Inheriting the Records Management Challenges of Historic Organizations

Abstract

Presentation given at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Archives Conference (MARAC) 2017 Fall Meeting in Buffalo, NY. The Music Library Association Archives are housed at Special Collections in Performing Arts at the University of Maryland, College Park. This historic collection of manuscripts, oral histories, publications, and e-records documents MLA's official activities from its founding in 1931 to the present. At approximately 300 linear feet and growing, the collection has posed great challenges to MLA officers, the repository curator, and student workers. Examples include multiple reappraisal initiatives, ongoing records transfers, backlog, arrangement assessments, deaccessions, multiple repositories over time, changes in dedicated staff, and finding aid generation dependent upon evolving university practices.