Description: On October 4th, 2017, we joined archivists around the U.S. for SAA's #AskAnArchivist on Twitter. We did finger warm-ups and dug up our tips and resources to answer your questions! We gave tips on preserving social media and autograph books. And things got a bit weird when people started sharing their favorite archival biodiversity photos, but fun nonetheless. We hope you enjoy
Description: The story of the first emoji which can be found in the Museum of Modern Art's collection. [via AIGA Eye on Design]U.S. National Archives is celebrating former first Lady and women’s rights advocate, Betty Ford, with new resources and citizen archivist activities where you can learn more about her life! [via NARA]Use this app, Native Land, to learn about the indigenous history
Description: Late 2015, the beta version of the Smithsonian’s Learning Lab, a new digital platform providing access to digital resources across the Smithsonian alongside tools for teachers and students, launched. I was delighted to see a related social media update hinting at some of the discoveries to be had with the Learning Lab, one of which showed Saul Steinberg drawings on Smithsonian
Description: It is the season of 90 degree days, the Folklife Festival, ice cream trucks, and the sound of the Smithsonian carousel playing its fun house music in the distance. As someone who has to commute to and from work by bicycle through the legions of tourist buses, crowds of umbrellas, and FBI paraphernalia, I try to replace my slight annoyance in being delayed by remembering that
Description: It's time again to celebrate all the wonderful things archives have and do! The Society of American Archivists declares each October American Archives Month and the Smithsonian theme for this year is "Discover and Connect." At the Smithsonian Institution Archives, we handle over 6000 reference requests per year and have an ambitious digitization plan to serve people worldwide
Description: Travel with us to the Galapagos and the Marshall Islands as we launch some warm-weather scientific field books, diaries, and correspondence. While it’s not very wintery in Washington D.C., we’re hoping this will offer an escape to those entering the long remaining months of snow, sleet, and ice. And if you’re avoiding the cold, what a better way to spend your time than helping
Description: [edan-image:id=siris_sic_9919,size=350,left] In 2009, we launched our first blog post and were a small team of 4 bloggers with contributors from across the Smithsonian. Today, we are 19 bloggers and have published over 2200 blog posts! We would like to hear from you; what features do you come back for and what would you like to see going forward? Please take 5 minutes for our
Description: On Monday, October 27th, four of our finest were available on the Smithsonian's Facebook page to answer questions about preserving your own archival collections. The four archivists at the Q&A have specialties in the preservation and organization of audio/visual material, photos, and digital records (email, digital video, etc.) This is our fourth year hosting this event and
Description: If you are a regular reader, or someone who works for a museum, library, or archive, you intimately understand the difficulty in managing big collections. If you’re not in this world, you do understand how hard it is to manage family photographs, a collection of email love letters, or the folder tucked in the bottom of your closet with old college papers. When you multiply
Description: Beautiful new publication, Picturing Children, challenging stereotypes about African American children. [via NY Times]Now THIS is a 360...of Apollo 11! [via Smithsonian Magazine]Why not go big? Check out the first 3-D print of a supernova! [via Chandra X-ray Observatory and Smithsonian 3D]Archivist resource alert! The Getty's updated Introduction to Metadata. [via the