With a heat index of 100+ degrees last weekend, I scheduled my day around some research at the Library of Congress. I didn't spend time in the building some of you have probably visited. Instead, the largest library structure on the planet sits down the block, where I worked with specialists in the Manuscript Reading Room to flip through documents from the late 1800s. 

My visit reminded me of two things: how much I love living in a city where I have immediate access to world-class archives and also my conversation last month with Rachel Nuwer. 

She told me that archival institutions weren’t in the set of solutions she had needed or considered for other projects. I loved hearing about the experiences of someone totally new, and her journey reinforced some of the tips I'd offer anyone looking for archival materials.

- Assume that more exists than you found on your own. Ask the experts!
For Rachel, the archivist encouraged her a few times via email to fly out for in-person research so she could share many other related materials. Rachel could only spare one (valuable) day. “I drank as much caffeine as possible. Stephanie had all the boxes set out, and I sat there for six hours.” 

- Gather, don’t analyze.
Even if you can bike across town like me, focus your limited time on acquisition. “I’d see an interesting letter, and I’d try to type it out,” Rachel told me. “That quickly revealed itself to be too slow of a process. I was taking photos on my phone of what looked interesting.” Yes! Save your analysis for home. Another pro move: snap a photo of any folder / box / binder before you start examining its contents so you can remember sources.

- Lean into the formality.
The registration cards, the lockers for your stuff, the check in / out. All of it helps protect fragile physical materials, and as Rachel discovered, “the pomp and circumstance made it feel special as opposed to sitting at my computer.”

As a fun footnote, someone later submitted Rachel’s journalism work to the university, and Stephanie emailed her: “you, too, are now part of the archive.”

Wishing you climate-controlled rooms and gems in the logjam.

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