The Peters Township Public Library (PTPL) Archives in McMurray, Pennsylvania is offering exciting Archives games and events Tuesday, October 1 – Saturday, October 12.
October 1-12: Archival games and displays in the lobby of the library.
Special Event: Local History Trivia Night on Thursday, October 3 @ 6pm!
If you have questions, please contact nmartin@pt-library.org.
This series celebrates all the great information that exists in ArchivesAWARE!
This post originally published on December 12, 2016, was authored by guest contributor Meredith E. Torre, Archivist at the Atlanta Housing Authority. It describes using a Pokémon scavenger hunt to celebrate American Archives month.
To celebrate October’s Archives month, the Atlanta Housing Authority (AHA) Archives recently launched a historically themed Pokémon scavenger hunt. The game was designed to celebrate some of the important people who have contributed to AHA’s history.
This outreach activity was great at eliciting responsive participation, generating conversation, and demonstrating some of the papers and records the AHA Archives holds for people valuable to our history.
The fabrication of the game was fairly simple. The game was created entirely out of paper “Pokémon” cards, with corresponding stickers (to show how rare or common that particular Pokémon was) attached to the Pokémon, and a Pokéball or scorecard. Because the game was setup like a scavenger hunt and the score card resembled a bingo card, no knowledge of the actual Pokémon game was necessary to play the game.
The Pokémon cards consisted of biographical information for persons who are a significant part of AHA’s history—Charles F. Palmer, Dr. John Hope, Harold L. Ickes, Jesse Blayton, Clark Howell, and President Roosevelt, just to name a few—and corresponding stickers. These Pokémon were posted throughout AHA’s building. The object of the game was to locate the Pokémon (the person of historical significance) and to “catch” the Pokémon by placing the corresponding sticker onto a scorecard or your Pokéball. In the actual game of Pokémon, some Pokémon are common and some are rarer than others. We printed out less Pokémon cards for those person in our history we identified as already familiar and made them “rare”. On the contrary, we printed out more Pokémon cards for those persons perhaps less familiar and placed them in more prominent places to make them “common” and to give them more exposure.
In creating the game, there are lots of Pokémon templates online to choose from. We selected a blank card template created by artist Christian England (LevelInfinitum) on Deviant Art to create our Pokémon cards and edited the images using Pixlr. We created our scorecards as a Word document and printed an image of a Pokéball on the opposite side.
We announced the Pokémon activity and posted the rules with scorecards in centralized locations. We held the game for a period of one week. There was a lot of enthusiasm for the activity and people said in hunting for the Pokémon that they really enjoyed discovering the people who make up a part of AHA’s history and learning things about them they may have not known!
Pokémon themed prizes were awarded in a drawing for the hunters who collected the most Pokémon and to the hunter who collected the Legendary Pokémon, AHA’s first resident commissioner, Susie LaBord.
This outreach activity was easy to coordinate, super fun, and is also easily customizable for your institution!
RESOURCES:
Pokémon templates used in this project: http://levelinfinitum.deviantart.com/art/Pokemon-Blank-Card-Templates-Basic-474601445
Artist’s profile page: http://levelinfinitum.deviantart.com/
Pixlr Editor: https://pixlr.com/
Have you developed an innovative outreach program at your repository? If so, please share in the comments below or contact archivesaware@archivists.org to be a guest contributor to ArchivesAWARE!
SAA Marketing and Communications Specialist, Julia Pillard, shares how we can all celebrate #AskAnArchivistDay on October 16th.
Coming as I do from an academic background, I have long appreciated the value of archives. I can recall touring the archives at Norlin Library at the University of Colorado in Boulder during my graduate degree and being so impressed by the extensive knowledge of the archivists giving us the tour. From my experience, I know exactly how amazing archives can be and what treasures they have to offer.
Last year, for the first time, SAA embarked upon a new endeavor to celebrate #AskAnArchivist Day. We put out a call for submissions from archives and repositories around the country, asking for them to share “a picture of the most interesting thing in your archives” to then be features on SAA’s Instagram page. We received dozens of responses and featured twenty-six pieces on our Instagram that day. Our most liked post was from the Gerber/Hart Library & Archives, who shared a massive tongue sculpture that hangs in their archives.
We had such fun with this experience that we’ve decided to do it again this year! If you want to share a high-resolution photo from your institution, archives, or repository, send it to jpillard@archivists.org along with a caption. And get inspired with some of favorite photos from last year:
In this series, we hope to share information and resources for new professionals or those folks in need of change.
First up, an interview with Meredith Lowe, the creator of Archives Gig, a website devoted to sharing job postings for archives around the globe. At ARCHIVES*RECORDS 2024, Archives Gig and INALJ (I Need a Library Job) received the Exemplary Service Award from SAA.
I started Archives Gig in 2010, when I was relatively fresh out of my library science graduate program and interested in breaking more permanently into the archives field. I worked in an iSchool (and still do – my career goals changed!). We had been doing some career services projects for our students that included posting open positions. I wanted to broaden the scope of the work and make it accessible to alumni and others, so I built the first iteration of Archives Gig on LiveJournal. LiveJournal was maybe not the most logical choice looking back on it, but it was a platform I was familiar with. It moved to WordPress in 2014 and I got a paid WordPress account relatively soon after that, so it’s hanging out at archivesgig.com nowadays and still hosted on WordPress.
I already mentioned the switch to WordPress. People can sign up to get emails when I post positions, and some find me through Facebook. Archives Gig used to feed to X/Twitter as well, but apparently X stopped playing nice with WordPress at some point and connection is no longer supported. If there are other platforms out there that would connect nicely with WordPress I would be happy to consider expanding to those! I am always willing to hear feedback.
Yes, for sure. 2020 was the lowest annual total posts I have made since I moved to WordPress in 2014. I usually put up 1400-1600ish postings annually; 2020 had 1,061 total postings. I have definitely seen an increase, anecdotally, in remote positions and positions that are explicitly hybrid. People are very interested in remote roles, those are always the ones that get the most engagement from followers. However, very few remote roles are permanent, full-time positions.
I’m going to hazard a guess on this. I did a brief survey earlier this spring (2024) to get a quick survey for a Council of State Archivists webinar presentation I was working on. I got about 200 responses and when I asked what general level of career experience respondents had, it was about 35% early career (0-3 years), 25% experienced (7+ years), 17% fairly experienced (3-7 years), and 17% grad students. There were some other smaller groups but those were the biggest groups. So the biggest group still seems to be grad students and early career archivists, but I still have a decent number of people who are more experienced looking at this resource.
The biggest concentrations of jobs are unsurprisingly in areas of high population density. For example, New York, California, and the Washington, DC area all are higher in the number of postings relative to other places. I don’t think that’s too surprising. Sometimes state archives positions are more concentrated in a state’s smaller capital city rather than its urban centers (for example, Albany, NY or Frankfort, KY).
My sense is that another change is that institutions are slightly more transparent with salary listings than they were a few years ago. Finally, I’m seeing many more positions that have particular qualifications in digital archives projects, such as digitization, digital preservation, digital asset management, and so on. I suggest that acquiring skills in these areas will likely make a candidate more competitive on the job market.
I have always posted international positions, but I have a few caveats. The audience for Archives Gig is based mostly in the USA and Canada, so I require the position description to have an English language version. I used to seek international positions out more intentionally, but in the interest of time and to be most helpful to my mostly North American-based followers, I now usually only post international positions that are sent to me directly.
Yes and I love to hear it! It’s my favorite kind of email to get and I’m so pleased when someone lets me know about their successful job search! I have heard from people at this point who have found more than one job through Archives Gig and it’s amazing to have been a resource during someone’s career journey.
This is the newest post in our There’s an Archivist for That! series, which features examples of archivists working in places you might not expect. In this article, COPA member Claudia Willett interviews Chloe Pfendler and Chris Doan about their jobs as Archivists for the Silicon Valley Archives (SVA) at Stanford University.
How did you get your gig?
In 2022, through the Hohbach Program Endowment, we were both hired to process the historical records and materials documenting the history and development of the Silicon Valley region of California. Harold Hohbach was a patent lawyer and real estate developer who was passionate about the legacy of technological and scientific innovation that is synonymous with the area we know as Silicon Valley. He donated money to help support the Silicon Valley Archives program at Stanford, which included funding for two processing archivist positions. We entered our roles with professional backgrounds that include experience in working with historically diverse archival collections and processing a variety of formats.
Tell us about your organization.
Silicon Valley Archives (SVA) is a sub-unit within Stanford University Library’s Special Collections Manuscript Division. The goal of SVA is to acquire and promote collections that document the industry and impact of Silicon Valley, as well as the history and the culture of this geographic region. We have the unique opportunity to work with an entire team (which includes the curator for Science and Technology, Business, Henry Lowood, as well as a curatorial assistant, historian, and exhibits coordinator) by aiding in their efforts to make the history of science and technology in Silicon Valley an engaging and educational experience for students, researchers, and the general public.
Describe your collections.
Our collections are pretty diverse! They run the gamut in terms of formats – lots of obsolete computer media and hardware, as you might imagine, but also various forms of audiovisual media, photographs, objects, organizational files, personal papers, etc. The history of Silicon Valley is multifaceted, and since coming onboard, we have processed several collections with content that showcases this, such as innovation in the early stages of electrical vehicle design and production seen in the Robert Wing EV Collection and the John Newell Collection; cultural influences as found in the activities of the San Francisco non-profit Point Foundation, which was an evolution of Stewart Brand’s Whole Earth Catalog project; and social concerns as reflected in the Computers, Freedom, and Privacy conferences that were organized in the Bay Area during the early days of the World Wide Web.
Images from the John Newell collection on the history of electric vehicles, M0963, Top: Electric Automobile Association of California newsletter; Bottom: Deborah MacArthur’s electric race car for the Alternative Vehicle Regatta held in New Hampshire, 1975
What are some challenges unique to your collections?
Given the “tech” nature of many Silicon Valley enterprises, these collections tend to be media-dense. For example, we could be dealing with energy emittance captures taken on
Polaroid film during the 1980s from the inside of an electron device, cassette tapes of regional conferences on elements of text encoding, or boutique software from a defunct startup that might require emulation. We also encounter a lot of computer hardware and “born digital” materials. This all brings up issues and challenges surrounding the preservation and access of these types of materials, some of which are dependent upon obsolete technologies, software, and very technical processes.
What is your favorite part of your job?
We both find working with the material exciting in various ways, especially all the new information you tend to learn as a by-product of processing a collection. Many of our collections concern the historical origins of industries that have had a far reaching, global effect, and it’s been very interesting to dig deeper into some of these stories. One example of this is learning about the hidden labor that exists in technology industries, particularly the production and assembly line workers who were typically women and other people from marginalized communities. For researchers interested in this particular kind of Silicon Valley history, collections containing company in-house produced photographs can be a rich source of information. We also enjoy the opportunity to work with our SVA exhibits coordinator from time to time to help promote the archives and give the public a closer look at our collections.
This is the newest post in our There’s an Archivist for That! series, which features examples of archivists working in places you might not expect. In this article, COPA member Claudia Willett interviews Rebekah Valentine about her job as Lead Archivist for Senator Dianne Feinstein’s papers at Stanford University .
How did you get your gig?
My interest in congressional papers began with my summer internship with Senator Patrick Leahy’s office. After graduating with my MLIS from the University of Maryland, he hired me to be his archivist assistant. This position led to me becoming Senator Feinstein’s archivist. I am now continuing to lead her archiving project at her chosen university.
Tell us about your experience working as an archivist in a Congressional office.
Being a congressional archivist has been one of the most rewarding and also the most challenging experiences in my career thus far. Most members do not have archivists, and those that do tend to hire them near the end of their career. As a congressional archivist, I spent most of my time surveying the collection, creating inventories, and supporting congressional staff with archiving their records. I was also responsible for closing the archival portion of the office and ensuring that the Senator’s records were sent to her chosen repository.
Describe your collection.
The collection consists of about 5,000 linear feet of analog records, 2,000 memorabilia items, and 7 TB of digital files. The records consist of a hodgepodge of legislative, press, constituent relations, administrative, photographs, correspondence, audio visual materials, and the personal/official records of the Senator. Constituent mail was my archiving team’s favorite material to process. We found it interesting to see what issues the people of California cared about most and even found some letters from a couple of well known people.
What are some challenges unique to Congressional collections?
I think the sheer volume of congressional collections and all the different types of records is one of the biggest challenges. There is a lot of personal and sensitive information in many different parts of the collection, and it is challenging to navigate access and use. The digital records bring several challenges with the unique databases and file types the Senate used over time, which causes preservation and access issues. The Internet Quorum, a constituent mail database, has been especially challenging for repositories that have congressional collections.
What is your favorite part of your job?
One of the best parts of my job is finding hidden treasures in collections. These treasures can be fun articles written about the Senator, letters written to the Senator by high level officials, and her artwork sketched out on scraps of paper. It is also great to see other members of the teams’ excitement when they find cool things in the collection as well.
One of the best parts of my job is finding hidden treasures in collections. These treasures can be fun articles written about the Senator, letters written to the Senator by high level officials, and her artwork sketched out on scraps of paper. It is also great to see other members of the teams’ excitement when they find cool things in the collection as well.
Photo provided by Rachel Thomas.
This series celebrates all the great information that exists in ArchivesAWARE!
This post originally published on May 12, 2020, challenges us to think about who we consider archivists.
This is the latest post in our series Responses and Retrospectives, which features archivists’ personal responses and perspectives concerning current or historical events/subjects with significant implications for the archives profession. Interested in contributing to Responses and Retrospectives? Please email the editor at archivesaware@archivists.org with your ideas!
Rachel Thomas, MA, is the University Archivist at George Fox University in Newberg, Oregon. She is passionate about the archival profession and opening the field to new professionals from all walks. Thomas is a member of Society of American Archivists and Northwest Archivists and recently served on the inaugural Northwest Archivists Archivist-in-Residence committee which is dedicated to working on the problem of unpaid internships in the archival profession. Linkedin profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rachel-thomas-5b21b38a
Six year ago I walked into my first professional gathering of archivists. As a lone arranger, I was excited to meet some of my colleagues. It was an unconference, inviting members of our profession to gather and discuss some of the issues surrounding our work. As the evening began, talk quickly turned to archives certification and qualifications. What makes an archivist and archivist? We gathered into groups to discuss this. I was excited to share my background and how I came to the field and hear how others entered this field I love.
However, as soon as we sat down, one of the members of my group said, “If you don’t have an MLIS, you are not an archivist. We have to have some standards!”
I was floored. I didn’t have an MLIS. I had just been hired by a university I respected, I had completed a MA in Early American and United States History, I had apprenticed in a large, well known, respected archive under a leader in the profession, I had worked for four years as an archive assistant at another university. I knew DACS, processing, other archival ethics and standards. I was a member of SAA and my regional association. I didn’t have my MLIS, but I was an archivist, wasn’t I?
As the discussion continued I found my voice. I expressed that I believed that being an archivist is about following the ethics and practices of the profession, not based on a certain set of letters behind a name. I shared examples of devoted archivists who had come to the field with no professional training. Some agreed with me, others held the position that the MLIS should always be required. The original speaker did not back down, she told me that she was sorry, but I didn’t belong in the field. According to her there were too many “non-professionals” calling themselves archivists and taking jobs from real archivists.
Eventually the night moved onto other topics. I learned a lot from colleagues in the room. I was able to network and build some contacts, learn about opportunities to serve in my regional professional organization. It was a successful evening by all accounts, however, I left doubting myself, hit hard with imposter syndrome.
A few years later and a few years wiser, I know that I am an archivist. I know I belong to the profession, and I know I bring value to my work. I have learned to appreciate my ability to think outside of the box, and largely credit it to the alternate route I took into the field. However, I still generally advise interns and students desiring to enter the field to pursue an MLIS. I know that it will prepare them well for the workplace, and I know that it has become a requirement for most positions in the field. I want them to be able to find work.
Photograph provided by Rachel Thomas.
At the same time, I want to challenge our profession to broaden their understanding of how one can become an archivist. I think we need to lean into the value of divergent perspectives brought by alternate education and career paths. We need to come to an understanding that the MLIS is not the only way to enter into our field. Other education and career paths can help us approach problems differently, they can help us develop new solutions, creative ideas, and the ability to diversify our collections and practices to fit a broader cross section of society. Employers must reconsider whether or not requiring the MLIS is unnecessarily limiting their applicant panel, disqualifying candidates who could bring new strengths and experience to the position. Archivists must check their assumptions about their colleagues. We must seek to be inclusive, not only in our collections, but among our colleagues.
This story does have a happy ending. At a recent conference I had a chance to have a heart to heart with one of the archival leaders in our region. He had been working as an archivist for decades and had received recognition at regional and national levels for his contributions. Everyone knew his name. I mentioned that sometimes I thought we were too focused on degrees in our field. That much of the work could be learned in other ways. That I had struggles with imposter syndrome because of my MA. He laughed, and said, “Guess I don’t belong in the field then! I only have a bachelor’s degree!”
This post was written by Rachel Thomas, MA. The opinions and assertions stated within this piece are the author’s alone, and do not represent the official stance of the Society of American Archivists. COPA publishes response posts with the sole aim of providing additional perspectives, context, and information on current events and subjects that directly impact archives and archivists.
This is the newest post in our There’s an Archivist for That! series, which features examples of archivists working in places you might not expect. In this article, Donna Wojcik talks about her job as Research/Archivist/Oral Historian for the New Mexico Farm and Ranch Heritage Museum.
1. How did you get your gig?
I started volunteering at the New Mexico Farm and Ranch Heritage Museum when it opened in 1998, serving as a greeter and oral history transcriber. I became a full-time staff member in 2001 as a receptionist/oral history transcriber. In 2012 I assumed the responsibility for the oral history program as the Oral Historian. In 2018 I was tasked with archiving twenty-five years of photos and paper items, with my title reclassified as Research/Archivist. In 2023 I became responsible for the library/archive, which is now called the Resource Room, continuing to identify and document photos, slides, and paper items in the archive and oversee our resource library.
2. Tell us about your organization.
We are a 47-acre facility that connects the present generation to the history of farming and ranching in New Mexico with a goal to inspire a deeper appreciation and understanding of the state’s rich heritage. We create exhibits and programs that enable others to understand and learn from the past to enrich their present lives and help them shape a better future. Public access to our Resource Room is by appointment and provides access to our oral history collection, Ancestry.com, livestock brand books, rare books, and books on a wide variety of subjects related to New Mexico history, culture, and arts.
3. Describe your collections.
My responsibility is rare books, research books, maps, ledgers, and our collection of over 400 oral history interviews each containing a recording, abstract, and literal transcript. I am also tasked with creating/managing our institutional archive, which documents twenty-five years of events, exhibits, educational activities, outreach, and staff.
4. What are some challenges unique to your collections?
I was given the directive to “create an archive” so I am literally building one from scratch. I have nine wonderful volunteers who help me to accomplish this goal. We have sorted and identified over 3,100 photographs from boxes that date back to 1996 and are in the process of scanning these items and entering everything into a database. I think that the biggest challenge for me is to be comfortable deciding what should be kept and what can be removed.
5. What is your favorite part of your job?
My favorite part of the job is creating something that will last for years to come and knowing that I have been a part of it from the beginning. I enjoy teaching the public about oral history and enjoy helping them with livestock brand research. I love working with volunteers and recognize that I could not do my job without their help and dedication.
This series celebrates all the great information that exists in ArchivesAWARE!
This interview originally published on May 2, 2016, is one of the most popular posts on the blog.
Among the resources in SAA’s advocacy toolkit is Public Relations and Marketing for Archives: A How-To-Do-It Manual (2011), edited by Peter Wosh and R. James and co-published by SAA and Neal-Schuman Publishers, Inc. Today we bring you an interview with Peter Wosh, Professor of History and Director of the Archives/Public History Program at New York University. In this interview with David Carmicheal, Peter revisits the book and discusses the ways it relates to current advocacy efforts.
David: What prompted the book in 2011? Was there an event that brought advocacy to SAA’s attention?
Peter: Back when I was publications editor for SAA [2007-2013] the Publications Committee regularly scanned the literature to identify gaps, and we discovered that SAA’s last real advocacy book had been published in 1994 (Advocating archives: An introduction to public relations for archivists, by Elsie Freeman Finch). Our scan of journals also showed very little literature about advocacy. There was much more archival writing on technical topics. Then, too, by 2011 archivists had become much more conscious about how central to our work advocacy is and how we need to spend more time on it. So the time was right for that book.
How do public relations and marketing relate to advocacy? Are they the same thing?
They relate, but I think of advocacy as a much broader concept that incorporates marketing and public relations. The public relations and marketing book focuses on how archives relate to user communities—primarily external communities—and how to make your archives more visible by using new technologies. This kind of marketing doesn’t include, for example, political advocacy. Advocacy includes internal audiences, which marketing and PR don’t generally consider.
When we decided to revise the Archival Fundamentals series (Archival Fundamentals III is due to be published in 2017) we thought it important to include a specific volume about Advocacy (being authored by Kathleen Roe) because the publications board thought it was so vital to what we do and had to be more encompassing than marketing and PR.
Advocacy versus marketing—do archivists favor one over the other?
I think they are more comfortable serving more traditional research communities and are still in the process of developing tools to promote themselves and their place in their particular institutions. To some extent archivists are also still hesitant to enter the public sphere of debate when archival issues come to the fore, though that is getting much better. I think it’s hard to mobilize the archival community around issues. Professional associations like SAA and CoSA take a stand on key issues, but I wonder how many people really take a personal responsibility to advocate. Advocacy needs to be sustained and ongoing and not just crisis management. We are better at responding to threats, but successful advocacy is being there all the time and promoting yourself in a constructive way 365 days a year.
How do we turn archivists into advocates?
Advocacy isn’t built enough into archival training and education. Archivists are good at standards and best practices and applying rules and regulations, and that has been the emphasis of our education and professional literature to a great extent. We don’t necessarily need individual courses in advocacy but every course should incorporate advocacy—how does what you’re learning in this course helps you express the importance of what archivists do. It needs to become part of our everyday lives.
Do you have an advocacy success or failure in your career that is instructive?
When I was at the American Bible Society I would ask myself what are the big issues facing the organization I work for and can I put together historical background papers to send to the Vice President or others that might show them the value of the archives. They responded well to my taking existing information and packaging it in a way that was meaningful to them.
When I was an Archdiocesan archivist it was a time when making church records open was a new idea, and many officials were nervous about who might be using the records. I would send them user reports (not just statistical) that included stories about how lives were touched by the archives. By talking about the range of users I was able to demonstrate that making the records available was actually supporting their larger mission to help parishioners and people in general.
I would say, finally, that just doing your job strategically is a form of advocacy. Doing the job well communicates the value of what we do in a quiet way.
This is the latest entry in our Archives + Audiences series, which features the perspectives of archival audiences – scholars, journalists, filmmakers, artists, activists, and more – for whom archives have been an important part of their life and work. In this post, COPA Career Member Kristi Chanda interviews Susan Smith. Dr. Smith, Winton M. Blount Research Chair for the Smithsonian’s National Postal Museum, discusses the museum’s archival holdings and her role in supporting research in postal history.
KBC: What is the overall mission of your institution?
SNS: The mission of the Smithsonian is “the increase and diffusion of knowledge.” Within this framework, the role of the National Postal Museum is to preserve, study and present postal history and philately. More specifically, the museum’s mission states that “Through the preservation and interpretation of our postal and philatelic collections, the Smithsonian National Postal Museum educates, challenges, and inspires its audiences on the breadth of American experiences.”
KBC: What are your current goals and how will hiring an archivist help achieve these goals?
SNS: My job as the Winton M. Blount Research Chair is to enable and support research in the fields of philately and postal history. This involves research conducted by the staff of the National Postal Museum and the Smithsonian as well as by researchers from around the world. In order to more effectively promote the scholarship related to the museum’s mission, I am working to make the museum’s archival holdings more accessible while expanding their depth and breadth. Although I am not an archivist, I am a historian with a tremendous appreciation of archives born of my own experiences as a researcher. Moreover, and more importantly, discussions with staff and external researchers have made evident the ways in which we could improve how we support the development of the philatelic and historical fields. The materials held by the museum are varied in type and include personal papers, citizens’ letters to postal officials, interviews, logbooks, airmail contract cards, print and digital photographs, postal forms, postal registers and ledgers, blueprints, and stamp production designs. These and other materials are housed in several different spaces. Museum staff continue to be offered intriguing potential donations but have been reluctant to accept them for the lack of an established space and system of categorization.
The challenges we face limit access to materials that would enable historians to examine broad and diverse topics. These range from philately as a very popular hobby to the state-sponsored design and iconography of stamps from around the world; cultures of letter-writing; the development of domestic and international business ties and practices; America’s expansion, with new post offices marking the arrival of the federal government and potential markets for industries that built upon as well as supplied the postal system; the role of the Postal Service in creating and breaking employment barriers based on race and gender; and the bureaucratic, labor and business practices and problems in an organization which, at its peak in 1999, had nearly 800,000 employees spread throughout the United States and its territories. There is potential to create and communicate knowledge about these subjects, but we have to unlock the sources by locating, acquiring, preserving, and organizing the material to be searchable and findable. And we haven’t forgotten that we must also do these things as we begin to collect the born-digital material that will enable us to document the operations and innovations of the modern Postal Service, stamp design, and mailing industries. The museum is working to hire an archivist who will help us define the intellectual framework that will both improve access and respond to trends in the fields that intersect with philately and postal history.
KBC: In what ways are you advocating for archiving in your institution?
SNS: Smithsonian staff are fortunate to be able to compete for funds from the Smithsonian’s Women’s Committee to undertake projects that provide greater access to Smithsonian collections. I successfully applied for funds to hire an archival contractor to survey the materials and establish the scale of the work to be done. My colleagues in the curatorial and collections departments and the librarian shared their extensive institutional knowledge with the contractor, and archivists in other units shared insights. When pandemic protocol finally allowed limited access to collections, the contractor was able to examine some of the materials. She provided a blueprint for steps to be taken to realize intellectual and organizational frameworks and to create the policies necessary for an accessible archive, producing an excellent starting point for the museum’s future archivist.
KBC: What lessons can be learned from your experience?
SNS: I have loved working in archives, but not every person who works at, interacts with, or is a stakeholder in the museum has had the same experiences. In advocating for the development of a formal archive at the museum, I have had to learn how to speak with internal and external stakeholders about the differences between museum and archival practices and functions. The response has been overwhelmingly favorable because of the shared goals to improve and advance access and use of the materials for all. I imagine that the lesson that can be learned from my experience is a common and essential one: keep in mind the people who must be involved to make an archive possible, accessible, and successful, and work with them early and consistently.
ArchivesAware 