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This page contains descriptions of acquisitions-related tools and resources recommended by AA&A Section members. The AA&A Section cannot provide support for these resources. The AA&A Section Steering Committee created this page after hosting a Triple A Talk in 2024. As part of the Triple A Talk, the Steering Committee distributed a survey to section members soliciting recommendations for acquisitions-related tools and resources. The descriptions of tools and resources recommended during the 2024 Triple A Talk include excerpts from the 2024 survey, highlighting how each is used in accessioning and appraisal. Some items in the list below link to publicly accessible resources, while others describe tools or workflows specific to individual institutions.
Please send your suggestions for other tools and resources to appraisalsaa@gmail.com and we will add them here.
These two cost estimators are part of the Total Cost of Stewardship Tool Suite. The Tool Suite "offers free, adaptable tools to support better data about collection stewardship needs as well as better communication across disparate roles and responsibilities. The tools are intended to be flexible and customizable for use by a wide range of institutions and users as well as be adaptable to local contexts and needs."
This is a report that curators fill out before accepting new acquisitions. The reports are shared with other Special Collections staff members via Microsoft Teams to gather feedback (conservation/preservation concerns, comments about research value, etc.)
These are forms that "recommending officers" at our institution (staff who have acquisitions in their job description) fill out to facilitate acquisition of collections. Potential acquisitions first go through concept review, answering basic questions about the collection's content, donor, formats, condition, and access/use. If the concept review passes the acquisitions steering committee then the recommending officer fills out a more in depth acquisitions proposal.
Maintained by the SAA Accessioning, Acquisitions, & Appraisal (AA&A) Section, these best practices were developed to provide archival workers with guiding principles as well as methods and practices for accessioning archival materials.
We use the Northeast Document Conservation Center's (NEDCC) guidelines for integrated pest management to treat acquisitions involving pests.
We use appraisal events to record notable weeding and refusal of items during accessioning. Tracking non-archival disposition is helpful for transparency and also avoids creating deaccession records during the accessioning process.
We have decided to use custody transfer events to record the extent, date, and agents for transfers (we often get multiple transfers for one accession). This helps us later if there is a significant difference between the extent we choose to keep during appraisal and the extent that walked in the door.
We use ArchivesSpace assessment records to document backlogged materials (used Google Sheets for this in the past).
When new archival acquisitions arrive, we have the curator responsible for the acquisition fill out a Google Form describing the acquisition. The responses from the Google Form link to a spreadsheet. Some of the columns in the linked spreadsheet map to the ArchivesSpace Accession CSV bulk import template. The accessioning archivist uses the responses from the Google Form spreadsheet to import multiple accession records into ArchivesSpace with a single import.
We use Google Sheets as an Accessions check-in tool and queue to feed follow-up entry into ArchivesSpace, the system of record for accessions. Sheets automatically increments the next available accession number, a function lacking in ArchivesSpace.
A Chrome extension that allows the user to scrape paginated site information. This is a helpful non-API technique to create custom reports of search results in the accessions browse module.
We use Asana to gather information about the accession from our curators via an asana form and then we use it to track the workflow from accessioning through processing.
Like Asana, a project management tool, has different functionality and can be cheaper depending on your buildout.
We use Jira to track collections from acquisition all the way through accessioning, processing, and access. Since we have multiple people working on collections during each phase of work, this software helps us with project management and ensures that we've completed all necessary steps to consider a collection accessioned.