“Pūpūkāhi i Holomua”— Unite in Order to Progress

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“Due to the broad impact of accessioning across an institution, all archivists and archives administrators will benefit from an increased understanding and appreciation of accessioning.” ¹

Archival accessioning has expanded from the act of creating a single record to a more comprehensive suite of duties that provide pathways to access, inform future stewardship decisions, and promote sustained resource commitment for the care of archival materials. In conference programming, professional scholarship, and even in the allocation of professional position titles, the scope of accessioning continues to expand and diversify. Effective accessioning enables foundational description, stabilization, and relationship-building that is

ABSTRACT

The Medical Center Archives of NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medicine (MCA) was established in 1972 as the repository for what is now NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital and Cornell University's medical college. Since its inception, MCA has stewarded the records and personal papers of a large medical center through the labor of a small staff and limited resources, leading to accessioning policies and procedures that merited modernization and clarity. MCA staff have spent the last several years evaluating accessioning practices throughout the archival lifecycle, identifying key areas for improvement, and implementing clear workflows and documentation to improve efficiency and establish transparency. This case study discusses tools, resources, and methodologies utilized at MCA to implement accessioning best practices, scaled to the realities of our repository. Through incremental yet strategic changes, MCA clarified staff roles and labor, refined collection development practices, and created new internal workflows that incorporate born-digital and digitized material. A new accessioning manual serves as a tool for ongoing evaluation of our evolving practices and challenges within our medical archives context, particularly when serving as ethical stewards of historical medical records while still aiming for an access-driven approach. Strategies and methodologies are described to promote emulation in other repositories with a smaller staff or limited resources.

ABSTRACT

Large archival institutions have contended with the challenges presented by born-digital materials for much longer than smaller institutions, with the latter only recently beginning their own attempts to manage these items. This case study details the process of starting a born-digital archival accessioning program and iteratively designing workflows scalable for a small institution. We review our approach to acquiring storage space and assessing our existing born-digital holdings and needs, lay out our initial accessioning workflow, discuss our processes of documentation and iteration, and reflect on tensions with archival education and best practices. By sharing this case study, we aim to outline a practical approach to initiating a born-digital archiving program using robust and extensible accessioning practices. Further, we emphasize that a focus on iteration and a willingness to weigh best practices against contextual limitations can provide a crucial path forward for under-resourced institutions struggling to wrangle born-digital records.

ABSTRACT

Over the last few years, a new approach to collecting born-digital university archives content in Special Collections and Archives at UC San Diego Library has evolved as archivists incorporate flexible and forward-thinking accessioning practices. In the early 2000s, breaks in professional library staffing, the rise of digital records output, and a dramatic increase in the size and scope of the campus all contributed to significant gaps in the university archives. Archivists knew they had to rectify workflows and fill years-long gaps in the collections. The archivist and digital archivist now proactively collect born-digital records and publications by engaging directly with creators, using innovative techniques to capture files. This includes comprehensive planning, troubleshooting, and processing while accessioning. The authors present a scoped literature review and some examples of accessioning digital university records and publications that led to public access.

THE AMERICAN ARCHIVIST EDITORIAL BOARD

Editor

Amy Cooper Cary (2020–2026) Marquette University

Reviews Editors

Rose Buchanan (2025–2029) National Archives and Records Administration
Stephanie Luke (2025–2029) University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign

Editorial Board

Natalia Fernández (2023–2027) Oregon State University
Shirley Franco (2022–2026) University of Brasília
Amanda Greenwood (2024–2026) Claude Moore Health Sciences Library, University of Virginia
Rebecca Hankins (2023–2027) Texas A&M University
James Lowry (2024–2028) Queens College, City University of New York
María Matienzo (2021–2025) University of California, Berkeley
Sammie Morris (2024–2028) University of Oregon
Marlee Newman (2021–2025) Archival Consultant

Raise Your Voice

“Pūpūkāhi i Holomua”— Unite in Order to Progress

Accessioning: The Always-Already Function of Archival Practice

Aspirational but Realistic: Reimagining Accessioning Workflows in a Medical Archives

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Building Capacity for Born-Digital Archives Through Accessioning Workflows at the Friends Historical Library

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Ctrl+Alt+Archive: Navigating Born-Digital University Records and Publications

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More Than a Project: Case Studies on the Practice of Retrospective Accessioning

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An Individual Approach: A Case Study on Oral History Accessioning

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Down Syndrome in the Archives: Addressing Archival Description of Legacy Records Documenting Disability Histories

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The Landscape of Community Archives in Poland and Its Contextual Environment

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The Stories We Can Tell: Using Digital Primary Sources in the Archival Studies Classroom

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“Where Do I Begin?”: An MPLP Approach to the Collection Survey

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Time Flies but the Literature Grows: Timely Reviews for a Fast-Paced Field

Alone in the Stacks: Succeeding as a Solo Archivist

Teaching Primary Source Research Skills to 21st-Century Learners

A Green New Deal for Archives

Archeion, Volumes 122–124

The Art of Ectoplasm: Encounters with Winnipeg's Ghost Photographs

Another Throat: Twenty-First-Century Black US Persona Poetry & the Archive

Front Matter

THE AMERICAN ARCHIVIST EDITORIAL BOARD

Front Matter

“Pūpūkāhi i Holomua”— Unite in Order to Progress

“Where Do I Begin?”: An MPLP Approach to the Collection Survey

Aspirational but Realistic: Reimagining Accessioning Workflows in a Medical Archives

A Green New Deal for Archives

Academic Archivists and the SAA, 1938-1979: From Arcana Siwash to the C&U PAG

Front Matter (Front Cover, Masthead, Table of Contents, From the Editor)

MicroMARC:amc: A Case Study in the Development of an Automated System

Front Matter (Front Cover, Masthead, Table of Contents, From the Editor)

Professional Archival Training