Archives are like real-life detective novels

If you think archivists have boring, fusty jobs, then you haven’t met Angelica Bersano. She quickly puts paid to the stereotype when she describes her role at EPFL’s archives department, revealing a line of work that’s varied and interesting – even gripping at times. But it’s also highly demanding, as archivists are confronted with numerous challenges on a daily basis.

“If archives were boring, then historians and writers wouldn’t turn to them for inspiration,” says Bersano. “A growing number of writers are tapping into archives for ideas, and some archivists – inspired by a story they’ve uncovered in their work – have started writing!”

Combing through an archive is a lot like plunging into a detective novel, she adds. “You piece together traces of the past and accounts of prior events, in order to build a full picture of a moment in time.”

The people behind the events

Bersano studied sociology and anthropology at the University of Lausanne before taking a position at EPFL’s Archives de la construction moderne (ACM), which conserves documents related to architecture and the built environment. This first job was a “revelation” for Bersano. “The investigative methods I learned at university really helped me as I began to handle archives. In fact, they boil down to the same thing – trying to learn about the people behind the events.” She stayed at ACM for around 15 years, honing her new-found specialization.

Bersano joined EPFL’s archives department when it was created in the summer of 2024, contributing to the sizable amount of work required to get the department up and running. “We set up the ‘backbone’ of the department – that is, all the policy documents, pre-archiving procedures, internal guidelines, etc. that would guide the team’s work,” she says. Bersano also took part in larger-scale projects, such as arranging ad hoc premises that were better suited to the long-term storage of physical documents, and digitizing the department’s operations. At the same time, she and her colleagues continued to collect and process the batches of EPFL records that were sent for archiving. “Our department is responsible for compiling, protecting, describing and sharing content, both administrative and research-related, that would be useful to keep for the very long term.”

The art of sorting

Bersano spends much of her time sorting through the records that the department receives. “This challenging task is part and parcel of our profession,” she says, pointing out that the task requires patience, a methodical approach and clear, well-defined procedures.

“Every EPFL entity produces a significant volume of documents and other items: scientific data, research reports and publications, invoices, measuring instruments, images, Word and PDF files, book collections, slides, posters and more,” she says. The first step for her team is to catalogue all the items; next, they review them in association with the entity in question to determine which ones can and should be kept for the long term. Some entities categorize their records before sending them to the archiving department, but for others, Bersano and her colleagues must start from scratch.

In addition to the content currently being produced at EPFL, there are also records from the past. EPFL has a long history that spans not only the six presidencies since it became a federal institute of technology in 1969, but its previous incarnations too: École Polytechnique de l'Université de Lausanne (EPUL), established in 1946, and, before that, École d’Ingénieurs de l'Université de Lausanne, established in 1853. All this corresponds to hundreds of cartons and binders that must be sorted through and catalogued.

“Sorting is a lot easier for historians, since they work with records that have been left behind over the years,” says Bersano. “But it’s much more complicated for archivists. We’re an instrument of the passing years, in that we do this sorting task ourselves. Our job is to decide what items might be interesting to future historians and which documents might hold important insights – and whether those potential benefits justify the effort needed to store them. It’s a gamble each time.”

Digital challenges

On top of that, today’s archivists are faced with an entirely new set of challenges: the growing use of digital storage systems. Bersano explains: “After the pandemic, we saw a huge shift towards electronic documents at EPFL. As an archivist, I’m not sure that’s such a good thing. There’s still a lot of uncertainty about how long electronic records can actually be kept, as they’re quite fragile.”

The risks for physical documents are well-known: humidity, infestations of insects and mice, fire hazards, rust from staples and other metallic objects, and the disintegration of plastic covers and coil binding. Some older materials, such as the stencils used to make copies, change color over time and can bleed onto other documents. And then there’s scotch tape – “an archive’s arch-enemy,” says Bersano. But if a box is checked carefully and sealed tightly and no major incidents occur, the records usually last for decades.

Compare that with electronic records, which, in many cases, are no longer readable after just 10 years. That’s because storage devices are fairly delicate – USB sticks can deteriorate, hard drives can be automatically erased if they aren’t consulted regularly, and file formats can become unreadable as technology evolves. This means archivists need to install systems that guarantee that files won’t be damaged and can be migrated to new formats. What’s more, archivists need to keep two or three back-ups stored in different places and meticulously track and record all operations in order to ensure documents remain authentic.

“If you think about it, we’ve all become mini-archivists,” says Bersano. “Who hasn’t sorted through their emails, pictures and PDFs to free up space? And even if you’re not good at this sort of housekeeping, the hodge-podge of files found on your computer can be a goldmine of memories and other records that you may have forgotten.”