Stacy Vandenput MARA CPM LM

07/16/2026

Here is one example of how my archival work can look.

In this post for a regional musician’s legacy page, I took a single item—a 1990 𝘈𝘳𝘵 𝘔𝘶𝘴𝘤𝘭𝘦 feature—and developed it into a structured, contextualized public exhibit.

This is more than sharing an image. It involves:

✔️ proper processing and inventory
✔️ accurate citation and description
✔️ selection and framing of key excerpts
✔️ presentation designed for engagement and long-term access

When materials are organized and described correctly, they remain usable and discoverable across time—even as platforms and technologies change.

Most collections already contain meaningful records like this. The difference is in how they are prepared, interpreted, and presented.

How might this approach serve your important collections?

—Stacy Vandenput
𝘈𝘳𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘷𝘪𝘴𝘵

07/06/2026

How to turn iPhone into a secure, limited app phone for kids.

https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1C48W3hBt9/

05/30/2026

This May 28, 2026 Guardian review features a dozen images from the photo-essay book, Milk Factory by Corinne May Botz.

What stands out to me is how in 12 out of 12 of the images there are no beverages for the mothers.

The fourth image is the only one in which a fast-food beverage cup is shown, but when you zoom in, it appears to contain either a large piece of garbage or some kind of moldy growth. At first I even wondered if it was a toad. I hoped it might be a tea-bag, but I don't think that's the case.

Why does this matter?

While a common precursor to later-onset mastitis is the abrupt change in nursing frequency that accompanies a return to work, dehydration is also known among midwives and peer-to-peer lactation supporters as another key condition leading to plugged milk ducts and infection.

A common teaching point is that every time the baby feeds, the mother should have a big glass of her favorite, healthy beverage beside her, hopefully provided by an attentive partner who knows the importance of caring for the caregiver. This need for adequate hydration extends beyond the neonatal/postpartum period (4-6 weeks) and is just as important, if not moreso during pumping.

One could argue that the mother can hydrate while at the desk or other work space, but we know that self-care is not a priority while one's full attention is tuned to the job, and some companies prohibit food and beverages at work stations.

The point is to be nourished while producing, extracting, and storing the nourishment for the baby.

I witnessed in my practice that returns to work were a key time of calls about plugged ducts and mastitis. We tend to think of mastitis as only an early postpartum problem, but it can occur for as long as a person is lactating. Breast infections might even happen at surprising times such as during a shift from part-time to full-time work. We tend to think of the first few weeks after returning as a key challenge, and it is. But many mothers find ways to ease that stage by working fewer hours in a day or fewer days per week. It's not until weeks later, when they ease back into their full-time roles that a case of mastitis will often rear up and take them by surprise.

This photo essay captures the stark realities of these lactation spaces and non-spaces, but another thing it documents is the persistent lack of basic self-care that's afforded working mothers. It's not possible to do the labor of breastmilk production and the labor of earning without diminishing the health and well being of the laborer.

This is a good example, in part, of why today's child-bearing population isn't interested in having children. You can't achieve ideal child-rearing practices (like full-term breastfeeding and parental caregiving) where there are no family leave protections and payments to support it.

Article link:

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2026/may/28/milking-it-inside-americas-lactation-rooms-in-pictures

05/16/2026

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/stacyvandenput_when-the-work-outlives-the-worker-share-7461379811790442497-zvAv

When the Work Outlives the Worker: What happens to your records, creative work, research, and digital archives after death or incapacity? Learn how succession planning, digital legacy management, and archival preparation help preserve creative and professional legacies while reducing burden on loved...

05/16/2026

05/15/2026

Happy Friday Everyone!

I just wanted to let you know that I've updated my website!

The original purpose of the site was for my capstone project in the Masters of Archives and Records Administration program that I graduated from a year ago. I needed an electronic platform to curate my portfolio and demonstrate the learning objectives. So the website leaned heavily towards that academic purpose, which made things a little dense and it was hard to understand the bridge between my research and its connection to real people with archival needs.

The site is still a work in progress, and some sections are not yet open to the public, but I'm working towards that goal and want to invite you to take a look at the new format and content.

Leave comments on what you think and how it flows for you (or doesn't flow). Your feedback will help me improve it!

Hope you all enjoy your weekend!

Midwife, Scholar, Archivist, Consultant

05/02/2026

The timing of this article, "Keeping the Receipts", serendipitously coincided with my own decision to purge some things I'd been holding onto. While Bustillos' argument for keeping everything is compelling and true, I think there is purpose also in letting things go.

—————

Shreds of Past Existence
By Stacy Vandenput, MARA

I just spent an entire week shredding receipts and tax returns from my life back to 1987. Piece by piece, I recalled and had my memory confirmed, that the bulk of those years were a life of subsistence. There were no vacations, no weekends at the cabin or outings to the bowling alley or County Fair. It was rent, utilities, groceries, insurance, doctor visits, and sometimes, rarely, new shoes or jackets. When "extras" were afforded, they came from outside our nuclear family and were deeply appreciated.

It was painful to relive. It was also liberating to shred. I held them all this time as proof of the austerity, and with hope that the people who mattered might one day recognize the trauma of the experience and come to understand the cause of that outwardly imposed situation.

But receipts don't mean the same to me as they do to others, and it was time to let them go. There was a catharsis.

The recycling bin went out this week, and the shreds of that life were carried away. I took my dog out for a walk that afternoon, and all through the neighborhood, were bits of white printed paper blown out of the truck; even some of my handwriting was broken but recognizable as my own on those shreds.

I pondered the metaphysical. What is the meaning of that energy being dispersed instead of hoarded? Will the evidence of a painful past become a piece of nesting material for the spring chicks? Will it dissolve in the record-breaking 2026 rains, or get blown by the prevailing winds towards the horizon and beyond, dissipating the weight of what I carried?

https://archive.org/details/vanishing-culture-2026/page/1/mode/1up

04/16/2026

I’ve been updating how I describe my work, trying to better articulate what it has become and where it’s heading.

Sharing this here in the hope that it gives a clearer picture of both the work itself and the vision behind it.

04/16/2026

I'd like to extend my gratitude to Wise Women Gathering Place for the thoughtful gift of this beautiful corn husk doll, given as acknowledgement of my fundraising efforts for the Give Big Green Bay event last month. Thank you as well to all my friends who donated. 💛🧡💛🧡💛🤩