r/Archivists

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

Join us for a free and very brief introduction to digital preservation for beginners, with a focus on how to use DROID and Bagger.

May 28, 2026 03:00 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)

Click here to register.

Our presenter will be Mary Grace Kosta, an archival consultant with many years of experience as a religious archivist. Since January 2022, she has chaired the Archivists of Religious Collections Section Models and Resources Committee. Mary Grace currently chairs the Joint US-Canada AtoM Users Group and serves as a member of the AtoM Foundation Communications Committee, the Association of Canadian Archivists Professional Development Committee, and the NDSA Communications and Publications Working Group. She is a recipient of the Society of American Archivists Sr. M. Claude Lane, OP Memorial Award, and the Archives Association of Ontario James J. Tallman Award.

You don't have to be a member of SAA to attend this presentation, but are encouraged to become a member when you can.

Can't make it? This session will be recorded and available later on our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpWzzChIhR-8O7CrKmiL2rw/videos

To start, I was offered an interview to be an AMIA pathways fellow, but I am concerned about future job opportunities and finances.

I have always loved the the archival field, mostly within preservation and post-production. In college, I majored in media post-production, and much of my experience has involved personal collections, restoration, digitization, and a small amount of film work.

I’m currently at a crossroads between pursuing more generalized post-production roles, such as assistant editing, with the long-term goal of moving toward color or head of post, or going further down the archival path, ideally toward restoration work/managerial in the long run.

I know that almost all industries as a whole are in a downturn right now, and it is hard to give a perfect answer for anyone’s situation. But, for those of you working in archival, restoration, or post-production, if you could go back in time, would you still choose the same path? And do you think there are still opportunities/decent wages to make a living?

This is very silly, but I’ve become obsessed with the trend of people getting “work bags” from LL Bean (the boat totes) with a work related pun on it. For example a lawyer has one that say “allegedly,” a kindergarten teacher has one that says “line leader.”

I want one for archiving but I cannot for the life of me think of a fun embroidery message. Anyone have any ideas? Open to any suggestions!

Currently in a contract role at an R1 as a processor doing item/sub-item processing on 10,000 documents with a team of just 2 people. The work is clearly at least a 2 year project but have been told every 2-3 months (”we aren’t sure there’s enough work…the project might not continue”🤣🤣 magically, it’s continued for the last year at the last moment funding materializes! 🙄🙄🙄🤣). I can’t take it anymore though. Underpaid—making half of what I should be making while leading a team and supervising someone who insists they know more than me despite having far less experience! I have enough experience to be a director yet I am in temporary role yet again! I haven’t totally given up on libraries and archives but this week for the first time in six years in the biz I also applied to various document specialist roles in other industries ( landsmen, title examiner, title researcher, office coordinator/ assistant etc etc) anything with a steady and permanent salary. The industry has given me awesome transferable skills and hopefully something comes of it

Hey, I’m hoping someone here can help with this! Last year, I remember someone telling me about an archive in New York City (or around this area) and so I went to visit their website. Unfortunately I can’t find this in my Internet history any more and I can’t remember who it was who shared this with me. All I remember is this:

The archive was, I think, “secret” as in they intentionally had no listed address on their website and all visits had to be by appointment only. The content of the archive was democracy and justice, or something similar (human rights? resistance?).

It was NOT the Interference Archive. I am already familiar with this one.

Does this sound at all familiar to anyone? I know it’s not a lot to go off of. Hopefully someone knows someone who works here or has visited… I’ve exhausted other options so I’m turning here.

I've been looking at getting an overhead scanner to help me archive books, because I've started to realize that my hobby of digitizing old, rare mystery novels would be less expensive if I didn't destroy the books and could resell them after. (I'm nearly through all the books of E. C. R. Lorac, some of which were really hard to find.) I've seen a lot of comments on this subreddit about CZUR models and the ScanSnap, but what I wanted to know about was the state of their Linux support.

I really try to use Linux where I can because it's gotten to be significantly less of a pain than putting up with Windows (and the multiple desktop support is way easier to use), but this seems like an area where that might fall down. Which of these scanner models is it practical to use in Linux via something like VueScan? I've seen some comments that indicate that there's at least some support, but there's a difference between some support and all the features working, especially stuff like the foot pedal, which would be a real game-changer.

Thanks for any insights you might have!

Hello-I know this is somewhat late in the game but I am feeling somewhat desperate! I am a current junior in undergrad who has been struggling to find things to do this summer which could potentially help my hopeful future career in archives. I have been applying to lots of various museums and archive internships all semester with no luck : ( I have also been reaching out to some smaller local archives and have not heard anything back (honestly a bit confused/disheartened by this) but was wondering if anyone has any advice for potential ways to fill my summer that could be useful and maybe help my resume eek. Or any opportunities anyone knows about for the summer. I am in the Chicago area if this helps for anything specific! I am starting to get pretty stressed and hopeless, so any advice is super appreciated !!

Also apologies if this is not the right place for this post

Is there a service that would digitize/preserve my only copy of the 60+ year old architectural prints of my house. Thanks for your time..

Hi all, I’m a special collections librarian at a regional archive. Our newspaper collection is disorganized right now (as I know many are!) and I’m looking to create a retention policy to help clean things up. We currently collect dozens of physical newspapers but can only afford a handful on microfilm as it stands. As you can imagine, space and preservation concerns are beginning to present themselves. I’m exploring options for getting film copies from peer institutions or building something in-house to digitize some.

My question is:
Do your institutions have retention policies specific to newspapers? How do you determine what you’d like to retain as an artifactual copy and what you’re comfortable discarding after you’ve verified an acceptable surrogate? I’m struggling to find examples online and hoped I could get some guidance here!

Newspapers have been one of my bigger struggles as a new librarian and I would love to chat with anyone also struggling with keeping them organized with limited staffing/resources! Thanks for any advice you have!

If I took a DNA test now and uploaded tons of photos on my account as a way to digitally preserve them , how likely my DNA and my archive would be 100% safe and preserve for the next, say, 50 years?

Forgive me for any mistakes in terminology since English isn't my first language.

I would like to know if anyone here can recommend me a book, a course, a webinar or something that I can easily read/watch on the more practical concerns of archiving.

By that I mean things like storing and handling documents, conditions of storage, archival preservation.

And things like how to "organize" a Fonds from scratch (when material comes into the archive through acquisition) especially when it pertains to appraisal and classification. For me something focusing on personal and private archives would be especially useful.

I'm also interested in reading/watching things on low level restoration of documents (especially paper).

Unfortunately this practical side of archiving wasn't tackled in depth in my classes.

Thank you in advance !

Hello! I have been volunteering at a local archive of mine (and i will be working there this summer!) before starting a masters in archive management this fall. i’m pretty okay at reading cursive, but there are some handwritten historical documents that i am having trouble with reading, and i was wondering if there were any online resources on decoding illegible handwriting, or maybe how some seasoned archivists go about it. thanks for your help!

Hello I am about to graduate with my MLIS and my career goal is to one day work in a film archive like the Disney archive or Lucas film or Laika studios or something like that. Would doing certificate courses specifically in archives or film preservation or anything like that be worth it to boost my resume and help me stand apart? What are your recommendations for certifications or other experience I could get to add to my resume for this career path? Any advice would be helpful!