Separations Record

The final piece of documentation that is created and submitted to the Assistant Director for Collections Management is a completed separations record. This separations record describes—at a high level—what kind of material will be separated, why it is being separated, and how the separated material will be disposed of.

A blank template document can be downloaded by clicking on this (public) link.

It is important for the processor to note the following:

• When describing digital separations, processors can describe either the separations as the volume of digital content separated or number of pieces of removable media separated. The former is most appropriate for digital transfers of content, while the latter is most useful for pieces of removable media that were separated in their entirety. 

• If a donor has requested digital material be returned, make sure to return all pieces of removable media. For digital or hybrid processing projects that lack physical removable media (e.g., material originating from Google Drive transfers), this material can typically be deleted without returning the content to the donor. This is because we only create a copy of the original content when accessioning the content - meaning that the donor should, in theory, still have the original content. 

  • If there are any concerns, however, contact the Archivist for Digital Curation.

• Make sure to communicate the amount of separated material to the Archivist for Digital Curation at the project’s conclusion so that this information can be counted in our 6-month processing statistics. The easiest way to do this is via adding a comment directly to the Trello card of the specified processing project.