If you’re interested in digitizing vertical files, we have suggestions! These have been compiled from our own experience at NCDHC along with the experiences of a number of our partners who kindly responded to a recent email asking for advice. The same thing that makes them valuable for research – their convenience, their long term growth, and the variety of contents – makes them incredibly challenging to scan. Vertical files are also the worst – for digitization that is.
Inside you might find photographs, clippings, family trees, pamphlets, handwritten notes – but because the contents accumulate over time you can find any number of surprises inside. They are a good place to store items that wouldn’t necessarily be cataloged or accessioned (individually and formally documented by the institution) but are valuable for research. Like the example above at Shepard-Pruden Library in Edenton, NC, they’re typically housed in filing cabinets. Vertical files are groups of subject-based materials often compiled over time to help an organization’s staff with frequent reference questions or research.
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