Moving archival materials presents unique physical and intellectual challenges. Three archivists—Beth Myers, Dominic Rossetti, and Jessica Hopkins—will share the circumstances they faced as they merged and moved materials.
In 2014, the National Archives decided to consolidate all 119,000 cubic feet of bankruptcy case files from across the nation into one facility in Kansas City. These relatively low-use records were selected in an effort to improve space usage. Though the physical move finished in 2017, correcting the intellectual deficiencies will take several more years.
Smith College Special Collections was administratively created in 2014, uniting three formerly autonomous, but only partially colocated collections. Three years later, all collections and 18 staff were physically relocated to make way for a major library renovation. Special Collections was entirely restructured and then relocated in a breathtakingly short period of time. This talk will explore transitional planning, both of people and staff; major systems overhauls; new resource development and/or allocation; project management strategies; and changed workflows and technology.
Columbia College Chicago was founded in 1890, but the archives wasn’t created until 2006. The archives has amassed thousands of linear feet of institutional records and special collections from a variety of sources. Integrating these new collections while also being a new archives has presented several challenges for the staff handling the materials.
