A Curatorial Challenge: Managing Artifacts in Academic Archives

Artifacts, or three-dimensional objects, are often found in archives collections. Whether by design or circumstance, document collecting and records oriented repositories regularly find themselves managing items that do not neatly fit into file folders and document boxes. Archivists face the challenge of discovering ways to adequately describe and care for these objects. By looking into the practices of museum professionals, archivists can develop strategies for managing artifacts in their care. This article conveys the methods instituted by the University Archives, Iowa State University Library, to manage its ever-growing artifact collection. The strategies devised include appraising artifacts for inclusion in the main collection, preserving the objects through re-housing in appropriate archival storage, developing techniques for description as well as a database to collect and manage the information, and providing access to the artifacts.