Institutional knowledge · Field guide 03
Make the archive survive staff turnover.
If one person knows where every photograph lives, the agency has a person-dependent retrieval system—not a durable archive.
The archive’s hidden index may be a person
Long-serving staff often know that a project changed names, a photographer used two initials, a folder date is wrong and an unmarked drive contains the best historical scans. That knowledge makes an imperfect archive usable. It also creates a single point of failure.
Start by observing work rather than asking for a polished procedure. Give the archive expert realistic requests: “Find a publishable photo of a prescribed burn from 2018,” “Confirm the credit for this image,” and “Locate the original behind this derivative.” Record the searches, folders, calls and judgment steps required.
Write the local dictionary
Create a living glossary of program acronyms, project aliases, place-name variants, staff initials, photographer identities, folder codes and legacy system terms. Connect each synonym to a preferred term without deleting the language staff used historically. Search should find the old term; current cataloging should encourage the agreed term.
Separate fact, policy and memory
| Knowledge | Best home | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Asset fact | Record-level metadata | Photographer, date, project, location shown |
| Collection fact | Collection description | Drive contains digitized slides from Region 4 |
| Policy | Approved written procedure | Nest locations are restricted to named roles |
| Workflow | Operating playbook | How communications requests and clears a photo |
| Uncertainty | Review queue or note | Identification supplied verbally; needs confirmation |
Build an archive continuity packet
- System map: storage, catalogs, backups, exports and dependencies.
- Access map: role-based accounts, system owners and the process for requesting access. Do not place passwords in the packet.
- Collection register: scope, date range, responsible program, restrictions and known gaps.
- Metadata guide: required fields, controlled terms, examples and exception handling.
- Rights workflow: who may decide whether an image can be published and what evidence they need.
- Recovery procedure: who to call and how to restore access when the primary system fails.
Plan a handoff before a departure
Make knowledge transfer part of normal operations, not an exit-week emergency. Record short screen-share demonstrations. Schedule paired cataloging. Review the glossary quarterly. Require at least two people to complete critical exports and restorations. Assign each collection an accountable role rather than a person’s name alone.
Test independence
Ask a staff member unfamiliar with the archive to complete three tasks using only the documentation: retrieve a known original, verify its rights status and export its metadata. Every question they must ask reveals an undocumented dependency. Update the packet, then repeat.
Continuity is demonstrated when another authorized person can find, understand and responsibly use the record without reconstructing years of unwritten context.