For volunteers or staff at small organizations, collections management can be a daunting task. Archives 101 is a guidebook for people who care for historical records, photographs, and collections but do not have the appropriate professional training. Lois Hamill provides practical, step-by-step guidance for managing all facets of archival collections, from acquisition, arrangement, and description to storage and security. The book also offers advice on how to utilize PastPerfect software for collections database management.

Archives 101 is written for those who manage cultural collections regardless of their professional education or institution type. It has been recommended by archivists, public historians, librarians and museum specialists, from the national to local level, as a comprehensive and practical ready reference handbook. Authoritative yet accessible to all readers, this volume addresses all phases in the process of managing cultural collections including use by researchers, for exhibits, work with other specialists such as conservators or appraisers and more.

This handbook is unique in its comprehensiveness; practicality; inclusion of low cost options for tight budgets; discussion of questions to consider which enable the reader to adapt guidance to their specific setting; step-by-step guidance based on accepted theory; inclusion of specific instructions to perform tasks in PastPerfect 5.0, a collection management software; readily available free additional resources for each chapter; and an appendix rich with templates and examples illustrating the text.

You'll find information on how to manage a basic digitization project from beginning to end; delivery options for digital files; incorporation of the DACS and Dublin Core descriptive standard(s) resulting in an updated finding aid template; several additional approaches to processing; and incorporation of considerations for donor confidentiality and specific questions for donors of digital records.

About the Author

As university archivist, Lois Hamill is head of the Special Collections and University Archives at Northern Kentucky University. She has earned the rank of full professor. She has been a practicing archivist for twenty years working with academic records, photograph and local history collections, and local government records. She previously worked for a local historical society, local government and a public library. She holds a masters degree in History/Archival Methods from the University of Massachusetts Boston, a masters in library and information science from Simmons College, Boston, is a certified archivist and has earned the Society of American Archivists' Digital Archives Specialist certification. She also attended Rare Book School at the University of Virginia.

She has spoken at national, regional and state conferences on diverse archival, history and library topics, taught a photograph workshop at the annual American Association of State and Local History conference, and state workshops on archival arrangement and collections care. She was the principle investigator for an NEH Sustaining Cultural Heritage Grant to create and maintain a sustainable preservation environment through monitoring and analysis of the existing HVAC system in order to mitigate humidity problems and save energy; and a security assessment grant. As a successful grant writer, she has also been asked to serve on several federal grant review panels. She has co-managed several digitization projects, development of an institutional repository and installation of compact shelving.

Hamill's focus on archival arrangement and description dates to her master's thesis, which was followed by an independent study analyzing a library collection management module's compliance with archival theory when applied to photographs. Her award winning first book focuses heavily on arrangement and description and photography but broadly encompasses her other experiences. A subsequent second book, Archival Arrangement and Description: Analog to Digital starts with analog records and progresses to digital records, integrating information and standards in a unique manner.

Book Information
ISBN 9781538133019
Author Lois Hamill
Format Paperback
Page Count 302
Imprint Rowman & Littlefield
Publisher Rowman & Littlefield
Weight(grams) 617g
Dimensions(mm) 245mm * 177mm * 19mm