A R C H I VA

A R C H I VA SM
Personal Papers & Private Archives

720.220.3201

Services for Individuals and Institutions

q Initial inventory with written report on "as found" archives

q Advanced inventory & report on “as found” archives with additional listing by series in electronic finding aids

q Arrangement & description, history & scope notes, box & folder list, electronic finding aid

q Placement with negotiation of sale or tax-deductible gift

Initial survey. The first step in protecting any legacy is a consultation to determine what you have and what you want to do with it. We then inventory and write a report on what is there, where it is, and what condition it is in. ARCHIVA will propose the appropriate disposition of papers: some to be kept for private use or storage , some to be fully processed for research and placement in private or public archives, and perhaps some to be sold. Invariably, things are found during survey that owners have been unaware of having or unable to find or unaware of the nature and value of.

Advanced Inventory. Our most popular service is for those who want detailed intellectual electronic access without full physical arrangement or rehousing of the entire archives. Advanced inventory includes ‘triage’ or immediate, simple preservation attention to papers in peril – those in collapsed files, crushed boxes and other threatening environments.
Arrangement & description Papers requiring further processing are arranged in acid-free folders and storage boxes in archival series, with respect for the two time-honored archival principles: provenance and original order. Arrangement is at item- and folder-level, which means that rare and fragile items have individual folders while the rest are foldered in groups. A written guide in print and electronic forms allows the client ready access to processed papers. What is done with it is up to the client. Confidentiality as to the content of papers is central to the archivist’s code of ethics.
Referral & placement Papers of successful artists, writers and musicians as well as business people, philanthropists, collectors and scholars are collected by public and private manuscripts and archives repositories. Every responsible institution has a collecting mission or focus that must be respected. ARCHIVA refers the right papers to the right collections B suggesting a suitable tax-deductible donation to help care for them in perpetuity. Papers of ‘ordinary’ people were once widely collected, too; in certain areas they still are. Yet, as space runs low in public archives, private initiative for processing and storage appears to be an enlightened choice.
Long- or short-term storage. Long-term storage provides safe haven for papers not in or earmarked for public collections; any document or archive, from a single letter to several boxes can be stored. The owner may retrieve some or all stored items upon request at any time, or schedule retrieval for a specified person at a later date. Short-term storage ensures physical and intellectual integrity for papers being processed or placed by and for papers in litigation. ARCHIVA provides general storage information as a service to encourage private use of commercial document storage facilities.

ARCHIVA team members are bonded; client privacy is strictly observed.

· MISSON STATEMENT

· Archiva's mission is to promote awareness of personal papers and private archives as unique testimony to life in our time and to preserve these primary records for future generations.

· WHAT WE DO

· ARCHIVA is a unique teamwork-based archival management firm founded in 1996 and active in Colorado and New York. Our mission is to preserve personal papers and private archives that might otherwise be lost. We inventory, arrange and describe personal papers and private archives.

ARCHIVA teamwork yields fast, professional results.

· WHAT PERSONAL PAPERS & PRIVATE ARCHIVES ARE

Personal papers include letters, diaries, journals, and original compositions such as drawings, notes, poems, scores and manuscripts in every sketch and draft B and scrapbooks, photos, memorabilia, and civil documents. They are the record generated by the ordinary conduct of the life of an individual or a family. Private archives document the founding, conduct of business, and activities of private institutions, clubs and associations. Some legal obligations require preservation of certain records generated by quasi-public organizations.

Papers are one generation’s gift to future generations.
A true legacy of self, they are the mother lode of biography and history.

· WHO WE ARE

· ARCHIVA was founded by Helen Ashmore and Robin Guin in 1996 and began its first projects in 1997. Clients include private individuals, estate attorneys, and clubs and institutions including the French Institute-Alliance Française of New York, the United States Olympic Committee, the New-York Historical Society and the University Club of Denver.

· Helen Ashmore, M.A., M. L. S., Executive officer, researcher, writer and former university lecturer, worked with artists’ and writers’ papers in American and European archives before taking Archives training at Simmons College in Boston, interning in the Manuscript Department of the Houghton Library at Harvard. Member: Academy of Certified Archivists, Society of American Archivists, the Midwest Archives Conference, the Society of Rocky Mountain Archivists* & Beta Phi Mu International Library & Information Studies Honor Society.

· Robin A. Guin, M.B.A., Project manager, was trained at the American Graduate School of International Management (Thunderbird) and worked in Paris from 1989 to 1997 with private and corporate clients including members of the French senate, music producers, and multinational corporations.

· Joel Ashmore, Contract & Client relations manager, is a musician and music teacher. He performs with his own and other bands in the Denver area. He teaches art and vocal and instrumental music at the Denver International School and private lessons in string instruments.

*ARCHIVA^SM is an institutional member of the Society of Rocky Mountain Archivists.

· PRESERVING THE PAPERS OF THE PEOPLE

ARCHIVA works to increase appreciation of private papers and archives among estate attorneys and philanthropists with the goal of protecting the papers of more people. We encourage you to make provisions in your will to protect papers as part of your own family history and the culture’s collective memory. If your financial situation is such that you stay alert for projects you would like to support, talk to your tax attorney about the advantages of philanthropic giving to an institution of your choice-- and talk to us about preserving some part of private cultural history that you care most about.

If you would like to have someone from ARCHIVA talk to your group, please call or write for information on workshops and talks for legal and community groups. We were founded to help preserve the papers of private people from destruction. Let us help you save yours.

“Johnson loved biography . . . . he believed that hardly a single life had passed from which we could not learn something, if only it were told with complete honesty.”

– SAMUEL JOHNSON, Walter Jackson Bate

ARCHIVA access numbers

608-233-6130
720.220.3201

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· Contact us at the addresses or phone numbers above or at :Archiva@highstream.net