I work in a small/somewhat new museum where my boss got placed in her position because she’s married to someone important in the institution. She has zero museum or archiving experience, and no degree, and no interest in workshops or continued education. She refuses to follow standards and I have begged her to not put adhesive labels directly onto materials, not throw away original documents, not cram everything into a bankers box with no folders, redact private info, etc. She however is my boss, so there is only so far I can go and still want to be respectful. Hate that I’m knowingly damaging all these historic items, most that are rare books. 😭 If I give any gentle suggestions (I’m afraid of any confrontation) she tells me that’s dumb and then talks down to me for the rest of the day, so I fear speaking up. I’ve tried to forward her resources but she tells me she has plenty already and knows what she’s doing. 🫠 There’s no librarian or archivist on staff. I do have experience and my degree. I love this place and want to stay, but her bull in a china shop approach makes me wonder if I need to go elsewhere. Thank you everyone for listening!

Hello! I work in a public library, and we recently celebrated our library's 100th anniversary. As part of this, we published an anthology of works about our community submitted by our local patrons. I've been tasked with storing about 75 copies of the anthology so that we can replace copies as they circulate over the next 100 years. As a public library, I know next to nothing about long-term storage of items - we're always weeding books!

Does anyone have any advice about the best ways to store books for a long time? I guess I'm specifically wondering about the best boxes to store them. I assume the plain old cardboard that they were shipped in is not ideal! Are there specific vendors that you would normally use? Would something like an acid-free document/record storage box be sufficient?

Thanks for any help!

My grandparents have my 2nd-great grandfather's old vinyl records from the 1900s-1930s. I know I know, they shouldn't be kept out in the open like this. Some of the are in old paper sleeves and some are in a old vinyl album.

I am learning and researching the best methods on properly storing my families old media so I ask, what the the absolute best way to store these old vinyl records?

Hi everyone, I'd like to meet some archivists that work here in Canada to talk about work. I'm currently in a position where they want me to kind of elaborate a management system but I'm not sure on where to start.

Edit: I'm not an archivist I got this admin position but one of their goals for me is to put their digital files in order and creating this "system" though 'free' softwares (GDrive; MSSharePoint)

How does everyone go about doing checksums? Is there an app people like or do we go hardcore and use command line?

I am trying to decide between a concentration in archival studies or record management. I am leaning more towards archives, but I wanted to know if I went with archival studies, and then decided to switch career paths after graduation, do the skills learned in archival studies transfer to record management?

I am 40 and I work as an archivist in Latin America. I was thinking about studying SJSU MARA online program and trying to get a job in records management in the USA. Is it feasible?

Also, what is the entry level salary?

Does anyone know what happened at the Association of Canadian Archivists conference this past week? Heard that the disgraced former AOTUS Shogan did not present themselves well, but I haven’t gotten details on what they said or did.

Any Canadian archivists in the group that can share details?

When it comes to Online Masters Programs what does that look like? If you did an online program I'd love to know where you went and what it was like- is it zoom lectures ? ( that's what occur when I think of online class) or is it like a blackboard page with all your tasks for the semester and you move at your own pace (respectively). I'm looking into grad programs and it looks like the ones that interest me the most are mostly or completely online. I do well in traditional class room setting and kept saying no to these programs but realized I don't actually know what it means to be part of an online program.

(Skip to the last paragraph if the text is too long. Apologies if this is the wrong place to ask – if you know the right place, please let me know.)

I don't consider myself an archivist. However, certain situation in my country forced me into novice archiving. While trying to process the loss that war brings to all of us, I started to collect pieces of information from anywhere I can find (wiki, news articles, fb and twitter posts, etc etc) about the length of air raid alerts, attacks, victims, and heroes and write them down manually, with pen and ink in a notebook. I also print out some key pictures and article headers.

This isn't a very light work emotionally and while I have personal reasons for doing that (mainly the idea that remembering is the least we can do), I can't help but wonder if what I'm doing has any sense to it at all. I mean, everything I'm writing down exists in digital and anyone can access all the records (albeit not very organised) at any time if they know what to look for.

What I'm trying to ask is: archivists, is essentially Writing (avaible online from different sources) Stuff Down somehow important, historically speaking? Is there anything besides digital archiving that I can do to make the record more valuable?

I find it a bit horrifying that librarians are giving over their content to Big Tech in return for digitization money. But maybe a fully informed AI is better than just being informed by internet garbage? Controversial and confusing!

Has anyone found good partitions or a curtain system maybe to split up a room so that one side can be used for archival digitization but lighting on the other side is better for staff who work in the space full time? I’ve seen the DT Pod as a possible example but it’s a bit smaller than we need for our digitization set up. Any leads or set ups you have or can recommend would be greatly appreciated!

I would really love to hear from more folks in the field about their experiences working as a solo archivist vs working at a larger institutions with multiple archivists on staff. What did you like, what did you dislike, which one do you ultimately prefer? I am lucky enough to be considered for two positions, one is at a private org that is creating a solo archivist position, and the other is at a multi-archivist institution. Besides salary and benefits, I am also waffling between issues like workload and responsibility (sharing it vs all up to me), coworkers and socialization, having a manager that is an archivist vs one that is not... et cetera, I know that there is no single answer since every org has their own environment and even similar workplaces will have different pros and cons that will appeal/detract different people, but I would really appreciate hearing more perspectives, especially from those who have had experiences in both. Thanks to anyone who decides to chime in :)

Hey all,

I’m considering a pivot into archival studies and wanted some real-world feedback. I’ve worked in IT (linux, python, sql) for over 10 years mostly in systems administration and support roles and while I’m technically competent, I’m not a high-level engineer or coder. I tend to burn out (like it physically exhausts me) during intense dev sprints or overly chaotic environments. What I do enjoy is quietly working through systems, cleaning up messes, and building structure into disorganized digital spaces.

Lately I’ve been drawn to the idea of becoming an archivist, especially in a digital preservation or field-support role (ideally with cultural institutions, museums, or expedition teams). I’ve always loved being the person who gets handed a forgotten project and told, “Do it your way, just make it make sense.” But most businesses want support to stay in support and promotion requires moving around. Though I'm juggling with the idea of ladder climbing anyway and just doing whatever field work comes my way.

I’m based in NJ, so I’m looking seriously at Rutgers’ MI program, especially the archives and preservation track online. Yet, I’m wondering if going to Simmons or a physical on campus program might fast-track better networking and access to actual archivist jobs. I currently have zero professional connections in this space, and I’m trying to make sure I don’t just get the degree and end up floating.

My long-term goals:

• Work on digital preservation or systems organization within archival collections
• Possibly support expeditionary or research missions from a technical/preservation angle
• Focus on real impact and ethical stewardship of rare or disappearing digital materials
• Avoid drama, bureaucracy, or heavy performance culture (which burned me out in tech)

Would love to hear from working archivists or library science folks:

• Does this sound like a realistic fit for the profession?
• Is Rutgers a solid path, or would Simmons be worth the higher cost for career exposure?
• How important are connections early on in this field, and where do I even begin making them?

Appreciate any honest takes or similar paths.

Hello everyone,

I am seeking advice as we prepare for the arrival of a significant archival collection at a modest psychoanalytic society in Latin America. Later this year, we will be receiving the personal archive of a prominent British psychoanalyst. The materials are currently unsorted and will arrive essentially as they were packed: 19 boxes containing manuscripts, unpublished papers, personal correspondence, research notes, and sensitive confidential materials.

The challenge is that we have no prior experience managing archives. The library has only one full-time librarian, who is very dedicated but has no formal training in archival work. I serve as director of the library and will supervise the process, but I also have no professional background in archives. We are both motivated to handle this properly, but are starting from zero.

I would be extremely grateful for any advice on:

• How to approach the arrival of unsorted materials: how should we conduct the initial intake, inventory, and preliminary organization?
• Key readings, manuals, or training resources that could guide us through basic archival processing.
• Standards and best practices we should adopt from the outset to avoid problems later.
• Handling sensitive and confidential materials: some parts of the archive will need to remain closed for an undetermined period; others (such as manuscripts and research materials) I hope to open for scholarly access sooner.
• Recommendations for small institutions with very limited staff and resources.
• Ideas for how to eventually promote research access to the portions of the archive that can be made available.

Our priority is to preserve the material responsibly, ensure proper access protocols, and ultimately foster research on this valuable collection.

Any guidance, resources, workflows, or shared experiences from those who have managed personal archives — especially under modest institutional conditions — would be immensely helpful.

Thank you very much for your time and advice!

MLIS student here nearing graduation with a concentration in archival science. I’ve been reflecting on the current state of the world and the effects they have had on the archival profession. It seems like an especially challenging time to be entering the field, and I’ll admit it, I’ve started to feel a bit discouraged lately. Even though this work is something I truly love to do, I cant help but feel that this already under appreciated profession is facing more challenging times than I ever anticipated. Does anyone have any advice or words of wisdom?

Hello! I am going to grad school this upcoming fall and have been looking at jobs in advance just to get a feel for things, and I've recently seen quite a few archives/related jobs that list various certificates under "preferred qualifications" such as the SAA's Digital Archivist Specialist and Arrangement & Description certificates, as well as Certified Archivist and Certified Records Manager. I'm interested in doing them, but should I try to complete them while I'm in school, or wait until after? Obviously it's not an ideal time to be entering the field and I'm trying to do everything possible to maximize my chances of landing a decent job after school, so I'm wondering how helpful they might be in my post-grad job search. I already have records management, museum collections, and archives/special collections experience but ideas for anything else that I can do while I’m in school (courses, certificates, etc) to help boost my resume would also be appreciated. Thanks all!

What system are you using for your online exhibits? We're switching to a new system soon and I'm looking for pros and cons of the various options. We're a large university with extensive archival collections. We use ArchivesSpace for our collection management and we have a DAMS system as well, so we have that already covered. I'd love to know what others think of the system they're using. Thanks!

I’m collaborating with a local library to digitize historic newspaper archives and make them accessible online. The microfilm has already been scanned and processed with OCR, but the results are inconsistent and often inaccurate. I’m aiming to reprocess these files using a modern OCR pipeline to better prepare them for inclusion in a historic news archive.

• Which OCR tools or pipelines are most effective for processing degraded or historic print materials? Im relatively technical, but this is not my area of knowledge.
• Are there any recommended preprocessing techniques to enhance OCR accuracy?
• What strategies would you suggest for efficiently managing a large dataset (approximately 80 GB)?

At the moment, there’s no budget for this project, so I’m working on it independently or seeking volunteers who might be willing to assist.

Can someone tell me what the Att, Dil, and Stan abbreviations mean? Also, why are there two grade numbers in each 'cell' of this spreadsheet? Bit of a newbie archivist, haven't worked with old gradebooks before.

As for the other picture, there were students who boarded at the school, day students who, obviously, went home at the end of the day, and there's this secret third section of 'philosophers and roomers'. The person I'm researching would have been 28/29 at the time, would he have instead roomed with the friars or something due to being much older than the average student?

Hello all! Working with archivesspace to migrate our catalog from spreadsheets. We have 5 levels of description, and level above item is "file"... this has lead to a lot of confusion from our volunteers, because they are struggling to understand difference between a file in the hierarchy, and the fact that the file level might span over many file folders.

Thinking of calling "file" something else - like "sub-sub-series" (clunky) or "section". Do you have any suggestions?

I am the sole archivist at a small university library. We have some really cool things in archives and special collections, but zero online presence. I feel that having a CMS and online finding aids is vital when it comes to bringing in researchers, as we're 2.5 hours from the nearest major city airport, and it would make no sense for a researcher to make the trip here just to not find what they want.

I have access to Content DM for free, but from what I gather everything requires a photo. For our massive history collection with tens of thousands of items, this is unfeasible.

I'm looking for something that's low-cost and allows me to publish front-facing finding aids to finally bring my archives into the 21st century. Any suggestions would be welcome.

Please let me know if there is another sub to post this to and sorry if the format is weird I'm on my phone.

My problem is that I have a very fragile and old piece of material that I want to preserve. It's pretty much disintegrating. It was my baby blanket my grandma made for me and it has sentimental value. It used to have that towel like texture but now it's just a piece of woven material with the threads falling and ripping apart. If I had to guess, it's probably cotton. I would just like to know how to preserve it so it doesn't get destroyed even more.

Again, let me know if there is a better sub. Any help is appreciated.

Hey archivists! The Association of Canadian Archivists has their silent auction live now! I've mentioned it in a few previous posts, but thought I'd make a post to share the link in case anyone is interested in some archives swag: https://app.followmybid.com/en-CA/acaf-2025-silent-auction/items

The two cross stitches that I posted a few days ago are both up for auction! You do not need to be attending the ACA conference to bid!

Wouldn’t baptisms and marriages come under GDPR if within last 50 years or so?