My husband and I are in the process of moving from a large house to a much smaller house. I suppose some might call it downsizing. I call it cramming. Logically I know that only so much stuff can fit into a given space – but I’m doing my best to defy that notion. I’m sure this is something we can all relate to.
In January, I wrote about beingOut of Space and provided some archives and records management guidelines for coping with this very problem – particularly where it applies to files, records and artifacts. These guidelines work and I recommend following them. However, I also realize that sometimes no matter how hard we try to pare our collections down to the absolute minimum, we are still going to have more essential substances to contend with than we have space. I came across the term essential substances when I was looking up the definition of stuff – which is, after all, a technical archival term!
Stuff is defined as: the material of which something consists or is made: essential substances. It is also defined as: raw material. Both of these definitions are perfect definitions for archives. Of course, stuff is further defined as: worthless objects – but we’ll skip over this one as we all know it has nothing to do with archives!
So what do we do with our essential substances when we are quite literally out of space? One obvious alternative is to get more space. So far my husband and I have rented one storage unit and will soon be renting another – temporarily, we hope – so begging, borrowing, renting or buying more space is one alternative – though generally an expensive one. The possibility of renting off-site storage is also a possibility for the diocesan archives.
Another solution is to physically reduce the size of those materials we simply must keep. Unless you can figure out a way to put all your records into space saver bags and shrink them down to size, this is where digitization comes in – again, an expensive as well as labor-intensive solution. It is also not a permanent solution, as media formats and technology change quickly. However, it is perhaps our best option as it has the added advantage of improving access. This is particularly appealing to me as I lift and stack my husband’s hundred plus boxes of case files into our storage unit (why he isn’t doing this is another story) – not to mention the hundreds of boxes I deal with on a daily basis in the diocesan archives.
Personally I like the space saver bag solution but as it’s probably not the most practical, I’ll continue my blog next month with some tips regarding off-site storage as well as more information about the many faceted topic of digitization.
Diane Wells
Archivist and Records Manager
dwells@ecww.org or 206-325-4200 ext. 2023
