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Re: HELP! Adventures in Starting a New Archive!



Hi again,

Get yourself officially introduced, maybe something as simple as an email
message from the library director to the faculty and administrative staff.
Then begin surveying the departments to find out, at least roughly, the
volume of noncurrent records are out there. Don't assume that folks will
know what you want. Tell them that you are looking for those records unique
to the institution. Even so, you will find staff wanting to give all sorts
of published stuff, probably published elsewhere, while they are throwing
out the correspondence. Be sure to visit with not just the heads of
departments but also with those folks who actually know where the stashes
are and what they look like.

What is going to be covered in your budget? Space? Equipment? Be sure to get
at least one computer and software, or networked. Archival supplies? If you
are going to transfer collections beginning immediately, your survey will
help determine how many cubic feet of boxes you need (another good reason to
actually view the file cabinets and closets in offices). What time period
will your first budget cover? You can fill more boxes in 1 year than in 6
months. Do you need shelving immediately? Remember that book shelving is too
shallow for archival boxes. It might do in a pinch, especially if all will
be made new later in the year.

Read all the archival basics that you can while doing this and keep telling
the library director what you are learning. If you are lucky, he/she and
others might get more realistic in their expectations.

Thelma Boeder
-----Original Message-----
From: Matt Rauscher <mjrausc@ILSTU.EDU>
To: ARCHIVES@LISTSERV.MUOHIO.EDU <ARCHIVES@LISTSERV.MUOHIO.EDU>
Date: Thursday, January 20, 2000 2:53 PM
Subject: HELP! Adventures in Starting a New Archive!


>Hello all!
>
>I am in desperate need of help.  I am a grad student who has been hired by
a
>community college to setup their archive.  I have some experience working
in
>the field (IRAD Intern and work with another small archive) but feel a bit
>overwhelmed by the expectations of the college.  Here are some of my
>concerns:
>
>1) They want a budget for the archive by early February (I have no idea on
>this one.  Only three people have submitted their inactive materials so
>far. Thus, i have no real grasp of how large of a project i am looking at
>yet.)
>
>2) The college is getting a new campus sometime at the end of this year and
>by that time they would like the entire archive assembled (not necessarily
>processed).  The problem is that they only have enough money to pay me for
>10 hours a week and i will have no work area until the new campus opens (at
>the moment i am sharing a desk with 4 other people).  Any time saving tips?
>
>3) So far i have received a wide varietyu of materials ranging from cd's
>and discs to christmas orniments with the colleges logo on them.  The
school
>had visions of this being a paperless archive (put all documents on cdrom)
>but after discussing how much it would cost to update software every 5-8
>years they backed down on this one.  Any suggestion on what to do with the
>elecronic media i have already been given?
>
>4) I talk to my supervisor on a daily basis about getting the Board to sign
>off on the legitimacy of the archive but so far have not gotten a good
>response to that.  They agreed to look into it but how can i convince them
>that making the archive the an official body of the college is very
>important to gaining cooperation from the departments?
>
>Well i think thats about it for now...Help me if you can!
>
>Thanks
>
>Matt Rauscher
>newbie archivist
>
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>Problems?  Send e-mail to Robert F Schmidt <rschmidt@lib.muohio.edu>
>

A posting from the Archives & Archivists LISTSERV List!

To subscribe or unsubscribe, send e-mail to listserv@listserv.muohio.edu
      In body of message:  SUB ARCHIVES firstname lastname
                    *or*:  UNSUB ARCHIVES
To post a message, send e-mail to archives@listserv.muohio.edu

Or to do *anything* (and enjoy doing it!), use the web interface at
     http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/archives.html

Problems?  Send e-mail to Robert F Schmidt <rschmidt@lib.muohio.edu>