into consideration when acquiring a collection, things like having good documentation of how things are filed, copies electronically generated responses are included in the collection, recordings(voice and video), electronic files, and photographs are properly label/identified and dated.
This chapter when on to provide checklists for both the repository and the donor as a way to prepare for collecting/donating congressional records for the repository. This Handbook was published by the SAA and is something that I will be purchasing in the near future to have for a reference when I am working in an archives.

Chapter 2: Administering a Congressional Collection

An open line of communication be repository and congress members office is very important. By having an archivist in contact with members office can help with basic archival practices. This will allow for the office to know what types of materials to keep and also what they and discard. By having an open line of communication the repository and the members office can communicate when each have questions. This open line of communication will also allow for the repository to know what the members expectations are for the collection as well as to see if the member is willing to help with funding either through unused campaign funds, a list of donors, or even host a fund raiser.
Access to a collection a main goal of having these materials. By having access to these collections researchers can see the workings of the US Congress as well as how the Congress person dealt with certain issues. The goal of the repository is to get the collections available to researchers in a timely manner with as little restrictions as possible. That being said, there are times when it is necessary to impose restrictions. Some of these restrictions are government based, like dealing with unpublished committee records or findings or areas of national security. Personal information of constituents like dealing with case work, academy applications (SSN), judicial appointments, or other personal information should be restricted as well. All of these types of restrictions should be spelled out in the Deed of Gift.
The Deed of Gift is legal way of transferring the ownership of a collection from a Congress member to a repository. The Deed of Gift spells out when a collection will be transferred and the expectations of both the donor and the repository. The Deed of Gift will also spell out restriction to the collection, which I talked about a little above, as well as copyright issues. I learned in reading this that there it is no copyright for materials produced dealing with public service. It is also suggested to avoid at all costs Deed of Deposits or Loans. These things restrict the availability of the materials with having problems with not being able to process a collection or having the materials being temporarily moved to another location.

Chapter 3: Transferring the Papers

When planning for the transfer of the collection steps need to be taken to so that the process will go smoothly. Having contact early on with the staff allows for knowing how to organize the materials, what staff members did what and office procedures. Getting lists of who served on the staff and their duties, different record keeping practices and when the changed, and information dealing with electronic records should be done to easy in the processing of the collection. By getting these materials before the transfer of the collection archivist can start to make a plan on how the collection will be dealt with.
The costs dealing with collections can be expensive for the repository, but there are some things that can be done to reduce these costs. In house services for the Senate make it free for them to have materials scanned or microfilmed to make dealing the transfer of materials easier. There are also steps of working with the staff early on to eliminate non-essential materials from the collection. Having the staff also label photos and organize materials into obvious series will also cut down on costs for the the repository.
Electronic records are something that have become common in Congressional offices. The repository must plan for these types of records and to do so need to work with the members staff to find out all that they can. Questions need to be asked as to why types of files are stored electronically (legislative, committee, correspondences, speeches) and if they have any endearing value. Also what types of systems that the office has used over the course of the members time in congress and if any of the files are in outdated formats. If there are outdated formats will they be migrated to a new format before being sent to the repository. Any keys/codes need to be retrieved so that files and guidelines can be accessed. A survey of where e-files are stored: on individual computer or a central hard drive.
When dealing with memorabilia or artifacts , most of these materials do not fall into the repository’s research goals. By clarifying this early on, important ones can be held by the repository and photographs and copies can be made of the other and these “copies” can be held at the repository while the physical materials can be kept at the members home or office, or the materials can be donated to a local museum, library or historical society.

Chapter 4: Processing a Congressional Collection

Prior to physically processing a collection, an overview should be taken to see what kind of resources are available in dealing with the collection, a strategy for processing the collection, a timeline, and how often updates will be given to administration and the donor. All of these things should be looked into prior to beginning processing, as it will mean a smoother process when working on the collection. This will give the workers, administration, and the donor what expectations there are and how things will be handled.
When getting into the collection a inventory should be made so as to know what materials that are included in the collection. This can also be used to check with the inventory that was sent from the office to know if any boxes or files are missing. Once the inventory is completed, items that should be separated (photos, memorabilia/artifacts, oversized materials, audio visual, newsprint, electronic files) can be identified, a marker place where they fell in the collection and then moved to the proper area for handling of the material. Decisions can also be made as to what areas can be lightly processed or if the need to be sampled or weeded.
The physical processing of a collection can be a bit complex. At times the idea of “more product, less process” can be used, but at the same time more sensitive areas may require item level processing to avoid liability issues. Some of this can be alleviated by working with the member’s staff and having a some of the more sensitive issues resolved before they reach the repository.
Appraisal can be an essential part of the processing of the collection. Appraisal will lend itself to reducing the bulk of a collection that is being processed. Appraisal decisions can be set up from the beginning to recognize what materials are essential to a collection and need to be kept, what files need to be reviewed and looked at more closely, and finally which files are of no real historical value and can be discarded.

Chapter 5: References Services and Outreach

Finding aids are a necessity when dealing with an archival collection. Creating an EAD finding aid allows for the description of the collection and a way for researchers to find material in the collection. By providing administrative information and descriptive information in the finding aid it give a researcher a good idea of what a collection the collection is about and what kind of materials that is held in the collection. By having a well documented finding aid it will also aid in references services. Reference is a very important aspect when dealing with these collections, as it lets researchers look for materials that they want to look at.
Exhibits and outreach also play an important role when dealing with a Congressional collection. Repositories may have many different collections in their holdings but Congressional collections are a high profile holding, meaning that they can attract fundraising events, publicity, and improve public relations. By reaching out to the community and having an exhibit of the collection, people will know that the repository is committed to preserving the history of the government of the United States. This outreach can also bring more light onto the repository and allow for people to learn about what types of materials that is housed in them. By having speeches, tours, exhibits, or mini lecture series the repository can have the collection featured in a number of different ways.