To arrange at the collection level, identify which accessions comprise the collection at hand, and which comprise a separate collection or other related material.
Decisions about whether to merge material of the same provenance, that has been previously processed or cataloged separately, or to include materials of distinct provenance together in a single collection, are made in consultation with the archivist’s supervisor and the curator, taking into consideration:
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Provenance
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Custodial history
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The existing state of the collection and past arrangement decisions
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The benefits of improved access vs. the time necessary to effect it
Examples include:
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Unprocessed collections consisting of multiple accessions
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Unprocessed additions to fully processed collections
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Partially processed collections for which material was previously removed and cataloged separately. Options for these include:
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repatriate all of the separated material (e.g. Mabel Dodge Luhan Papers)
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repatriate some of the separated material (e.g. Sinclair Lewis Papers)
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repatriate none of the separated material (e.g. Robinson Jeffers Papers)
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Intentionally Assembled Collections
Based on the nature and extent of material pertaining to a particular person or subject, the relative importance of provenance vs. pertinence, and consideration of past and anticipated use, archivists may arrange material from various sources into an intentionally assembled collection (e.g. the Edith Wharton Collection and the Nina Berberova Collection). Even in doing so, it is possible to respect and represent the mixed provenance through series-level arrangement.
When it is possible to distinguish clearly between the personal papers of an individual and material from other sources relating to that individual, the archivist may create two collections (e.g. Mabel Dodge Luhan Papers and Mabel Dodge Luhan Collection). In cases where it is not so easy to distinguish between the two, the archivist may remove some but not all material from other sources from the archival collection (e.g. Edmund Wilson Papers and Elena Wilson Papers, or Mary Butts Papers and Mary Butts Collection).