What are archives?
Stated simply, an archives is a place that houses collections of records and makes them available to be used in various ways by patrons. In the archives world, the word record refers to any sort of data or information in a form that can be saved. For instance, photographs, personal letters, notes from an organizational meeting, a piece of pottery, a corporate email and a CD of an opera are all considered records. These records can have been created on paper, such as an architectural drawing, or can have been created only in the digital realm, such as an online performance announcement for a ballet. In an archives, these are held as collections, organized groups of records produced by a single creator (this could be an individual, family, or organization) that are no longer being used for their original purpose, and that have been chosen as worth keeping for as long as possible because of their continuing value. Archival organizations are split into two types, institutional archives and collecting archives. Institutional archives are part of a larger organization and keep groups of records that pertain to the parent organization. Collecting archives house groups of records that are not directly related to their organization.
Why are archives important?
Archives are important because they house our stories, providing access to the raw materials of our shared (and often overlooked) histories. Archives preserve irreplaceable information that can be revisited, remixed, and reinterpreted for generations to come. They are not neutral storehouses of truth, instead they are inherently biased and incomplete snapshots of time and place. However, by acknowledging their shortcomings and by viewing their collections contextually, they can provide invaluable information about our past, present, and future.
What does an archivist do?
An archivist is a person who is responsible for the contents of an archives. They often wear many hats because they frequently work alone (aka lone arrangers). An archivist can be responsible for obtaining groups of records, choosing which groups to keep, evaluating their contents, arranging and organizing them, safely storing them for present and future use, making them available for patrons, helping patrons use them, connecting patrons to their collections, and completing the administrative tasks that keep an archives running smoothly.
Just because a particular group of records can be saved doesn’t mean that it should. One very important part of working as an archivist is deciding which records to bring into their archives. They do this using a process called appraisal. Groups of records are methodically evaluated for condition, pertinence to an archives, context, cost, storage needs, privacy issues, completeness, authenticity, format, and other factors that help determine if they are a good fit. These groups are also examined against the archive’s collection policy, a document that defines the goals and priorities of the archives and lays out the institution’s considerations for what it brings into its collections.
Once a group of records has been appraised as being an asset to an institution, the next stage is accessioning, bringing the group (or groups) into the archives in a carefully documented way. This group (or groups) of records will then become new collections within the archives, or they will be added to existing collections. Groups of records are often donated to an institution and an archivist must create the paperwork that provides information about the donor, donation contents, and process of donation. Occasionally archives have funding that allows them to purchase records and there must be legal documentation of these purchases. Accessioning is the process that allows legal transfers of groups of records into an archives.
After the new group(s) of records have been legally accepted by an archives, the next important step is to prepare them to be used by patrons. Archivists achieve this through archival processing, which involves arranging and describing collections of records to enable patrons to use them, and also addresses their storage, preservation, and conservation needs.
The first step of processing is arranging and organizing, which involves grouping the records into categories and arranging these categories according to archival best practices. This includes following the archival rules of original order, that whenever possible the archives should keep records in the same order that they were placed in by the creator, and respect de fonds, that groups of records by the same creator should be kept together. Collections differ widely in terms of size and scope and therefore they can be organized in different ways. Some aren’t organized at all and exist just in one container as a whole collection. Other collections are divided into series (which are usually arranged from most personal to least personal), then can be divided again into subcategories, and sometimes finally into folders (which when possible should maintain their creator’s original arrangement). Unlike librarians, archivists rarely go below the folder level to organize collections at the level of individual records, for instance they would not organize letters by date within a folder.
Because collections can be large, varied, and organized in a particular way, it’s very important that archivist create guides, called finding aids, which help patrons to use them. Finding aids provide information about the content, context, creation, organization, location, and format of collections. The finding aids can be on paper or online and function as the catalog of the archives. When finding aids are online, they often include standardized description and metadata terms that help them to be more easily processed by computers, increasing their ability to be shared between institutions. This process of creating and publishing finding aids is known as description and is very important because without finding aids, records cannot be found and used, which is one of the main goal of archives.
Once the records have been arranged and described, they must be carefully housed—storage, preservation, and conservation are the final steps of description. Whenever possible, records should be stored in a way that keeps their longevity in mind, preservation, and some may need mitigating conservation efforts to improve their condition and to prevent further damage when possible. While one of the goals of the archives is to connect users to records, they also are trying to maintain records for as long as possible, and therefore must walk the line between allowing the records to be accessed in the present, while keeping them usable for the future. Archivists may digitize some collections in order to decrease the amount that they are handled and/or to increase their ability to be used by patrons.
All of the archival work that I’ve described so far has been done in order to prepare group(s) of records to be discovered and used, but the archivist’s work is not finished. Archives must connect patrons with records. Archivists accomplish this through reference interactions and outreach.
When a patron comes into the archive (or contacts them online) the archivist must work carefully with the patron to help them with their research. This is achieved through the reference interview in which the archivist will ask why they are using the archives, what they hope to produce with their research, what previous experience they have working in an archives, if they have any time constraints, and other questions that enable them to provide a patron with the individualized help that they need.
Because of the fragile and unique nature of archival documents, archivists are often responsible for seeing that records are handled safely and legally by patrons. They do this by going over rules about material handling, observing patrons while using records, restricting access to certain records when there is a legal issue, and other actions aimed making sure that records are used in safe and legal ways.
Many archives are lacking in funding and looking for ways to increase their patronship and profile within their communities. Archivists use outreach as a tool to boost interest in their organizations via online and in-person exhibits, guest speakers, how-to demonstrations, social media, collaboration with other organizations, and many other avenues that allow them to extend their reach.
Finally, archivists must do the administrative tasks that keep their institutions running smoothly. This includes ordering supplies, keeping abreast of technological updates, keeping track of who is using the archives, applying for grants, communicating with other institutions, and all of the other day-to-day tasks involved in maintaining an archives.