Good morning,
Hello everyone. I'm a Special Projects Librarian, and one of my responsibilities is reorganizing and managing our archives collection.
First off, I need to admit that I am not an archivist. That being said, I was looking for some input. Our archives collection consists of various document and photographic material relating directly to the history of the college. Most of our items are kept at an off-site storage facility,
but are in desperate need of reorganization. I am recalling the boxes a few at time to create a more concise collection that facilitates resource discovery. For instance, right now I might open a box that has photos from the Student Activities department along with Alumni magazines, memorabilia, president's memos, etc.
What is the best method for storing photographs and documents? Most of them are no larger than 8x10. My thoughts were to purchase archival quality album pages and we already have numerous three-ring binders.
I would organize the photos appropriately and store them in the binder for easy viewing with less wear and tear on the actual photo. What do you guys think? Can I put the photos back-to-back in the album sleeves, or is this not a good idea. I know people wouldn't be able to see anything written on the back of the photo, but I'm not sure how often people would need to access these.
Another option I considered was using archival file folders and filing the storage boxes (bankers boxes) this way with folders organized accordingly, but not in binders. I'm sure that each institutions needs to be flexible, but I'm not sure which direction to go with this. I just want to
make sure I'm creating an easy-to-use system while preserving the material.
Thanks for your patience, and I hope I'm not out of place here on the list-serv since I'm obviously a archivist fraud! Any assistance or advice would be very much appreciated!
Amy Regnier
Responses:
Amy,
I would go for the folder/box option with each folder labled with the content. Three ring binders are not the best for keeping archival materials physically stable over the long term. Also, people will want to access the data and will have to remove them from the sleeves to do so, so it really doesn't reduce the wear and tear. If you can afford it, I suggest you individually encapsulate the photos in archival quality sleeves available at most archival supply sites. If you write on the photographs use pencil. This way, the pictures will be physically stable
and the information can be seen through the encapsulation.
There are lots of books and web-sites that can help you learn about best
practices for processing and storing photographs. Check out the NEDCC's preservation leaflets at:
http://www.nedcc.org/resources/leaflets.list.php.
The Library of Congress also has a helpful Preservation Site:
http://www.loc.gov/preserv/care/photo.html.
Each of these resources also has bibliographies. The SAA publishes "Photographs: Archival Care and Management" by Ritzenthaler and O'Connor, which is a very helpful resource.
Hope this helps.
Melissa Eastin
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Hi Amy,
I am the Archives Advisor for the Archives Association of Ontario in Canada and just wanted to provide some additional resources. Our preservation consultant for the Archives Association of Ontario has written some article's about storing archival documents including photographs. Please visit our website at:
http://aao.fis.utoronto.ca/aa/portfolio.html for a list of articles that might be of help to you.
Regards,
Carolynn Bart-Riedstra, MA, AMCT
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I see an interesting theme appearing in this discussion - Library-associated archives versus "stand-alone" historical document repositories. One respondent aptly stated that a library's primary mission does not include providing such copies, hence a relatively high charge.
Whereas at our historical society providing such images is core to our mission, and I would argue that for us this leads to a case for lower charges.
Secondly, at our institution at least 80% of the work that goes into providing these images is done by skilled volunteers. So technically, the cost of labor for providing the images is minimal.
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