How do archivists package things? The battle of the boxes

This fascinating blog post from the Region of Peel Archives in Brompton, Ontario, illustrates how archivists in North America and the UK package typical records differently. Comparing notes with Tyne & Wear Archives and the West Yorkshire Archive Service, Region of Peel’s Senior Archivist Samantha Thompson PhD MLIS explores key differences in the boxing of physical archives that are not typically given lip service. In Canada, the convention is to store documents vertically, while in the UK, horizontal storage is the norm. Samantha’s post painstakingly explains these different conventions with an illustrated breakdown of each approach, enlivened with some wry commentary on popular conceptions of how archivists actually work.

The blog can be found on the Region of Peel’s website.

Image Caption: North American style vertical archive box, as demonstrated by Barbie. State Archives of North Carolina.

How do archivists package things? The battle of the boxes

This fascinating blog post from the Region of Peel Archives in Brompton, Ontario, illustrates how archivists in North America and the UK package typical records differently. Comparing notes with Tyne & Wear Archives and the West Yorkshire Archive Service, Region of Peel’s Senior Archivist Samantha Thompson PhD MLIS explores key differences in the boxing of physical archives that are not typically given lip service. In Canada, the convention is to store documents vertically, while in the UK, horizontal storage is the norm. Samantha’s post painstakingly explains these different conventions with an illustrated breakdown of each approach, enlivened with some wry commentary on popular conceptions of how archivists actually work.

The blog can be found on the Region of Peel’s website.

Image Caption: North American style vertical archive box, as demonstrated by Barbie. State Archives of North Carolina.