r/Archivists

Is there need/want to preserve these documents for record keeping? The ones I have specifically are from the late 90s early 2000s. I hate to throw them away but not sure who would want them for those purposes. Even if it was just scanned in to keep a permanent online file of it. Idk does anyone just not care anyway?

Curious if anyone here has tried to get high res scans of their art or photography books?

Currently have full-frame camera, but wondering which focal length would fit this purpose best? The books I have vary in size from small/medium to very large. I'm not so concerned with the distance/lighting as much as I am just being able to get a sharp image of an entire page.

I keep seeing different results for 50mm, 70mm, 105mm, etc.

I apologize if this is the wrong sub for this type of question but I’m not too sure where to turn.

I was given a collection of boxes from a family member who was a sports agent for many years. He represented many clients over the years but one in particular was a Hall of Fame player. In these boxes is what I would call 99% of every form of document such as email correspondence, contract, sports card production artwork, marketing deals, trademark filings, etc….many original documents as well as copies of the originals. There are thousands of documents spanning around 15 years of representation for that one client all mostly in chronological order.

I really have no way of knowing but I’d imagine this is one of the most complete client/agent collections assembled, pre digitization.

Is this something an archivist would be interested in looking at? Is this something I SHOULD have archived? What would even be an estimated cost for whatever I should have done with this?

I really have very limited info other than some GPTing which even led me to the term ARCHIVIST lol.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

I received a tentative job offer with NARA this morning as a gs-7 archives tech. I’m really excited about the opportunity and getting to work with the records. I was wondering if anyone who’s held this position before has any tips or can tell me what to expect about growing within the Archives? I’m hoping to make this into a lifetime career where I can grow within the archives. Thanks so much!

Hi I have MANY boxes of family photos and documents. A few questions

1. Just curious, would a good first step be to just organize them and categorize them?
   2 As well, I have tried looking into services that do archival for you, but if I have an epson v600 scanner, is it cheaper to do it myself?
2. If not hiring a service, are there individuals that do archive consulting where I can ask questions?

I appreciate it.

I steward a large collection of primarily wool clothing that, for spatial and financial reasons, needs to be hung on racks. The environment is light- and temperature-controlled, but not meaningfully humidity-controlled. Management would prefer to have clothing open and visible on racks, but I have concerns about dust and pests.

I see Gaylord and others offer clear polyethylene storage bags, which would mitigate these concerns while providing visibility, but management is not convinced that archival plastic exists as their previous workplaces would never use it.

Does anyone have experience with these bags, or is there another solution I'm not aware of?

Edited for clarity

So I’m about to start on a major processing project with a very dusty, dirty collection, on-site at the donor company’s building to start. I’ve got the PPE sorted, but I want to purchase a professional-looking smock or lab coat, nothing too medical. The conservators at my organization have some older branded smocks, but no extras to loan out to an archivist.

Preferably with pockets, a nipped waist so it fits well, but professional. Everything I’m finding online is too medical-looking, too frumpy, or too cottagecore. For size, I’m a 5’2” woman. Has anyone found something they like?

We've been working on handwritten text recognition for historical material and I'm interested in how people here are handling transcription backlogs.

The specific problem- collections that were never going to be transcribed by hand at any realistic staffing level. A scanned document that can't be read is functionally invisible it's in the catalogue, it's preserved, and nobody can search it.

Attached is a run on an 1856 US land record: transcription, then translation, then export to plain text. Roughly 30 seconds end to end.

What I'd like to know from people doing this at scale:

1. What accuracy threshold do you consider acceptable before machine transcription goes into a public catalogue?

2. Are you publishing machine output flagged as unverified, or holding it until a human checks it?

3. Where does it break for you - secretary hand, Kurrent, marginalia, or something else?

Disclosure: I work with Scripily, one of the tools in this space. Genuinely asking about practice here.

Those of you working in fields where encountering social security numbers is a recurring thing …. What’s the latest best practice on handling SSNs of people known to be dead?

I don’t run into this often in my repository, but I’m looking at it now, and the documents involved would be great additions to our digital archives.

The people associated with the SSNs are absolutely, known for a fact, dead. These are not active numbers. To the best of my knowledge, they can’t be used for anything (can they?).

As best I can tell, it’s just a matter of redacting to make people feel comfortable and have things “look” right vs. my convenience and just tossing in a note that says “this isn’t an active SSN”.

I’ve been following this sub for a while, so I know the classic answer to the classic question of “should I become an archivist” - you will make absolutely no money and become resentful and bitter and burnt out. Do anything else.

So I’ve been doing that! I’m fairly young, a few years out of college, and have had a handful of part time and full time corporate jobs in the nonprofit field. I’ve tried more creative roles, I’ve tried mundane roles at organizations whose missions mean a lot to me, and nothing is clicking. I know a job is a means to an end. I know you sacrifice passion for stability and being able to live life outside of work. But work is so MUCH of your life, and I can’t help but feel drained by this too, albeit with a slightly nicer paycheck.

I fantasize about getting my MLIS, I fantasize about my past archiving and library jobs, I attend seminars and workshops and volunteer at multiple archives. I am so passionate about this work. Thinking about diving back in makes me almost giddy. However, everything is telling me not to - the job market, increasing prices, archivists themselves.

I guess this is a vent, but also an admittance that I won’t hold myself to never pursuing this work. I don’t know if I can live with myself having never even tried.

Got my first interview for an assistant archivist position tomorrow morning. Just finishing my degree and have little practical experience behind me (save what I did as part of my postgrad degree). Any words of wisdom for me? Feeling apprehensive about it, would love the job and there’s few on the market as of now but I just don’t see how I can sell myself with such little previous experience

The title is the question, but here's a more in-depth explanation:

Obviously, you don't need to be a part of a demographic to work on projects related to said demographic. For example, you don't need to be from Peoria, IL to write a finding aid about a collection created by someone from Peoria, IL. Institutional resources and scope also play a significant roll, as smaller institutions need staff who can fill a broader range of functions and thus cannot be restrictive. However, there does seem to be an unwritten (unspoken?) line about what level of management is considered acceptable for some demographic categories - specifically concerning race, gender, and sexuality. Small projects might be fine, but I rarely if ever see permanent archival positions that curate collections about demographics for those groups being filled by someone outside that demographic.

This is mostly pertinent to hiring, as a fair number of posted positions are explicitly about curating collections for some demographic, usually based on whatever the stated collection/collection development strategy is. Obviously positions associated with race, gender, and sexuality do not state that they're only looking for professionals that fit their respective demographics, but I do assume that that I and other similarly non-demographically related applicants would be immediately discriminated against if we were to apply and thus it would be a waste of time to apply. It's not all assumption however, looking at the people who fill these rolls (or comprise these institutions if the curation focus extends more broadly) tends to corroborate this assumption.

Of course, there is the obvious argument that these collections/collection management positions were specifically created to address a historic curation gap in which these specific demographics were not included in institutional holdings which similarly extends to historic hiring imbalances. Moreover, as an outsider, non-demographically inclined applicants would be doing a disservice by applying for such positions because it might take away an opportunity from another professional who does fit within the aforementioned demographic.

Clearly there's probably a spectrum of what people think is acceptable and because no institution operates the same - some might be discriminatory while others would be more open. However, I would appreciate some feedback from active professionals and other professionals wading through job applications. (Respectively,) for those positions concerning the management of race, gender, and sexuality collections, do you hire outside those specific demographics/do you apply for positions outside your own demographics?

Thanks in advance! I know this is a tough and dicey question, but I would greatly appreciate some insight. Also insert some joke about "things they don't teach you in library school" here.

Curious about why the National Archives is closing its regional facilities in Chicago and San Francisco? The Cascade of History podcast is covering the story that the agency doesn’t want you to know about.

I am very keen in emigrating to Canada or Australia. I am wondering if there are Brits on here who have managed to do this and find archive work?

How hard was it for you? What did you have to do? Did you get a job offer before you went or did you go hoping to find work?

Anything anyone can help with would be greatly appreciated.

I’m in a UK archive and wondering what system others are migrating their catalogues to, especially if you’ve completed migration or are in the midst.

I’m most interested in the systems that can have a public online catalogue (eMu ruled out).

Any feedback & thoughts appreciated…

I’m currently doing data entry work for the government and I really don’t enjoy it. I was considering going into archive or library work, but the Masters courses are quite a lot of money and I don’t want to go into it blindly.

How did you know you wanted to go into it before choosing to study for the Masters? Is it just a case of volunteering, or doing similar work?

Also, did you find it difficult to secure a job after doing your masters?