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BUILD AN ARCHIVE YOU CAN ACTUALLY SEARCH.

Practice surveying, arranging, describing, and tracking small physical and digital collections without losing their original context.

BROWSE ARCHIVE NOTES

ARCHIVAL PRACTICE BEFORE COMPLEX CATALOGUING.

RecordVault keeps the work manageable with collection surveys, folder titles, reference codes, location registers, file naming checks, and small retrieval tests.

ASK ABOUT YOUR COLLECTION

CLEAR ORDER, DESCRIPTION, AND LOCATION MAKE RECORDS EASIER TO FIND.

BRING A SMALL COLLECTION, NOT A FINISHED CATALOGUE.

– Collection survey and original-order notes – Folder titles, date ranges, and reference codes – Storage, file naming, and retrieval checks
SEE THE ARCHIVE METHOD

WHAT NEW ARCHIVISTS NOTICE

The survey exercise stopped me from rearranging everything too early. I could see the existing series and record the original folder order first.

MIO SAKURABA

Testing the reference codes showed exactly where my inventory was unclear. After revising the titles and locations, I could retrieve each file more reliably.

TAKUMI SHIROSAKI

FOUR PARTS OF A WORKABLE ARCHIVE.

SURVEY

Record creators, formats, dates, condition, and existing order before moving or renaming anything.

ARRANGEMENT

Group records by provenance, series, and folder relationships instead of arbitrary personal categories.

DESCRIPTION

Write factual titles, date ranges, reference codes, and scope notes that support identification.

RETRIEVAL

Connect every description to a box, folder, location code, or stable digital file path.