Container List

Series

Common series titles and suggested order for faculty personal archives (MC collections):

• Biographical Materials

• Biographical and Personal Materials

• Biographical and Family Papers

• Personal Materials

• Subject and Correspondence Files

• Aeronautics Subject File

• Chronological Correspondence

• Alphabetical Correspondence

• Committee Reports and Correspondence

• Teaching Materials and MIT Records

• MIT Administrative Records

• Course Materials

• MIT Research Project and Proposal Materials

• MIT Related Activities

• MIT Course Notes and Student Work

• Research Materials

• Laboratory Notebooks

• Professional Organization Materials

• National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Materials

• Other Professional Activities

• Consulting Firm and Patent Materials

• Consulting Records

• Professional Records

• Writings and Publications

• Speeches and Writings

• Professional Writings and Reprints

Common series titles and suggested order for Institute records (AC collections):

• Proposals and History

• Annual Reports

• Administrative Records (Files)

• Budgets and Financial Records

• Director’s Files

• Executive Director’s Files

• Program Director’s Files

• Committees

• Committees and Visiting Committee Records

• Task Force minutes

• Correspondence and Memoranda

• Correspondence and Subject Files

• Grants and Contracts

• Proposals

• Reports

• Publications and Promotional Material

• Brochures

• Newsletters

• Technical Reports

• Meetings and Lectures

• Conferences and Workshops

• Equipment and Hardware

• Specific person’s records

Note: digital material will largely follow the guidelines above. If there are not enough time or resources to describe digital material to that level with initial processing, create a series called “Digital Material” as the last series of the collection.

Notes at the series level

Box

Use box level description when contents can easily be summarized at the box level. Box is not used in digital description.

Folder

If possible use the folder title given by the creator of the collection. If there is no folder title on a physical folder, supply one; be brief and concise. Write the title at the top in the center of the folder. Add a date range of the contents to the top of the folder on the right hand side. Do not put folder numbers and box numbers on folders as these may change over time. Use “miscellaneous” sparingly. Do not use “etc.” 

Some considerations when creating and listing titles:

Note: for digital material, you will rarely create a folder title. Rely on pre-existing folder-titles unless the materials are unintelligible folder or series title. In that case, create a folder title in ArchivesSpace, based on the guidelines above and then list the upper-level folders as files beneath it.

• Capitalize only the first word of the folder title unless it is the official name of a body or entity, or the title of a book, movie, or journal article.

• If it is the name of a body or entity, or a book or journal title: capitalize the first letter of all words (except a, an, the, and prepositions) but capitalize the first letter of the title and subtitle no matter what the word. If original folder title supplied by the donor/creator is capitalized and is not the name of a body or entity, or a book or journal title, ignore their formatting.

• Office of the President correspondence

• A Peril and a Hope: The Scientists’ Movement in America 1945-47 by Alice Kimball Smith

• Meeting minutes and agendas

• Name order

• First name and then last name, even if this does not match the creators title

• Written on folder “Campbell, Tony” in AS enter as “Tony Campbell”

• If creating a title put subject of material first and format last

• Biology mice test lab notebook

• Dates in titles

• This is usually the case when the title is an event such as a conference or meeting. Include the date in the title when the title date does not match the dates of the materials.

• Carnegie-Mellon Symposium, Visual Perception and Cognition in Infancy, June 1-2, 1989 1987-1991

• Multiple folders

• If you are foldering materials, maybe from a large binder, that fit into more than one folder, folders should be marked “1 of 2,” “2 of 2,” between the folder title and date, as necessary. Dates should be for the content in each folder.

• If listing multiple folders at once - say 5 folders in a box are all reprints - describe at file level as "So and so reprints".

• When entering the title into ArchivesSpace use the extent note at the folder level to indicate how many folders are included with this title.

• Use the date range of all the folders for the date.

• Commas

• Avoid using commas in titles unless separately listing multiple things

• Chemistry correspondence, department brochures, Chemistry committee report

• Colons

• Avoid using colons in newly created titles, especially for purposes of adding categorization.

• Keep if used by creator

• Acronyms and abbreviations

• Always spell out acronyms and abbreviations and then put the acronym or abbreviation in parenthesis after. It is more important to do this in ArchivesSpace than on the folder itself.

• School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences (SHASS)

Note: for digital material, you will rarely create a folder title. Rely on pre-existing upper-level folder-titles, unless the title or the series title do not sufficiently describe the material. In that case, create a folder title in ArchivesSpace, based on the guidelines above and then list the upper-level folders as files beneath it.

Standard format

We have set standards for the use of capitalization, abbreviations, acronyms, commas, and periods, which must be applied when you write and record headings (titles) on folders and container lists. Follow the standards described in the Finding Aid Style Guide.

Notes at the folder level