Service is at the heart of archival practice, underpinning the archivist’s commitment to facilitating access to primary sources.
Get the right records management consulting services from a qualified consultant. Learn to find and hire the best consultant to help you with your records management needs.
Beyond safeguarding historical records, archivists promote using and understanding invaluable resources.
Records are essential to every organization. Records can be in any form, including physical documents and electronic files.
Proper management and organization of records is crucial for any organization to function smoothly. Records provide evidence of the organization’s activities and help staff make informed decisions.
Many archival repositories have invested in digitization projects to enhance access to their collections.
Archives have been particularly interested in infrastructure projects for several years. Repositories have also participated in collective efforts to test and disseminate tools, procedures, and methodologies.
Digitization has changed how collections are used and accessed.
Research can make digital surrogates more amendable to interpretation, such as via full-text searching and indexing, as well as comparison of materials for multiple sources. Nonetheless, there may be times when no digital surrogate is adequate for scholarship. Therefore, it is necessary to evaluate whether digitization is worthwhile before undertaking an initiative. Many factors come into play when assessing the value of digital files. These factors may help access when digitizing collections can be cost-effective. Valuable digital resources, which bring prestige to the institutions that create and maintain them, are those that support scholarship without losing the benefits of working with the originals.
Instagram is a powerful tool to introduce your archival collections to the public through images. It also allows your constituents to see parts of collections that they might not usually see because of security or preservation reasons. Viewers can experience your storage areas, your conservation room, or rare items that are rarely displayed.
Archives are the foundation of our collective memory. Physical and digital artifacts document our history, culture, and identity.
However, too often, archives are overlooked by decision-makers who fail to recognize their importance. Therefore, talking about archives to decision-makers is crucial to help preserve our history and shape our future.
Archival storage rooms must be limited to the storage of archival collections; they should incorporate only materials necessary to house collections.
Materials typically used in storage rooms include shelving, cabinets, boxes or containers housing the collections, and book trucks and carts used to move and transport records.
