The more things change the more they stay the same! A couple of weeks ago I was given an old procedure manual for the Government Records Repository, State Records semi-active records repository, which dates from 1979. It comes complete with some not so politically correct hand drawn illustrations. However, the real gem is to be found on page 13 (significant?) which shares that classic rite of passage for all trainee archivists and records professionals…..how to fold a Type 1 box.
Category: Archives Made Easy
Jeannette Hope says:
I was alive and grown-up in the old days of 1979 and they don’t seem all that ancient. But you are not alone in regarding 30 years back as long ago and far away. My favourite is an article written in 1911, entitled ‘On the River in Ye Olden Dayes’ (Renmark Pioneer 25.5.1911). The date of the ‘ye olden dayes’? – 1879! In 1911 they clearly thought themselves really up-to-date and modern compared to the ancient times just 30 years earlier. Not to worry, in 2045 some future archivist will be chuckling at the weird and antique behaviour of ye olden dayes of 2012 – Twitter? Cloud computing? How quaint!
JennysOldCars says:
I used to entertain and amaze staff with my dexterity and speed at archive box assembling, bewilderingly [to me] some could just never get the hang of it though I tried to convice them it was just sort of big kids origami!
Some were always asking for refresher lessons, especially when I implemented a whole-of-office records management project that required getting thousands of records out of filing cabinets and into archive boxes for managed storage.
Though the paperless office still seems a way off will archive box assembly eventually become a skill of the past, practised only by those who preserve the old ways for demonstrations of how we used to do things? [written half smiling/half wistful]
Anthea Brown says:
I remember, when I first started here, watching some of the archivists compete in box-making contests! Can’t remember the best time, though.