So 95 records into Mr. Arnold's collection, I noticed some problems with descriptive fields that might extend through a serious portion of the records I've done so far. The first: I noticed when looking at the collection record out of curiosity, the writer of the letters was listed as an 'Ernest Hebert Arnold'; however, in every single description I'd written and ditto'ed, he was 'Ernest Hubert Arnold'. What a potential mess! But I remembered when starting all of this that Lindsey had told me the existing collection records had been done by employees who were not trained archivists, and could prove sloppy on occasion.
Lindsey said the best thing to do would be to pull the donor file for the collection and see what the original forms filled out by the donor said. The donor files contain all the original documentation for the act of donation and accession, as well as any notes or informational materials provided by the donors to describe the collection (but were obviously not pieces we would archive).
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