Collections Management Toolkit

This toolkit contains the best practices, encoding templates, stylesheets, and procedures used by the Minnesota Historical Society for archival arrangement and description. The kit is designed as a resource for collections management staff as well as for use by other archivists and collection managers.

Last updated: April 27, 2020

Archival Arrangement and Description

Best Practices
- Physical Processing (PDF)
- Catalog Records: MARC Coding and Data Content Guidelines (PDF)
- Finding Aids
  - Detailed Description Guidelines (PDF)
  - EAD Tagging Guidelines (PDF)
  - PDF Standards for Legacy Inventories (PDF)
  - Digitization Methods (HTML)
  - PDF/A Standards for Digital Reproductions (PDF)
- Transcription of Handwritten Documents
  - Transcribing Manuscripts: Rules Worked Out by the Minnesota Historical Society / Adapted in 2004 by Lydia Lucas from the original pamphlet by Grace Lee Nute. St. Paul: Minnesota Historical Society, 1935. (PDF)

EAD Encoding Templates
- EAD XML Template (TXT)
- Excel Templates
  - Detailed Description <dsc>
    - Instructions (PDF)
    - Data Entry Macro-enabled Template (XLTM)
    - EAD Tagging Macro-enabled Template (XLTM)
    - EAD Excel Clean (Visual Basic script for a Word macro) (TXT)
  - Chronology List <chronlist> (XLTX)
  - Digital Archival Object Groups <daogrp> (XLTX)
  - Sheet Music (XLTX)
- Excel Tricks
  - Take Apart Date Formula (XLS)
  - Take Apart String Formula (XLS)

Transformation Stylesheets
- Catalog Records
  - MARC2EAD Instructions (PDF)
  - MARC2EAD Transformation (TXT)
  - MARC2EAD Transformation, NHPRC version (TXT)
    - Each of the two transformation files above also require a MARC conversion utility stylesheet available from the Library of Congress MARC 21 XML Schema standards site
- Finding Aids
  - EAD XML to HTML transformation stylesheet (TXT)

Checklists and Procedures
- Processing Checklist (PDF)
- EAD Proofreading Guide (PDF)
- Scanning to PDF (PDF)
- PDF/A Procedures (PDF)
- Using Word Mail Merge for Labels (PDF)

Projects and Presentations
- Eliminating Archival Backlogs, NHPRC Basic Project Grant
  - Project Proposal (PDF)
  - 1st Interim Report (PDF)
  - 2nd Interim Report (PDF)
  - Final Report (PDF)
  - Making It Happen: Managing Staff Strains (PowerPoint)
- Hubert H. Humphrey Speeches, NHPRC Digitizing Historical Records Grant
  - Hubert H. Humphrey Digitization Project (HTML)
  - Into the Bright Sunshine of Civil Rights: Accessing the Legacy of Hubert H. Humphrey through Digitization (PDF)
  - Project Proposal (PDF)
  - 1st Interim Report (PDF)
  - 2nd Interim Report (PDF)
  - Final Report (PDF)