The novel coronavirus of 2019 (COVID-19) crisis has forced archives to rethink their modes of providing access to physical collections. Whereas difficult copyright questions raised by reproducing items could previously be skirted by requiring researchers to work with materials in person, the long-term closure of reading rooms and decrease in long-distance travel mean that archives need a workflow for handling user digitization requests that is scalable and requires consulting only easily identifiable information and, assuming full reproduction is off the table, reproducing items in a collection under 17 U.S.C. § 108 or through a strategy of rapid risk assessment. There is a challenge in creating a policy that will work across different formats and genres of archival materials, so this article offers some suggestions for how to think about these parameters according to US copyright law and calls for a committee of experts to work out a model policy that could serve remote users of archival collections even after the COVID-19 crisis has passed.

What do historians mean when they say “archive”? One archivist makes the case for a more precise use of the word.

Add stuff to SNAC with OpenRefine.

Processing Note: Titles and descriptions were provided by creators of the collection. Some of these original titles and descriptions contain harmful language. In 2020, archivists removed transcriptions of the harmful portions of the titles from the finding aid and replaced them with [racist slur]. The original titles remain on the physical documents and digitized access copies. We have not removed racial terms "Negro" or "Colored" because we feel they provide important historical context about the materials and who created them and they facilitate the research process. We recognize that these terms also may cause harm and will periodically revisit our decision to include them. We recognize the complexity of this issue and welcome feedback on this decision at wilsonlibrary@unc.edu.

Nature - Records of past pandemics are patchy. This one has seen a global frenzy of collecting.

Today the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) filed an amicus brief in the Michigan Supreme Court case Ahmad v. University of Michigan, a case involving the use of a public...

From protest signs to Purell, archivists try to preserve 2020 artifacts before they're lost.

This publication shares the findings from the Archives and Special Collections Linked Data Review Group, which explored key areas of concern and opportunities for archives and special collections in transitioning to a linked data environment.

This blogpost is by Graham Jevon, Cataloguer, Endangered Archives Programme Creating detailed and consistent metadata is a challenge common to most archives. Many rely on an army of volunteers with varying degrees of cataloguing experience. And no matter how diligent any team of cataloguers are, human error and individual idiosyncrasies...

We want to change these norms and expectations. By publishing “Do Better” -Love(,) Us:  Guidelines for Developing and Supporting Grant-Funded Positions in Digital Libraries, Archives, and Museums, …

Allana Mayer Historically-minded folks will likely have seen the flare-up and fizzle-out of scandal around the USA’s National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) in January. A Washington Pos…

The Inclusive Description Working Group was formed in May 2019, and we are one of several working groups within the Archival Description and Processing Team (ADAPT) at Princeton University Library …

A4BLiP affirms the importance of making history and archives accessible to folks of all races, genders, and abilities. However, we know that many archives’ catalogs and finding aids, especially tho…