Ask an Archivist: Bring Your Questions Monday, October 27

In celebration of Archives Month, join us Monday, October 27th, 10am to 4pm ET, where four of our archivists specializing in 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:

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.

Marguerite Roby is the Photograph Archivist at Smithsonian Institution Archives and manages several large photographic collections. Her work involves establishing intellectual and physical control over these collections as well as contributing efforts towards digitization and the management of digitized assets.

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.

Dave Walker is an Audio Digitization Specialist at the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage and specializes in the preservation and digital reformatting of analog audio media, especially open-reel tapes and instantaneous discs. He also participates in several national groups focused on best practices and standards in these areas, and on increasing access to preserved recordings. 

We hope that you’ll join us on Facebook tomorrow, and we look forward to your questions! If you don't have a Facebook account, feel free to send us an email. See other progams happening at the Smithsonian related to Archives Month.