The biggest thing is to keep your stuff away from water, mice, mold, mildew, and other elements that cause damage. We have had to reject collections/portions of collections in the past because they were too damaged to be safe - both for the archivists' health and the other materials in the repository. In one instance, birds had nested in some boxes that were stored outdoors on the donor's porch. If any of your items are damaged, keep them separate from the rest of the collection and identify it to the archivist - they may want to perform some mitigation before bringing it into their space.
But assuming your stuff is in decent shape physically, the kindest thing to do is have some form of organization. A lot of times, we receive boxes of loose papers and have to figure out everything for ourselves - but when things are in some kind of order, it makes our lives easier and gives us (and potentially future researchers) some information about how the donor(s) used and/or conceptualized their records. You're going above and beyond by taking the time to folder and label, to say nothing of notes!
Since you're doing folders and labels before sending in your papers, it would be ideal for the folders to be archival-quality and the labels to be written in pencil rather than ink, but as long as you don't use super-bleedy pens it should be completely fine. Archival folders are more expensive than ordinary ones especially if you're not ordering in bulk, so definitely don't feel obligated to track those down! Archivists label folders in pencil for a few reasons: we do everything with pencils to avoid getting permanent marks on materials by accident, pencil lead is more stable/inert than ink, and we can change or update a folder's label later if needed.
Some places will put literally everything into archival-quality folders, and some will not. My own institution only replaces non-archival folders when they're too beat-up to adequately contain or protect the stuff inside of them, or when the folder shows signs of damaging the materials (color transfer or general paper deterioration), or when the labeling is somehow not up to snuff (often, when the label is wrong/insufficient and there's not enough room to correct or amend it on the folder), though each individual processor has their own personal standards - I err toward replacing non-archival folders.
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Date: 2013-07-18 12:12 am (UTC)But assuming your stuff is in decent shape physically, the kindest thing to do is have some form of organization. A lot of times, we receive boxes of loose papers and have to figure out everything for ourselves - but when things are in some kind of order, it makes our lives easier and gives us (and potentially future researchers) some information about how the donor(s) used and/or conceptualized their records. You're going above and beyond by taking the time to folder and label, to say nothing of notes!
Since you're doing folders and labels before sending in your papers, it would be ideal for the folders to be archival-quality and the labels to be written in pencil rather than ink, but as long as you don't use super-bleedy pens it should be completely fine. Archival folders are more expensive than ordinary ones especially if you're not ordering in bulk, so definitely don't feel obligated to track those down! Archivists label folders in pencil for a few reasons: we do everything with pencils to avoid getting permanent marks on materials by accident, pencil lead is more stable/inert than ink, and we can change or update a folder's label later if needed.
Some places will put literally everything into archival-quality folders, and some will not. My own institution only replaces non-archival folders when they're too beat-up to adequately contain or protect the stuff inside of them, or when the folder shows signs of damaging the materials (color transfer or general paper deterioration), or when the labeling is somehow not up to snuff (often, when the label is wrong/insufficient and there's not enough room to correct or amend it on the folder), though each individual processor has their own personal standards - I err toward replacing non-archival folders.