Wartburg Archives Procedure Manual: Housing

1. For modern business records, there may be little need to rehouse materials if they were originally kept in folders, boxes or filing cabinets in an office setting. In most cases, a quick check for damaged or misplaced items, rusty staples or paperclips and rubber bands will be sufficient.
2. Folders of paper records should be housed in archival document boxes (commonly called Hollinger boxes), or record boxes (such as white cubic foot boxes with lids). Ideally, boxes and folders will be acid free archival quality, but again standard office supplies are usually sufficient for modern records.
3. Bankers’ boxes are not to be used. The materials will need to be transferred to a document or records box.
4. For formats with specific housing needs, see Special Formats

1. Most collections will be described at the folder level. If items are already in folders with titles, it will not be commonly required to change this information. Simply record the folder title in the folder index and finding aid.
2. If contents are not labeled or they need to be rehoused, the addition of descriptive folder titles will aid in increasing access
3. Folder titles should include (from left to right)
   1. collection name 
   2. a descriptive subject/title for materials within the folder
   3. date or date range of contents, if available

Creating Box Labels for Fully Processed Collections

There are two size plastic label holders, depending on what size box:

• No. 20114 Business Card Pockets
  • For full-size document boxes (letter and legal) and
  • Some oversize boxes (measure depth of lid)
• 61-387 Polypropylene Label Holders
  • For half-size document boxes (letter and legal) and
  • Some oversize boxes (measure depth of lid)

There are three label templates, depending on what label holder:

• Box Label Template – Card Size
  • For Business Card Pockets
• Box Label Template – small cards, vertical
  • For Polypropylene Label Holders (used on document boxes)
• Box Label Template – small cards, horizontal
  • For Polypropylene Label Holders (used on oversize boxes)

Once a collection has been fully processed (materials arranged and housed; finding aid completed and uploaded to web; Proficio index completed and ingested), follow these steps for creating Box Labels:

1. Attach label holders to all boxes in collection
   1. Make note of which size holder is used on which box number
2. Create labels using template forms
   1. Using the list created while attaching holders, choose appropriate size label template to create label for each box
   2. Use finding aid or index to summarize the contents of each box, along with noting category (if a College collection), collection name, and series name (can be multiple, depending on how collection is arranged)
   3. Add line for Sub-series under Series, if necessary
   4. Collection name should be bolded and Orange text for College collection, or bolded and Blue text for AIB collection
   5. If box numbering is 1-X by collection, then labels should be 1-X by collection; if box numbering is 1-X by series, then labels should be 1-X by series
3. Print labels on standard paper and cut them to size
4. Insert labels into holders on the boxes