At the core of an archivist’s social responsibility is recognizing that the archival record is a cornerstone of cultural heritage.
Service is at the heart of archival practice, underpinning the archivist’s commitment to facilitating access to primary sources.
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Beyond safeguarding historical records, archivists promote using and understanding invaluable resources.
In my book, Creating Family Archives: A Step-by-Step Guide for Saving Your Memories for Future Generations, I discuss the techniques that archivists use to protect historical materials from the ravages of time. I find that it's also helpful to discuss what can cause damage to your archival items too. Many hazards are obvious, but others may surprise non-professionals.
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.
Metadata is structured data about data that facilitates information management and use. Metadata provides users with a standardized means of intellectual access to digitized materials.
Metadata standards can assist by streamlining the information transfer between hardware and software platforms as technologies evolve. Resources encoded using open standards have a greater chance of remaining accessible after an extended period than resources encoded with proprietary standards.
Digitizing materials requires an investment in describing them to aid users in discovering them. What makes description challenging is the level of detail required.
Understanding description requires knowledge of recognized standards and the ability to apply them. In addition, description requires multitasking, toggling between high-level philosophical issues such as the inclusiveness of subject terms and a focused eye for detail to troubleshoot data entry issues.
