“Miscellaneous documents” may, technically, be true but leaves the researcher with almost nothing to search for. Same with folder titles such as “Old papers”, “General files”, or “Various correspondence”. A good folder title should convey the identity of the records without requiring a user to open a folder and rummage through its contents.
The title should be constructed by analyzing the contents, not by examining the current folder label. Review the contents of a folder, identifying its subject matter or main activity, its types of records, people or organizations, and date range. An example: if a folder contains copies of invoices, price estimates, and notes about payment for a particular project for a single building, a title like “Community hall renovation financial records, 2020 to 2021” may be more helpful than “Renovation”. This title clarifies that the folder is different from “Renovation” folders that may include a set of plans, photographs, or letters of correspondence for the same project.
Keep folder titles factual; don’t add information or descriptions unless the contents support them. A folder containing letters that describe a disagreement shouldn’t be titled “Legal dispute” without supporting evidence. Instead, a better title may be “Correspondence concerning property access”; neutral titles that convey useful information without making an unsupported judgment can be helpful. Uncertain dates or names may be written with the phrase “ca” or written in an inventory note.
Consistency is very important in a folder inventory. Decide a consistent spelling for personal and organizational names, date ranges, abbreviations, and document types, and stick with those choices throughout the inventory. Avoid a situation where different researchers title their folders with the same content in three different ways as “Photos”, “Photographs” and “Pictures”, as a good folder inventory should make it easy to locate related folders and search the inventory as a document or spreadsheet.
To develop skills, try working with five folder titles from an existing inventory of records. Consider how you might rewrite these five weak titles and prepare three different options for each: one title describing the contents of a folder by its subject matter, one describing it by the activity involved, one describing it by the type of records in it. Think about how each alternative title conveys information about the source and the relationship of a single folder to its larger grouping. “Smith project” can become “Smith residence design correspondence, 2019”; “Receipts” might be better titled “Workshop supply receipts, January to June 2022”. Note your decision for each folder’s revised title along with its call number and location number in the inventory.
A folder title should be short enough to scan quickly but detailed enough to help locate and retrieve records. To try this, cover the folder contents and imagine what you would expect to see based on the title alone. If a folder title could describe records from several different sources or groups of folders, change the title. A folder title should describe a group of records that can be uniquely identified by the folder title, the date range of the records in the folder, and the location of the folder.