v. (also re-house)to physically transfer archival resources into new containersTrever 1946b, 398The condition of the older negatives is such that they cannot be made available for reproduction until they are cleaned and rehoused, but prints can be made of pictures taken within the last 20 years.Irwin 1990, 52Large conservation retroconversion projects to rehouse older records present daunting tasks for present and future college archivists.NPS 1990b, R:7Should I rehouse photographic prints and negatives? If the photographic prints are in acid-free or acid-neutral housings, you don’t need to rehouse them, unless the housing is damaged. In all other situations, you need to rehouse photographic materials in acid-free archival sleeves and folders.Ewing 1991, 179Four workers assigned to the Technical Files sorted and rehoused materials by topic and media type for improved access and preservation.Lemmon 1991, 406With little possibility of obtaining acid-free containers, staff members have adapted to the situation and cheerfully say that they will rehouse materials on a regular basis.NARA 1991b, 67Training sessions on holdings maintenance were offered to provide guidance on basic preservation procedures relating to rehousing archival records.West 1992, 55And we have had to deal with the fact that many of our collections are poorly arranged, since it would make little sense to rehouse collections that might be rearranged shortly.Vogt-O’Connor and van der Reyden 1996a, 1Don’t begin to rehouse collections until the containers of materials are placed in their original order as organized by their creator.Hackbart-Dean and Montgomery 1998, 87–88Archivists may be the best persons to handle the removal or separation of foreign objects from collections, including damaging metal fasteners of various types, rubber bands, artifacts such as court evidence (locks of hairs, bullets, and so on), or three-dimensional objects. The archivist can cross-reference and rehouse these materials with advice or assistance from a trained conservator.Ritzenthaler et al. 2006, 139Determine whether to unpack, rebox, or rehouse the incoming photographs. When practicable, leave the photographs in their original containers, folders, and sleeves until they are further processed to avoid losing valuable clues about them. However, rehouse the photographs if the current housing is damaging them or if the incoming containers show signs of mold or insect infestation.Gooden 2007, 53The report suggested that if sufficient manpower and supplies became available Smith might wish to consider removing metal fasteners from the documents in file drawers and rehousing the records in acid-free, buffered folders or envelopes.Darms 2009, 146The only way to slow the rapid deterioration of these items would have been to individually rehouse them, but to do so would have radically altered the form and meaning of the Magic Box.Prom 2010, 156, fn. 40For some, a collection is processed when it has completed a MARC record and an inventory of the boxes made as they arrived. For others, it is processed only when completely weeded, rehoused into acid-free folders, and arranged according to a logical series layout.Ritzenthaler 2010, 247Because few institutions have the resources to undertake thorough holdings maintenance on all collections, it is reasonable for an archivist to make decisions to rehouse and perform other preservation actions based on the above criteria.Buchanan and Richardson 2012, 214Following the collaborative preprocessing, collections are rehoused in archival enclosures, and collections receive both a catalog record for the library OPAC and a finding aid complete with access and historical information.Grimm and Noriega 2013, 104Staff answered questions about preservation supplies, made labeling format suggestions, and later provided proper archival boxes and folders into which the artist rehoused the already well-organized materials, which included extensive files for every mural he had worked on over a thirty-year career.Matusiak and Johnston 2014, 253The goals were to reformat the AGS Library’s large collection of cellulose nitrate photographic negatives, provide access to the collection, safely rehouse it and ensure its proper storage, and provide long-term preservation of its digital representation.AAA 2015For AV materials that meet the above conditions for re-housing, archivists need to consider re-housing AV material during processing as a stabilizing measure. Archivists doing minimal processing are not expected to re-house AV media unless housing is missing, although archivists may always use their judgment as to whether they can afford the time required to re-house media if existing housing is missing, dirty, deteriorating, or unsupportive. Archivists doing full or intermediate level processing should plan to re-house audiovisual material that meets the above criteria as part of their processing work.Fairchild, Inabinett, and Minor 2017, 46Staff at both repositories labored to relabel boxes for consistency and clarity, rehouse collections stored in acidic or worn containers, and wrap oversize volumes in new buffered paper.Note 2019, 31Consider the supplies you’ll need when you rehouse your items into archival-quality enclosures and containers.Joffrion and Cloonan 2020, 115Any labels, brand information, and/or other important metadata should be retained if the film is rehoused.Eagle Yun 2021b, 43A value score can provide enough information for the accessioning archivist to choose to rehouse a collection in a way that reflects the assessed value of the materials.Friedel and Baetz 2022, 16When Archuleta’s collection arrived in the Archives, Baetz rehoused and performed a basic organization of the collection, preparing an initial inventory that Archives staff will eventually use to fully process the collection.Jones and DiPaolo 2023, 211Minimum conservation amounts to removing staples, using document repair tape, and rehousing materials within acid-free and archival containers.Zamon 2024, 45For many twentieth- and twenty-first-century physical materials, there is no need to rehouse these materials in archival boxes and folders because the material is very stable.
Notes
Rehousing usually supports preservation needs and can occur during accessioning, arrangement, or reprocessing.
