help ! assigned archivist duties
hello! i hope this is alright to post here. i graduated a few years ago with my degree in art history, after which i did a brief 6-month internship as a "collections manager" for a very small, very unorthodox institution. after that internship ended, i secured a position at my current place of work as a general administrative assistant (still in the arts).
at the beginning of this year, i was told they wanted to utilize my experience with collections management and have me pick up work on their archives (DISCLAIMER: i know collections management & archives are not the same!). i want to say in 2022-2023, they previously had someone begin processing the archives, describing things at the box/folder/item level. notably, they did not assign any accession numbers. this information is being held in a spreadsheet.
unfortunately, because of how small this organization is, they don't have the resources to hire a full-time professional archivist, which is why they're coming to me. they only want me working on this about one day a week. i've told them they would first benefit from an archivist consultation to provide an assessment of the archives and give some insight on how to move forward. i know sometimes consults offer basic staff training, too. i've also mentioned the need for policies (collection, donation, access/use, etc.) and a mission statement.
if it matters, the org is pretty young (talking <30 years old), and their primary concern is making clear the history of who they are and what they've done. duh. i'm hoping to make it accessible/navigable, since it seems like none of the staff actually know how to use what they currently have (i think all the staff has turned over from the initial survey). recommendations for management systems that would be intuitive and easy to use would be great.
is there anything else i should tell them? anything i should be aware of? any suggested reading material or resources? anything else i can do to prepare in the meantime? also if you guys have any questions, i can try my best to provide additional information. pls i'm a little embarrassed to be posting this but thank u