Archives Basics for Churches | Session 4 – Digital and Personal Papers
Supported by the Historical Society of the Episcopal Church
Promote preservation, Publish, Cooperate
hsec.us/da

Archival Work
•	Identify what to keep
•	Preserve what is kept
•	Share what is kept with others

Archives and Digitzation Primer
Types of digital files
•	Born-digital: created on digital devices
•	Digitized: created digital version of physical material
o	Scanning
o	Recording
o	Image capture (phone, camera) 
•	Archive by similar process, just different mode
o	Physical placement vs. digital storage
o	Folders in a box vs. bits in a file

Reasons to digitize
•	Time consuming, but best content tool for preservation and sharing 
•	Supplements extant physical materials, but does NOT replace originals
•	Reference repeatedly without physically handling
•	Share easily (via email, share in the cloud, publish on website)
•	Convert to current digital format, little/no quality loss

Storage of digital files
•	In the cloud (Google drive, Microsoft 365, webhosting)
•	On local hard drive (sync with cloud)
•	On external hard drives
o	Make a copy every year or two using solid state drive
o	Store in an off-site location

Migrate files from risky storage media
•	USB thumb/flash drives
•	Optical discs (CD-r/DVD-r)

How to digitize (let me count the ways)
•	Quality more important than method
•	Consider paying professional for large volume (papers)

Current Standards
Item	Quality	Bit depth	Color	
Books, text, documents	300 dpi	8	Grayscale	
With B&W images	400 dpi	8	Grayscale	
Manuscripts	400 dpi	24	Color	
Photos	400dpi	8/24	Gray/Color	

•	Many use YouTube as a video archive, still keep a separate file

Current Standards (Library of Congress)
Item	Preferred	Acceptable	
Books, text, documents	PDF/UA
PDF/A	PDF
RTF	
Images	TIF
PNG	JPG
GIF	
Video	MP2	MP4	
Audio	WAV		

Optical Character Recognition (OCR)
•	Born-Digital OCR complete
•	Digitize need to process to OCR
•	Accuracy depends of quality, typeface, other factors

Copy files: source to archival folder
•	Born-digital & digitized documents
•	Appropriate folder / “To Process”
•	Open to assure no errors

Rename Files:
•	archival different than administrative
•	Deductive, consistent, parallel with arrangement
•	Short: abbreviate, truncate, acronyms
•	Avoid special characters
•	No space: underscore ("new_word") or camel-case ("newWord")
•	Include document date (YYYY-MM-DD)
	Example:	EC_MIN_2019-04-16
		or	2019-04-16_EC_MIN
Sharing
•	Search key terms finds instances
•	Email copy – identify in subject
•	Online access systems – beyond scope of this series
•	Metadata in files – beyond scope of this series

Personal Papers
•	Materials which originate from, and document, the life of an individual.
•	Personal papers are their own Record Group

NOT Personal Papers
•	Formal papers of an organization
•	minutes, reports, proposals, etc.
•	records of the organization
•	may remove these from personal papers to complete organization’s files (presuming no personal markings).

Why Personal Papers in Archives?
•	Significant connection to church.
•	Reflect how church influenced person’s life.
•	Reveal important experience of the person on the community related to the church.
•	Provide examples of broader societal trends.

Types of personal papers
•	
o	letters/e-mail
o	memoirs/ reminiscences
o	diaries/blogs
o	scrapbooks/photo albums
o	articles/essays
o	professional papers
o	genealogical information
o	speeches/ lectures
o	legal documents
o	brochures and flyers
o	awards/ certificates
o	separate photographs

•	Organization papers with personal notations (marginal/within text) make “personal papers.”
•	Arrange like other archival items

Deed of Gift
•	Formal, legal agreement
•	Donor / repository
•	Transfer ownership / legal rights
Elements
•	Name of Donor and Recipient
•	Title & Description of Materials
•	Transfer of Ownership
•	Access to the Collection
•	Transfer of Intellectual Property Rights
•	Separations
•	Other Elements

Listing of Series [Shepherd Papers] – See outside document

Finding Device / Aid
•	Describes collection history & arrangement.
o	Navigate contents, identify relevant research material. 
o	Usually to series level of arrangement.
•	Front matter describes content and context of whole collection.
•	Outline inventory varies (usually by how much time to process and describe)
•	Device’s organization reflects content, not necessarily physical order.

Series
•	Describes scope/content note, dates, quantity/extent, or other details of content and context.
Box/Folder (file unit)
•	Usually title of box and/or folder
Item (takes most time to do)
•	Specific information about individual items
•	More often for photographs, audiovisual media items, or published materials.

Sample Finding Device
 I.	Identification
A.  Title
B.  Inclusive dates (perhaps an indication of dates of concentration)
C.  Size
	1. Cubic feet or linear feet
	2. Parenthetic number of boxes
D.  Abstract (general description of contents in 1-2 sentences)
E.  Language(s)
II.	Table of contents
III. 	Biographical sketch
A.  Birth and formative influences / education
C.  Summary of importance in the Church, 
D.  Importance of ecclesiastical work, places where work was done
E.  Organizational associations, roles, and dates
F.  Experiential lessons learned
G. Honors and awards
H. Bibliographic reference to major materials which set an historical context
IV.	Processing notes
A. When papers received, and from whom
B. Comment about deed of gift (donor, date, nature of the document)
C. Initial estimate of size of collection
D. Survey of original condition/state of the papers
E. Comment about any disorganized material
F.  Identify the existing internal organization
G. Identification of material requiring special handling (e.g., confidential, periodicals, book repair, etc.)
H. Identify major series by titles (e.g., parish ministry, family, scholarly work, community activities, etc.)
I.  Comment on what material seems to have major significance
J.  Data regarding materials removed and what was done with them (e.g., periodicals integrated to the periodicals collection of the archives, duplicates discarded, etc.)
K.  Summary details about the creation of the Inventory, Who did the work / Date of creation

V.	Series Outline and Descriptions (for each series)
A.  Identification
1.  Title
		2.  Inclusive dates
		3.  Summary of type of materials (e.g., correspondence, budgets, etc.)
4.  Description of arrangement (e.g., alphabetical, chronological, topical, by political movement, etc.)
		5.  Number of folders
B.  Description of contents
		1.  Type of material, some description/ illustration
		2.  Identify major topics

VI.	Administrative information
A.  Preferred citation
B.  Copyright notice
C.  Restrictions on access
D.  Restrictions on use

Archival Suppliers
•	Archival Products archival.com
•	Conservation Resources International conservationresources.com
•	Gaylord Brothers gaylord.com
•	Hollinger Metal Edge hollingermetaledge.com
•	Light Impressions lightimpressionsdirect.com
•	University Products Inc universityproducts.com

Join an Organization
•	Episcopal Women’s History Project ewhp.org
•	Historical Society of the Episcopal Church hsec.us
•	National Episcopal Historians and Archivists episcopalhistorians.org
•	Society of American Archivists archivists.org
•	Midwest Archives Conference midwestarchives.org

Series Presenters
•	John Rawlinson - Past Archivist, Diocese of California, Archivist, Church Divinity School of the Pacific
•	Susan Stonesifer - Archivist, Diocese of Washington, Past President, National Episcopal Historians and Archivists
•	Matthew P. Payne – Director of Operations, Historical Society of the Episcopal Church, Archivist of the Diocese of Fond du Lac