Sub-Series III: Special Projects CMS Correspondence,, 1977-1982.
Dates
- 1977-1982.
Scope and Contents
Special Projects CMS Correspondence includes project-related correspondence answered through use of the Correspondence Management System (CMS), along with associated materials. (See Appendix B for further information about CMS as it related to HAW's correspondence files, including special projects.) The scope of the sub-series encompasses both project and issue-oriented correspondence as found in Special Projects Departmental Correspondence. The full range of housing, educational, engineering, health, economic development, and other projects are included. The complicating feature of this sub-series, typical of the CMS files generally, is its arrangement, discussed below.
Language of Materials
Undetermined .
Physical Description
(48 cubic feet)
Arrangement
Special Projects CMS Correspondence retains the original order by sequential CMS Document Number (see Appendix B). The original folders each held only one piece of CMS-coded correspondence, with its associated documents. Because this resulted in the bulk of the folders holding a very few sheets of paper, multiple matters were placed in one folder during processing. The original sequence by CMS Document Number was retained. The folder description indicates the range of CMS Document Numbers contained in the folder. Where extensive documentation was present for a single CMS Document Number, this matter was placed in its own folder.
There are at least two significant implications for researchers of the arrangement by CMS Document Number. First, because a project may have involved multiple pieces of correspondence sent by HAW over time, material related to a particular project tends not to be concentrated in one folder, but spread across many folders (and boxes). Second, the folder description includes only the CMS Document Number so that alone is not indicative of which projects or department/agency matters are represented in the folder. See Index Terms below for approaches, albeit limited, available to researchers to work with this sub-series.
Dates on the container list are from the Year position in the CMS Document Number, not from the documents in the folder. Containers 295 - 297 include those files with legal size documents that were separated from the rest of the sub-series.
Appraisal and Discard Information
Following the standard approach for the project, annual reports, government publications, and other such documents with minimal or no other contextual material, and which would be more accessible if cataloged individually, were removed and sent to a Special Collections and University Archives bibliographer for disposition. Otherwise, the bulk of the project files was retained; discards were limited to those files with lean, non-substantive content.
General
Index Terms
Short of skimming through every folder in the sub-series, there are two approaches available to a researcher for gaining an indication of folder content.
First, the researcher can refer to the index terms. A key index term used for all folders was department/agency acronym (e.g., HUD, HEW). The acronym used was based on the documents in the folder, typically the department references on the CMS Work Order. For folders containing multiple CMS pieces, the department/agency for each was indexed. Similar to the Special Projects Departmental Correspondence sub-series, a researcher can seek specific projects or themes through this department/agency element.
Many, perhaps most, of the folders contain limited material and indexing is generally limited in these instances to the department/agency. Folders with more extensive project documentation are often indexed further, including town, company, university, program, etc. These terms were applied within the time constraints of processing and by no means do they reflect the entire contents of a folder.
A second approach available to a researcher is to refer to the CMS Computer Output Microfilm (COM). Using the microfilm sorted by "Type of Document" (an alternate name used on some of the microfilm reels for this sort was "Document Report"), a researcher can go to the entries under Type "Project" and review the correspondence addressees to identify potentially relevant items. The CMS Document Number for those items can then be readily found in the container list.
Part of the New Brunswick Special Collections Repository