Collection Assessment

Collection Surveys:

• Sample Strategy for Collection Survey, Graduate School of Design

• Holdings Counts and Measures: Guidelines for Standardized Holdings Counts and Measures for Archival Repositories and Special Collections Libraries 

Report from a joint ACRL/RBMS-SAA Task Force offering metrics, definitions, and best practices for quantifying the holdings of archival repositories and special collections libraries

Calculating Extent:

The following calculators will calculate physical extent for you based on the number of containers (standard container types with dimensions are provided).

• Rebel Archives Calculator (calculates BOTH cubic and linear feet)

• Yale linear feet calculator

• Schlesinger linear feet calculator

Processing Practice and Workflow Assessment

Processing Complexity:

• Processing Complexity Level Definitions [DOC], Center for the History of Medicine, Countway Library of Medicine

A rubric used to assess the pre-processing complexity of a collection which can be tracked as part of a processing plan and/or processing metrics data.

Processing Metrics:

• Processing Metrics Collaborative Wiki: Database Development Initiative 

  • A wiki containing information and resources on tracking processing metrics using MD (an Access database developed by the Center for the History of Medicine for tracking processing metrics data, which can be downloaded from the wiki).

• Archival Processing Metrics Worksheet [XLS], University of California Libraries 

  • A worksheet for tracking and calculating collection-level processing metrics for collections processed at different levels (low to highly intensive).

• Processing Activities Worksheet [PDF], PACSCL/CLIR Hidden Collections Processing Project, 2009-2012

  • A form for daily logging of time spent on processing activities.

• Sample Processing Costing Estimate Template [XLS], Center for the History of Medicine, Countway Library of Medicine

Use and User Assessment

Public Services Metrics:

• Standardized Statistical Measures and Metrics for Public Services in Archival Repositories and Special Collections Libraries, SAA-ACRL/RBMS Joint Task Force (final version submitted for approval as of 10/27/2017)