Ask an Archivist: Bring Your Questions Thursday, October 22

In celebration of Archives Month, join us Thursday, October 22nd 27th, 11am to 3pm ET, where archivists and a conservator specializing in documents, books, audio/visual material, photos, and digital records (or electronic records) will be on the Smithsonian's Facebook page to answer questions about your own archival collections. Questions from our readers in the past have ranged from storing letter and diaries, to digitizing cassette tapes, to organizing digital photo archives. 

Here are the folks who will be on-hand to answer your questions:

Nora Lockshin is Senior Conservator at the Smithsonian Institution Archives, and conserves physical objects and consults on preservation goals with archivists, collection managers, and curators at the Archives and throughout the larger Smithsonian archival and museum community. She leads the Smithsonian Institution Archives Collections Care team, and the Smithsonian Center for Archives Conservation, a service, research, and teaching treatment laboratory for archival collections.

Eden Orelove is a Photograph Archivist at the Smithsonian National  Anthropological Archives.  She holds an MLIS from the University of Pittsburgh and an MA in art history, with a specialization in the history of photography, from the George Washington University.  Her work includes processing and inventorying photos and assisting with reference.

Michael Pahn is Head Archivist at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of the American Indian Archive Center located in the museum’s Cultural Resources Center.  Michael began at NMAI in 2003 as its Media Archivist, and has overseen preservation projects funded by the National Film Preservation Foundation, Save America’s Treasures, and the Smithsonian Collections Care and Preservation Fund.  His prior experiences include Save Our Sounds Project Librarian at the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, and Librarian at The Nature Conservancy.  Michael is a member of the Society of American Archivists’ Native American Archives Roundtable Steering Committee.  He has a BA in Anthropology from the University of Pittsburgh and an MLS from the University of Maryland

Lynda Schmitz Fuhrig, Electronic Records Archivist at the Smithsonian Institution Archives since 2005, specializes in preserving born-digital materials that include images, audio, video,  websites, and email from across the Smithsonian. Her work involves using tools and creating methods that help digital objects remain accessible in the future.

Related Resources

• Past Ask an Archivist Q&A’s, The Bigger Picture Blog, Smithsonian Institution Archives
• Conservation Blog Posts on the Bigger Picture, The Bigger Picture Blog, Smithsonian Institution Archives
• Archives Month Activities at the Smithsonian