Finding an Archival Home: 
Understanding the Accessioning Process

Churches, both active and engaged in the legacy process, may find themselves needing to partner with external repositories to properly steward their important historical records.

The process of working with repositories to donate materials can be surprisingly complex and time intensive for both the donor and repository. Every archive, library, and museum has their own unique accessioning workflow and rules for collecting, so when the stewards of church records understand the overall process, they are able to set realistic expectations when working with both repositories and church administrators.

This virtual workshop with the CLA's archivists, Zachary Bodnar and Billy McCarthy, explored the accessioning process from start to finish with an eye towards setting expectations for donors and best practices to follow when working with external repositories. Zachary and Billy will also discussed the gift agreement, a document that legally transfers physical ownership; explored how to talk about copyright and other legal rights with a repository; and offered a peak behind the curtain at the CLA’s accessioning procedures.

This program was part of our Church Stewardship Initiative (CSI). Find the videos of past workshops and free resources on our CSI webpage.

SPEAKER BIOS

Zachary Bodnar graduated with a Masters of Library and Information Science from Simmons University, with a concentration in archives management, in 2018. Prior to his work at the CLA, Zachary worked at the Bellamy-Ferriday House and Garden archive, the Vassar College Special Collections, the Harvard Law School Library, and the Harvard Botany Libraries. Zachary joined the CLA as an Archives Assistant in 2017, helping to prepare materials for digitization through the New England’s Hidden Histories program. In 2018, he took on the title of Archivist. His professional interests include metadata collection and management, digital archiving, audio/visual preservation, and archives management.

Billy McCarthy graduated with a Masters of Library and Information Science (MLIS) at Simmons University with a concentration in Archival Management. He started working at the CLA through a graduate internship and was hired full-time as an Archivist in 2018. Billy is the Head of Reader Services, helping the CLA’s visitors with reference requests and facilitating in-person research. Billy also serves as the collection manager for the archives, working with CLA’s offsite vendor to protect and maintain the organization’s archival records. Some of his professional interests include increasing access, collection management, processing of complex materials, and facilitating research.