S e c r e t working in Military

T o p The truth
about archives
Archives Thank you to:
Carol Reid
researchers Submissions Maggie Arbour
One of the primary Before any item can be entered into the
functions of the Archives collection it must go through the submission fiona Anthes
To: AMS Grads 2018 is to make the material process. This requires researching the person,
available to researchers institute or event the Susan Ross
from around the world. item relates to, and
Subject: Archives Most collections are ensuring it will be a
christina parsons
available for consultation valuable and relevant maymie windle
When a museum student decides they in the reading room with 3 days notice and staff addition to the collection
want to work in collections are happy to help you track down what you need. by examining similar items MHRC Volunteers
Research and judging it against the
management, they don’t often think museums mandate.
The collection is also available for employees
about working in archives. But the of the museum to help them research new Appraisal
truth is, there is no role in exhibits, papers, books, or complete paperwork Once items have successfully passed the
heritage preservation more for things like new acquisitions. submission process they must be valued for
interesting or more valuable than Finding aids insurance purposes. Some common items have set
working in archives. Finding aids serve two purposes: they make the values established as an average by
job of cataloguing slightly easier, and allow institutions, but others must be researched and
You can learn a lot from clothing, their value estimated using auction results on
researchers a detailed view of files so they can
weapons, tools, and art, but nothing better decide which ones to request. Many large the same or similar items.
gives you a more accurate and collections of letters or Digitization
impactful view than someones papers would require A relatively new responsibility of an archive is
hundreds of catalogue to digitize it’s collection and make it more
personal writings. Researchers use entries to capture the accessible to people who
their diaries, photos, and letters details of the collection, many not be able to
they wrote to their loved ones to but with a finding aid you physically go to the museum.
can capture that detail for It is unlikely that it will
enhance the narrative they are
the researcher with minimal ever be completely finished
trying to tell and give readers the time spent. given the size of the
most accurate representation of the collection and the time
topic as possible. This can only be Cataloguing required to digitize, but
efforts are being made in
done thanks to the men, women, and Cataloguing new acquisitions is an never-ending
job, but a very rewarding one. All new conjunction with
institutions who choose to preserve acquisitions must end up in the catalogue anniversaries to make at
archival documents and photographs. somehow, either as a single record, grouped with least part of the collection
similar objects in one record, or as part of a more accessible.
Signed finding aid for a single massive record so that
researchers may have access to the material.

A/I M.E. Fothergill