Thursday, July 26, 2007

Basic Archives

During the month of June, Monica and I enjoyed learning about basic archives work without leaving our desks!

The American Association for State and Local History offered an online workshop that allowed you to work at your own pace until the deadline on July 6. It also offered two live chat sessions during the course from an experienced archivist and one of the authors of the workshop. After each course, you reviewed it and took a short test or quiz.

The workshop information was not new for me but definitely verified that what I have been doing for seven years is good. Monica, on the other hand, learned tons of new information and she is excited to have a real certificate for completing it.

The workshop was divided into five courses covering the following topics:
Introduction to Archives and Archivists; What Do You Collect and How Do You Collect It; Processing; Housing Your Collections and Access and Outreach.

To summarize, we learned that you need a collection development policy, processing policy/manual, disaster plan, lots of supplies, lots of space for storing and processing and a sense of humor and attention to detail.

For the very-curious-minded colleagues, we have the entire workshop on CD that we would be happy to share.

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