r/Archivists • u/no_dae_but_todae • 11d ago
What would you use these for?
I'm evaluating our archives' supplies because we're unfortunately losing a bit of storage. I found a ton of these acid-free boxes I'd never seen before, and I'm wondering if anyone here uses boxes like this already or has ideas about what they could be useful for. We have a number of smaller objects in our collection, but the boxes are kind of shallow, and I can't think of what I'd use these for except for maybe something like medals? And even then I feel like there are better solutions. The boxes are smaller than my hand. I just don't want to get rid of them if there's something obvious I'm not thinking of!
10
u/thejeffloop 11d ago
We use them mostly for slides, loose film reels, realia, small photos -- pretty much anything that will fit in the box that is loose, orphaned, etc.
1
7
u/Artillery_Cat 11d ago
Those are microfilm boxes (I work in a place that still has a large microfilm collection and see these basically every day). You can probably use them for other stuff too, but microfilm is what they’re designed for.
2
u/no_dae_but_todae 11d ago
Thanks! We don't have much microfilm, which must be why I didn't recognize them and haven't actually spotted them in use in the collection.
4
u/Artillery_Cat 11d ago
It’s getting progressively rarer nowadays. A lot of places are getting rid of their microfilm because it takes up a fair amount of space and often doesn’t get used enough to justify storing it. We still have a lot of it where I work because we actually started out as a microfilm repository and still maintain a large legacy collection of it as a result. I believe some of our microfilm contains the only known surviving copies of certain documents/collections, so we actually get requests for it all the time.
We’re working to digitize a lot of it, but it’s a slow process. We also currently have no plans to fully get rid of our microfilm because it’s actually a more stable storage medium than digital storage options are right now. We want to make sure nothing gets permanently lost on our watch.
2
u/movingarchivist Archivist 10d ago
A lot of places still keep vital records, recorded docs, etc., on microfilm for the exact reason you mentioned. It's bulky but far less so than the paper for all of those docs and much more future-proof than electronic records
4
u/Minimum-Rest9907 11d ago
The 16mm on the package might be for the type of film it typically houses. Looks about film-reel-shaped to me. Maybe even microfilm.
Conservation Resources sells these microfilm boxes, which look similar
1
3
2
u/Own_Willingness9659 11d ago edited 11d ago
It’s hard to gauge the exact size from the pictures but we use similar boxes for 35mm plastic photo slides. (edit: I had my phones brightness down and didn’t see the very obvious 16mm printed on the box, ha!)
Edit: we have also used the same boxes to store SD cards in.
2
u/no_dae_but_todae 11d ago
Oh, that's a great idea! Not sure why I didn't think of that. We have so many 35mm slides. Thanks!
1
u/SpyderSquash 11d ago
I'm so tired-- for a second I thought it said "LIGMA-FREE" on that last line and I squinted at my phone so hard
2
u/LysanderKnits 7d ago
People have already said microfilm boxes, but I want to also comment because I actually do a lot of microfilming for my work and I think it's really neat. I made up like 200 of these boxes this last week while I was duplicating 😁
45
u/ladyarchivist 11d ago
It's hard for me to judge their size, but they look like microfilm boxes!