Description
During an internship at the Cummins Heritage Center (CHC) from March-August 2022, we assisted the head archivist in processing, organizing, and arranging the collections within the CHC’s archives. Through processing the CHC’s collections we worked to unify its organizational structure, develop workflows, and adapt contemporary and traditional archival practices to the unique needs of an archives within the corporate sphere. One significant portion of the work was the implementation of the content management system. We created schemas and workflows for establishing the hierarchy, organizing the data, and importing the records to the database. Another significant element of the work was digitizing analog audiovisual materials and still images of various formats. Corporations create diverse materials, each requiring its own digitization process to add it to the collection organizational hierarchy. One understated portion of corporate archives work is the importance of outreach and marketing as tools for communicating our importance and usefulness to the company’s stakeholders. This was accomplished by participating in sales conferences, assisting employees and outside researchers with research questions, creating displays that highlighted our history, and providing tours of the archives for our various stakeholders.