Archvin' On the Fly: Getting an Archives ready for an institutional Digital Commons site

Title: “Archivin’ On the Fly”: Getting an Archives ready for an institutional Digital Commons site Background In 2024, librarians at a Midwestern hospital system began developing a Digital Commons site as a repository of their institution’s scholarly work. Librarians wanted to include historically important items from their archives collection but realized that one hospital’s physical archives hosted hundreds of uncatalogued three-dimensional artifacts. In June 2024, two librarians began systematically reviewing archival items for inclusion on Digital Commons. Description Librarians needed to establish an archives cataloging process, starting with weeding guidelines. The archives consist largely of donations - from retiring associates “cleaning out their offices”; from former associates’ families; from School of Nursing alumni – plus other unidentified materials. Librarians used these rules for keeping materials: • Historical importance • Specific/significant hospital associates’ names or images • Depictions of hospital system locations, medical equipment, or innovative medical procedures After discarding generic items, they created and documented an archives-specific workflow: cloning bibliographic records to accelerate cataloging, labeling records and physical items consistently, and devising location-specific records descriptions, and best practices for scanning, photographing, and editing images. Conclusion By November 2024, librarians had cataloged 361 items and organized the Archives Department to find items easily and efficiently, adding to Digital Commons the written histories for three metro hospitals and School of Nursing yearbooks. Next up are an institutional Who’s Who, histories of the libraries and Schools of Nursing, and a link to the corporate newsroom. To generate in-person interest and talking points for Digital Commons, librarians now rotate displays of historic School of Nursing uniforms, with plans to host an interactive Open House showcasing artifacts.