For the Record

Deep beneath rural Pennsylvania, a hidden archive pulses with history.

Two hundred and thirty feet underground, in a former limestone mine, more than 400 million federal employment records are meticulously stored in 26,000 file cabinets, some stacked as high as 10 units tall. Each cabinet holds a trove of personal data, career histories, and performance evaluations, forming a vast paper labyrinth chronicling decades of public service.

This is the Boyers facility, a subterranean stronghold in Butler County, Pennsylvania, that has quietly housed the records of the US Office of Personnel Management (OPM) since the 1970s. Originally excavated by US Steel in 1902, the mine was repurposed in the 1960s for secure document storage thanks to its cool, stable climate and natural insulation.

For archives professionals, such as the hundreds of OPM employees tasked with managing records of this scale, preservation isn’t about individual items—it’s about the whole collection. Massive scale is one of the defining challenges of archival work.

Archive collections usually encompass far more than paper records, like those from the OPM. They include a wide range of materials—from rare books, manuscripts, and photographs to digital assets such as websites and social media content. Archives may even hold patent books with fabric samples and materials like plastics and metals.

Archivists preserve these collections by gathering, safeguarding, and providing access to vast arrays of analog and digital materials. Conservators, by contrast, concentrate on the physical care and longevity of individual objects, buildings, and sites.

But couldn’t these two siloed but complementary fields—one focused on access, the other on physical care—benefit from sharing their expertise?

Time to combine forces

Stavroula Golfomitsou, conservator and head of the Collections department at the Getty Conservation Institute, believes there is a lot the two fields could learn from one another. So much so that she launched a new area of work within the Conservation Institute aimed at bridging the gap between art conservation and archival science—fostering collaboration, sparking innovation, and strengthening both fields.

To lead this work, Stephanie Becker joined the Institute, bringing deep expertise as an archivist specializing in digital access and preservation. Her experience working with archival collections across the cultural heritage sector makes her uniquely suited to help connect these worlds.

“There’s a wealth of resources for the archival community, but historically, the Institute hasn’t been one of them, because its focus has always been conservation,” she says. “Yet the overlap between the two fields is undeniable.”

“In archives, the size of collections—whether it be records or archival materials—is so massive that it’s not possible to examine and treat every single object,” says Becker. “Instead, we have to think in terms of large-scale strategies that protect the collection as a whole.”

That scale shapes priorities. “For example, if I have an object or record that’s falling apart, I might digitize it and focus on preserving the digital copy,” Becker explains. “And if the object is beyond physical repair or too costly to conserve, we might consider discarding the original after digitization, because it’s not necessarily about the object itself, but about preserving the information it holds. Ideally, you would never discard an original object, but we need to make decisions that benefit the collection as a whole over one individual object.”

Information is never entirely immaterial though; it always exists in some physical state, whether it’s a piece of paper, a digital file, or an oral recording. That’s why it’s essential for archivists to understand the physical nature of these objects, especially when implementing preventive strategies.

This is where conservators and archivists complement each other. Conservators bring deep knowledge of materials—expertise that archivists may lack, since their training focuses on managing large amounts of information rather than individual physical objects. Conversely, archivists excel at organizing and providing access to information, an area where conservators may struggle. Together, they offer complementary strengths that enrich both fields.

Ask the people what they want

For Golfomitsou, collaboration between archivists and conservators is a chance for conservators like her to evolve. She believes that conservators and museums can better serve the public and adapt to changing needs by embracing the people-centered thinking that defines archival practice.

Her interest in archival methods began with a simple but powerful question: How do different audiences view, value, and access collections? Archives, whether historic or contemporary, are used and valued differently than museum artifacts, yet both have a core mission—engaging audiences around cultural heritage. Over the past two decades, a few projects including University College London's Collections Demography have explored how the public perceives the deterioration of archival collections, with research on public perception being particularly noteworthy, Golfomitsou notes. Too often public opinion is excluded from conservation decision-making, even though preservation is ultimately about access. Museums, she suggests, could learn a great deal from this archives-first approach.

Her work with the Swedish National Archives deepened this insight. “Their goals—preserving and providing access to public and private records, from government documents and military archives to maps, photographs, and materials spanning the Middle Ages to today—were similar to museums’, but their methods were quite different,” she explains. The difference? Demand.

Archives face constant requests for physical documents, and that active engagement shapes their conservation strategies. “In museums, ‘access’ usually means an object is on display or available in storage,” she says. “In archives, it means regular use, and that changes how you think about preservation—usability and accessibility become central.”

Museums haven’t always been driven by such direct audience needs, but Golfomitsou believes they could benefit from adopting similar principles. A user-centered approach could be as simple as hanging artwork lower. “Children and wheelchair users often struggle with pieces hung too high,” she explains. “And strict lighting standards can make it harder for those with vision issues to appreciate the art. That’s an access issue.”

Still, shifting toward more access-driven models raises tough questions: What should be preserved, why, and for whom?

“Institutions are being challenged to rethink the sustainability of their collections,” she says. And when it comes to managing massive holdings, archives offer practical lessons. “They’ve developed pragmatic strategies for deciding what to preserve and what to let go,” she explains. “Museums have policies too, but the process is often more complex.”

The hardest challenges

Because archives collections management and preservation is a relatively new area of focus for the Institute, Becker is still in the early stages of developing the work. Her first step has been conducting a broad, horizontal scan to identify the major challenges archivists face in preserving their collections.

“I’ve been looking at what those big challenges are,” Becker explains, “and asking how we might be uniquely positioned to support or help address them.”

One major challenge is capacity. This includes not only physical space to store materials but also resources like staffing and funding. “We’re in a moment where budgets are shrinking and staff are being cut,” Becker notes. “Yet institutions continue to collect, even as storage space runs out. Strengthening capacity means understanding these pressures in context and tailoring support to meet regional needs.”

A second challenge is digital preservation—a growing concern as archives move into an increasingly digital world. “Digital materials are extremely ephemeral by nature,” Becker says. “They’re not designed to last, and the problems are often hidden, because you can’t see deterioration the way you can with a physical object. Preserving files at scale is complex and resource-intensive, but it’s essential if we want to ensure access to cultural heritage in the future.”

For Becker, this challenge resonates on a personal level. Her own love of archives began with family photographs. “I’ve always been fascinated by the way photographs capture everyday life—bike rides, vacations, the same things we document now,” she says. “The technology changes, but the human experience doesn’t. Whether it’s a 19th-century photo or a digital image today, these records connect us to the past. That’s why the ability to save things—and know how to find them later—feels so meaningful. It’s memory work, and contributing to that landscape matters."