In March 2025, the Yellowstone National Park Archives hosted a group of seven graduate students and one faculty member from the University of Michigan School of Information for an “archives blitz” processing workshop. Modeled on the National Park Service’s BioBlitz program, Yellowstone first implemented an archives blitz in 2014 and 2015, successfully arranging and describing more than 500 linear feet of backlog physical collections. This past year, we coordinated with the University of Michigan to reprise this effort with the next generation of collection materials and graduate students.
The goals of this archives blitz workshop were to provide students with hands-on archival processing experience outside the classroom, introduce rapid-processing techniques, reduce Yellowstone’s backlog of unprocessed archives, and increase the discoverability of processed materials for researchers. The workshop was led by the National Park Service Bureau Archivist, Anne Foster and Yellowstone’s Interim Archivist, Erin Smerage.
Over the course of five days, workshop participants worked together to identify and describe records series, arrange folders, rehouse materials in archival boxes, and create file lists. Overall, they processed 68 linear feet of records from the Yellowstone Center for Resources (YCR), the park division responsible for scientific research and resource management. This collection, titled the Yellowstone National Park Resource Management and Planning Records, is now discoverable to archives researchers via this PDF finding aid. At the conclusion of the blitz workshop, the University of Michigan student lead, Sarah Lancaster, wrote a guide on planning and implementing an archives processing blitz, consolidating our planning process, daily workflow, and success strategies into one document. By making this guide available on our blog, we hope to provide some insight into the archives blitz process!
Photo: The final product from the archives blitz: 68 linear feet of processed archives, the Yellowstone National Park Resource Management and Planning Records.
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