Grants & Awards: DHP: Grant Application Booklet:

Processing Rates

There are a number of tools that can be used to determine an appropriate processing rate.   Full processing includes flat‑filing, cleaning, arrangement, description/cataloging, foldering, and boxing.

• The Federal Rate for personal papers and manuscripts is 2.5 cubic feet per week
• The State Archive’s general guidelines are:
• Completely unorganized collection -- 2.5 cubic feet per week
• Complicated series such as correspondence or subject files -- 5 cubic feet per week
• Fairly straightforward series that may need some work such as case or job files, business records -- 10 cubic feet per week
• Well-organized series consisting primarily of volumes or voluminous series with uniform or repetitive information (such as invoices) -- 15 cubic feet per week.
• The following table based on Karen T. and Thomas E. Lynch’s “Rates of Processing Manuscripts and Archives,” (The Midwestern Archivist, 7:1, 1982).

   

Type and Date of Record	Processing time per cubic feet	Feet per week
Pre‑1800 personal papers	9 days	.5
Pre‑1900 personal papers	5 ½ days	1
Post‑1900 personal papers	3 ½ days	1.43
Pre‑1800 state government	4 1/4 days	1.18
Pre‑1900 state government	2 3/4 days	1.8
Post‑1900 state government	1.1 days	4.5
Pre‑1800 business	4 1/4 days	1.18
Pre‑1900 business	2 3/4 days	1.8
Post‑1900 business	1 1/4 days	4
Pre‑1800 local government	7 days	.71
Pre‑1900 local government	4 ½ days	1.11
Post‑1900 local government	2 1/4 days	2.2

 

Whichever method you choose, be sure to provide justification and rational based on the records themselves (their current arrangement and their content).