1 - Most Accessible: No appointment, membership, or card needed; readily accessible to public, can be removed from collection and viewed easily; locally housed in NYC; digitized and public domain.
2 - Mostly Accessible: Needs membership or registration, can be removed from collection, no appointment or prior communication needed, digitized.
3 - Moderately Accessible: Needs membership or registration, needs appointment or prior communication, can be removed from collection, possibly or partially digitized.
4 - Less Accessible: Needs membership or registration, needs appointment or prior communication, cannot be removed from collection, in fragile condition so limited material handling, not digitized, costs less funds to order scans or prints.
5 - Least Accessible: Closed collection, requires institutional access or special permissions, no access or restricted access: no photos, housed offsite or out of the city / privacy, needs court action like FOIL or FOIA or accepted "official" purpose, no personal handling (only an archivist can touch), personal identifiable information of people still alive has legal retention schedules, or costs money to access.