Balancing Boutique-Level Quality and Large-Scale Production: The Impact of “More Product, Less Process” on Digitization in Archives and Special Collections

Abstract

Introduction

Few writings within the realms of archives and special collections have reverberated throughout the field to the degree of Mark A. Greene and Dennis Meissner’s 2005 article “More Product, Less Process: Revamping Traditional Archival Processing.”¹ Its clarion call to shift archival arrangement and description away from time-consuming, detailed processes toward rapid, minimalist strategies was met with both cheers and groans that continue unabated. In a sign of its ubiquity, the approach advocated by Greene and Meissner is now simply referred to as “MPLP,” and its implementation is the subject of ongoing discussion in numerous venues, including professional journals, conference . . .