Arizona State Archives

Happy National Paperclip Day! Did you know that archivists use plastic paperclips when processing documents to avoid the rust stains left by metal clips and other fasteners? Here's a selection of archival records found this week fastened with plastic paperclips, brads, grommets, ribbons, and all kinds of other fasteners. Of course, when I want to find an example of rust-stained paper to show why we use plastic paperclips I only can find plastic ones - which I guess means we're doing our job to protect these historic documents 😄

Here's a little behind the scenes sneak peek at our closed stacks featuring our oversized volumes. We're fortunate to have a building specifically designed for preservation of our historical records here - notice how there's space between the floor and the bottom shelf in case of flooding. What you can't see is the fact that these rooms are temperature and humidity controlled -they're kept at 55 degrees, so it's a great place to work during this heat wave!

Happy Earth Day from all of us here at the Arizona State Archives! Here are a few photos from our collection that highlight the natural beauty that our wonderful state has to offer.