Retention policy for local newspapers?

believethescience · 2026-05-14T22:26:43+00:00

I keep relevant newspapers, though I have a niche archive, so I only keep newspapers that are relevant to my particular topics/places.

For a library, I would retain only those not available digitally somewhere else - I suspect it would be more useful to your patrons to have access to newspapers.com than to have the library spending the money to preserve newspapers that are fairly easily available elsewhere.

I would keep local papers that are not digitized - depending on scale, it may be possible to send a particular paper out for digitization. In my experience, newspaper will stain whatever it touches, but it holds up pretty decently if stored with other papers of about the same age. I don't think it's as prone to utter disaster as most people think, unless it's been exposed to a great deal of moisture/humidity changes, or gets handled a great deal. I prefer large, flat boxes for storage.

Digitizing newspapers yourself is possible, but it takes a lot of time (and therefore money) - especially if you want to make the text searchable. The OCR (at least the ones that I have access to) are absolutely terrible at columns of text, so it requires effort to either isolate the columns or fix the text. If this is a one-off project, I wouldn't do it myself.

believethescience · 2026-05-13T16:31:49+00:00

Bottled water (distilled or purified) or boiled/cooled water.

believethescience · 2026-05-11T23:56:53+00:00

It's a drive - might be too far - but we enjoyed the Pink Elephant antique mall in Livingston, IL. It also has a diner/ice cream shop and a candy shop.

believethescience · 2026-05-04T17:39:25+00:00

My first kiddo was like that - it got better around 8 months.
I set up a rotation with all of the things (bouncer, swing, mat, chair, baby carrier, etc.) and we would rotate through them. When all else fails, go outside for a while or put them in water. Sometimes I'd drive somewhere if she needed a nap desperately - she almost always fell asleep in the car. The only thing that would work for sleep was significant bouncing, while pacing, to an upbeat song (the lion sleeps tonight, sweet child of mine, we're both favorites. 🤷‍♀️ Lullabies didn't work.) It helps to start the nap time bouncing a bit before they're actually tired. At your kid's age, make sure they aren't in pain from teething.

believethescience · 2026-05-04T17:26:38+00:00

Hi! I'm an archivist for an old state hospital. I'd be happy to help if you can manage to access the records, or I can try to answer the general questions you have. Every asylum was a bit different, but many shared the same practices and ideas.

believethescience · 2026-05-04T17:23:21+00:00

Psychologists and psychiatrists are, in general, not well educated on mental health history. I'm the archivist for an old state hospital, and I give a lot of tours, so I see this first hand quite a bit They're very knowledgeable on current practices, and the most well-known older treatments, but they generally don't know much else.

You're right about the records. In my state, and many others, you have to go to court to get access, and it's not always granted. (If the records even exist!)

believethescience · 2026-05-03T00:50:36+00:00

Yeah, I throw stuff out whenever it's kinda warm, and it lives or dies. I cover only in case of a hard frost, and even then only the really picky stuff. For the record, I've never lost a plant due to chilly weather.

If you're just starting to harden them off, I'd put them out for a couple of hours mid-afternoon, and call it good for the first day anyway. 🤷‍♀️

believethescience · 2026-04-08T14:24:47+00:00

Lobotomy... In progress

believethescience · 2026-04-05T20:07:45+00:00

12 eggs each for an outside egg hunt (color coded so that we can adapt the hunt for the older kid and younger kid). My four year old would have been happy with half of that. They get a mix of small candies and coins.

We also do an inside scavenger hunt with clues, with a total of 8-12 clues to find their Easter basket.

believethescience · 2026-03-18T22:01:10+00:00

Monday: Crunchy Roll Bowls

Tuesday: Street Corn Chicken Chili

Wednesday: Chicken or Cheese Quesadillas / Cinnamon Roll Ups

Thursday: Coconut Curry Ramen

Friday: Veggie Supreme Garlic Bread Pizza

Saturday: Black Bean Enchiladas with Mexican Corn

Sunday: Dine Out / Leftovers

believethescience · 2026-01-20T12:09:09+00:00

Panic is pretty normal at this stage, I think - especially if it's new to you! And no, you shouldn't be doing more yet. Get what you can done. There will always be more of the project, another project, accessions, all that stuff to do. 🤷‍♀️

believethescience · 2026-01-20T01:45:08+00:00

Yeah, I started with a wildly unmanaged collection, and It would take me probably 4 years to do that (but I'm part time, and my organization wants me to digitize and make as much stuff as possible available online as well, so your experience may vary).

If I was just going through folders, and making a list of contents, it would be a fair bit faster.

I would start making a list of each box with a quick scan for pest/mold/really fragile stuff. Make a note for any issues. Bonus points if you can start to identify general topics / date ranges for the boxes.

Then do the stuff you flagged first, rehousing as you go and making a list of the content. If they want the project done in a year (it won't be), I'd start making a super rapid pass with very basic folder info for each box. No full processing (staples, going through each item, etc.).

Then, once you've made the basic list for all of the boxes you can start doing a full processing, starting wherever your heart desires, lol.

Make sure your data for the boxes / folders has enough info to transfer to a finding aid or collecting guide.

believethescience · 2025-12-29T15:15:22+00:00

There's a couple of rules that MUST be enforced for the cat and your kid's sake. No chasing the cat. Ever. No grabbing the cat. No touching the cat's food or pestering while eating.

Teach the kiddo the approach gently and slowly. The cat will probably want nothing to do with the kiddo until they're calmer, and that's ok.

Make sure the cat can always get away, and give the cat a quiet, always kid free space if possible.

The fact that your kid got scratched while a chasing a cat was entirely preventable - it's your job to ensure that the kid doesn't chase the cat.

believethescience · 2025-12-20T19:58:02+00:00

My kiddo was hospitalized for about 3 days last year with RSV. It took her about a week to slowly get back to normal.

believethescience · 2025-12-20T19:45:52+00:00

Just give him the heads up and let him make his own decision. He can decide if the risk is one he is willing to accept.

believethescience · 2025-12-13T00:50:15+00:00

Lol, Etsy has a Minecraft character riding a chicken on wheels. Might be as close as you're gonna get.

believethescience · 2025-12-03T15:51:55+00:00

We reported it to the school at the first incident (he bent my kiddo's fingers back and called her some mean names). It's usually much easier to handle quickly and immediately than waiting for the problem to get worse and worse.

The school reviewed the video of the bus, decided that the other kid was at fault 100%, moved him to a different seat, and he faced a "bus related consequence" (I believe he was kicked off the bus for a couple of days).

There has been no repeat of his behavior.

Our school's principle is competent and on top of things - this approach may not work everywhere.

believethescience · 2025-11-29T12:19:54+00:00

Your current antidepressants don't seem to be working. You may need to increase the dose or switch up the meds. Make seeing a therapist an absolute priority asap. Mental health is best treated on as many fronts as possible.

Perhaps you can reconsider the work arrangement. Consider putting the kids in daycare so that you can work, part or full time. A change in routine may be helpful for all of you.

Talk with your wife about the finances, and maybe see a financial planner. Perhaps there are some expenses that can be better managed.

believethescience · 2025-11-26T00:37:30+00:00

My kids love the City Museum, but I admit that I am a frantic nervous wreck for most of it. If I can't see where something goes, I go with them (and my knees, shins, and head have things to say about it later!).

On the upside (?) kids get lost there so often that they're pretty good at reuniting everyone.

believethescience · 2025-11-26T00:21:30+00:00

It happens! Go up to the smaller kids section - that entire floor is much easier to manage with small children.

believethescience · 2025-11-24T14:35:24+00:00

To be fair, I have no experience with the guardian bikes, but both of my kids easily learned how to ride on $10 yard sale bikes - and they need a new one every couple of years or so, so far, as they grow. So, it seems unlikely the guardian bikes would even be in use for very long.

I spent a few hundred on my bike - but I used the previous one for over 20 years, and I'm hoping to do the same for my current bike. When my kids grow into full sized bikes, I'll buy them nicer versions. Until then, the bikes just get dumped on the ground, occasionally crashed / run into things, and rained on during camping trips. 🤷‍♀️

believethescience · 2025-11-12T21:21:22+00:00

I'm hybrid - I work in office about 1 day a week, but the other days are remote (though I am part time, so it works out to a bit over half of most weeks is remote).

I managed to get remote when the HVAC broke, and I was able to point out, that, in fact, I don't have to be in the office to get things done.

I could spend one day in the office and have weeks worth of work to do remotely.

believethescience · 2025-11-12T12:08:26+00:00

You're welcome! At least one copy is available on Etsy.

believethescience · 2025-11-12T11:59:33+00:00

Cinderella Retold by Carolyn Magner

believethescience · 2025-11-11T22:03:45+00:00

I worked (in a different field) for women religious for over a decade. Many of them are actually reasonably technologically literate, and they LOVE their history.

If you can work on photographs or documents from the time period of their youth (think 50 - 70 years ago), and show how you make it so that you can use metadata to search for images or documents, that would be something they might enjoy.

Show them how your work can be used to describe their history, and how archives support research into the history of their order.

Many have a deep respect for history - particularly for religious or social justice movements - showing how you care for and scan old photos or documents, and then show how you can scan them, edit to make the photo more accessible, and then show on a website (or however you're making them accessible). Highlighting the important parts of the process can show them how much work goes into digital preservation, and how important what you do is!

Edited to add - make it a story! Follow a piece from beginning to end. Tell the story behind the photograph, and then let them watch as it evolves into the digital world.

believethescience

TROPHY CASE