Archives and Artifact Collections: Managing Political Buttons at the University of Idaho

In 2025, the University of Idaho Library’s Special Collections and Archives accepted a donation of nearly 2000 political buttons, a collection type traditionally not held by archives. This case study documents archivists’ experiences processing and providing access to this artifact collection using existing archival infrastructure and expertise, including ArchivesSpace for item-level artifact description, standard archival supplies for storage, and CollectionBuilder for digital access. The project required adaptation and problem-solving at every step, from developing a flexible numbering system to imaging artifacts with flatbed scanners. Our experience illustrates LAM (library, archives, and museum) convergence as a matter of stretching archival practice rather than formal collaboration with museum experts. Despite encountering challenges such as time-intensive processing and limited experience handling artifacts, we have found the collection to be a valuable resource for instruction, exhibits, and research. This case study demonstrates both the possibilities and limitations of adapting archival practice to three-dimensional artifacts.