Sorting and Organizing Archival Research

by mng249

Just got back from the archives and I have several thousand photographs on my computer. To minimize the amount of time that I waste incorrectly organizing this material, I was curious if anyone had any advice to share for how they came to grips with their research. At this point, I have about 50 folders on a google drive that I am sorting my sources into by type, box #, etc. Does anyone have any other ideas?

I know that I will ultimately only use a fraction of this research, so perhaps these are problems that began at the archives, but it would still be great to know how more experienced historians deal with this (what I imagine to be) common issue. Thanks!

caffarelli

Hello, I'm an archivist!

I know that I will ultimately only use a fraction of this research, so perhaps these are problems that began at the archives

Ding ding ding! :) You have early on learned a valuable lesson many veteran archival fishers fail to learn after decades! Don't take a picture of everything, you'll die!

Basic questions: how many items do you have, how many different aspects will you be analyzing them on, how long/large is this project, and do you plan to use your files after the project?