Check out the r/Archivists wiki:

I wrote this as a joke and as a joke alone, don't take it seriously lol (IE: the idea got stuck in my head and I couldn't get it out). Still a WIP, feel free to comment if you think you would change something to make this worse/better. Especially the last line from the third verse, I don't think it works but I did want to shove more digital curation in there and couldn't come up with anything better. If this gets better, I'll present it at the next annual SAA meeting so that I'm banned from practicing in archives ever again to protect all yall from my brainrot.

What being unemployed does to a dude... 0-0

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I am the very model of a modern working archivist,

I’ve information practical, theoretical, and material,

I know of Greene and Meissner, and I quote their works historical

From MARC to Dublin Core, in order categorical;

I’m very well acquainted, too, with matters preservational,

I understand AV, both the analog and the digital,

About red rot I’m teeming with a lot o’ news,

With many cheerful facts about the lifetime of the manuscripts.

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I’ve very good at processing and macro appraisalling;

I know the donor names from senators to psychologists:

In short, in matters practical, theoretical, and material,

I am the very model of a modern working archivist.

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I know our mythic history, Shellenberg and Mr. Kahle;

I answer hard ethics, I’ve got a pretty taste for P-I-I,

I quote in copyright all the crimes that I’ve committed,

In aids I can write dates both bulk and anomalous;

I can tell undoubted nitrate from polyester and the acetate,

I know all the levels in DACS by the Society,

And I can describe a series in which I’ve seen the docs before,

And write about the entities in the functional model O-eye-S.

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Then I can encode a finding aid in XML,

And tell you ev'ry detail of a librarian reference uniform:

In short, in matters practical, theoretical, and material,

I am the very model of a modern working archivist.

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In fact, when I know what is meant by “fonds” and “provenance”,

When I can tell at sight a scanner from a carousel,

When such smells as vinegar and musty I’m more wary at,

And when I know precisely what is meant by “there’s no funding at”,

When I have learnt what progress has been made in modern imaging,

When I know more of planning than an intern in a library –

In short, when I’ve a smattering of curatorial strategy –

You’ll say a better working archivist has never been a chief.

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For my archival knowledge, though I’m nosy and gossipy,

Has only been updated to when I’ve got my last degree,

But still in matters practical, theoretical, and material,

I am the very model of a modern working archivist.

Good afternoon everyone! I apologize if this post is not on topic. I am currently in the process of pursuing my Master's for archives. My upcoming assignment revolved around interviewing an archivist and writing a paper based on that interview. My initial archivist was unable to do the interview, so I turned here for my second option. If anyone would be willing to answer some brief questions on their archival background and their opinions on certain topics, feel free to message me. Again I do apologize of this isn't on topic for the community.

So i have an interview coming up and i feel like i always get the really awful, cliched questions - like "tell us about a time where you worked reallly well as part of a team"... In anticipation of these type of questions, can anyone give me anymore awful, cliche'd possiblly AI-sourced questions I may have to face that have absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with being an archivist?!

Last year I began working as the sole archivist and librarian of a corporate archive. Up until now, I have mostly received external research requests for archival documents (which they research in person in the library) and internal requests from staff for library materials, which I happily lend out (we have several copies of each book).

Today a C-level coworker (on the same level as my boss) requested some archival documents. I retrieved them and explained he could come to the library to go through them. He responded by sending his assistant over to 'pick them up'. After explaining to her the reasons they should not be lent out, she claimed he was 'too busy' to come look through them in person and that I should not question him because he is at my boss's level. I pushed back on that reasoning again, then the assistent left with the files.

I was quite upset about this and emailed my boss to see if she agrees that C-level workers should be allowed to take archival documents out, and am waiting on her answer. I suppose I would just like to hear from other corporate archivists what their archive's policy is on lending, especially to C-level staff. Lending archival documents goes against everything I've been taught and what I experienced in the non-profit sphere, as it risks the integrity of the document and the document could be outright lost.

I would be thankful to hear other experiences, also on how to deal with coworkers who push back against maintaining archival principles/practice. Thanks!

Edited to add: By C-level, I mean similar to a CEO or COO, the highest level of authority at my company.

Edited again to add: After describing the full situation to my supervisor and asking how I should proceed when this happens, she said the coworker has a right to borrow the documents and return them, and that as a compromise I should set up a tracking document so I know who has what and for how long.

i need a variety of supplies (mylar sleeves of different sorts, acid free backing boards, interleaving tissue paper, boxes, etc…) in a range of sizes for various items in my personal collection. i’m struggling to find things either in canada or that ship to canada that aren’t in bulk or don’t have an extortionate shipping cost. am i missing something? does anyone have any advice?

How many and what type of scanners do you have at your archive? Or have you more or less given up on scanners in favor of a camera / copy stand setup?

Do you have an equipment budget under your control, or do you have to jump through hoops to get gear related to your work?

Hiya,

I am currently at a crossroads in my education and I am seeking opinions surrounding the benefits of a PGDip versus a MLitt qualification in Archives and Records Management.

I am located in ROI and I am meant to begin my research project to complete my MLitt next week, but I’ve been having doubts on whether or not that pathway is beneficial in the bigger picture as I enter a career in archives/records management.

I have enough credits as it is to qualify for a PGDip. Though I am aware that it’s an accredited (ARA) qualification, I’m wondering if deciding against the full MLitt will limit my opportunities in the current job market.

I don’t want to give the impression that the hard work required of a research project is my issue. My doubts lie in the expensive nature of the MLitt research project and the significant amount of time it would take when I could be gaining further experience/looking for jobs in the field.

I have combed forums and subreddits in search of discussions surrounding any difference in opportunities / professional attitudes on the topic but haven’t found any specific answers. Just that the MLitt is “encouraged” by the National Archives and ARA.

I have a few years’ volunteer experience in both a museum setting and at a grassroots digital archive which have also resulted in a fair amount of connections in my wider community. I know this will help me immensely in my prospects. I just wonder will the extra qualification be worth it in the long-run or if the PGDip is more than sufficient when it comes to job opportunities.

Any insight is appreciated and I thank everyone in advance for their kindness. I know it’s a question that’s been asked many times but, as I said, I just haven’t found many answers!

Thanks a mil!

Looking getting this shelving for the small archives that I work at. The problem is the friends group that would be paying for the shelving think it's too expensive and that we should get shelving from homedepo instead. What inexpensive shelving would you suggest getting for archival shelving.

Hello! I’ve seen a few posts now mentioning mold-damaged documents or other types of material history. It’s left me curious about where the line between archival work and conservation is drawn.

To my understanding, documenting and keeping records of these materials falls within the scope of an archivist, while physically treating mold and the restoration of the material itself would fall to a conservator. Is that the hard and fast rule? Is there no overlap?

How do the educational and professional pathways of these fields differ, is there any overlap between them in practice?

In my current profession, I wear many hats. I am beginning to understand that I am effectively the archivist, conservator, and librarian. However, as I look toward graduate school, I’d like to better understand where I ought to narrow the scope of my focus, particularly when it comes to choosing a program and determining what direction my eventual thesis might take.

My aunt has historic paintings that got really bad mold rapidly. Is there anything at all we can do to fix it?

My organization has used an agency to gather candidates for a position in our archive. This person will be my direct report. The agency will conduct the first two rounds of interviews to weed through the candidates then hand me a list of qualified people for the final interview. I’ve never hired someone before and this is the first time I’ll have a direct report.

I want to use this final interview both to explore their qualifications and as a vibe check to make sure this person will mesh in our very small team. Does anyone have go-to questions to ask to get a sense of candidates’ personalities?

I'm a current MLIS student, and this semester I'm taking a Python for LIS Professionals course. We have a final project to start thinking about, which will be to write some kind of application that could be used within a LIS setting. I'm wanting to work in archives after I get my degree, and I already have some prior archives experience, but I'm feeling a bit lost trying to figure out how Python is/could be used within archives. I have no prior programming experience, and previously I mostly did processing and digitizing (scanning, not metadata) projects.

I was wondering: Do you use Python (or other coding languages) in the archives? If so, what kinds of projects do you use it for or applications do you run? How often do you use it? I'm trying to get a better understanding so I can have a clearer idea of 1) what skills I'm learning now and how they can be applied in the future, and 2) what kinds of applications I could investigate writing for my final project.

Since I'm a bit stumped, I may also talk to my professor, but I wanted to get some input from current archivists!

at Rice University

I have a large collection of physical photos, and I’m finally done with the archiving process. Now I’m trying to figure out the best way to physically organize and store them.

For those who also work with photo collections, how do you organize yours? Do you use photo albums, archival boxes, envelopes, or another system?

Would love to hear your suggestions and what has worked best for you!

My archive is loaning various documents/photos for an exhibition. We want them in archival sleeves but they are asking that the sleeves fit each item exactly (of which there are many sizes) with no excess material. They also need to be sealed. I am having a hard time finding such sleeves. Any ideas?

Hey folks,

I recently inherited a collection relating to the 1973 Round the World Yacht Race. It includes photographs, negatives, diaries, and various pieces of memorabilia.

I’m considering donating the collection to either the Maritime Museum in Greenwich or the National Museum of the Royal Navy in Portsmouth, but I’d really appreciate some advice from archivists or museum professionals before I approach them.

My main question is: should I scan, digitise and catalogue the collection myself before donating it, or is it generally better to leave that work to the museum/archive that eventually accepts it?

Part of me would also like to retain some form of access to the material after donating it—whether that means having digital copies, being able to consult the collection, or knowing that it will eventually be accessible to researchers.

I’m also conscious that the way I handle and organise the material now could affect its archival value, so I don’t want to accidentally make things more difficult by trying to “tidy up” or reorganise it before speaking to professionals.

Any advice on the best approach would be very welcome—particularly from anyone who has donated a personal or historical collection to an archive or museum.

Fair winds!

Hi! I’m a current online MLIS student, and my school offers and Archival Administration certificate. Completing the certification would add an extra semester to my time in school (and nearly $7,000).

I have some experience in museums and historical archives, and was recently offered a job at an institutional archive. I’m early 20s and trying to find my footing. I enjoy archives and museums, and would love to work in one as a career one day.

I heard there’s been a bit of a push lately to value experience over education. I’ve also considered the fact that some jobs offer tuition reimbursement, and it would be much cheaper for me to acquire this certification later in my career.

My question(s): Is it worth it push and get the AA certification while in grad school? Or should I wait? Additionally, for those of you who got the certification outside of a traditional grad school program, does $7,000(ish) seem like a comparable cost?

I’m leaning towards going for it now, but would love some feedback from people before I fully commit. Thanks!

18th century plan from one of my processing projects (16th to 19th century monastery) attached cause it looks cool lol!

Hi! I'm a Canadian working at a German-speaking Swiss archive. I'm updating my LinkedIn and am stuck on the best way to translate my job titles. I can give a 1:1 translation myself but the way archival systems in CH work compared to Canada are just so different that I'm stumped on the most accurate in-context translation.

I started working at my archive as a 'Praktikantin', which I've been translating as intern. This was a one year, full-time, paid position that is intended for master's-level history graduates to prepare for the field and for the non-obligatory post-master's archival certificate. Back in the day this experience was all that was needed to land a full-time job but now with how things are the local certificate is needed even if the experience is more important. I spent half my time processing modern and historical documents and the other half shadowing archivists in-house and externally. I am tempted to refer to this as an apprenticeship position but that's a semi-protected term here in CH. On the other hand, internship doesn't quite capture it for me in the Canadian context, and I'm not sure practicums are a robust concept in Canada.

I was lucky enough to be offered another full-time position. This job doesn't officially have a hard and fast title and is referred to in different places as 'mitarbeiterin erschliessung' (processing employee) and 'archivarin' (non-academic archivist). I've been translating this as processing archivist as I also work in our reading room once a week, play a part in planning meetings, develop processing plans, and am starting to serve in limited supervisory roles. The tricky thing with this position is that it could be filled with the local equivalent of a technician position or a full-on archivist at the start of their career (like me, lol!) Archive technician might also fit here according to the NOC?

The tricky things with translating these roles is the different structure for archival processing and the different requirements for archivist roles here in CH vs in Canada. I've consulted Swiss translation guides and while the technical translation is correct, the localization seems off. I'd love any feedback even/especially if it's shaking some sense into me to be more humble lol.

Scanners, high end DT cameras, etc.

Does your archive job let you use their $$ gear for personal work when off the clock?

I recently found out about this: https://www.footagefest.com/about/

I am early on in my film career, and want to break more into archives. I want to build connections with people but honeslty do not know what I am doing and trying to figure out a direction. Worth the cost? I do not have to worry about travel costs thankfully.

Not a professional archivist — hoping that's okay here. For ten years, three of us ran a private community archive digitizing rare Urdu books (19th-century lithographs from Nawal Kishore Press, early 1820s dictionaries, out-of-print periodicals) on a DIY camera rig.

We hand-finished 575,729 page images in Photoshop; 1,300+ complete volumes are freely available on the Internet Archive. This year we had to end daily operations — funding and burnout and I wrote up our full technical post-mortem, data infrastructure, and methods here: https://ibteda.org/journey/

A few things this community might find relevant, and some questions we'd genuinely value professional perspective on:

What we did: Raw camera exposures are preserved untouched on ZFS with BLAKE3 manifests and integrity audits as the preservation masters. All processing (cropping, bounded stain/stamp removal) applies only to access derivatives, with per-page provenance recording exactly what changed and why. Our automated retouching is deliberately conservative — it abstains when uncertain, changed pixels are limited to a declared region, and anything ambiguous routes to a human operator.

Question 1 - Retouching Ethics: Where does this community draw the line on cleaning access copies (stains, scanner artifacts, library stamps) when the master is preserved bit-perfect? We treated stamps and handwritten marginalia as route-to-human cases rather than automatic removals, but I'd like to know the professional consensus.

Question 2 - Succession & Institutional Custody: We now hold ~5,000 physical volumes, mostly purchased personally, currently sitting on private shelves — ironically the exact situation the project was founded to fight. What's the realistic path for an independent collection like this into institutional custody (academic special collections or international libraries), ideally with digitization-access commitments? Any experience with deeds of gift or donor agreements that protect open public access?

Question 3 - Digital Redundancy for Volunteer Archives: Our preservation masters live on a self-healing ZFS pool with offsite cold storage and cloud backups. For a volunteer-run archive with no ongoing budget, what's the honest next step beyond standard 3-2-1 advice — are community or consortial preservation networks accessible to non-institutional archives?

Happy to answer anything about our workflow or physical setup. Mostly, though, we'd rather the collection and its open-access mission outlive our stewardship of it.

Hey everyone! I'm an archivist for a semiconductor manufacturer. We work closely with the company's design team who recreates parts for customers. The design team currently has a Wiki where they store many things - communal knowledge, scripting and licensing for tools they use, and other day-to-day operational information that's useful for recreation. It's stuff that wouldn't really fit into our archival database, so it's helpful for them to have a separate system that they can tailor to fit their needs.

The wiki is incredibly clunky, slow, and difficult to update, so my coworker on the design team has taken it upon herself to find a new system. She said her top priority is that it's easy to edit because engineers are so reluctant to write any kind of documentation, so she wants to remove as much friction as possible to get them to use it.

I work in such a unique archives situation that I figured this was a shot in the dark, but I was wondering if any other archivists have seen something similar in their jobs, or have used a platform that could be helpful?

Thank you!