Express Processing Students Making Access a Priority

Abstract

This paper outlines a new approach used by the University of Houston Libraries to process a major manuscript collection. This method enabled the department to reduce the completion time by twenty-two months in addition to reducing the labor cost from $246.86 to only $8.23 per linear foot.¹ While many archivists using this method employ the term “Minimal Processing” or “The Golden Minimum,” the student processors decided against using these terms because they felt that “minimum” carried a slightly negative connotation. So, they proposed a new one, “Express Processing.” Whatever the term, this method allowed the Special Collections Department at the University of Houston Libraries to provide more primary source material to researchers in one year than in the previous seven years combined.