Organizational Structure

I'm almost done with an organizational structure for the archive - at least on paper. There are a few things I need to research or make a judgement call on to decide where to put them, but I can always change my mind later. The hard part is getting the basic structure in the first place.

Then, I can start rearranging the materials themselves. After that, I go in and see if the labels on the boxes truly match the contents inside.

When I did my practicum for my MA in Public History, I arranged and described the campaign papers of a state representative whose organization system was non-existant. I think there could not have been better training than that for what I have to do now.

My way of attack was to start with big piles and then separate them into smaller piles, then those into smaller piles, and so on. That's essentially what I'm doing now. Trying to find themes or related items, grouping them together, then finding a place for them in the structure I created.

Well, truth be told, I adapted my structure from another academic's archive. Wake Forest University, to be specific. It's not radical really, it's just a reflection of how the college is structured, which goes along with the original order idea. So that's the basic idea I used. The hard part, though, is that the college kept restructuring itself. The library, for instance, was under Instruction, went to IT, and now is back under Instruction (*edit* now calling itself "Learning") . Being that I am a librarian and in charge of the archive, I decided to put the Library Services under Student Services, rather than under Instruction or IT (which are under College Department).

As long as it makes sense (and I plan on releasing my structure for opinions from my cohorts) it should suffice.