Book Reviews

RBM: A Journal of Rare Books, Manuscripts, and Cultural Heritage reviews books, reports, new periodicals, databases, websites, blogs, and other electronic resources, as well as exhibition, book, and auction catalogs pertaining directly and indirectly to the fields of rare book librarianship, manuscripts curatorship, archives management, and special collections administration. Publishers, librarians, and archivists are asked to send appropriate publications for review or notice to the Reviews Editor.

It may not be possible for all books received to be reviewed in RBM, but the reviews appearing in the print journal are supplemented by a larger number of reviews published digitally on the RBM digital platform at https://rbm.acrl.org/index.php/rbm/pages/view/reviews. Books or publication announcements should be sent to the Reviews Editor: John Henry Adams, j.adams@missouri.edu, Research and Instruction Librarian, University of Missouri, Columbia MO, 65201.

Audra Eagle Yun, editor. Archival Accessioning. Chicago, Illinois: Society of American Archivists, 2021. Paperback, 170p. $55. (ISBN: 978-1-945246-56-2).

Audra Eagle Yun’s Archival Accessioning is an excellent introductory text for any archival practitioner looking to build an accessioning program or understand the distinction between accessioning and processing. Yun fills a notable gap in the literature by elevating the labor behind accessioning work and providing clear guidance on what accessioning entails. The work is divided into two parts: part 1 outlines the history, principles, and labor aspects of archival accessioning; the second section comprises case studies that apply these workflows to a variety of institutional types and material formats.

The first part provides a detailed overview of accessioning practices, from brief entries in logbooks to current emerging practices. This section excels at demonstrating how accessioning has always existed, although it has been on the sidelines of archival praxis and discussion rather than a core practice in an archives program. It distinguishes accessioning as its own collection management function and centers it as vital to an extensible processing program. Yun then proceeds to detail each stage of accessioning a collection, from pre-custodial interventions to provision of minimal access points. Yun also details the range of functions that a well-rounded accessioning program can contribute to, from broader collections assessments to reappraisal and deaccessioning work.

Part 2 is composed of a series of case studies from several practitioners that demonstrate how accessioning practices may differ across institution types, material formats, and different contexts such as deposits, retrospective accessions, and additions to existing collections. Far from being repetitive, these case studies capture the complexity of this labor and are necessary for understanding the practical application of accessioning practices. These case studies show how to approach a variety of collection types, including government records, institutional records, and personal papers, as well as formats including digital and audiovisual materials. These brief case studies complement the archival theory in part 1 by helping readers understand the extensibility and flexibility of accessioning principles.

Yun’s book places accessioning within its broader contribution to an archives program, demonstrating its importance in praxis. Accessioning encompasses a broad range of activities to support the preservation of and access to newly received materials. Minimal and extensible practices are commonly practiced as a way to cope with the sheer volume of backlog and new acquisitions, and this work demonstrates how accessioning facilitates overall extensible workflows by creating good-enough minimal access points to the use of underprocessed and unprocessed materials. This is vital to the ecosystem of a repository where full processing is impossible for all collections due to the limited availability of labor and other resources, requiring that archivists provide access to unprocessed collections to prevent large, inaccessible backlogs. Archival accessioning is core to building a successful extensible processing program. Furthermore, accessioning practices augment other collection maintenance activities, such as reappraisal, retroactive accessioning, and deaccessioning. By providing an overview of how accessioning is core to various collection maintenance activities, Yun and the other contributors clearly elevate this previously underrecognized aspect of archival labor.

Archival Accessioning begins to fill a void in the professional literature around accessioning as praxis. Although it illustrates how principles of accessioning have been covered in archival literature, it also shows how it has remained undertheorized. Accessioning has remained on the periphery of archival theory, mentioned as an important collection management function within larger works; however, very little work has been published specifically dedicated to it. This work has further emerged at a time when job advertisements specifically geared toward accessioning are increasingly being advertised, demonstrating an industry-wide emphasis on its importance. The creation of these positions and the lack of focus on accessioning in archival literature makes the need for standards and best practices on archival accessioning practices clear. This book is a necessary start toward filling that gap. As an introductory text, it was published at a particularly opportune time in 2021 because a multiyear grant for a National Best Practices for Archival Accessioning Working Group (of which Audra Eagle Yun is a member) was funded by the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) the following year specifically to create more in-depth standards. Within this context, this book will continue to serve as a concise overview of accessioning practices and case studies to be used in conjunction with these emerging best practices.

Archival Accessioning’s chief strengths are its approachable and straightforward writing. The overview of accessioning in archival literature, introduction to accessioning workflows, and case studies all provide an easily understandable and applicable guide to accessioning work. The initial overview of accessioning’s place in library and archival literature provides important context to how these principles have existed on the periphery of the literature for over a century, acknowledged as important but not emphasized, while also demonstrating its emergence as a focus of extensible workflows. The discussion of archival principles clearly outlines an accessioning workflow and successfully articulates the many components necessary toward successfully intaking, establishing control, and providing baseline access to newly acquired collections. The second chapter on “establishing an accessioning program” is especially useful in advocating for the importance of accessioning labor and is a clear, concise tool for establishing local workflows. The case studies in part 2 expand on this chapter by providing guidance on the practical application of these principles. Because an overview of broad principles can feel abstract and difficult to visualize, these case studies are useful in better understanding how accessioning principles can be successfully applied in a variety of institutional and materials contexts.

Although chapter 4’s focus on reappraisal and deaccessioning may seem outside the scope of a work on archival accessioning, its inclusion reinforces how these activities are connected to an accessioning archivist’s role in providing baseline intellectual and physical control of collections material. This chapter shows how accessioning’s core functions of baseline control, documentation, and access are embedded throughout a collection management program, as well as how an accessioning archivist is part of the overall health of a collection development program beyond the initial intake of new materials.

While this volume is compact and highly approachable, it leaves the reader wanting more detail on accessioning best practices and how accessioning differs across institutional types. The chapters on accessioning institutional records and governmental records are very short in contrast to the more detailed, practical chapters. Researchers would benefit from having a more robust, practical discussion about managing government and institutional records. The volume would also benefit from more robust exercises and sample tools. Although the case study section is listed as “perspectives and exercises,” it is lacking in discussion questions or problems for readers to work through themselves and, although these chapters provide good, thoughtful case studies, the exercises themselves are lacking. The idea of “exercises” gives the reader the impression of reading more of a workbook, with training text and practical problem sets to work through at the end of each chapter. In addition, this volume would benefit from additional sample forms and tools. The sample checklist and worksheet in chapter 8 are useful but somewhat out of place in that they are the only appendixes or tools in the volume. If each case study included similar work samples, or if the entire volume itself contained an “accessioning toolkit” appendix, it would increase the ability of practitioners to adapt accessioning practices based on this volume’s guidance.

However, these minor limitations do not detract from this work’s value and importance. Yun has assembled an incredibly ambitious volume, which provides a simultaneously high-level and detailed overview of different aspects of accessioning, depending on the chapter. No single, small volume could possibly tackle the complete, broad umbrella of accessioning practices across all institutions, formats, or acquisition types. This is especially true because best practices for accessioning are still under development: the National Best Practices for Archival Accessioning Working Group’s final best practices are forthcoming in Fall 2024.

Archival Accessioning is a well thought-out and planned volume intended to help archivists create their own accessioning workflows. For an introductory volume establishing the importance of accessioning as core to archival workflows, this book is necessary for learning about accessioning practices, how they differ from archival processing, and where accessioning fits within an overall collection management program. While brief, this book does a great job providing readers with a variety of examples to capture the complexity and variability of accessioning practices suited to a variety of institutional types and format considerations. It is suitable both for writing local workflows and as a launch point for training technical services staff on the principles and steps required to properly ingest new and retroactive acquisitions. — Alexandra (Lexy) deGraffenreid, Eberly Family Special Collections Library, Pennsylvania State University