Blogs
From Creation to Archives: Understanding the Records Lifecycle
Every archive begins long before a box is labeled or a digital folder is organized. It begins at the moment a record is created.
Tools of the Trade: Buffered Tissue
Here at Backlog, we’ve talked a lot about acidic materials. (Yeah, we’re looking at you 20th century paper products.) So by now you probably know the best way to prevent degradation is to neutralize the acidic materials’ pH. This, of course, is where buffered tissue comes in.
How to Start an Archive When You Inherit a Mess
Walking into an archival space that is already full can feel paralyzing. There are boxes stacked in corners, binders slumping on shelves, mystery USB drives in desk drawers, and no clear map of what any of it means. The instinct is to start organizing immediately. Resist that instinct.
Disaster Planning for Archives: A Practical Plan You Can Actually Use
Disaster planning is one of those topics people know they should tackle, but it keeps slipping down the list because it feels overwhelming, technical, and a little grim. The reality is simpler. A disaster plan is just a set of decisions you make ahead of time so that when something goes wrong, you are not inventing your response while you are stressed, tired, and trying to protect people and collections at the same time.
Thoughtful Digitization: Why Archivists Look Beyond the Database
It might be counterintuitive, but archival theory teaches us to save the originals after we digitize documents.
Tools of the Trade: Box Binders
Acid-free and reinforced enclosures with internal 3-ring binder rings typically used for storing photographs
Academic Archives: Why They Matter and Why I Love Working With Them
Through Backlog, I’ve worked with a wide range of archives. We’ve worked with museums, nonprofits, performing arts organizations, companies over 100 years old, and even parliamentary archives. But my first job was in an academic archive, and I still get especially excited when a school reaches out to us. This is my wheelhouse.
More Product, Less Process: What It Is, Why It Took Off, and When It Works
If you have ever walked into a storage room full of boxes that no one can access, you already understand the problem MPLP was trying to solve.
Why Archives Should Track Statistics
Keeping track of volunteer hours, research requests, and visitor statistics might sound like simple record-keeping, but it is actually one of the most important ways an archive can demonstrate its impact.
Deciphering Handwriting III: Industrial Revolution and Beginnings of the Information Age
The nineteenth century was so bountiful with changes in how people wrote and thought about writing that I expanded my earlier webinar into a second one focused solely on this period.
What OAIS Actually Looks Like in Small and Mid-Sized Organizations?
Let’s be honest. Most organizations are not NASA. Most archives are not running multi-million dollar preservation stacks with redundant data centers and in-house developers. Most of the places we work with at Backlog are schools, museums, foundations, associations, and mission-driven organizations that are doing their best with limited staff, limited budget, and a patchwork of tools.
And yet OAIS still applies.
What Are Access Copies in Archives?
When you visit an archive or library to conduct research, you will often want to make copies of documents you find. In archival terminology, those copies are called access copies.
Tools of the Trade - CD Sleeves
Anyone who has had a CD collection or dealt with an AV collection knows how brittle and breakable plastic jewel cases are.
Deciphering Handwriting II: Renaissance to Enlightenment
At the very beginning of the Renaissance, Italian writers developed humanist minuscule, which was less cramped and ornate than blackletter scripts. The cultural movement behind this script looked to the past and took inspiration from uncial scripts, calling the script litterae antiquae for “ancient letters” and reacted in opposition to the “modern” blackletter – another name for this style is “whiteletter”!
What is OAIS? The Digital Preservation Framework Everyone References and Few People Define
OAIS is frequently cited in digital preservation discussions, vendor documentation, grant proposals, and repository planning meetings. It can sound like a piece of software or a checklist you either “have” or “do not have.” It is neither.
How to Continue Capturing Your Organization’s Legacy Each Year
Many organizations are proud of their history and want to preserve it. They talk about their founding, the people who shaped the institution, and the milestones that marked major turning points along the way. That pride in legacy is often what motivates organizations to create an archive in the first place.
Deciphering Handwriting I: Ancient Rome through Medieval Period
This post is the first in a series on understanding and deciphering handwriting. In this introduction, I will cover key terminology in orthography and paleography and the origins of handwriting styles originating in Europe.
In-House Archivist vs. Archival Consultant: What’s the Difference?
Organizations often begin thinking about hiring an archivist when they realize they need better access to historical information. At that point, leadership usually faces an important question. Should the organization hire an in-house archivist or bring in an archival consultant to help build or organize the archive?
Tools of the Trade: Slide Pages
While slides can also be stored in boxes, a plastic sheet allows you to view many slides at once without taking them out of their protective casing.
Why Every Project Begins With an Archival Needs Assessment
The goal is not to write a report that identifies problems and leaves you with theory. Theory is useful in graduate school. In the workplace, you need decisions, priorities, and clear next steps.