Archives Basics for Churches | Session 1 - Introduction and Orientation
Supported by the Historical Society of the Episcopal Church
Promote preservation, Publish, Cooperate
hsec.us/da

Archival Work
•	Identify what to keep
•	Preserve what is kept
•	Share what is kept with others

What is an archives? “The memory of an organization”
•	Human memory
o	Short-term – immediate or recent
o	Long-term – recent or enduring
•	Organizational memory (documentation)
o	Short-term value – administrative
o	Long-term value – archival 

Role of the Archives – The role of the archives is to collect and guard the long-term organizational memory
•	Legal purpose
•	Historical reason

Archivist Responsibilities – Decide what to keep, keep it well, share it with others.
•	Collect materials for the memory
•	Propose policies to operate the archives
•	Make judgments about what to retain
•	Organize the retained materials
•	Guard materials
•	Guide others in finding items

An Archives is NOT a library
•	Modern libraries organized by placing all materials about single topic together  
o	Philosophy
o	Automotive
o	Biographies
o	Cooking
o	Music
o	Electronics
o	History
o	religion
•	
•	An archives organized by grouping together all materials from same origin (or “author”)
o	
o	trustees
o	treasurer
o	president
o	convention
o	history guild
o	building committee
o	faculty
o	youth group

An archives is different than a library Librarians and archivists share many of the same skills.
•	Libraries
o	
o	Published materials
o	Collect broadly
o	Follows set arrangement
(Dewey, LOC)
o	Access is relatively public
•	
•	Archives
o	
o	Unpublished materials
o	Collect from parent organization
o	Determine own arrangement
o	Limited access

Hybrid Situation – multiple items, no single point of origin, questions about how to organize.
•	oral history material (multiple people)
•	published articles (multiple topics)
•	ad hoc events (multiple events)
•	written histories (multiple topics)
•	Committees (multiple responsibilities)
•	recurring events, no single responsible / continuing group (multiple “point” people or groups)

Don’t Know What To Do? Organizing materials is art & science
1.	Do simple things you DO know how to do. Example – place like items into a working pile
2.	Form questions, write them down. Consider as you go, ask others how to do
3.	Avoid doing something permanent – do no harm. Example – cutting bound newspapers apart.
4.	Look for an answer
•	online (exercise judgment)
•	contact professional archives
•	contact professional associations on topic
5.	5. Establish relationship with other archivists
•	is willing to receive / respond to questions
•	share research you’ve done, where it led, ask the question(s).
•	ask for guidance.

Join an Organization
•	Episcopal Women’s History Project	ewhp.org
•	Historical Society of the Episcopal Church	hsec.us
•	National Episcopal Historians and Archivists 	episcopalhistorians.org
•	Society of American Archivists	archivists.org
•	Midwest Archives Conference	midwestarchives.org

Series Presenters
•	John Rawlinson - Past Archivist, Diocese of California, Archivist, Church Divinity School of the Pacific
•	Susan Stonesifer - Archivist, Diocese of Washington, Past President, National Episcopal Historians and Archivists
•	Matthew P. Payne – Director of Operations, Historical Society of the Episcopal Church, Archivist of the Diocese of Fond du Lac