Quality or Quantity: Can Archivists Apply Minimal Processing to Electronic Records?

by Johnson, Greg

The study is an introduction into the debate of whether or not minimal processing, based upon the recent work by Mark Greene and Dennis Meissner, can be used in the processing of electronic records.

With the recent publication of a “More Product, Less Process” approach by Mark Greene and Dennis Meissner, minimal processing of archival collections has received increased attention in the professional literature. Greene and Meissner posit that a change in archival philosophy toward processing collections at a less precise level will allow archivists to arrange analog collections at a faster pace and help to eliminate their

processing backlog. Through an examination of the literature in the field and a comparison of the analog and electronic records media, I have determined that the

processing of electronic records can be done according to the minimal processing protocols that are being examined for use in traditional archival collections.