I like this explanation of what we photograph archivists do, written by Marguerite I. Roby on the Smithsonian Photography Initiative blog titled The Bigger Picture.
"The only difference between you and me is that I have to adhere to a stricter set of guidelines and standards in regards to the physical care, preservation, and description of the items in my charge.
Right, so how is what we do similar? Do you have prints of pictures? We call these born analog objects. Where are they? Are they in an album? A scrapbook? A shoebox? Your wallet? On your refrigerator? This is called physical control. Are they organized in any specific way that’s meaningful to you? Chronologically? By event? This is called arrangement. Do you have digital images? We call these born digital objects. Do you add captions to them or “tag” them with information? Do you write on the back of your prints? This is called description. Have you ever received pictures from family or friends, whether from your grandmother’s attic or as an email attachment? This is called an accession. Do you integrate them into the rest of your pictures? Do you keep them separate? Have you ever gotten rid of a picture or deleted an image from your hard drive? That’s deaccessioning. Are you digitizing your born analog prints? How do you decide what to scan? At what resolution do you scan them? What file-naming convention do you use? Are your digital images backed up? If you were to give away all of your pictures right now, is there enough context to discern the who, what, where, when, and why of your life in images? That’s my job: to ask these questions, to establish control over a body of images, and to document their context so that they are accessible."
