The Interlochen Video Tape collection initially consisted of roughly 900 tapes housed in 42 boxes of various sizes. There was no organization or categorization to the tapes or boxes and the ony source of information regarding the collection was a binder containing a list of what each box contained.

My first step in processing the collection was to create a master list of all video tapes in the collection, with any information attached to them that could be discovered, including title, date, subject, format, and number of copies. Throughout this process I utlized several resources within the Interlochen Archive and online to identify missing information such as dates, names, or titles for much of the collection. As part of this inventory process, I removed all tapes from the boxes and separated them into three categories: tapes with dates, tapes without dates, and tapes that could be deaccessioned. Of the initial ~1000 tapes I identified 200 that were not of particular use or value to the archival collection and so could be deaccessioned. The main reasons for deaccession were multiple copies of a tape, little or no connection to ICA, and tapes that were from TV or other source not affiliated with ICA (assuming ICA had it's own footage of the event or performance in question). This information was also recorded in the master spreadsheet for the collection. Around 130 tapes remained with no identified dates, and these were placed back into six boxes and are housed in a large cabinet next to the arranged and dated collection.

Once the collection had been whittled down to the tapes to be included in the archive, I began to separate them out into three different groups: tapes associated with Interlochen Arts Camp, tapes associated with the Academy, and tapes that either applied to both Camp and Academy or were affiliated with ICA as a whole. Within these three major groups I identified several subseries based on the existence of large numbers of tapes in a particular category or subject. These tapes were then re-housed in metal file cabinets as this was the most economical source of storage available for the collection. Each tape is also housed in it's own individual case, either a paper case or hard plastic container.

The last step in this process was to create the finding aid for the collection as a whole. This was done using Archivists Toolkit, transferring the important identifying information from the master list for each tape. The finding aid is arranged as the physical collection is, chronologically in three main groups and several subgroups, and alphabetically in a fourth group for the tapes with no dates.