A unique challenge arises in the intricate world of archives—the risk of archivists being perceived as self-promoters.
In archives, leadership is not merely a role but a proactive stance transcending the archival domain’s boundaries.
Digital preservation is crucial to safeguarding cultural and historical heritage for future generations.
Archivists play a crucial role in safeguarding the past and extracting valuable insights using cutting-edge technology.
Records management is the systematic control of records throughout their life cycle to ensure efficiency and economy in their creation, use, handling, maintenance, and destruction. The records management life cycle is the distinct phases of a record’s existence, from creation to disposition. Archives and records management programs are often linked in an organization.
A records management program cannot succeed without the involvement of the organization’s decision-makers. Key stakeholders frame the record-management policy. There are two primary goals in involving decision-makers. First, since they will have a broad view of the organization, they encourage the message that no personal ownership of information exists. Second, their involvement establishes the necessary authority to conduct a record management program. Determine who on staff will be the stakeholders and the executive sponsor of this project.
The definitions and relationships in this thesaurus have been cultivated from my experience as an archivist, as well as reading the articles and publications of professional associations. The Archival Fundamentals Series, published by the Society of American Archivists, has been helpful in introducing core principles in an intelligent, enlightening way.
The records that you generate and collect in the course of your life or business are of immediate value to you in conducting your day-to-day business. After activities end, related records serve as evidence of your activities. Maintaining records in a consistent, organized way helps preserve them and makes them accessible for future users. These records of enduring value are your archives.
Since photography’s conception at a time when buildings were a frequent subject for the lens, photographic documentation has been instrumental in raising awareness of our architectural heritage from the ancient to the modern, urban to remote, grand to vernacular.
Viewers usually engage with the world’s great monuments through images and plans, which act as representations of the architecture itself. Rather than neutral reproductions of the past, architectural records are visual constructions with historical, aesthetic, and cultural frames of reference and connotations that evolve in response to changing contexts.
Photographs are a wonderful asset for archival repositories because of their broad appeal. The range of users for visual materials—including artists, designers, publishers, and producers—is wider than for textual records. Accommodating all these users can be a challenge, especially if they have unreasonable deadlines and expectations.
Archival appraisal determines whether materials have permanent, research value within the context of the institution’s collecting policy and mission. Appraisal activities include examining records to discover their contents, provenance, order and completeness, authenticity and reliability, condition, related preservation costs, and intrinsic value.
