Scope: Guidelines on creating folder titles, for use of all archival processors.

Contact:  Freddy Loew 

Unit: ATS/RMC

Date last updated: March 2025

Date of next review: March 2026

Contents:

Formulating the Collection Title According to DACS

(page originally created in RMC Confluence by Margaret Nichols)

For the full story, see DACS 2.3: http://www2.archivists.org/standards/DACS/part_I/chapter_2/3_title

In general, use these elements to formulate the title:

creator’s name + nature of the materials (papers, records, collection, ephemera, etc.)

If a formal title is present on the material, use that. The rules below are for a devised title (a title that the archivist devises).

Creator’s name: use the form of name the creator is known by.

Individuals

  • If 1-3 people are the creator(s), record all their names in the title.
  • If 4 or more people are the creators, record the name of the person whose material predominates.

Families

  • If the family that created the materials, in the context of family relations, shares a common surname, record the surname followed by "family": e.g. Harvey family papers.
  • If the individuals who created the materials, in the context of family relations, don't share a common surname, record all their names followed by "family": e.g. Paul Hibbet Clyde and Mary Kestler family papers.
  • If two or three families created the materials or are mainly responsible for them, record all the family names followed by "families": e.g. Short, Harrison, and Symmes families papers
  • If more than three families created the materials, record only the name of the family whose material predominates.

Corporate bodies (such as an organization or government body)

  • If more than one corporate body is the creator, mention only one in the title.
  • If the name of the corporate body has changed, used the latest form of name in the title.

Nature of the materials

  • If the collection consists of 3 or more forms of material and the creator is an organization or government body, use “records” for the nature of the materials.
    • Example: Carrier Corporation records
  • If the collection consists of 3 or more forms of material and the creator is an individual person or a family, use “papers” for the nature of the materials.
    • Example: Taylor family papers
  • If the collection is an intentionally assembled one, use “collection” for the nature of the materials.
    • Example: Jon Savage punk music collection
  • If the collection consists of just one or two forms of material, use those, listed in order of predominance.
    • Example: William Gedney photographs and writings

Optionally: if the collection consists of one or two main forms of material, but additional forms are also present, you may mention the predominant forms of material followed by “and other material.” Specify what the additional forms are in the collection summary (Scope and Content note, MARC 520).

Example: James M. Woodbury diary, letters, and other material


Optionally: you may include in the title a brief phrase on the topic of the collection.

Example: Catherine Clarke civil rights collection


  • If the subject of the collection is a person, and the repository is the collector (so no creator name is recorded in the title), phrase the title so as to make it clear that the subject of the collection is not the collector.
    • Example: Collection on Isadora Duncan
    • not Isadora Duncan collection (because she is not the collector)


Suggestion: Don’t go back and retroactively change the titles of existing collections unless they’re actively misleading. Many collections were processed before DACS came out in 2004, and there isn't time to change all their titles.

Creating folder titles 

 One of the challenges inherent in archival processing is determining the level of description a set of archival records needs. Generally, if we are processing something that is because we want a very good folder-level inventory and description of the contents, as well as a higher-level description of the scope of the papers or records. Researchers benefit when archivists can provide subject description at the folder level, especially in a run of chronological or even alphabetical correspondence.

If the majority of folders have titles supplied by the donor, retain those titles (and say so in the Processing note). Add your own additions to donor titles, or pertinent information, in brackets 

 Determine whether most donor-supplied titles (if any) are accurate and informative. 

  • If yes, use donor headings (but use sentence case for the guide)
  • If no, create titles and make a note in the Processing Notes that the titles were mainly supplied by the Processing Archivist.

 Descriptions should begin with a capital letter and follow sentence-case capitalization rules, even though donor's headings may be punctuated differently. 

  • Examples of file unit headings 
  • Book of the month club
  • New York Times: letter to Sunday editor Max Frankel

 Keep folder titles simple. They should not contain extensive information about formats already provided in the scope and content note. In other words, if the scope and content note states that most folders in an "Engagements" series contain correspondence, notes, programs, clippings, etc., it is unnecessary to repeat the listing of genres in each folder title. However, you may point out items that fall outside the scope of listed materials for that group (e.g., "includes diary"). 

 You WILL want to point out notable content in folders. If a folder has been titled "Correspondence 1902" by the donor, and you find it contains love letters, say so in the folder title. If a folder is primarily about a trip to California, and also contains commentary on the suffrage battle there, say so. (see above re: description) 


If a diary is entirely about a person's health and the weather, but one day also details the death of President Kennedy, you can note the entry about JFK at the folder level, and more generally describe the quotidian nature of the diary in the Scope and Content. 

Always capitalize the first word in each folder title. 

 Labeling Folders with Descriptive headings 

 In the upper left corner of a legal-sized folder tab, write the Collection # . Once the collection is completely processed and ready to be numbered, the file unit number (consisting of the container number and the folder number) will be written on the far right.  

The basic format for folder labeling is: 

Left - Collection Number 

Center - Title, followed by date 

Right - Box Number (dash) Folder Number  


#29-1-119           Biography - News Clippings,             1959-1975                             1-3 


#4254               Correspondence, circa 1950-1959                              45-10 

Abbreviations/Acronyms and other info  

 Avoid using most abbreviations. Exceptions include: in. for inches and cm for centimeters. However, well-known acronyms (or those frequently-appearing in the collection) for names of organizations or legislation may be used once they have been written out completely the first time they appear on each page / section, followed directly by their acronym: e.g., National Organization for Women (NOW), State University of New York (SUNY), or Women’s Educational Equity Act (WEEA). State names should be spelled out, as should abbreviations for formats (even those that are in common use: use "handwritten" for ms., "typescript" for ts., "carbon copy" for cc., etc.) 

"Includes" or "contains"  

In folder descriptions, use "contains" for an inclusive list, and "includes" to point out highlights.