This is a manual for creating accession records at the MIT Department of Distinctive Collections. Required and optional fields are listed and explained; examples are provided when further guidance may be helpful. Fields not mentioned in this manual should not be used in accession records. 

This is a living document that will be updated to reflect changes in local practice and stay current with new releases of ArchivesSpace. The December 2016 version of this document is located here.

Cited sources: Describing Archives: A Content Standard (DACS) and Canadian Archival Accession Information Standard (CAAIS)

Table of Contents


Basic Information Section

Title (required; DACS 2.3, CAAIS 1.4)

Identifier (required; CAAIS 1.2) 

Accession Date (required)

Content Description (required; DACS 3.1, CAAIS 3.3)

Condition Description (DACS 4.2.5, CAAIS 4.3.2)

Disposition Note (required; DACS 5.3.4 & 7.1.8, CAAIS 4.4.2)

Provenance (required; DACS 5.2, CAAIS 2.1)

Inventory

General Note

Acquisition Type (required; CAAIS 1.6)

Resource Type (required)

Restrictions Apply? (required)

Publish?

Access Restrictions?

Access Restrictions Note (required; DACS 4.1)

Use Restrictions? (required)

Use Restrictions Note (required; DACS 4.4)

Dates Section (DACS 2.4, CAAIS 3.1)

Label (required)

Expression

Type (required)

Begin (required)

End

Certainty

Extents Section (DACS 2.5, CAAIS 3.2)

Portion (required)

Number (required)

Type (required)

Container Summary (required)

Agent Links Section (CAAIS 2.1)

Related Resources Section

External Documents Section (CAAIS 4.5)

The Digital Control Files are organized by collection ID and in One Drive under in the DDC Digital Control Files folder at this link https://mitprod.sharepoint.com/sites/libraries/ddc/. File names for documents in these folders contain the accession number they pertain to followed by the type of document, e.g. 2019-006_donor_correspondence.pdf. If multiple accessions are associated with a particular collection, there will be subfolders for each accession number within the folder for the collection ID.

Instances Section

This section is only required for accessions when it contains digital material. The instance allows us to track the location of the digital files through the accessioning and processing procedures. For digital materials, this is the “DigitalStorage” where the preservation files are located.

Deaccessions Section

 This section is only required if materials from the accession were returned to a donor, transferred to another institution, or destroyed/recycled after they went through the accessioning procedures, requiring the alteration of finding aids or other public description. This section is not required if materials are weeded or found to be out of scope during accessioning; these separations can be noted in the Disposition Note in the Basic Information section. Multiple deaccessions can be recorded for a single accession record.

Collection Management Section

This section is for internal information about how the accession will be or has been processed.

Processing Plan

Processors (required; DACS 8.1.5)

Processing Status (required)

Events

 

To create an Event that is automatically attached to an accession record, you must first save the accession record and then go back to view/edit the record. There will be an option in the top right corner of the accession record to add an Event and choose the Event type. You can also create Events directly from the main Create drop down menu, but then you will need to link the Event to the relevant accession record in the Record Links section.

Agreement Received

For collections that require a deed of gift, use to indicate that DDC has received two signed copies of the deed of gift from the donor(s)

Rights Transferred

For collections that require a deed of gift, use to indicate that DDC has received the countersigned deed of gift from the Office of the Recording Secretary

Transfer

This is for digital material. This will record when and with what tool you performed a digital transfer, if you also performed a disk image of one or more media in the accession, see the imaging event below. There can be multiple events if you have multiple items. All items that were transferred using the same tool and also had the same outcome can be grouped together as one event.

Imaging

This is for digital material. This will record when and with what tool you performed a disk image, if you also performed a logical transfer for one or more media or group of files in the accession, see the Transfer event above. There can be multiple events if you have multiple items. All items that were transferred using the same tool and also had the same outcome can be grouped together as one event.

Ingestion

For digital material, this will indicate that you have moved the accessioned material through Archivematica and into digital preservation storage.

Appendix

Creating Agent Records

Agent Records can be created for individual people, corporate entities, including the offices of administrators, or software. For example, there could be a person Agent Record for “Bourg, Chris,” but the Agent Record for “Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Libraries. Office of the Director” is a corporate entity. 

Person

For established names, use the U.S. version of the name in VIAF indicated by the presence of the U.S. flag icon as shown in the screenshot below. If there is no U.S. established version of the name, use the version from the person’s country of origin. For local names, follow DACS Part II.

Corporate Entity

Software