Week 3: The World of Archiving

A few years ago, while exploring ideas about my future career, I decided to study history with the ultimate goal of working in either an archive or a museum. The work I do for this internship is helping me gain experience in this path, especially in understanding some of the basic principles of metadata and processing donated collections. This week, I have continued to review the Apopka spreadsheet created during the summer, along with the comments left by the RICHES digital archivist, to further improve it for submission and eventual publication on their database. In the meantime, I’ve been collecting a list of questions to clarify with him. Maybe in a week or so, once I’ve gotten further into it, and in case my intern, Sarah, comes to me with questions that I’m unsure of, we can cover some of the nitty-gritty details that he requires.

Since I anticipated Sarah to start wrapping up the metadata sheets soon, I spent some time on the Greenwood Cemetery spreadsheet. Though I was not able to completely fix everything on that one, I wanted to change a few cells in an attempt to cause less confusion for her. I also started up the first row of the Bumby collection so that she would have some examples directly related to the collection she’s working on.

On Tuesday, we had an in-person meeting, but it was more akin to a field trip to the university’s Special Collections and Archives. I was thrilled to be there, as I had never had the experience of standing inside one and witnessing how physical items are preserved. After listening to the archivists discuss their work, I realized there was a lot to consider, especially regarding water damage and their strategies for monitoring the environment. This includes marking circles around the water-damaged ceiling and watching for any changes; however, I did notice the damage had spread beyond the initial markings.

Another vital lesson I learned was that if I want to be an archivist, I will have to learn how to say no because they, in fact, cannot collect every single item that is offered. Even if it is really cool, if it is out of scope and not to mention the financial aspects of storage, it is impossible to take everything. With that, it is essential to familiarize myself with other archives and their missions, so that I am knowledgeable enough to refer donors to them and allow them to contribute to the preservation of history.

The trip also taught me more about the challenges of archiving digitally born items and why the goal is not to digitize everything. For one, in the case of the university’s collections, it would take far too much time to process the large amount of items they hold. On the other hand, items that are checked out and handled more frequently, and are particularly fragile, should be prioritized for digitization. The core issue with digitization is the constant update of technology, the way computers are built, and the development of various programs, all of which have undergone significant changes within a relatively short period. If a digital medium is corrupt, the items are lost; if the program no longer exists, the items are lost. While digitizing is beyond helpful for creating better access, it has its downsides. On the upside of constant change is the discovery of better ways to preserve artifacts. Since this process is relatively new to the field, we are unlikely to arrive at a definitive method of digitizing anytime soon.

A new tip for digital preservation: DVDs are not reliable storage; they are deteriorating!

https://video.wixstatic.com/video/300847_ea2e0775cdd94d0fa9f64211e888a30b/360p/mp4/file.mp4

This week provided me with greater insight into the archiving field, and I would recommend doing this trip for future interns. Many students are unsure of what history has to offer beyond the degree, and this was a good introduction to one of the paths. Being physically present is an exciting experience, allowing us to see how everything is set up and their use of technology to store items. Sharing that experience with others who were just as intrigued was fun, and I hope to have more experiences like that in the future.