We had an Open House on Wednesday afternoon to celebrate Archives Month and because we love just hanging out with our researchers, donors, colleagues, supporters: they’re friends! And we’re very thankful for them. We’re also thankful for Northwest Archivists, our regional professional association, for their financial support that allowed us…
It’s May, which means it was time for our Fourth Annual “Eating from the Archives”. This year we decided to feature military menus from our collections. Most of the menus, however, were from Thanksgiving or Christmas, with two being from special events. So while this was not our most exciting…
Over the past 12 years we’ve received grant funding from the Institution of Museum and Library Services, an independent federal agency working to support the efforts of libraries and museums all over the nation. Our grant awards from IMLS (through the Alaska State Library’s Interlibrary Cooperation Grant program) since 2004…
There’s a software glitch going on with the Alaska’s Digital Archives right now. In your results list, you may have noticed that when you try to move to the next page, nothing happens. We absolutely share any irritation you might be feeling. We know lots of you use the site…
Were you a part of the Women’s March on Saturday? Here’s what’s going on. As anybody who reads this probably already knows, we as an archives in an educational institution have an obligation not only to preserve materials, but to make them accessible, too. And it’s really important for students,…
When we tell people we permanently remove material (mostly news clippings) from collections, you can almost hear them gasp. When I have had to explain why newspapers are not archival according to our collection policy, they seem to understand. The Johnny Ellis papers contained a great mixture of most types…
When collections arrive there is a certain level of excitement. We love to get our hands in them, begin describing, and always look forward to what we will find. We also tend to learn something new with each collection, and we get to see bits and pieces of others’ lives.…
Note: This blog post contains many references to parts of a finding aid. It may help to reference another blog post, So, what is a finding aid? if you have any questions. How many archivists do you know? If you’re reading this blog, probably at least three, but if you were…
Finding aids. If you have never used an archive, you may have never heard this term used in this, or any, context before. Many first-time users of archives are often confused by the term “finding aid,” and then once they read one, they can be confused by the finding aid…
“So, what does an archivist do?” It’s a question I hear a lot from pretty much everyone, from researchers and other faculty members, to people I meet in my everyday life. I generally give them the short answer, which is that I preserve and make accessible papers and records, such…
