Dear all
I’d like to thank immensely all those people who so kindly responded
to my request, giving of their time, knowledge, and expertise: the
thoughts, comments, schema and just general friendly helpfulness was
really helpful.
In case it might useful for others, I’ve attached a brief
summarisation of responses.
It seemed (to me), when collating the replies, that the prioritisation
criteria employed fell mainly into four general areas; which then
encompassed several, related, sub-factors:
Complexity and accessibility
• Public accessibility/ finding aids
• Level of cataloguing needed [aka time required]
• Complexity [aka time required], including specialist skills required
[e.g. Palaeography, technical] and level of appraisal needed
• Saving of staff time [retrieving for e.g.]
• Quantity
• Accruals expected
• Time accessioned/ uncatalogued
Status, including statutory and/ or organisational obligations and priorities
• Legislative/ statutory obligations [FoI, DP; if subject to closure
periods; whether public records]
• Supports priority themes in wider organisation/ for stakeholders
• Deposit status [home produced; on loan or owned]
• Good for income generation
• Linked to marketing, outreach, publication
• Use and demand – current and potential
• Eligible for external cataloguing funding
Value
• Uniqueness or rarity of information
• Geographic (local/regional/ national/ community) significance
• Heritage, historic, social, economic, cultural value
Conservation and preservations issues
• Conservation and preservation requirements [includes access problems
- which can mitigate or to promote the need to catalogue]
• Future digitisation envisaged
These are, of course, my category interpretations; and criteria can
often be thought to fit into more than one general area...
Some organisations simplify the criteria into, or focus on, three or
four overall areas; some combine criteria from different areas to
provide an overall score; and others use a longer checklist to arrive
at an overall score.
As to us here at RCAHMW: work is still in process!
With thanks again for all of your help.
Best wishes
Lynne
Contact the list owner for assistance at [log in to unmask]
For information about joining, leaving and suspending mail (eg during a holiday) see the list website at
https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A0=archives-nra
|