Archival Management
Margot Note
How to Use Metrics to Drive Archival Success

Archivists often find themselves explaining the value of their work to administrators, funders, and the public. Stories about unique discoveries or heartwarming encounters with collections have their place, but when it comes to advocacy and decision-making, data provides a stronger foundation. Numbers create credibility, offering concrete evidence of outcomes rather than subjective impressions.

How to Use Metrics to Drive Archival Success
Archival Management
Margot Note
Why Sustainability Planning Matters in Archives

Archivists build archives to endure. Unlike many other institutional functions, their mission spans generations.

Why Sustainability Planning Matters in Archives
Archival Management
Margot Note
Ensuring Archival Inheritance in a Time of ...

Society is increasingly treating cultural heritage as a commodity. Archives face broader economic forces that reduce cultural materials to objects for consumption and exploitation. This commodification risks reframing archives as curiosities with market value rather than repositories of cultural heritage that serve the public good. Institutions once preserved records to document the past, but market forces might now recast them as investments.

Ensuring Archival Inheritance in a Time of Commodification
Archival Management
Margot Note
Advocacy Strategies That Win Archival Funding

Archives often find themselves competing for limited resources within larger institutions. Universities prioritize teaching and research, nonprofits focus on programs and services, and corporations channel funds toward revenue-generating initiatives.

Advocacy Strategies That Win Archival Funding
Archival Management
Margot Note
Budgeting Basics for Sustainable Archives

With shrinking resources and increasing demands, archivists cannot afford to view budgeting as an afterthought. A carefully developed budget is a strategic tool that connects an archives’ mission to its daily operations. It demonstrates accountability, supports advocacy efforts, and provides a framework for decision-making.

Budgeting Basics for Sustainable Archives

Organizing a Zine Collection

Organizing a Zine Collection

A zine (short for magazine or fanzine) is a small-circulation, self-published work. Zines come in a variety of styles: photocopied, printed on cheap paper, or professionally printed. They could and were about any topic imaginable. My favorites were the punk and true crime-related ones. Extreme Noise in Minneapolis had a free zine bin that I happily dig through every time I visited and I'd leave with the most interesting ones. Zines were particularly popular in the mid- to late-1990s, and were later replaced by blogs and social media. 

Celebrate the Festival of Lights

Celebrate the Festival of Lights

Families gather together to celebrate the Festival of Lights because it brings warmth, hope, and coziness to our lives. Hanukkah is traditionally celebrated by lighting the menorah, playing dreidel, and eating foods like latkes, or potato pancakes. Chocolate gelt, a candy that gets its name from the Yiddish word for money, is another popular treat.

Save Your Family Recipes

Save Your Family Recipes

As Thanksgiving and the holidays approach, I wanted to create a 40-question guide that could capture these special food-related memories. I crafted a list of questions to record as much information about a favorite family recipe as possible. As you gather together over a meal, take a moment to ask about the nuances of your favorite dishes.