When Archives Have Artifacts: From Inventory to Cataloging at the Associated Press Corporate Archives

Abstract

The Associated Press Corporate Archives, located at its New York City headquarters, is the repository for the organization’s permanently valuable records, regardless of format. One important component of the holdings is a collection of 275 artifacts, spanning the years 1892 to 2017, which document the history of The Associated Press’s news technology and tell the stories of its staffers. This paper describes the project to catalog, describe and secure the artifact collection and to facilitate discovery for staff and outside researchers. It examines the process from preliminary spreadsheet to a complete cataloging initiative and the creation of digital images of each item.

Keywords:

• Artifacts
• ArchivesSpace
• cataloging
• metadata
• digital preservation

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Sarit Hand

Sarit Hand is the digital archivist for the Associated Press Corporate Archives. She holds an M.A. in history, a Digital Archives Specialist certification from SAA. In 2007, she completed NARA’s Modern Archives Institute. She taught high school history before entering the archives field. Sarit joined the AP in 2005 to manage the oral history and multimedia collections. Since then, she has assumed responsibility for managing electronic records and digital preservation and has spearheaded the integration of ArchivesSpace and Preservica, making both born digital and digitized assets discoverable and accessible. Since 2015, she has served as an election-night analyst for the Associated Press. She has recently been appointed to a two-year term (2019–2021) on the ArchivesSpace Technical Advisory Committee.

Francesca Pitaro

Francesca Pitaro is an archivist at the Associated Press Corporate Archives, where since 2008, she has been responsible for accessioning, processing and cataloging of collections, reference services and regular contributions to in-house publications. She has presented at Business and Description sections of SAA and is an active participant in the ArchivesSpace community. Francesca held previous positions at the New York Public Library (Rare Books and Manuscripts Division and the Billy Rose Theater Division), the YIVO Institute for Jewish History, the Lucille Lortel Foundation and the Port Washington Public Library. Francesca received a bachelor’s degree in history from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor and a master’s in library science from Columbia University.