Archives Blitz Team 1: (left to right) Anne Foster, Anna Trammell, Patricia Lehar, Shawn Bawden, Henry Mac, Justine Rothbart, Erin Bostwick, September 2014. It worked! A huge thank you to Team 1: Erin Bostwick, Patricia Lehar, Henry Mac, Justine Rothbart, and Anna Trammell, graduate students from several archives programs throughout the country, who joined us last week to test our idea and process a collection of archival records as a team and in just one week. It was hard work and there were a few things we can improve on for future teams, but overall the week went surprisingly smoothly and we accomplished everything we had hoped. We are especially appreciative of this team's willingness to be the Guinea pigs and offering so many helpful ideas and suggestions for improvements in the future.
This was the first test of our Council of Library and Information Resources (CLIR) Hidden Collections grant project: Using a Team Approach to Catalog Yellowstone's Hidden Collections, which was awarded thanks to the Yellowstone Park Foundation. Team One tackled the Interpretation and Public Affairs records. The collection started at about 145 linear, and after we removed the duplicates, non-permanent records, and records that belonged in other record groups, we ended up with about 122 linear feet. That's a lot to process in just one week. On top of that, there were a lot of different media formats in this particular record group, since it included all of the various ways the park has tried to reach out and connect with the public over the years. Despite the volume and the variety, Team 1 truly embraced the idea of a blitz and did a great job of thinking through and communicating the functions of the records to figure out proper records series assignments.
We were able to complete all of the necessary physical arrangement steps, including moving the boxes back up to our permanent storage area. The bulk of the intellectual information was also captured. All that remains is to merge the individual Excel files and import them into our collection management system.
Over the next few posts, we will share more detailed information about the process, including some participant insights. Some team members also Tweeted their experience using #archivesblitz. Below, please see some of the week's in-progress photos.
Day one.
Day two.
A great find.
Day four
Day five