tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33275394945422699502024-03-05T02:02:43.764-08:00ChaitraLocs in ArchivesLandWhen a tweet just won't suffice... I write about archives hereChaitra Powellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10378223325366418587noreply@blogger.comBlogger110125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3327539494542269950.post-58492146081209804942021-06-02T08:23:00.000-07:002021-06-02T08:23:10.794-07:00WSBREC Newsletter, August 2003<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXCaz4gsODD5YZcKjc9l9jysO8GAFvdoDiT4uvMSQ2R5vx0PeRZXIBdcVnGurAdlBeHr-3lJjHnaNuQrOHYuHzfSL05Eb0JwtpHbzsRNPPaPzAppvvw3dBXf1Msh6vwyRoKqp8tRLffjNr/" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1920" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXCaz4gsODD5YZcKjc9l9jysO8GAFvdoDiT4uvMSQ2R5vx0PeRZXIBdcVnGurAdlBeHr-3lJjHnaNuQrOHYuHzfSL05Eb0JwtpHbzsRNPPaPzAppvvw3dBXf1Msh6vwyRoKqp8tRLffjNr/" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrttOPEodDvKJYM23J2-nJvwvP5YUZaD-c3nyjq7tkmYRgdstYOs3LjPx-eGjGO-EfEqeIiG4TmkSUwe1JoOe-7ctK7vNaahTpYCFslSz9_xwe3DbZJG3__PtobXxNMeFaXZYeU_MKkQoj/" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1920" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrttOPEodDvKJYM23J2-nJvwvP5YUZaD-c3nyjq7tkmYRgdstYOs3LjPx-eGjGO-EfEqeIiG4TmkSUwe1JoOe-7ctK7vNaahTpYCFslSz9_xwe3DbZJG3__PtobXxNMeFaXZYeU_MKkQoj/" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4N98VsnSw9Qb1COQAnlgjHAUDKYrm3RqwdeKOBpgxQ8VDntn-bbxykjVdT31cPVpFlOm5xs5lr0WruPv6wXS2UQr2CLtqh9g82Xw7zliZBJNuSKfPf8yUAFq0j9k3mYl7eVGL6V0xcXL1/" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1920" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4N98VsnSw9Qb1COQAnlgjHAUDKYrm3RqwdeKOBpgxQ8VDntn-bbxykjVdT31cPVpFlOm5xs5lr0WruPv6wXS2UQr2CLtqh9g82Xw7zliZBJNuSKfPf8yUAFq0j9k3mYl7eVGL6V0xcXL1/" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgo72umkxqFYGZ06upZrr4UxJTOmbm-4JMJgXgEiy8fl-_AYQ3eszPzqzyeAHOeGNFepCU6mFUSNKUJ2nxVjnIsnty1QfB8cbX47n_ACCFaEbwPcgrnGvo-GZJ3c-wlVUISXMMFVMVMbEnc/" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1920" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgo72umkxqFYGZ06upZrr4UxJTOmbm-4JMJgXgEiy8fl-_AYQ3eszPzqzyeAHOeGNFepCU6mFUSNKUJ2nxVjnIsnty1QfB8cbX47n_ACCFaEbwPcgrnGvo-GZJ3c-wlVUISXMMFVMVMbEnc/" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNoutAys1ZaFuzpOb72Jd6-F3lNgdp9bql3UyeZtQ7JuIT3thzGud-_cg5Ys6uC6KUsT_UzR7vsPvEXfDV7ic9KCV_YsIHpJrfUAGOYbVEsiFLoI5YZjFaQ_q_qUp86UZseaDgg-Pgp7Tf/" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1920" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNoutAys1ZaFuzpOb72Jd6-F3lNgdp9bql3UyeZtQ7JuIT3thzGud-_cg5Ys6uC6KUsT_UzR7vsPvEXfDV7ic9KCV_YsIHpJrfUAGOYbVEsiFLoI5YZjFaQ_q_qUp86UZseaDgg-Pgp7Tf/" width="320" /></a></div><br /><br /></div><br /><br /><p></p>Chaitra Powellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10378223325366418587noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3327539494542269950.post-28681441054440948192019-03-28T21:01:00.001-07:002019-03-29T06:05:32.880-07:00UNC's Mapping Black Towns Symposium: An Archival Take<br />
<br />
You ever get so fired up (in a good way) after a session that you sit down quietly while your kids are sleeping and write a blog post about it? That is what happened to me after reflecting on the Mapping Black Town Symposium hosted by the Institute of African American Research at UNC-Chapel Hill this morning. All of the presenters:<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.nypap.org/oral-history/cynthia-copeland/" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">Dr. Cynthia Copeland</span></a> (Public History, NYU), <a href="https://www.gonzaleztennant.net/" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">Dr. Edward Gonzalez-Tennant </span></a>(Anthropology), <span style="color: blue;"><a href="https://anth.umd.edu/facultyprofile/laroche/cheryl-janifer" target="_blank">Dr. Cheryl LaRoche</a> </span>(UMD-College Park), <a href="https://www.daniellepurifoy.com/about" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">Dr. Danielle Purifoy </span></a>(Geography, UNC), <span style="color: blue;"><a href="http://scholars.library.tamu.edu/vivo/display/n661156d9" target="_blank">Dr. Andrea Roberts</a> </span>(Urban Planning,Texas A&M), <a href="http://www.melissastuckey.com/home.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">Dr. Melissa Stuckey</span></a> (History, Elizabeth City State University) and <a href="https://anthropology.unc.edu/person/karla-slocum/" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">Dr. Karla Slocum</span></a> (Anthropology, UNC) <br />
<br />
discussed their unique projects and approaches to mapping black towns, but I was most engaged when they each responded to my question about how archives help or hinder their work. These are brilliant and experienced academics who have spent many hours in institutional archives and built many of their research findings on content found (or not found) in these archives. I paraphrased and redacted the speaker’s names, but here are some of their comments:<br />
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<b>Help: </b><br />
<br />
<i>I love looking at the historical marker application files -- they detail how people are making cases for markers, plus they can provide clues about who has the community memory and where to find them.</i><br />
<br />
<i>National Park Services have databases and records that have been incredibly helpful.</i><br />
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<i>There are archivists that embrace me when I arrive, even if it is months in between my visits</i><br />
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<b>Hinder:</b><br />
<ol>
<li><i>Archives need to address what is not processed, what are they hiding from us?</i></li>
<li><i>I don’t always feel welcome in archives - you have to put all your stuff away, they are watching you, and think you don’t know what you are doing with the material, there are sheriff’s deputies at the entrance to the archive.</i></li>
<li><i>I don’t trust the archive, I know they have ignored or destroyed records related to my community of interest, they need to repair trust with their users</i></li>
<li><i>There are not enough resources/training to help young scholars learn how to read historical documents for marginalized stories.</i></li>
<li><i>They don’t believe that I can find what I’m looking for - so I lie. I tell them I want the slave owners papers when I am most interested in the slave content.</i></li>
<li><i>Important truths about the enslaved are hidden in the manuscripts of the slave owner.</i></li>
<li><i>“If I’m looking for a needle in the haystack - bring me the haystack” It took time for archivists to see how serious I was about my search and they began to respect me more.</i></li>
<li><i>I’ve found that some repositories are not interested in digitizing their content because they don’t want controversial content out on the web - they want to control how people access and use their material.</i></li>
<li><i>I don’t like the way that archives undermine/disparage a community's desire/capacity to protect, interpret, or take care of their own history. From an unnamed archivist/historian: “the community think’s John Hope Franklin’s house was over here, but they don’t know what they are talking about, it’s right here”</i></li>
<li><i>I work with a local community activist who is in talks with a repository. He is having a hard time negotiating liberal access standards for his materials, The activist, “am I going to have to teach these folks how to archive?”</i></li>
<li><i>I’m paranoid about the archives, they are witnesses to some of the greatest crimes against humanity and they exonerate the criminals by obstructing access to material.</i></li>
<li><i>I want HBCU’s to be more engaged and supported in the preservation of African American stories, they have been so immersed in survival, the archives are not prioritized.</i></li>
<li><i>The reasons that communities keep archives is usually different from why institutions keep archives.</i></li>
<li><i>I built my own archive when I couldn’t find what I needed in institutional archives</i></li>
<li><i>Maybe us being here together today talking about Black geographies and agency will lead to the establishment of digital archive full of our sources…</i></li>
</ol>
I think that archivists are well served in considering how we are perceived by outsiders and not in a condescending one-sided, contrived, <span style="color: blue;"><a href="https://www.chronicle.com/article/The-Delicate-Art-of-Dealing/244070" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">Alice Dreger</span></a> </span>fashion, but in an open forum with space for many voices to be heard. It shed light on a few things for me. For example, I always considered the “backlog” as a purely administrative problem -- too many collections not enough time and staff. To hear that it is perceived as selective processing designed to suppress certain stories sounds antithetical to values espoused by most archivists I know, or does it? Of all the strategies that I’ve heard for addressing the backlog - starting with collections about the marginalized have never been mentioned. Institutions, like UNC, who are working to expose unprocessed collections and eliminate backlogs are probably on the best track for addressing these issues.<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
I’m also pleased to be a part of work happening at Wilson Library that is resonating with the scholars I spent time with today - namely the <a href="https://blogs.lib.unc.edu/shc/index.php/2019/02/27/a-new-project-in-wilson-untangling-the-roots-surfacing-the-lived-experience-of-enslaved-people-in-the-archives/" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">Untangling the Roots: Surfacing the Lived Experience of Enslaved People in the Archives</span></a>, and the Mellon funded, <a href="https://library.unc.edu/wilson/shc/community-driven-archives/" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">Community Driven Archives</span></a> grant. Untangling the Roots acknowledges hindrances #4,#5, #6, and #11 by targeting researchers who are encountering the records of the enslaved in manuscript collections for the first time and showing them how to navigate those materials. The Community Driven Archives grant addresses #2, #3, #9, #10, #13, and #14 by expanding the notion of what an archive can be and whose authority determines which records have enduring value. Although there is so much work to do, it feels good to engage in critical dialogue around these issues and discover new allies and colleagues in the process.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br /></div>
Chaitra Powellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10378223325366418587noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3327539494542269950.post-8450425997686461502018-05-08T15:37:00.001-07:002018-05-08T15:37:13.219-07:00Collections as Data, Tell us about it! - Forum #2, May 7-8, 2018 hosted in Las Vegas by the University of Nevada, Las Vegas<div dir="ltr" id="docs-internal-guid-e9d9a1e8-41cd-9b9e-ed49-a3ce19d48f1c" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times New Roman; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 22.08px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This week, about 30 scholars, archivists, cultural heritage workers and data enthusiasts gathered in the desert to weigh in on the progress of the IMLS funded <a href="https://collectionsasdata.github.io/" target="_blank">Collections as Data</a> grant objectives. After a series of presentations, we were guided through small group exercises to examine project personas, frameworks, and functional requirements. Below is the structured summary of the public facing (all presentations were live streamed) portions of the program. I'm looking forward to sharing this work with my colleagues at UNC-Chapel Hill, keeping in touch with the Collections as Data project team and my fellow attendees!</span></div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTzqqUl02fPP75AyzD4iTfrD9FuwoGSJhMnL_FZGpcgbts826OjZS6z_W5_RwYQ-bCkKED1-SJ91ceDRp32LsOqCde9G3f3ki97GBBNaEBHNA_OFCKDe0LrVSn6ucYik2spox09ZiDa7e5/s1600/yucca.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="900" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTzqqUl02fPP75AyzD4iTfrD9FuwoGSJhMnL_FZGpcgbts826OjZS6z_W5_RwYQ-bCkKED1-SJ91ceDRp32LsOqCde9G3f3ki97GBBNaEBHNA_OFCKDe0LrVSn6ucYik2spox09ZiDa7e5/s640/yucca.jpg" width="360" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Neon sign from the Yucca Motel (currently closed) placed in the "Neon Barnyard", also known as the <a href="http://www.neonmuseum.org/" target="_blank">Neon Museum</a> in Las Vegas, NV)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times New Roman; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 22.08px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="background-color: yellow; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Who is "Collections as Data" For:</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 22.08px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 18.66px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Dot Porter (UPenn):</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.66px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Curators: Looking at collections in new ways helps to make value propositions to donors and researchers -- should we be trained in programming, maybe have a support group</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 22.08px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 18.66px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Shawn Averkamp (NYPL):</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.66px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Researchers: The metadata we use gives illusions of completeness (it’s not all there), granularity (folder vs. item), consistency (results change from one search to another), and authority (we’ve decided what’s most important to capture) -- if we don’t look at data frameworks critically, we are doing a disservice to our researchers.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 18.66px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Bergis Jules (UC-Riverside):</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.66px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Activists: It can be dangerous for activists to have their data collected (social media mining companies, police working with social media companies) most users don’t know the risks, so many complexities could be tempted to bypass ethics, and high level of vulnerability for marginalized people.</span></div>
<br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;" />
<div dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 22.08px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="background-color: yellow; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.66px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">What is the coolest thing about your Collections as Data work?</span></div>
<br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;" />
<div dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 22.08px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 18.66px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Micki Kaufman (CUNY)</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.66px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">3D Modeling: Mass data scraping exercise, charting 40 subjects mapped across time from the National Security Archive at George Washington</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 18.66px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Inna Kouper (Indiana University)</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.66px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Measuring representation in large repositories: How well does Hathi Trust capture human knowledge (15 million records) over 2000 years. Used library classifications to see languages, topics, countries of origin -- to see gaps and strengths in the collection. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 18.66px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Greg Cram (NYPL)</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.66px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Exposing collections: U.S. Copyright Office’s virtual card catalog (45 million) cards coming online (blocks of text to be broken apart), allows us to find rights holders. NYPL menu collection going online allows for crowdsourcing transcription and geolocation, everything is downloadable</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 18.66px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Laurie Allen (UPenn)</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.66px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Data Rescue/Endangered Data movement around current presidential administration: also allows us to break open the library and let the light in </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: yellow; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">How have you implemented Collections as Data?</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 18.66px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Meghan Ferriter (LoC)</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.66px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Resource Sharing: Memory Labs offer tools and training to students and lifelong learners.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 18.66px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Mary Elings (UC-Berkeley)</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.66px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Strategic Partnerships: in order to solve complex legacy issues - unique problem as early adopters, so many heavy text based digital project from 20-25 years ago </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 18.66px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Helen Bailey (MIT)</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.66px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">LibGuide: sharing library APIs, also shared a nuanced examination of their process for maintaining data in highly customized systems and allocating resources in a measured way</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 18.66px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Veronica Ikeshoji-Orlati (Vanderbilt)</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.66px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Data Ecosystem Framework: thinking through the resource suck of managing current project vs. legacy projects, prioritizing content that exhibits intellectual labor, and capable of reuse. Also hosts working groups and seminars to share tools and talk to humanists about building and sharing datasets - strong sense of sustainability and minimalism. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #9900ff; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: large;">Tools:</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #9900ff; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.66px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Facial Recognition Scripts (Padilla)</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #9900ff; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.66px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">RDF Open World Framework (making collections from different repositories searchable; NYPL, Princeton, others) (Averkamp)</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #9900ff; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.66px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">VisColl (xml files that describe individual leaves of a manuscript) (Porter)</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #9900ff; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.66px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Omeka (no faceted searching) (Porter)</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #9900ff; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.66px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Mallet (topic modeling) (Kaufman)</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #9900ff; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.66px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Parallax (stimulate 3D) (Kaufman)</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #9900ff; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.66px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">JSON (Ferriter)</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #9900ff; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.66px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Jupyter notebooks (Ferriter)</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #9900ff; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.66px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Glitch (Ferriter)</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #9900ff; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.66px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">OpenRefine (used to clean up data) (Ikeshoji-Orlati)</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #9900ff; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.66px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Xquery (Ikeshoji-Orlati)</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: blue; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: large;">Readings: </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: blue; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.66px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">John Unsworth, Scholar Primatives (Padilla)</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: blue; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.66px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Chela Scott Weber, OCLC Research Position Report (Data and Special Collections) (Padilla)</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: blue; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.66px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Santa Barbara Statement: Collection as Data, Forum 1 (Padilla)</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: blue; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.66px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Algorithms of Oppression: “outcomes and results > intent”, Safiya Noble (Averkamp)</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: blue; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.66px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Artists in the Archive podcast: Episode 5 ? (Allen)</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: blue; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.66px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Johanna Drucker, Captured (Capta) data from researchers</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: blue; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.66px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Ithaka Survey: library trends toward open access, data management, and instruction</span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"></span><br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times New Roman; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;" />
<div dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 22.08px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #4a86e8; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.66px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: large;">Collections/Projects:</span> </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #4a86e8; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.66px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Jerome Robbins Collection @ NYPL (digitized and featuring Carmen DeLavalade) (Averkamp)</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #4a86e8; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.66px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Digital Walters (LoC subject headings) (Porter)</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #4a86e8; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.66px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">OPenn (local keywords) (Porter)</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #4a86e8; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.66px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">BiblioPhilly (discrete keywords) (Porter)</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 22.08px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #4a86e8; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.66px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">LC for robots (APIs for libraries) (Ferriter)</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #4a86e8; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.66px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Lomax Collection Visualization (Ferriter)</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #4a86e8; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.66px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Congressional Data Challenge (Ferriter)</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #4a86e8; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.66px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Inside Baseball” program coming this summer (Ferriter)</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #4a86e8; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.66px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Free Speech Movement data hackathon (Elings)</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #4a86e8; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.66px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">ArchExtract (supported arrangement and description of large archival collection) (Elings)</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #4a86e8; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.66px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">New Netherlands Project (data cleanup) (Elings)</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #4a86e8; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.66px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Algorithmic Justice League (Bailey)</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #4a86e8; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.66px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Charles Baudelaire (Ikeshoji-Orlati)</span></div>
<br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;" /><br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;" /><br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;" /><br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;" /><b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike>Chaitra Powellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10378223325366418587noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3327539494542269950.post-49697751808346952962017-08-18T11:26:00.001-07:002017-08-18T11:26:33.507-07:00Presenting Democratic Histories in Absentia: National Conference of African American Librarians <div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Dear Colleagues,</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I regret that I was unable to join you in Atlanta last weekend for the <a href="http://bcala.org/" target="_blank">National Conference of African American Librarians conference.</a> As soon as I found out about the acceptance of our session proposal, my dear friend, Jinwen, informed me of her wedding date...August 11, 2017... in San Diego! As a bridesmaid, a big fan of Southern California, and a hardcore wedding enthusiast - I had to bow out of our presentation, </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="https://ncaal.bcala.org/event/9zkX/democratic-histories-strategies-for-engaging-african-american-communities-in-the-archival-process" target="_blank">Democratic Histories: Strategies for Engaging African American Communities in the Archival Process</a></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.</span><br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img alt="FongBridesmaidme.jpg" height="278" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/6waJ0zg4TB8WYM0TO7-ZxoJBEsadQZbCEYkIohSQKxixp2LLPrFlfo7pivy-7STd-7E0bOqlO97276fz41EJKfxLh4DXSP0_gmgrqQbLGwhIW50DZLcALauQI6fkApleRsS-KUl7" style="border: none; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; transform: rotate(0rad);" width="400" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-f9451593-f59f-b122-c523-35b5514ba40c"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">5 bridesmaids and the flower girl standing near the alter at the #totalifontastic wedding of Jinwen Li and Chris Fong, photo taken by Tracy Lin in San Diego, California</span></span></td></tr>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">Although there is no substitute for sharing ideas alongside my co-presenters and answering questions in real time - I thought this blog post would be a good way to demonstrate my commitment to this work and keep the conversation going. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Why this session?</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">When I saw the conference theme in the call for proposals -- </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Beyond Library Walls: Innovative Ways to Engage our Community</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, it was easy to make the connection to my work in the Southern Historical Collection as well as stories from colleagues doing library outreach work across the country. Recently, I attended the <a href="http://lj.libraryjournal.com/movers/" target="_blank">2017 Movers and Shakers</a> reception during the ALA Annual Meeting in Chicago and every award recipient had an element of engaging communities in meaningful ways. I met a school librarian from Massachusetts who found ways to bring parents to the library to engage in student learning outcomes and a youth public librarian in Illinois who designed programs about gardening and sustainability for immigrant communities. When I had a chance to meet my future co-presenters (Shanee, Holly, and Skyla) in a <a href="http://www.calrbs.org/program/courses/developing-administering-collections-of-african-american-resources/" target="_blank">2015 California Rare Book School course</a>, I could see that they were interested in the same ethos of bringing established archival practices, collections, and institutions to new audiences. </span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I called the session </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Democratic Histories</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, in the hope that it would invoke at least two concepts in the imaginations of our audience. The first being the total representation of all the people implied in the definition of democracy - we are striving to build archives that are more representative of the people in our communities regardless of age, sex, gender, class, religious affiliation, sexual orientation, etc. The second is the idea of building citizenship through the participation in a democracy or an archive. Showing people how to use archives, how to contribute to archives, or maintain personal or family collections are forms of validating their experiences and giving them incentives and tools to question the status quo and effect change in their communities. If you are one of those people who hears the word democracy and laughs at the irony because you can’t see past the seemingly insurmountable inequality and corruption in this American democracy then you could probably provide an appropriate dose of cynicism to the discussion which can keep the scale of these outreach strategies in perspective.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The last reason that I was drawn to this topic at this conference is the opportunity to share an important moment of personal and professional reflection. Throughout library school and into the last five years of my career, many facets of archives work have called out to me. I love the way that archivists jump into collections, applying order, giving access, and churning through backlogs. I love to hear how we invent, adapt, and use systems and software programs to do this work more ethically, efficiently and across all formats. At the same time, situating archival materials in new contexts and adding to existing local, national, or international historiographies is fascinating. There is no better way to understand the past than to see people, places, and events through the lens of a stranger from history. </span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In the past three years at the Southern Historical Collection, I’ve grappled with the slippery notion of bringing material from marginalized African American communities or donors into an institutional archive. It’s easy for us as professionals to understand why this is important -- moral imperative, more complete histories for researchers, fulfilling missions of diversity, intellectual curiosity, etc; but why would communities look to institutions to preserve their stories when they have been doing it for themselves since the beginning of their existence? The examples that follow will try to answer this question -- but to me the question is really about outreach and ultimately requires a conceptual deconstruction and reconstruction of the formal archive. The opportunity to think critically and communicate clearly about what we do, why we do it, and who we do it for -- is a sweet spot for me. Hopefully the live session will include anecdotes from community members, archives professionals, and the general public that will keep your mind from going blank or dropping into “archives-speak” when you are inevitably asked why an investment in this type of outreach is worthwhile. </span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>What did I hope to share?</b></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">While my colleagues are well suited to discuss their engagement efforts with black churches, black college students, and black communities in urban environments - I was poised to discuss my work with black municipalities in rural environments. An extraordinary confluence of UNC professors, humanities scholars, and engaged mayors from these towns brought the Historically Black Towns and Settlements Alliance (HBTSA) to my attention in 2014. HBTSA was originally composed of five towns, Eatonville, FL, Mound Bayou, MS, Hobson City, AL, Tuskegee, AL, and Grambling, LA -- they have since grown to include more towns in more states. </span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It was clear from the beginning these towns did not represent traditional collection donors - they wanted to hear more about how the archives could serve their interests. Their primary one being support for using their impressive histories to promote cultural tourism in the towns. Representatives shared stories about how they could not register as historic landmarks because the necessary proof was last seen in someone’s shed - necessitating the need for a centralized archive. </span><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;">They wanted to have the genealogies of their founders properly documented and preserved. They wanted to honor the folks who had lived and died in their communities by cleaning up local cemeteries and clearly documenting the occupants. </span></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img height="400" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/ImYpSSG0pmynYrPZ-gGvnSsTLz8Q32DDm5bx3BQ5Wr3c_oBLmN50_ElkWMPxGB1lS6Oi2IEx2YxIH_UU0-id2Q-lzDBzsjrF5lC0_nrl4Al77HtYLJAZzN-O3BjXtMzJrbVQJbWx" style="border: none; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; transform: rotate(0rad);" width="266" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-f9451593-f5a8-a20d-3afa-05fecfc338ac"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Photo of cemetery, featuring an angel figure, flowers and the headstone Bernice Flowers; born: March 20, 1935, died September 31, 1973 in Grambling, Louisiana (2014), taken by Biff Hollingsworth</span></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img height="300" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/nkKlhTS1MY65GURlvSvidQzw7TO7cgifIqUinENxC_Wei40izaSU8GvUstmqApmEIQadbihKh88VFoApZX6pLA3EsBFtOn4GTubxOldgjR51UePrW2mcYQVkuOOzdlRRmDL_oaoN" style="border: none; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; transform: rotate(0rad);" width="400" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-f9451593-f5a9-5b00-e0c2-19077ddbe049"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Photo of archival materials from the home of former Hobson City, Alabama mayor, Mrs. Willie Maude Snow - brought in to city hall to show the extent of dispersed collections (2014), taken by Chaitra Powell </span></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img height="290" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/25oi3KJbOzXIypjAl8qkVjXR5ogcW1p3wtW6MZRgtwWKttVR0hwNT8_vfMNULUamdo0Ndg-g0a_Y_ksRYGaKwmYl3g8DiX3w63sL3gIcXZR-_I0FysudRXDvfulsi9U0Y7Lh3G32" style="border: none; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; transform: rotate(0rad);" width="400" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-f9451593-f5ac-77d1-4872-71efb016ce4a"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Photo of an unprocessed archival collection in the Tuskegee History Museum in Tuskegee, Alabama (2014), taken by Chaitra Powell </span></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img alt="IMG_9755.JPG" height="277" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/aH-_ODuySYwnQcTrZt_MvjV1pUizQsngKbEozt_mz1ws-Nf1OQ5ScfSicY16NdU4UB1E0o2g_3X0Jn4c_YM5Fs_6DXHbjjCkjgm3qlzVu1Pk9r1tQXalwWThXbC4HTu0NtvvskTA" style="border: none; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; transform: rotate(0rad);" width="400" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-f9451593-f5b4-2ab1-2514-5f42cbede098"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Photo of an Eatonville baseball or cricket team, n.d. shared by Maye St. Julian in her home in Eatonville, Florida (2014), taken by Bryan Giemza</span></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img height="265" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/K96iRjKs81ZGwzcLO-OU7807ZAPPpUlV-o8RNei4ZJYBFfpqvKIViHVuCo_8CGeKE1a2EX8FLG5aB1J0sSXXT9Cp96Z21KvzDIzqcNhtAikWg6MSkpVWbviQDfpUaQVu_yaSa_i4" style="border: none; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; transform: rotate(0rad);" width="400" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-f9451593-f627-7c2b-17a9-e37738052487"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Photo of Chaitra addressing the audience about the Southern Historical Collection’s commitment to the Historic Black Towns and Settlements Alliance (HBTSA) during the conference in Chapel Hill (2015), taken by Jay Mangum </span></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Lastly, they wanted opportunities to share stories in order to engage and inspire the community’s younger generation in the histories of their towns. In order to gain as much context as possible - we made visits to the towns, established working relationships with town stakeholders, conducted archival content surveys, supervised field scholars, participated in weekly HBTSA conference calls, and helped to orchestrate an HBTSA conference in Chapel Hill in the spring of 2015. All of this preparation culminated in three exciting pilot initiatives in Mound Bayou, Mississippi in the Fall of 2015.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<ol style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; list-style-type: decimal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Document Rescue: The Administration Building of the Knights and Daughters of Tabor of organization held important documents in less than ideal environmental conditions. The building had been ravaged by storms and neglect, leaving it water damaged, dirty, and full of pests. The rooms within the building contained publications, insurance forms, photographs, and ceremonial artifacts that told the story of a Southern based, black fraternal organization. The Southern Historical Collection offered to rent a storage unit in nearby Cleveland, MS for three years and temporarily store the materials until an adequate permanent solution could be found. We worked with the community to move the materials into storage in October 2015.</span></div>
</li>
</ol>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img alt="20151106_082823.jpg" height="320" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/EW2jGpkAD8PnDQxWEBF94Dbc2TKQI9d0c_ZiUoYucmW90F_mhZk9akNCwC50V6tCC8KHKMElwJmJ9stoSkg0aHD3-cbXb3H2aK9E67F3usNhWNYmLbUBn-YHJzjn1wNPhQbiJ-f6" style="border: none; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; transform: rotate(0rad);" width="237" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-f9451593-f62a-0986-860b-d2628c472431"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Photo of a van filled with moving boxes during the document rescue event at the Knights and Daughters of Tabor Administration Building in Mound Bayou, Mississippi (2015), taken by Chaitra Powell</span></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
<ol start="2" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; list-style-type: decimal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Virtual Community Genealogy: In recent years, Mound Bayou has been the site of several field experiences for Duke and UNC graduate and undergraduate students. In the summer of 2015, students worked to compile biographical information on the town’s founders and early residents, up until the middle of the 20th century. They conducted interviews, visited local archives, perused obituaries in home collections in order to build a spreadsheet. In the fall semester, we were able to work with computer science students to turn this spreadsheet into an interactive and searchable website documenting the people, places, and organizations of early Mound Bayou.</span></div>
</li>
</ol>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img height="243" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-BEdrDKehvSOZ0vl9ae9y4qRybzdt5TpGuUgRNadJf355hJEj16WmHqQrYUjLXvxS05OZ-o1FvBpfNqOVA9jqBFb7hiyyEfgc1E8B6ZO2YDJc7LBlNUguNudeyZ6IZ-5R7u6YVzB" style="border: none; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; transform: rotate(0rad);" width="400" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-f9451593-f62d-4b27-de2d-44f4d5e24d1d"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Screenshot of the cover page for the Mound Bayou Virtual Community Genealogy (2015),
taken by Chaitra Powell </span></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></div>
<ol start="3" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; list-style-type: decimal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">High School Student Outreach: One of our community liaisons, a former librarian, and I connected with the principal of John F. Kennedy High School, and organized an after school event in the library to discuss local history. Six students participated in several activities, one included creating an account for the Virtual Community Genealogy website, and entering biographical content found in primary source material borrowed from community members. </span></div>
</li>
</ol>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img height="256" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/urbzfsrjPE9dYZKRsRUbsDnHiWav4ZLL2KcRSUHn9ZnhQl5RII8j5_SYlI0P02HV75PMaa9bEy-0qa38eXz9MvmAAmZm9houAk9KSweXWOe9fJFZVXPtRA7wRcIoSRbUXCMDFrfm" style="border: none; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; transform: rotate(0rad);" width="400" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-f9451593-f686-a734-9e04-4ee7d2a7e080"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Photo of Chaitra with the JFK High School students during the after school local history program
in Mound Bayou, Mississippi (2015), taken by Ms. Edna Smith </span></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">And in conclusion..</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">After we finished all of these exciting outreach initiatives we took a serious victory lap! I cited these examples in presentations, conversations, <a href="http://library.unc.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/Windows-Spring-2016-v4-web.pdf" target="_blank">interviews</a>, and short videos for our fundraising campaigns and felt pretty good about the ability of an institution to participate in altruistic and meaningful collaboration with a marginalized community. Our team was feeling so good about it that we crafted a <a href="http://uncnews.unc.edu/2017/04/25/southern-historical-collection-receives-877000-andrew-w-mellon-foundation/" target="_blank">successful</a> grant application to the Mellon Foundation to elaborate on this model of developing community partnerships. HBTSA, along with three other pilot communities are the site of development for a wide variety of tools and strategies to nurture the relationship between the community and the archive. </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">From this short synopsis, it is clear that sustainability, replicability, costs, personnel, scale, parity across communities, institutional priorities, and many other considerations are necessary to develop a toolkit that has the potential to work with other communities and institutions around the world. So, we are currently using Mellon funding to hire a team of archivists, documentarians, and communication specialists that will unpack what we’ve done thus far, develop techniques to do it better, and determine if our work is having the positive impact that we have been shooting for since the beginning - informed communities who feel empowered to challenge the status quo.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">There will be updates on our Community Driven Archives work via my personal social media and all of the public faces of Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Library Special Collections, as well as UNC Libraries. I welcome your feedback and thank you for taking the time to read this extra long blog post.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Sincerely,</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Chaitra Powell</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">African American Collections & Outreach Archivist </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Southern Historical Collection</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Wilson Library Special Collections</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Libraries </span></div>
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Chaitra Powellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10378223325366418587noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3327539494542269950.post-6357543784782784172016-04-02T12:55:00.001-07:002016-04-02T12:55:33.581-07:00Bright Lights, Big City<div class="MsoNormal">
Society of North Carolina Archivists (SNCA) Annual Meeting <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Mint Museum Uptown, Charlotte, North Carolina<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
March 30 – April 1, 2016<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Opening Plenary Session: “The Collector, the Community, the
Reel, and the Real” (<a href="http://americanstudies.unc.edu/seth-kotch/" target="_blank">Dr. Seth Kotch</a>)<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b>Session 1A: Kids These Days!: Archival Programming to Engage
Youth from K-12</b><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="http://charlestonarchive.org/contact/" target="_blank">Kathleen Gray </a>from Charles County Public Library talked
about the success of her papermaking/bookmaking programs for kids, the Star
Wars Reads Day event which included a scavenger hunt with hallowed out books,
and the Sher-locked, live action mystery game that brought young people into
the special collections. <a href="http://avery.cofc.edu/about/staff/" target="_blank">Barrye Brown</a> from the College of Charleston discussed
the success of an African American history magazine (The Bugle) for 5<sup>th</sup>
graders which incorporated information and artifacts from the Avery Research
Center. The funding for the printing came from a successful RFP submission to
the South Carolina Department of Education. The magazine also features hands on
history activities like scrapbooking, oral history gathering, and making family
trees. The archive solicited the support of educational experts, retired
scholars, and history professors to put the publication together, but the bulk
of the writing and editing was don’t by archives staff. <a href="http://schistory.org/who-we-are/staff-directory/" target="_blank">Virginia Ellison</a> from
the South Carolina Historical Society talked about her initiatives to bring elementary
school students to the archives for research. For a smaller group, she used a
speed dating exercise where the students moved around to examine artifacts and
take notes. For a large group preparing for their disparate history day
projects, small groups rotated through the research room during the visit – at the
end of their project they exhibited their displays in the archives. <a href="http://georgiaarchivists.blogspot.com/2010/09/6-questions-aboutcarol-waggoner.html" target="_blank">Carol Waggoner-Angleton </a>from Augusta University took a history detectives approach to
her engagement with primary school students. By fixating on one figure in the
archives, they traced newspaper articles, family photographs (visual literacy
skills), and correspondence to generate a full biographical sketch of a woman
in the archives. The speaker referenced, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B009S6KEMG/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?ie=UTF8&btkr=1" target="_blank">Writing with Scissors: American Scrapbooks</a>
to help the audience understand the various types of information that a
scrapbook can yield. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Session 2B: Sharing the Love: Generating an Archival
Perspective in Community Groups</b><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="http://blogs.lib.unc.edu/shc/index.php/2014/10/15/staff-profile-chaitra-powell-african-american-collections-and-outreach-archivist/" target="_blank">Chaitra Powell</a> from the Southern Historical Collection
discussed the diverse ways that her department is reaching out to<a href="http://hbtsa.web.unc.edu/" target="_blank"> Historically Black Towns and Settlements</a> across the South. She described the unique needs of
each town relative to historic preservation and cultural tourism. The work has
unfolded via site visits, conferences on campus, summer fellowships, a virtual
community genealogy platform, document rescue, and youth engagement. Kelsey
Moen and Elizabeth Grab, two graduate students at UNC’s School of Information
and Library Science presented on the <a href="http://artiststudioarchives.org/" target="_blank">Artist Archives </a>program. Their outreach
focused on getting artist communities to begin to think archivally about their work
product and connect with archival institutions. A workshop at the North Carolina
Museum of Art and a workbook for the artists to reference are two big
deliverables to support this work. Ongoing outreach in the form of an
unconference, more workshops, and artist/SILS student pairings will demonstrate
the important impact of this work. Colleen Daw and Wick Shreve, former students
in <a href="http://sils.unc.edu/people/faculty/denise-anthony" target="_blank">Denise Anthony’s</a> Community Archives class, spoke about their experience archiving
a personal audio/visual collection in the Washington D.C. metro area. The
collector is a former hockey player who founded a hockey league for
underprivileged youth. His collection is primarily composed of recordings from
over the years that he keeps in his basement. The students talked about the
challenges of convincing him that no one planned to profit from his
participants and giving him preservation strategies to maintain his collection
at home. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<b>Session 3B: The Spirit of Collaboration: Community Engagement
Initiatives at UNC Charlotte Special Collections</b><o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://library.uncc.edu/directory/employee/123" target="_blank">Dawn Schmitz</a>, the head of special collections at the University of
North Carolina at Charlotte started the session off by summarizing each
panelists’ contribution and explaining how their work fit into the broader
vision of the university, mainly that the “spirit of collaboration is a university
hallmark”. <a href="http://www.ncarchivists.org/2016/02/09/2016-2017-society-of-north-carolina-archivists-executive-board-nominations/" target="_blank">Nikki Lynn Thomas</a> talked about the <a href="http://goqnotes.com/38196/lgbt-history-month-the-king-henry-brockington-community-archive-documents-charlotte-lgbtq-history/" target="_blank">King-Henry Brockington CommunityArchive</a> for LGBTQ materials, as a custodial approach to community archives. Now
that UNC-C has a community champion, they are patiently and persistently
seeking new materials to add. Thomas quoted from “<a href="http://americanarchivist.org/doi/abs/10.17723/aarc.76.1.ph222324p1g157t7" target="_blank">Latino Arts and Culture: CaseStudies for a Collaborative, Community-Oriented Approach</a>”, written by Tracy B.
Grimm and Chon A. Noriega in the American Archivist, (<span style="background: white;">Spring/Summer, Vol. 76, No. 1, pp. 95-11</span>)
to explain how they are moving along without much of a model. <a href="https://library.uncc.edu/directory/employee/113" target="_blank">Tina Wright</a> spoke
about the implementation of community led oral history projects in the LGBTQ
archive and how the recordings have been able to capture motivations among
other hard to pin down emotions. <a href="https://library.uncc.edu/directory/employee/168" target="_blank">Rita Johnston</a> discussed consultative outreach
from UNC-C to smaller institutions in relation to their digitization projects.
After reviewing collections and discussing goals, Johnston can advise
institutions on appropriate workflows, equipment, or collaboration with the
Digital NC. She has advised five institutions at this point, including the
libraries at Belmont Abbey College and Livingstone College. <a href="https://library.uncc.edu/directory/employee/135" target="_blank">Joseph Nicholson</a>
from UNC-C discussed his work in bringing the donor of a large motorsport
photograph collection into the metadata creation process. The workflow included
getting photos scanned and placed into Excel Rows, the Excel sheet with images
was shared via Dropbox, the donor added his information, and the library used the
<a href="http://openrefine.org/" target="_blank">OpenRefine</a> tool, wrapped the data in XSLT and created MOD records to post
online. The process was riddled with inefficiencies and inaccuracies, resulting
in some people being identified and some captions for the photos; not the exhaustive
presentation of dates, subject headings, and context that they had hoped for.
They have some ideas for improvement and are eager to find more ways to engage
donors in the descriptive process for their materials. <a href="https://library.uncc.edu/directory/employee/14" target="_blank">Lolita Rowe</a> talked about
her work with the <a href="https://www.facebook.com/Charlotte-Mecklenburg-Black-Heritage-Committee-69097252587/" target="_blank">Charlotte-Mecklenburg Black Heritage Committee</a> and how it has
resulted in the acquisition of important African American collections. Her involvement
includes serving on their board, participating in their recognition programs,
and getting to know the members and potential donors.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="background: white;">Keynote
Address: “The Storied South: Voices of Writers and Artists” (<a href="http://uncpress.unc.edu/books/10113.html" target="_blank">Dr. Bill Ferris</a>)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white;"><b>Session
4A: Highlighting Materials that Document Underrepresented Groups</b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white;"><a href="http://library.sc.edu/socar/instruct.html" target="_blank">Beth Bilderbeck </a>from the University of South Carolina, Columbia talked about the
responsibility of archivists to develop our own sense of visual literacy with
photographs and share it with our users. To her, this means a willingness to
explore, critique, and reflect on the photographs in our collections and have
those interpretations reflected in our catalogs and finding aids. Her
presentation consisted of a wide assortment of Civil War, Segregation, Housing,
Education, Photography Studio collection materials for us to consider critically.
<a href="http://library.sc.edu/socar/instruct.html" target="_blank">Andrea L’Hommedieu</a> from the University of South Carolina, Columbia discussed
her work with embedding oral histories in classroom instruction, exhibits, and
programs in her community. Her presentation included examples of important
local figures of African American and Women’s history. <a href="http://www.infodepot.org/zzRHBAKs/zAbout-BAK/Contact/staffazinfo.asp" target="_blank">Stephen C. Smith</a> from
the Spartanburg Public Library discussed the motivation and products of his
library’s publishing arm, <a href="http://www.infodepot.org/zKroom/KRFreePress.asp" target="_blank">Kennedy Free Press</a>. The library was influenced by the
nearby <a href="https://www.hubcity.org/" target="_blank">Hub City Writer’s Project</a> (press) and the incredible research and
discoveries that were coming out of patrons in their library. Smith spent the
bulk of his time talking about the confluence of a local folk hero, <a href="http://www.goupstate.com/article/20140201/ARTICLES/140209988" target="_blank">Trotting Sally</a>, a fascinated folklorist, John Thomas Fowler, and a local family who
wanted the truth about their ancestor to be known. All of this came together in
a publication, as well as a series of well-received events and programs that brought
the community together. Of course there are a lot of logistical decisions to be
made before an institution gets into the publishing business but Smith says it
is worth it for his library and they have several projects coming up designed
on the success of this model. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Chaitra Powellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10378223325366418587noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3327539494542269950.post-74314903870293341032016-04-02T10:46:00.002-07:002016-04-02T10:46:20.320-07:00Article Review: From Smiles to Miles: Delta Air Lines Flight Attendants and Southern Hospitality<div class="MsoNormal">
Title: From Smiles to Miles: Delta Air Lines Flight
Attendants and Southern Hospitality<o:p></o:p></div>
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Author: Drew Whitelegg<o:p></o:p></div>
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Citation: <i>Southern Cultures</i>, Volume 11, Number 4, Winter
2005, pp.7-27<o:p></o:p></div>
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As a recently transplanted southerner, I thought an article
about the impact of regional expectations on an airline company would give me
some more context for the people and the materials that I am working on. <o:p></o:p></div>
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From its inception Delta Airlines flight attendants were the
brand. Although they were trained as, and expected to act as true Southern
belles, their real lives represented a departure from the static and
subservient existence of the prototype. In the early days, Delta's flight
attendants were trained nurses to inspire confidence in the passengers, they
also knew about local sports in order to carry on an intelligent conversation
with the mostly male clientele. Other requirements from their small Southern
town recruits, included being unmarried, not having children, and as nurses became scarce
due to World War 2, at least 2 years of college. Delta billed the flight
attendants as “Scarlett(s) in the Sky” alluding to Gone with the Wind’s
Scarlett O’Hara, they wanted the women to embody her behavior, appearance, and
autonomy. </div>
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Rather than choosing standard beauties, the company preferred women
who were gracious, well-groomed, and well-mannered, positing that these
attributes have translated as beauty in the South. The flight attendants were
there to meet consumer’s expectations of Southern hospitality and treat
passengers like guests in their homes. This was a strong contrast to Pan-Am,
whose flight attendants were pretty and sophisticated and an even stronger
contrast to hyper sexualized flight attendants commissioned by Braniff,
National, and Southwest in the 1970s. For its role in the conflation of sex and
flight attendants, Delta quietly embraced the matchmaking between their single
female flight attendants and male bachelor passengers, as well as editions of
their magazines that featured Delta beauties pictured in more revealing
clothing than their conservative uniforms. </div>
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Delta gave small town Southern white
women an opportunity to make a living wage, see the world, and command
increasing power in the workplace – for these reasons it was hard to get them
to unionize. However as the workforce began to change as a result of new laws (anti-discrimination and integration),
corporate mergers (PanAm), increased pressures of globalization, and 9/11; rifts began to arise between the original brand of Delta employees and the
newcomers. These factors ultimately led to a loss of identity for Delta
Airlines by 2001.The article ends with an admission that all good things must
come to an end. <o:p></o:p></div>
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I wonder if the story of Delta could be a precursor to the
consistent buzzing I hear about the coming of the New South?<o:p></o:p></div>
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Chaitra Powellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10378223325366418587noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3327539494542269950.post-40188935223543488632016-02-26T10:00:00.001-08:002016-02-26T10:00:26.828-08:00Article Review: Radical Archives and the New Cycles of Contention<b>Title:</b> <a href="https://viewpointmag.com/2015/10/31/radical-archives-and-the-new-cycles-of-contention/" target="_blank">Radical Archives and the New Cycles of Contention</a><br />
<b>Author: </b>Kimberly Springer<br />
<b>Publication: </b><i>Viewpoint Magazine (online)</i><b>, </b>Issue 5: Social Reproduction, October 31, 2015.<br />
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This article has a very clear focus on the importance of the preservation of digital archives for activist groups, but I think that there is much content to be applied to historically marginalized groups, in this context, survival itself is a form of activism. I appreciate the way that Springer consistently writes in a way that de-mystifies the archives; these are meeting minutes, poster designs, manifesto drafts, not just boxes on a shelf. The safe custody of these items comes down to the issue of trust; do we trust Facebook and Instagram to keep our materials safe forever? Is the University of X any more trustworthy than these social media platforms? What are the chances that valuable content will become too expensive to access, be trashed, or misplaced in an anonymous archive? Until groups have a reason to believe otherwise, it would be in their best interest to learn how to maintain their own materials. <br />
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She also makes note of the value of self determination when it comes the official documentation of an organization, especially when archivists are on the fence of whether they will be active agents or passive collectors in their work; activist papers can easily be lost in the shuffle. I would recommend reading the article to learn more about how Springer's scholarly interest in black feminism led her to FBI files as the documents of record, barring a few individuals who kept sparse archives under the bed or in the attic. The writer wants this to be a cautionary tale for budding social movements and digital platforms, don't rely exclusively on outside entities to keep your records safe. She concludes with some very tangible tips on preserving various file formats, as well as using migration and repetition to protect against damage or theft.<br />
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For the big question of why all of this matters, Springer sprinkles gems throughout the paper and ends with a chart that I will attempt to paraphrase:<br />
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- Archives help us to shape and document our reality<br />
- We do it to provide points of reference for ourselves (to remember), the next generation (to not have to re-invent the wheel), and the historians (to get closer to the truth)<br />
- Holding the evidence of certain historic events is a form of power<br />
- Ensure transparency<br />
- Generate discussion<br />
- Enable direct action<br />
- Define our own movements<br />
- Provides content for classrooms, workshops, and ongoing mobilization<br />
- Past movements can be a source of inspiration <br />
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You would think that an article like this would be shunned by an archival curator of a major manuscript collection, but I beg to differ. People need to be informed and empowered about the strength and value of their experience. Records do not have to live in a large institution to be important, but they do need their creators to understand that they are important for any meaningful action to protect them can be initiated. Chaitra Powellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10378223325366418587noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3327539494542269950.post-15828392666789100032015-07-27T16:23:00.001-07:002015-07-27T16:23:31.037-07:00Article Review: A Question of Custody: The Colonial Archives of the United States Virgin Islands<b>Title: </b>A Question of Custody: The Colonial Archives of the United States Virgin Islands<br />
<b>Author: </b>Jeannette Allis Bastian<br />
<b>Publication:</b> The American Archivist, Vol. 64, No. 1 (Spring-Summer, 2001), pp. 96-114<br />
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This article describes the competing archival principles at work between the United States, Denmark, and the Virgin Islands. The lands now known as the U.S. Virgin Islands, made up of St. Croix, St. John, and St. Thomas were Danish colonies in 1672. The Danish West Indies Company brought enslaved people from Africa to work on plantations run by Englishmen, and they operated a moderately successful sea port in the islands. In 1848, the island's African majority won their freedom from Denmark, and the Danes attempted to govern the islanders. By 1916, the Danish felt that they were losing more money than they were making with the colony, and decided to sell the land to the United States. <br />
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In the 20 years leading up to the sale of the islands, the colonial government began to ship island government records to Copenhagen. The Danish were meticulous record keepers and the weather, insects, unstable political climate, as well as the belief that those records were an extension of the "home" country, made them want to keep records in Denmark. Although the United States could have made a claim for all of "Denmark's" records when they acquired the islands, there was no national archives program at the time, the records were written in Danish, and the infrastructure needs of the new territory trumped a tug-of-war over records. Not only did the Danish keep the 4,000 linear feet of materials that were transferred in the late 1800's, the United States did not protest an additional 2,000 linear feet which was transferred in 1917. By 1936, a U.S. national archivist was in place and arranged for any government archival materials (1,260 linear feet) remaining on the islands to be shipped to Washington D.C. During the 1940's, the U.S. plan to extract more records was executed but contested by the local government; and by 1950 the practice of removing records from the Virgin Islands was stopped completely.<br />
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So what is there to be done with this fragmented set of records, the subjects of which have no clear line of access or control of? The United States and Denmark felt satisfied with the arrangement because they have provided sound storage and protection of documents, and are legally entitled to the government records of their past or current territories. While the inhabitants of the Virgin Island have a basic need and numerous obstacles to the access of their community records. Based on the principle of provenance, all of the records should be in the Virgin Islands because all of the records are about the Virgin Islands; inhabitants are critical to the "context creating process". Without the benefit of autobiographies or diaries, inhabitants have to rely on government records to re-create the worlds of their ancestors, records that are an ocean away. Hopefully with the on-going use of EAD, and other forms of linked data in the archives, we can intellectually piece together community histories that are physically separated. <br />
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As I read this article, my first impression was that hegemonic nations have always disenfranchised the poor on every front; land, people, language, and now the records! Then I began to consider how complicated the situation really is. Can we say for sure that if left to their own devices, the locals would have maintained these 6,000 linear feet of archival documentation? Would the Danish records have been destroyed once the Danes left the port? Perhaps there is wisdom in the big bad colonizers for protecting these documents. Also, can we eliminate all other forms of record keeping in favor of the written one, what about oral traditions, sacred objects, or songs that are passed down from one generation to another? Removing the records does not necessarily mean that entire nation's history is gone. I suppose the greatest injustice is the inability to choose, perhaps the islanders would have happily shared certain records with Danish or Americans in exchange for some airplane vouchers and second language correspondence courses. Since they never asked, I guess that we will never know.<br />
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<br />Chaitra Powellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10378223325366418587noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3327539494542269950.post-436908544470542172015-07-21T16:19:00.004-07:002015-07-21T16:19:45.836-07:00Article Review: Local Color: The Southern Plantation in Popular Culture<strong>Title:</strong> Local Color: The Southern Plantation in Popular Culture<br />
<strong>Author:</strong> Jessica Adams<br />
<strong>Publication:</strong> Cultural Critique, No. 42 (Spring 1999), pp. 163-187<br />
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This article represents a detailed analysis of how race is simultaneously presented and obscured in the experience of plantation tours, novels, and popular films. Adams also discusses how Southern identity is portrayed as "otherness" as well as normative. She uses the film <em>Deliverance</em> as an example of how backwards and grotesque a Southern existence can be, but points to the success of <em>Gone With the Wind</em> as the highly praised tale of a woman portraying important American values like, loyalty, strength, and optimism. When it comes to plantation tourism, she cites multiple examples of how the plantation building and the planter are draped in the nostalgia of a pure past, a national treasure, and relic of a more peaceful time. This whitewashing of history comes straight from the archives of planters who lament the work of "tending to negroes", they can't get any rest as they are always called upon to resolve problems on their land. <br />
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On plantation tours, guides use words like butlers, skilled nannies, and servant boys to describe the work of enslaved Black people in chattel slavery. Of course this mythology is problematic because it erases all of the horrors of a plantation system and makes white privilege and superiority the preferred societal system. Adams argues that these versions of history have very real social and psychological consequences for African Americans today who are facing challenges that they may not understand because the historical context is not clear. The article ends with several deep literary analyses of plantation motifs and race in <em>Gone with the Wind</em>, <em>Jezebel</em>, <em>Hush, Hush Sweet Charlotte</em>, and <em>Interview with a Vampire</em>.<br />
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I hope that the director of every plantation tourism site has an opportunity to read this. I can say that I have been on two plantation tours, Drayton Hall (Charleston, SC) and <a href="http://www.stagville.org/"><span style="color: blue;">Stagville</span></a> (Durham, NC) and the treatment of African American history has not been as hidden as the author describes. At <a href="http://www.draytonhall.org/"><span style="color: blue;">Drayton Hall</span></a>, the guide explained that the there are annual Christmas celebrations for planter and slave descendants from the plantation. In Stagville, the relatively stable slave quarters structures are called Horton's Grove, and make up an integral part of the tour. To me, there is no way that a rational individual can be aware of the climate, the technology, and the land mass of these Southern land parcels in the 17th and 18th centuries without considering the volume of human labor that made any of this success possible. <br />
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I would encourage the use of more slave narratives and other primary sources in the interpretation of these historic tourism sites. The guide at Stagville related a story from a letter in the Cameron family papers which is summarized as follows: The mistress of the house is writing a letter about a recent encounter with one of her female slaves shortly after the war the Civil War. The mistress is trying to give instructions about sweeping the floor, and the black woman stops her work, stands up straight and says that my skin is as white as yours and now I am as free as you and she marches our of the house and off of the plantation. That was one of the best examples of dis-spelling the victim myth of the Southern planation family. Let's find some more!Chaitra Powellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10378223325366418587noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3327539494542269950.post-87616197104976227732015-02-07T16:25:00.000-08:002015-02-07T16:25:35.850-08:00Program Review: Department of Sociology Colloquium Series<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<b style="text-align: center;">Title:</b><span style="text-align: center;"> Thomas Jefferson’s Bordeaux and W.E.B. Du Bois’ View of the French Revolution</span></div>
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<b>Speaker: </b>Dr. Karen Fields<o:p></o:p></div>
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<b>Date:</b> February 4, 2015<o:p></o:p></div>
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Dr. Fields was certainly one of the most personable and
affective sociologists that I have ever come across. Rather than spend the entire
hour talking about Thomas Jefferson in France, Fields discussed her decision to
study in Bordeaux, what it was like to talk about race in France, and how she
make her research has led to her “obnoxious juxtapositions”. It was interesting
to hear a macro analysis of the 18<sup>th</sup> century slave trade that
included observations about the incredible wealth that the trade of African
slaves brought to European port cities like Bristol (England), Lont (France),
and Bordeaux. When Field described the opulent opera house that was more
important than any venue in Paris, and as large as city block which was
constructed by the nouveau-riche merchant class in Bordeaux, I had a picture in
my mind’s eye.</div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnkpSIRH2d0up1rs7rN7pKA9oAB-67NmpWx0KdVaG-J0mC97WmmQ2EN_tFXt4xqR-6EPxFZb_jK7NaFIpmAANcKi38_C5C5F1e4N4IhhEB9m6M68I4PaPqd8ubrzTISXCYvpCi7l-3nxgD/s1600/ATasteofBordeauxBordOperahdl512.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnkpSIRH2d0up1rs7rN7pKA9oAB-67NmpWx0KdVaG-J0mC97WmmQ2EN_tFXt4xqR-6EPxFZb_jK7NaFIpmAANcKi38_C5C5F1e4N4IhhEB9m6M68I4PaPqd8ubrzTISXCYvpCi7l-3nxgD/s1600/ATasteofBordeauxBordOperahdl512.jpg" height="262" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #444952; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14px; text-align: start;">Bordeaux's eighteenth-century opera house, designed by Victor Louis</span></td></tr>
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While living in Bordeaux and studying at the university,
Fields could not ignore the traces of Africans and the slave trade in this
city. She saw brown figures in the stained class of 16<sup>th</sup> century Catholic
churches, student protests urging the city to “take on its history” with
slavery, even the merchants who built the opera house commissioned ceiling artwork
that depicted slaves, ports, and other implements of commerce. Moving into a 20<sup>th</sup>
century context, Fields told how the French recruited Africans to fight and
protect their land during World Wars 1 and 2, and there are monuments to mark
it. Fields was slowly building an argument of the increased complexity of the
influence of Africans in France. W.E.B. DuBois wrote (ironically) that the fortunes made at
Lont and Bordeaux (slave ports) engendered the pride that made them demand
liberty. No matter how rich those merchants became they were never accepted
into the upper class, even the writer Alexis de Tocqueville remarked that
American race relations were so similar to the tensions between aristocrats and
commoners in Paris. Fields summarized, “no amount of money could outdo an accident of
birth”. It would seem that the transitive property is at work when slavery
creates rich merchants, and rich merchants overthrow bad monarchs; slavery must
result in French Revolution. I don’t presume to express how Fields elaborates
on these connections, but I am most certainly intrigued. </div>
Chaitra Powellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10378223325366418587noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3327539494542269950.post-78029746156787778972015-01-31T09:03:00.002-08:002015-01-31T09:04:00.731-08:00Program Review: Partly Colored: Between White and Black<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Title: </b><a href="http://nyupress.org/books/9780814791332/"><span style="color: blue;">Partly Colored: Asian Americans Between White and Black</span></a><o:p></o:p></div>
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<b>Speaker: </b>Dr.<b> </b>Leslie Bow, University of Wisconsin, Madison<o:p></o:p></div>
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<b>Date: </b>January 29, 2015<o:p></o:p></div>
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Tonight I had the wonderful opportunity to listen to a talk
at UNC-Chapel Hill, sponsored by the <a href="http://south.unc.edu/"><span style="color: blue;">Center for the Study of the American South</span></a>
in Graham Memorial Hall. Dr. Leslie Bow was introduced by her colleague in the UNC Department of English and Creative Literature, Dr. Jennifer Ho. Dr. Bow started her talk with two
images of her Chinese grandfather and great grandfather who were both grocers in
small southern towns, Greenville, Mississippi and Helena, Arkansas,
respectively. Bow remembers a consistent refrain when her relatives discussed
the racial components of their lives in the South, “whites treated us just fine
and blacks didn’t give us any trouble”. She describes other incidents in the Jim Crow South, where
Asians are allowed to sit in the front of the bus, and mark White on their
driver’s license applications; generally benefiting from some aspects of white
privilege but not being fully accepted by white society. In an allusion to the
growing field of critical white studies where scholars debate how Italians or
Irish folks became white, Asians are never mention because they only touched
whiteness, they never became white. This observation is important because it
explains why there is so much internal conflict and pathos contained in the
anthropological, historical, and sociological writings on these subjects. How
does a group of people define themselves in a society where neither of the
boxes fit?</div>
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Bow used the subject of a 1998 documentary, <i><a href="http://home.earthlink.net/~dfriedman1/migindex.html">Miss India Georgia</a></i>, and the folklore of
South Carolina governor Nikki Haley, to help the audience understand how in
some ways, American acculturation has become a synonym for aspiring to
whiteness. In addition to her family history, I think that Bow has found the
South as a site for this type of inquiry to be most appropriate because it
magnifies attitudes and behaviors around race that are experienced throughout
the nation. Toward the end of the talk, Bow responded to questions about the
lawsuit against the UNC Admissions office, contrasts between urban or western
Asian experiences and Southern ones and how the relationship between Asians and
African Americans is often missing from the archive. A recurring message throughout Bow’s talk was the duality of
experience for most Asians in America. Even if there is a stereotype of
neutrality or model minority, there is also a fear or anxiety connected to
those feelings of admiration and respect. She also pointed out that most
instances of racialization are bound in affect or emotional resonance, which
can lead to violence or fetishism. To her, it can be seen as easily in the
black male bodies of Ferguson and New York City as the Asian students who make
up 50% of the school population at UCLA. In one quote by colonial historian, Dr. <a href="http://english.fas.harvard.edu/faculty/bhabha/">Homi Bhabha</a>, <i>the in-between space carries
the burden of the meaning of culture</i>, Bow demonstrates how her valuable
analysis holds a critical mirror up to the whole notion of race in
America. </div>
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Chaitra Powellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10378223325366418587noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3327539494542269950.post-28481121244675368212014-09-26T06:24:00.002-07:002014-09-26T06:24:10.195-07:00Article Review: The Strange Career of Jim Crow Archives: Race, Space, and History in the Mid-Twentieth Century American South<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><b>Article Review:</b> The Strange Career of Jim Crow Archives: Race, Space, </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">and History in the Mid-Twentieth-Century American South</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Author: </b>Alex H. Poole</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Publication:</b> American Archivist, Volume 77, No. 1, Spring/Summer 2014, (23-63)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">Alex Poole wrote this article in an attempt to describe the “agency </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">and power wielded by archival professionals ”in the writing of history </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">and the implicit fact that the archives are never a neutral space. </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">Poole indicts a generation of archivists for failing to reach out to </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">diverse users and holds them accountable for often exclusive </span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">record-collecting and record keeping practices. The title of the </span><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #222222;">article comes from C. Vann Woodward’s 1955 book, </span><i><a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/97484.The_Strange_Career_of_Jim_Crow"><span style="color: blue;">The Strange Career of </span></a></i></span><span style="background-color: white;"><i><a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/97484.The_Strange_Career_of_Jim_Crow"><span style="color: blue;">Jim Crow</span></a></i><span style="color: #222222;">, where Woodward describes how the impact of segregation is </span></span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">better understood through the lens of an average person than the laws, </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">themselves.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">In the early 20th century, the challenge to African American </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">historians, all six of them nationally by 1935, was two fold; </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">accessing primary sources in segregated facilities, and interpreting </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">the history of African Americans from the South (in materials where they were not </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">authentically represented) beyond the “happy slave” and the "lazy freedman". From a political </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">perspective, there was no way that African Americans could be full </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">citizens if they could not participate in or access the archives.</span><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #222222;">Poole describes the experiences of historians, </span><a href="http://www.jhfcenter.org/john-hope-franklin/"><span style="color: blue;">John Hope Franklin</span></a><span style="color: #222222;">, </span><span style="color: blue;"><a href="http://www.blackpast.org/aah/jackson-luther-porter-1892-1950">Luther</a> </span></span><span style="background-color: white;"><a href="http://www.blackpast.org/aah/jackson-luther-porter-1892-1950"><span style="color: blue;">Porter Jackson</span></a><span style="color: #222222;">, </span><a href="http://www2.lib.unc.edu/mss/inv/e/Edmonds,Helen_G.html"><span style="color: blue;">Helen G. Edmonds</span></a><span style="color: #222222;">, and </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawrence_D._Reddick"><span style="color: blue;">Lawrence Dunbar Reddick</span></a><span style="color: #222222;"> to </span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">explain his point. Jim Crow reared his ugly head, when archival </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">materials pertaining to African American people were vandalized or </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">removed, African American scholars were only allowed to enter the </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">reading room when the white scholars were finished, Ms. Edmonds was </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">sent to the Morehead Planetarium, across campus, to use the restroom.</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">In some cases, students would have to work subversively with the </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">janitors to get access to materials.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">Poole analyzes the actions and declarations of several large history </span><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #222222;">and archival professional organizations (</span><span style="color: blue;"><a href="http://sha.uga.edu/">SHA</a>, <a href="http://www.ala.org/">ALA</a>, <a href="http://www2.archivists.org/">SAA</a>, <a href="http://www.jstor.org/stable/1894810">MVHA</a></span><span style="color: #222222;">) to </span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">demonstrate how they implicitly condoned segregation through annual </span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">meetings in segregated cities or keeping silent about the issue in </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">various instances. In North Carolina specifically, segregation in the </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">state library was legal; which insulated archivists from “confronting </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">moral choices”. Archivists at UNC were further empowered to design </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">their own criteria for “valid” reasons and sufficient evidence for African </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Americans to provide in order to use the stacks. Poole describes a </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">long list of UNC administrative and library leaders, throughout the </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1940’s and 1950’s, who would sweep the issue of segregation under the </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">rug in attempts at "civility" and maintaining the status quo, even when </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">the African American patrons did their research without incident.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">The Women’s College in Greensboro had a different trajectory; a </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">progressive librarian (Charles M. Adams) went against a more </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">conservative chancellor (Edward Kidder Graham Jr.) when he allowed an </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">African American student to walk through the front door of the </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">library. Under pressure from the Board of Trustees, Adams had to </span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">explain that there were very few African Americans who used the </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">library and they were all “professionally minded” in addition, when </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">the library at NC A&T was complete, there would be even less. Armed </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">with similar reports from other North Carolina university libraries,</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">the board agreed that library use by African Americans was </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">sufficiently restricted. By 1955, with the passing of Brown vs. the </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Board of Education, many UNC leaders were surprised and indignant; </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">subsequently vacating their positions or moving toward integration </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">at the pace of molasses, which of course enabled de-facto segregation.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #222222;">Overall, Poole makes a provocative case about the sins of our (archival) fathers; and gives us a proverbial gut check about acceptable behavior of our times. Are there ways that we can correct errors from the past? How can we be more conscientious and aware today, to ensure that we are remembered on the right side of history? </span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">As one of the newest members of the curatorial staff at Southern </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">Historical Collection, an African American woman, and an archivist who </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">believes in our social justice mandate; this article was especially </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">relevant to me. The sheer fact that my training in grassroots archives has become an asset to a department that has been historically run by major figures in the academy, </span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">indicates the distance that we have traveled. Thank you Mr. Poole for </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">using archives, to tell a story about archives, a story that keeps me </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">searching for all of those missing pieces.</span>Chaitra Powellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10378223325366418587noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3327539494542269950.post-10909768798743448582014-09-06T15:22:00.001-07:002014-09-07T15:45:00.038-07:00Society of California Archivists Annual Meeting (2014)<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b>Archives and the Public<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<b>Society of California Archivists – 2014 Annual General
Meeting<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<b>Palm Springs, CA – May 8-10, 2014</b><o:p></o:p></div>
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<u>Plenary Address: Alan Hess, Form Follows Pleasure:
Modern Architecture and the Palm Springs School<o:p></o:p></u></div>
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<a href="http://alanhess.blogspot.com/2013/03/the-palm-springs-school-vs-sarasota.html"><span style="color: blue;">Hess’</span></a> remarks about Palm Springs architecture reflect the
recent interest in how these architects response to the climate, nature,
technology, and culture of the Southern California desert. There is a huge
preservation effort taking place in Palm Springs, they are leading the nation
in this type of work. Palm Springs School is a set of ideas and theories that
unite Palm Springs architects. Examples of these ideas include the sun screens
over windows, building at the base of a mountain to provide shade, lifting
houses up to provide livable shade underneath, and suburban layouts to increase
green space. The location near Hollywood and the persistent sunshine helped
create a culture of pleasure where resorts were abundantly developed and many
homes had swimming pools and other recreational features. The Palm Spring
School also included <a href="http://www.spaceagecity.com/googie/"><span style="color: blue;">Googie Architecture</span></a> which captured the energy of the
futuristic technology and made it available for everyone in the style of space
age restaurants and gas stations. Some famous Palm Springs architects include
Frank Lloyd Wright Jr. (Oasis Hotel), Paul R. Williams (Lucy & Desi House
and Town & Country Building), Newberg, Wexler, and Fray.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<u>Session 1: The Access Tightrope: Balancing Access with
Privacy<o:p></o:p></u></div>
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This session started with Mallory Furnier from the <a href="http://theautry.org/"><span style="color: blue;">Autry National Center</span></a> who discussed her work on the Roy Rogers and Dale Evans
collection, followed by her experiences with the David Dortort collection. Roy
Rogers and Dale Evans were stars of radio and television during the 1940’s and
1950’s and developed quite a fan following. Their archives include letters and
photographs from children with terminal illnesses which present access
questions related to HIPPA, rights of children, and third party donors. Mallory
and her staff evaluated these concerns pragmatically and determined that the
collection was a low privacy risk, and that they would continue to track
researchers, who use the collection, place a 72 year restriction on any
publications, censor names, addresses, and treatment plans. For the materials donated by the family of
David Dortort, the creator of <i>Bonanza</i>,
the archivist received a warning from the family that some of the materials were
sensitive. After reviewing the collection and discovering intimate revelations
from fans, Mallory agreed with the donor’s assessment and because the records
were as recent as 2002, deemed the collection a high privacy risk. The
sensitive materials in the Dortort collection have a 50 year publication
restriction which is noted in the catalog record, and the actual materials are
flagged so that staff will remember when items are pulled for a researcher.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxVDRZQNu0-mlLnwcUDINwLeB90PziA6fCL28zM-gyUPqBMfaWtoDw6ElwVjeBYFED9wYz_XxsVNyTIHImbZsZZ_onEkfxQy1SKKTe_NM67ZE5qs8wM2OrH52wTdLC1v_ZDNCjz4Jbns8s/s1600/Audrey_Hepburn.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxVDRZQNu0-mlLnwcUDINwLeB90PziA6fCL28zM-gyUPqBMfaWtoDw6ElwVjeBYFED9wYz_XxsVNyTIHImbZsZZ_onEkfxQy1SKKTe_NM67ZE5qs8wM2OrH52wTdLC1v_ZDNCjz4Jbns8s/s1600/Audrey_Hepburn.jpg" height="320" width="259" /></a>The second presenter from the Autry National Center was
Charlie Holland, a senior archival assistant, working exclusively on her late
friend, <a href="http://www.theowestenberger.com/"><span style="color: blue;">Theo Westenberger’s</span></a> photograph collection. The Westenberger archive
includes close to 10,000 photographic prints along with thousands of negatives,
transparencies, contact sheets, and studio materials. All of Charlie’s concerns
revolve around very legitimate apprehensions about the digitization, uploading,
social media and licensing uses of the collection. These concerns are
exacerbated with these materials because many of the images feature
celebrities, whose lawyers will fight for unauthorized uses of their likeness;
or other less famous models or children who (or guardians who) never signed
release forms for the use of their likeness. Charlie shared several resources
with the audience that she uses to help mitigate the risk of sharing images
unlawfully. She has worked with the Autry to develop a risk assessment policy
which requires archivists to ask questions about the image, such as: Is the
subject shown in a false light or maliciously? From the image, can the person’s
identity be determined? Are these people in a naturally occurring crowd? The
Getty Institute has model release forms that archivists can use retroactively
to protect themselves from future litigation. Charlie has thoroughly read the
terms of use agreements for various social media platforms including Facebook,
Instagram, and art.com; all of which indemnify the agency from any persecution
if images from their sites are stolen and misappropriated by the social media
platform. They are not a safe place for images that are protected under
copyright and commercially valuable, such as the work of Theo Westenberger.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-rntHtDa0D8Er9ExTwYxYVPlBF2URmboxDM8pq_K-crwm2L1DrQ_OPR51rnf25iZEASjEdbJKrtudACba-MeJ8ZKuezHVcl0TgDnya_8bfQl2HPwSyy6qkJi8dCs3fx9fMiWbGlDYFECp/s1600/Che_Guevara.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-rntHtDa0D8Er9ExTwYxYVPlBF2URmboxDM8pq_K-crwm2L1DrQ_OPR51rnf25iZEASjEdbJKrtudACba-MeJ8ZKuezHVcl0TgDnya_8bfQl2HPwSyy6qkJi8dCs3fx9fMiWbGlDYFECp/s1600/Che_Guevara.jpg" height="200" width="181" /></a></div>
Charlie mentioned iconic images of Audrey Hepburn and Che Guevara that have
been re-produced unlawfully in so many contexts that litigation would be
futile. To ensure that this fate does not befall on any of the Westenberger
images, she monitors the photo materials used by researchers and checks the
image searching website <a href="http://www.tineye.com/"><span style="color: blue;">www.tineye.com</span></a> frequently.<br />
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The third presenter was Michael Oliveira from <a href="http://one.usc.edu/"><span style="color: blue;">ONE National Gay and Lesbian Archives</span></a> at the University of Southern California. His
talk focused on balancing the needs for access as described in the Freedom of
Information Act, and privacy in terms of third party donors. The presentation
was full of anecdotal stories from patrons and donors, with an extended
discussion of the accession of various photographic collections; the <a href="http://www.oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/c8ww7ksj/?query=everitt"><span style="color: blue;">Miles R.Everitt Collection</span></a>, full of African American subjects and the <span style="color: blue;"><a href="http://www.oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/kt0199q6hx/?query=william+rhoads"><span style="color: blue;">William Rhoads Collection</span></a> </span>which features nudes of hitchhikers from the Pacific Coast Highway.
In conclusion, Oliveira encouraged the audience to ask donors about any privacy
concerns before accessioning new collections. He also cited information from
the <span style="color: blue;"><a href="http://www.gov.harvard.edu/people/undergraduate/human-subjects-research"><span style="color: blue;">Harvard Institutional Review Board</span></a> </span>forms to help archivists determine if
incoming materials are appropriate for our repositories.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<u>Session 4: Technology and Archives: Exchange Forum –
Programmer and Archivist Collaboration<o:p></o:p></u></div>
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This was an interesting session because it brought the
perspective of computer programmers to an archives conference. Although most of
the information was too technical for my experience at small community
archives, I felt that there was a substantial amount of information that would
serve me well as my career progressed. The first set of speakers was Kim
Klausner and Sven Maier from <a href="http://www.ucsf.edu/"><span style="color: blue;">University of California at San Francisco</span></a>.
Klausner and Mair work with the <span style="color: blue;"><a href="http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/research/doc_research_sunrise.jsp"><span style="color: blue;">Legacy Tobacco Documents Library</span></a> </span>where they
provide a resource portal to 14 million documents related to the tobacco
industry. They use SLR, Blacklight, Grails, and HTML 5 to build their own
software to search and display content from various sites. They faced challenges
with communication gaps between the archivists and the team of programmers. The
team wound up using a wiki, and <a href="http://www.redmine.org/"><span style="color: blue;">Redmine</span></a> (a project management tool) to improve communication
between the two camps.<o:p></o:p></div>
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The second pair of presenters was Cristela Garcia-Spitz and
Matt Critchlow from the <a href="http://libraries.ucsd.edu/"><span style="color: blue;">University of California at San Diego Library</span></a>. Their
presentation focused on the basic strategy that the library team was using to
complete multiple digitization projects. They employ a team approach,
and plug their steps in <a href="https://www.atlassian.com/software/confluence?section=agiledevelopment"><span style="color: blue;">Confluence</span> </a>(JIRA environment), a proprietary project
management tool. The teams are composed of a collections group, a reformatting
group, a metadata policy group, a digital library products group, and steering
committees. The project leaders would use several techniques to engage their
teams in the work, for example they might define sustainable chunks of work and
use “sprints” or two week sessions to work on that chunk exclusively in order
to finish the project or host a DigiCamp where every stakeholder is invited to
a session to discuss a common issue. The presenters explained that a three step
process with assigned role players could be tracked with three columns of
post-it notes if the formalized software was not available. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<u>Session 8: What the Hell Is It and What Do I Do With
it? Cataloging Challenging Collections<o:p></o:p></u></div>
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This session started with Natalie Russell from the
<a href="http://www.huntington.org/"><span style="color: blue;">Huntington Library</span></a>, discussing the recent publication of the Octavia E. Butler
(1933-2006) Papers <a href="http://catalog.huntington.org/search~S0?/Xoctavia+butler&SORT=D/Xoctavia+butler&SORT=D&SUBKEY=octavia+butler/1%2C26%2C26%2CB/frameset&FF=Xoctavia+butler&SORT=D&22%2C22%2C"><span style="color: blue;">finding aid</span></a>. Ms. Butler was an accomplished African American
female science fiction writer; she lived in Altadena, California and bequeathed
her collection to the Huntington upon her death. Natalie has been working on
these materials for the past three years, resulting in a 500 page finding aid,
3 pages of cataloger’s notes, and 250 upright Hollinger boxes as well as
countless flat file boxes, index card boxes, specialty sleeves kept in binders.
As a result of the researcher demand for access to these materials (40 people
on a waiting list) the Huntington processing staff decided to process the
collection at the item level. The presentation became exhausting as Natalie
shared photograph after photograph of notebooks, business cards, floppy disks, news
clippings, binders of correspondence, photographs from a complicated writer’s
mind. I think that Natalie’s effort to read all of Octavia’s writings and
biographical information helped her to make sound decisions with cross
referencing and cataloging the collection items. This is a good example of how
Octavia Butler’s impressive career and the seemingly boundless resources of the
Huntington Library converged to enable the collection to be processed this way;
the sheer cost of archival supplies and the allocation of staff time make this
project out of the range of most archives. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
Rand Boyd from <span style="color: blue;"><a href="http://www.chapman.edu/">Chapman University</a></span> discussed his
challenges with the <a href="http://blogs.chapman.edu/huell-howser-archives/"><span style="color: blue;">Huell Howser California Gold Archive</span></a>. The collection
includes 5,000 digi-beta tapes, 1,800 books, 50 boxes of program research
files, and 7 boxes of personal papers, the furniture from Mr. Howser’s home and
office, as well as a memorabilia collection. The archivist ran into challenges
on account of the multiple formats of the collection materials and because of
the complicated celebrity status of Huell Howser. The program tapes were in
antiquated formats and not properly labeled which forced the archival team to
watch each tape in order to match raw footage with air footage and shelf the
tapes accordingly. While Huell Howser was alive, he presided over the archive
with his signature micro-management style, but when he died unexpectedly in
2013; Rand wanted to respect Howser’s personal preference toward privacy in
regard to his personal life. When AAA agreed to fund a permanent exhibit
dedicated to Huell Howser, Rand’s work with Howser’s personal papers allowed
them to include photographs and a rare glimpse into the early career of Huell
Howser.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
Charlotte Thai from <a href="http://www.stanford.edu/"><span style="color: blue;">Stanford University</span></a> gave an interesting
presentation about her work with the <a href="http://www-sul.stanford.edu/depts/hasrg/histsci/index.htm"><span style="color: blue;">Stephen M. Cabrinety collection</span></a>. Due to grants from
the National Software Reference Library (NSRL) and the National Institute of
Standards and Technology (NIST), Charlotte is archiving pieces of hardware and
software (many of them unopened) to document the history of micro-computing.
The processing workflow is complicated as Charlotte performs item level
cataloging for the Stanford Digital Library, and ships the items to NIST in
Maryland for them to be imaged, scanned, and included in the national database;
then NIST sends the items back to Palo Alto. On account of the project’s
reliance on the federal government and traveling by truck across the country,
phenomena like a dysfunctional government leading to shutdowns and extreme
weather patterns like last winter’s polar vortex have serious implications for
the Cabirnety project. Charlotte coordinates the logistics of this process and
has to deal with any unexpected cataloging challenges. For example, she has
come across software packages that have mold underneath the shrink wrap
(ultimately de-accessioned that item); breath mints in the collection which
were removed; and over 5000 file name extensions to account for in the catalog
record. Another unique problem for this collection is the absence of
information about the copyright owner of these video games and software
programs from the 1970’s and 1980’s; many of the owners are living but they are
difficult to track down. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<u>Session 11: LA as Subject Considered<o:p></o:p></u></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
Jim Beardsley from the Archival Center of the <a href="http://www.la-archdiocese.org/Pages/default.aspx"><span style="color: blue;">Archdioceseof Los Angeles</span></a> started the session off by providing a summary of the mission
and history of <a href="http://www.laassubject.org/">LA as Subject </a>(LAAS). LAAS has between 280 and 300 members and
serves as a portal, directory, and resource on the history and culture of Los
Angeles. The group started in the 1990’s with major support from Robert
Marshall of California State University at Northridge. The group has grown
tremendously with the success of the annual Archives Bazaar, and meetings every
two months to discuss archives among the members. The next speaker, Claude
Zachary, the University archivist at <a href="http://www.usc.edu/"><span style="color: blue;">University of Southern California</span></a> (USC),
shared that after five years of being hosted by the Getty, LAAS moved over to
USC, where it currently resides. The LAAS website provides an online directory
(database) of member institutions, links to their websites and allows for
keyword and subject searches. LAAS also provides professional development
opportunities for local archivists and opportunities to network with one
another. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
Ellen Jarosz, an archivist from <a href="http://www.csun.edu/"><span style="color: blue;">California StateUniversity at Northridge</span></a> (CSUN) was the next speaker and she spoke exclusively
about the brand new <a href="http://www.laassubject.org/index.php/residency_program"><span style="color: blue;">residency program</span></a> for recent MLIS graduates. The program is
anchored by the Autry Center, USC, and CSUN and draws on their rich alliances
with members of LAAS. Each year three recent graduates will be assigned to an
anchor institution, and rotate through various smaller archive organizations to
develop and execute various projects. The residencies last for one year, and
the $440,000 grant from IMLS ensures that the program will be funded for at
least two cohorts. The residents will be given tasks and assessed based on SAA
professional standards with the goal of achieving permanent employment from one
of the associated institutions. The residency program was designed based on the
study of programs such as <a href="http://www.atlantichealth.org/atlantic/for+professionals/nurses/nursing+programs/hire+learning+program">Circle of Learning</a>, <a href="http://www.arl.org/news/arl-news/2679-arl-and-society-of-american-archivists-awarded-imls-grant-for-mosaic-scholarship-program#.VAzZwfldWSo"><span style="color: blue;">Mosaic programs</span></a>, <a href="http://collectiveliberation.org/"><span style="color: blue;">Catalyst Project</span></a>, the <a href="http://www.digitalpreservation.gov/ndsr/"><span style="color: blue;">Library of Congress Digital Stewardship</span></a> and the <a href="http://www.thehistorymakers.com/institute-museum-and-library-services"><span style="color: blue;">HistoryMakers Fellowship Program</span></a>. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
Lastly, Ken Bicknell from the <a href="http://www.metro.net/about/library/"><span style="color: blue;">Los Angeles CountyMetropolitan Transportation Authority Library and Archive</span></a>, a member of the LAAS
board discussed the diverse users and contributors to LAAS as well as upcoming
projects and initiatives that the group was throwing its weight behind. In
recent meetings, “TalkShop” sessions have included sustainable social media,
digital asset management, and <a href="http://www.historypin.com/"><span style="color: blue;">HistoryPin</span></a>. LAAS is also interested in Wikipedia
edit-a-thons, and in the process of planning for this year’s Archives Bazaar on
October 25, 2014. Bicknell also praised USC Digital Library for assisting
smaller members with content publication, Occidental College for starting the
Northeast Los Angeles History Project, and <span style="color: blue;"><a href="http://www.lamag.com/?s=nathan+masters">Nathan Masters</a> </span>for using LAAS
content for his weekly contributions to Los Angeles Magazine. In conclusion,
Bicknell said in reference to LAAS, “a rising tide lifts all boats”. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<u>Arabian Nights in the American Desert: The Cultivation
of Middle Eastern Fantasies in California’s Coachella Valley<o:p></o:p></u></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
The lunch time speaker at SCA was, <a href="http://www.kcet.org/arts/artbound/counties/riverside/coachella-valley-middle-eastern-fantasies-desert.html">Sarah McCormackSeekatz</a>, a Ph.D. candidate from the University of California at Riverside talked
about the historic, kitschy, and problematic nature of the Arabian-zation of
the Coachella Valley. Sarah was so clever as she passed out little packages of
varied dates and had the audience taste them throughout her talk to emphasize
different points. The Coachella Valley was full of native people until the late
1800’s when the railroad arrived. Based on the climate, the United States
Department of Agriculture sent people abroad to find new varieties of fruits
and vegetables. In other words there was a planned introduction of dates to the
desert. On account of their success and the nation’s new obsession with all
things from the Middle East, local towns were given exotic names like Mecca, and
they developed local attractions with Middle Eastern themes. Films like<i>
Lawrence of Arabia</i>, <i>Thief of Baghdad</i>, <i>Queen of Sheba</i>, and <i>The Sheik </i>also
contributed to the craze. The “orientalization” of high school mascots, movie
theaters, date festivals, architecture, camel races, and parades was full of
fallacies and highly problematic for people who came from the region. Sarah’s
use of archival images brought validity to otherwise absurd stories about
behavior that those communities thought was acceptable. Overall the talk was enlightening,
engaging, and informative. <o:p></o:p></div>
Chaitra Powellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10378223325366418587noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3327539494542269950.post-42508472185241380152014-05-12T17:42:00.002-07:002014-05-18T15:02:39.021-07:00Smithsonian Institution Presentation<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><i>History of America in 101 Objects</i></b><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
Smithsonian Institution Presentation at Los Angeles Public Library<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
May 7, 2014<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
Last Wednesday night, I had the distinct pleasure of
attending a Smithsonian Institution event at the downtown central branch of the
<a href="http://www.lapl.org/branches/central-library"><span style="color: blue;">Los Angeles Public Library</span></a>. The program consisted of Henry Winkler, the actor
who played Arthur Fonzarelli on television’s <i>Happy Days</i>, and Richard Kurin, the Smithsonian’s Under Secretary
for History, Art, and Culture, discussing Kurin’s new <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Smithsonians-History-America-101-Objects/dp/1594205299/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1399941501&sr=1-1&keywords=history+of+america+in+101+objects"><span style="color: blue;">book</span></a>, <i>History of America in 101 Objects</i>.
Winkler chose several objects, projected them on the screen and Kurin did a
masterful job of explaining why that particular object was included in the
book. Kurin showcased two, three-dimensional replicas from the book (child
sized slave shackles from the Middle Passage and Abraham Lincoln’s hat) to
demonstrate how the Smithsonian is enabling teachers to bring history alive in
their classrooms. I learned so much
about the breadth of the Smithsonian’s holdings as a result of this
presentation. The original oversized and tattered star spangled banner, from
1814, which was the inspiration for Francis Scott Key’s lyrics in the national anthem,
is there. For California history, they have the first tiny gold flake from Sutter’s
Mill in 1848, which marked the beginning of the westward expansion in America.
Did you know that Dorothy’s ruby red slippers were supposed to be silver, but
filmmakers changed it to red just because of the brand new Technicolor cameras?
Those slippers are at the Smithsonian. They also have an eight foot section of
the Greensboro lunch counter, Cesar Chavez’s union jacket, pieces of the AIDS
memorial quilt, and the Hope Diamond. Kurin shared that the Smithsonian
receives 800 million dollars from the government each year, and is responsible
for raising 500 million each year. They serve over 30 million people each year
at their museums in Washington, D.C.; in fact Kurin used foot traffic as
measured by the worn out carpet throughout the museum when choosing which items
to include in the book. The task of preserving America’s history can be large
and overwhelming at times, it is incredibly important for curators, researchers,
and archivists to help us apply context and draw meaning from a discrete group
of artifacts. <o:p></o:p></div>
Chaitra Powellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10378223325366418587noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3327539494542269950.post-7318021645825727132014-04-21T18:12:00.002-07:002014-04-22T17:03:37.032-07:00Library of Congress Images Webinar<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<strong><span style="background: white; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Diving Deep into Pictures at the Library of
Congress</span></strong><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
American Society of Picture Professionals Webinar<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
April 8, 2014<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
This webinar was prepared by Helena Zinkham, a staff
member from the <a href="http://www.loc.gov/pictures/"><span style="color: blue;">Library on Congress’ Prints and Photographs Division</span></a>. Ms.
Zinkham started her presentation with a brief summary of the mission and
highlights of the Library of Congress’ photograph collections. They hope that
photographers will use the collection for creative inspiration, to see changes
over time, and learn from master photographers.
There are over 15 million items in the print and photograph
division including cartoon, drawings, posters and items created domestically
and internationally. One surprising fact that Ms. Zinkham shared is that there
are 950,000 copyright free images in the Library of Congress! If you type “no
known restrictions” after your search terms, the rights free images will pop
up. If the rights to an image are undetermined, they will only post a thumbnail
of the image to inhibit use by the general public. Users can easily search the
database by keyword; but be advised that exact phrases cannot be found with
quotes, you have to click the advanced search option. The Library of Congress
has created several points of entry to their collections including the <a href="http://www.loc.gov/pictures/collection/guide/"><span style="color: blue;">Guide Records</span></a> link to search collections by creator, subject, or format. You can also
bookmark a record, saving the URL and easily returning to it on a later date. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
Some of the subjects that the Prints and Photographs
Division is best known for include Civil War, News Photography, Great
Depression, World War II, American Architecture, Landmark and Vernacular
Structures, and Baseball. Their most popular collections include CQ/Roll Call,
Toni Frissell, Art Wood Cartoons, US News and World Reports, and New York World
Telegram and Sun Newspaper. For the Audio Assault exhibit at the Mayme A.
Clayton Library and Museum, we found quite a few images of civil rights
protests in the New York World Telegram and Sun Newspaper collection. When I lived in Phoenix in 2011, I was able to visit the <a href="http://www.phxart.org/fashion/"><span style="color: blue;">Anne Bonfoey Taylor Fashion</span></a> exhibit at the Phoenix Art Museum; I had no idea that the photographs
were rights free from the Library of Congress. The Library of Congress is
constantly adding new digital content to their database, and users can
influence this process and access un-digitized materials, if they are doing
research in person or are able to hire a Washington D.C. based researcher. With
the exception of nitrate negatives, which are stored off-site and only
retrieved once per month, there is a two week turnaround for digitization
requests in the Duplication Services department. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
To discover more images from the Library of Congress and
other cultural institutions; researchers have a number of options. The <a href="https://www.flickr.com/commons"><span style="color: blue;">Flickr Commons</span></a>
features 1.25 million photographs from 82 different libraries, archives, and
museums. The Library of Congress hosts two blogs, <a href="http://blogs.loc.gov/picturethis/"><span style="color: blue;">Picture This</span></a>, and <a href="http://blogs.loc.gov/digitalpreservation/"><span style="color: blue;">The Signal</span></a>; and other resources to help
users obtain lawful access and use of collection materials.<o:p></o:p></div>
Chaitra Powellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10378223325366418587noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3327539494542269950.post-61487030234421816902014-04-07T10:20:00.004-07:002014-04-07T10:20:53.200-07:00LIB 122: Week 11-12 (April 1, 2014)<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
In class this week, our guest lecturer was Nancy
Steinman, an assistant archivist at Mount St. Mary’s College, working on her
MILS from San Jose State University, with 20 years of computer programming experience.
Nancy talked to us about the origins of XML, the symbols and rules of
well-formed XML, and we practiced writing in XML and exporting our Content DM
collections into XML. Nancy reiterated how simple and elegant XML can be
throughout her presentation; which is true, but my mind went back to countless
hours in Oxygen trying to incorporate series, boxes and folders in c01, c02, or
c03 levels, with straight quotes, in order to get my XML to validate. It is
definitely a concept that requires a great deal of practice to master. One
concept that Nancy mentioned which I’ve seen on my Twitter feed from other
archivists but have not acquired any direct experience is TEI, or Text Encoding
Initiative. TEI is very popular strategy within Digital Humanities, using
computers to perform content analysis. I appreciate the way that she mentioned
TEI and XML in the same discussion because they share the theme of tags as a
layer of information on top of a data. Tags can be formulated to indicate
whatever is meaningful to the user, in the case of EAD, unittitle or bioghist,
for TEI, it could be couplets or word counts. Nancy concluded with several
websites that we could consult if we had more questions; <a href="http://whatis.com/"><span style="color: blue;">whatis.com</span></a> and
<span style="color: blue;"><a href="http://www.w3schools.com/"><span style="color: blue;">w3schools</span></a> </span>(XML tutorials). <o:p></o:p></div>
Chaitra Powellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10378223325366418587noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3327539494542269950.post-84308497716922914232014-04-06T14:17:00.000-07:002014-04-06T14:17:01.765-07:00LIB 122: Week 9-10 (March 18, 2014)<div class="MsoNormal">
In our first class after Spring Break, we talked about
description in museum culture and the evolution of VRA. Linda started off with
a reminder that museums do not have a long standing tradition of exchanging
data nor a standard in resource description. This is why the implementation of
CDWA, or Categories of the Description of Works of Art (with its 512 categories
and sub-categories) was such an important set of guidelines for these
institutions. CDWA morphed into CDWA Lite (35 categories and subcategories)
which included a data standard, Cataloging Cultural Objects, and XML
encoding. The next step in metadata
schemas for museum objects was VRA which looks a lot like Dublin Core. VRA
relies heavily on the one to one principal, differentiating between the record
of an original work and the various derivatives of it. We also discussed some
of the differences between VRA 3.0 and VRA 4.0, although most systems have only
adopted VRA 3.0 at this point. Our in class assignment required us to take
pictures of art works from around the Shatford Library and describe them using
VRA categories. Our assignment was twofold because we created tables in
Microsoft Office Word to describe the “work” and created records in ContentDM
(Project Client) to describe the image of the art. VRA has now joined Dublin
Core, MODS, and EAD in m y repertoire of metadata schemas; it’s like learning
new languages, very exciting. At our professor’s request, class the following
week was cancelled; we will be making up the lessons in the weeks ahead.<o:p></o:p></div>
Chaitra Powellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10378223325366418587noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3327539494542269950.post-8766510570369292362014-03-13T13:05:00.000-07:002014-03-13T13:05:41.905-07:00Chapter Review: Interviews<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b>Chapter Review<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b>Book Title:</b> What do Employers want? A guide for Library
Science Students<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b>Authors:</b> Priscilla K. Shontz and Richard A. Murray<o:p></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b>Publication Date:</b> 2012<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b>Chapter 10:
Interviews<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b>Synopsis:</b><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
This chapter describes types of job interviews and advice
on how to get through one successfully.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b>Take-away Points:</b><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
Interviews are inherently stressful, but applicants
should take confidence in the fact that they beat out many other applicants to
make it to this point. When a search committee sends you a list of potential
interview times do you best to choose one, it would be easier to manipulate
your schedule than to ask them to manipulate the schedules of four or five
people. While it is smart to have some notes available during a phone
interview, don’t write a script; it’s important that the conversation flows and
does not feel forced. Even if the interviewer does not ask directly, have your
“describe a time when…” questions prepared. Feel free to have questions
prepared from your interpretation of the job description. It is okay to ask if
you answered the question completely, or if they can repeat the question. It is
a good idea to pause before answering a question in order to compose yourself;
during a panel situation start off looking at the person who asked the
question, after the first sentence look at the rest of the panel. Always
remember that even during day long interviews, nothing is off the record. You
should endeavor to be warm and personable yet professional and respectful. When
interviewing at a place where you would be the only librarian, keep library
jargon and acronyms to a minimum. There is no way that you can be successful
without doing background research, it will help you ask better questions and be
engaged in subsequent conversations; remember no questions translates to “not
interested”. When all else fails, you can ask, “what do you like about working
here?” Bring a portfolio with materials to take notes and mints (not gum) to
keep you prepared and throughout the interview. Another thing to remember is
that you can make up for not having the most experience by being enthusiastic,
speaking cogently about topics, and knowing why the job is important. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b>Reaction:</b><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
</div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
This chapter mentions Skype as a form of telephone
interviewing. Their advice about looking into the camera rather than at the
screen would have been helpful when I Skype interviewed with the Houston Public
Library. I read a few blogs about Skype interviewing and none mentioned that
tip. I was surprised when I read that it is acceptable to send one thank you
note to the group who interviewed you. In the past, I had been stressed about
remembering everyone’s name, but this tip would take me off of the hook. Also,
it is worth it to send a handwritten note, rather than an email. There were a
lot of friendly reminders in this chapter about dressing appropriately and
being pleasant during the interview. I think this is standard interview advice
for any profession.<o:p></o:p></div>
Chaitra Powellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10378223325366418587noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3327539494542269950.post-89889976382255276732014-03-13T12:54:00.000-07:002014-03-13T12:54:48.173-07:00Chapter Review: Cover Letters<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b>Chapter Review<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b>Book Title:</b> What do Employers want? A guide for Library
Science Students<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b>Authors:</b> Priscilla K. Shontz and Richard A. Murray<o:p></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b>Publication Date:</b> 2012<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b>Chapter 9: Cover
Letters<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b>Synopsis:</b><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
This chapter gives advice about how to write a strong
cover letter.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b>Take-away Points:</b><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
A cover letter is a bridge between the applicant and the
job that she is applying for. The vacancy announcement should be the guide as
you write the cover letter. Talk about how your work experience, coursework,
research, publications, workshops, conferences, or training would bring value
to their organization. Try not to parrot back the exact phrasing from the job
posting, but use your experience to demonstrate how you have done what they are
asking for. Even if you have not done everything on the list of desired
qualifications, do your best to describe your authentic strengths and help the
potential employers make the connections between your skills and their needs.
Be sure to do some research to determine who to address the letter to and use
information about the institution within the letter. Refrain from using “to
whom it may concern” because it may appear cold and generic; also avoid a
gimmicky or infomercial sounding cover letter. Other tips include writing the
position number and how you discovered it in the introduction, and don’t repeat
your contact information in the body of the letter. The letter should have a
professional (concise and direct) tone and be conservative in format and
presentation. In some cases, like re-location you can include personal
information such as, “my spouse accepted a position in Minnesota” as a reason
you are leaving a position in Arizona. The authors recommend applicants apply
in enough time to write the cover letter, allow a couple of days for someone
else to read it and review it yourself before the submission. A good gauge for
the length of the cover letter is the position level that you are applying for,
entry level jobs should be 1-1.5 pages, a library director position might be
3-5 pages. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b>Reaction:</b><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
</div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
I often get stuck on what to include on a cover letter,
so this chapter helps me a great deal. Since most employers are swamped with
applications, I try to keep the cover letter at one page in length. I feel like
I could always do more background research on the institution to incorporate
into the cover letter and I hardly ever have someone else go over my letter
before submitting it. Perhaps, a nice circle of friends could make ourselves
available to each other for the review of our application documents. The
biggest reason that this is hard for me is the turnaround time; waiting on
someone to respond with feedback could make me miss the application deadline.
The advice from this chapter gives me an ideal to strive for, and if I keep
striking out doing it my way, an incentive to find a way to do it their way. <o:p></o:p></div>
Chaitra Powellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10378223325366418587noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3327539494542269950.post-60925229052730547222014-03-13T12:44:00.000-07:002014-03-13T12:44:34.793-07:00Chapter Review: Resumes<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: inherit;">Chapter Review<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Book Title:</b> What do Employers want? A guide for Library
Science Students<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Authors:</b> Priscilla K. Shontz and Richard A. Murray<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Publication Date:</b> 2012<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: inherit;">Chapter 8: Resumes<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Synopsis:</b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">This chapter discusses the components of a strong resume
and advice on content and conventions that everyone has to consider.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Take-away Points:</b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Since every resume has to be tailored for the job that
one is applying for, it would be a good idea to create a master resume and pull
the relevant information for each unique resume. Applicants should also create
a career portfolio of his/her accomplishments for his/her own memory and it could be
the basis of future projects. The authors encourage students and new graduates
to talk about technology and current theories to make their resumes more appealing. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Reactions:</b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Before going to the IE LEADS conference, I
thought I had a strong resume because I incorporated a lot of narrative in my
resume in order to help potential employers see how my experience was relevant
to their requirements. After reading this chapter and talking to a career
coach, I understand that the dots need to be connected more subtly. Choosing
the relevant information from my master resume is less overwhelming to
committees than a paragraph of prose that details why I would be a good fit. </span></span></div>
Chaitra Powellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10378223325366418587noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3327539494542269950.post-24056428022328145092014-03-13T12:37:00.000-07:002014-03-13T12:37:56.884-07:00Chapter Review: How Employers Hire<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b>Book Title:</b> What do Employers want? A guide for Library
Science Students</div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b>Authors:</b> Priscilla K. Shontz and Richard A. Murray<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b>Publication Date:</b> 2012<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b>Chapter 6: How
Employers Hire <o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b>Synopsis: </b><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
This chapter starts off with some basic information on
what happens to your application after you submit it; then it discusses the
differences in timing and procedures among various types of libraries and
institutions.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b>Take-away points: </b><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
Most employers do not do anything with your application
materials until the application deadline has passed. Some employers don’t
communicate well, while others are overwhelmed with applicants to respond to
everyone. Search committees and hiring directors start with the basic
requirements and continue to sift through applicants until they are left with a
small number of resumes. Most places will do a telephone interview before
inviting an applicant to interview in person. Academic libraries may pay for
travel to a long distance applicant and successful applicants could meet with
an academic dean or a library director during the notably longer interview
process. Public libraries typically hire local applicants and won’t pay travel
expenses of out of town applicants, these libraries usually function as a part
of city or county departments their processes are standardized. In many cases,
the resume will not substitute for an online application, applicants must
follow instructions carefully. For school librarians, teaching experience is
critical. For federal and state government libraries, positions have to be
filled within 80 days of their postings, and all hiring and selection decisions
are based on scoring matrices in order to avoid any suspicions of impropriety.
In special libraries and non-library environments, applicants must attempt to
distinguish him/herself through internships or networks. Lastly, the authors
encourage applicants to be resilient in the job search and not take any
rejection personally. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b>Reaction: </b><o:p></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
The article compares finding a job to finding a mate,
which I think is quite appropriate. We can read all of the job finding and
relationship books that are out there but it is probably the chance encounter
at an event that leads to the best opportunity. I was surprised that the
authors did not mention video chat sites like Skype or Oovoo, as many
institutions are using these in lieu of telephone or in-person interviews. I
have been on several hiring committees, and believe that the advice that this
chapter gives is relevant and accurate <o:p></o:p></div>
Chaitra Powellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10378223325366418587noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3327539494542269950.post-29511729243739530352014-03-13T11:17:00.000-07:002015-07-29T11:06:44.895-07:00Speech Review: The Power of Archives: Archivists Values and Value in the Post Modern Age<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b>Speech Review<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b>Title:</b> The
Power of Archives: Archivists’ Values and Value in the Post-Modern Age<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b>Author:</b> Mark
Greene<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b>Publication:</b> The American Archivist, Volume 72, Number 1,
Spring/Summer 2009<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In 2008, Mark Greene, then president of the SAA, proposed a set of archives professional values that included professionalism,
collectivity, activism, selection, democracy, service, diversity, use and
access, history. In 2011, a committee of the SAA adopted the following
professional values; access and use, accountability, advocacy, diversity,
history and memory, preservation, professionalism, responsible custody,
selection, service, and social responsibility. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
More descriptions of archival value system, according to
Mark Greene:<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<b><br /></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<b>Professionalism</b>: We should be developing our specialized knowledge
(via research and publications). We should also strive to be motivated by our
professional mission, rather than rules and obligations.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<b><br /></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<b>Collectivity</b>: This principle works on two levels. On one hand, we
should continue to focus on aggregates in digital and analog forms in terms of
arrangement and description. In another sense, we can work with other library
professionals to make a wider variety of materials available for users.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<b>Activism</b>: Greene bundles activism with agency, our role in shaping
the historical record, and advocacy, bringing attention to challenges in the
archives. When agency and advocacy are in practiced, we can give voice to under-documented
individuals.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<b><br /></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<b>Democracy</b>: Archives are critical to keeping the government
accountable to the governed.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<b><br /></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<b>Service</b>: We provide service to our institutions and to society in
general. We should also place the needs of our users over the needs of our
collections.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<b><br /></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<b>Diversity</b>: This can be a tricky value because although it has the
power to increase the relevance and access of the archives it can blind us to
the negative impact our intervention. Greene focuses on the importance of encouraging
diverse individuals to enter the profession and accessioning/processing diverse
archival collections.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<b><br /></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<b>Use and Access</b>: Greene’s views on access and use included a
discussion of electronic records and revised processing methods. Consistent
with his ideas of putting the needs of the user above all else, he states that “rights
holders’ interest laws” amount to censorship and diminishes access. He believes
that HIPPA and FERPA regulations should have time limits. In all questions of
access versus privacy, he would error on the side of access. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<b><br /></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<b>History</b>: Most people associate archives with historical resources. Our
focus on primary sources is the source of historical accountability.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I started this blog entry with a discussion of professional values
because Greene asserts that an embrace of our professional values is the key to
asserting our power with resource allocators and the general public. It is kind
of interesting to think that the American Medical Association was established
in 1847, the American Bar Association was founded in 1878, and the Society of
American Archivists was founded in 1936. I’m not sure how long it took those
groups of lawyers and doctors to establish their core professional values, but
I am guessing it was less than 75 years. Greene’s central message in this
presidential address is how can we expect other people to value us, if we don’t
value ourselves, and by the way, here are some quotes about our challenges and potential solutions (as stated by some of our favorite archives scholars and leaders). <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>David Gracy:</b><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="mso-list: l2 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -.25in;">
</div>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Symbol; text-indent: -0.25in;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;"> </span></span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">The depth of the problem was demonstrated with
he commissioned a survey on how archivists were perceived by resource
allocators. Some of the comments included, “roles not worth fighting budget
battles for”, “admired but frivolous activity”, “appear as hoarders”</span></li>
</ul>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Mark Greene:</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
</div>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Symbol; text-indent: -0.25in;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">“We have to demand, cajole, finagle, bargain,
collect points, win friends, influence people, whatever it takes to build and
exercise power for our programs.”</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Symbol; text-indent: -0.25in;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">“We wield power by shaping the historical
record, providing access to government information, protecting citizen rights,
educating young minds, affecting the ways scholars use and interpret repository
materials; provide substance for powerful entertainment.”</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Symbol; text-indent: -0.25in;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">“We can advocate for the archives by creating
concise definition of what we are and why we are important, participating in Archives
Month, draft press releases to institutions and local media, talk ourselves up
with donors and supervisors.”</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Symbol; text-indent: -0.25in;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">“Too many institutions behave like janitors
clearing away the refuse; not selecting at the onset and de-accessioning at the
item level. We are scared of throwing away something important.”</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Symbol; text-indent: -0.25in;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">“We are trained to appraise and select, let’s do
it with confidence; it is one of our powers!”</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Symbol; text-indent: -0.25in;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">“The resonance of the word </span><i style="text-indent: -0.25in;">primary</i><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">, in the phrase primary source. Primary connotes first,
most, important, chief, key, principal, major, and crucial.”</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Symbol; text-indent: -0.25in;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">“Assigning professional values can be seen as
exclusionary, but this could be a good thing. We should endeavor to share our
values, not just degrees, records, repositories, affiliation, or function.”</span></li>
</ul>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>John Fleckner</b><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="mso-list: l1 level1 lfo3; text-indent: -.25in;">
</div>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Symbol; text-indent: -0.25in;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">When it comes to expressing our value, we have
to move beyond how [we work] to why [we work].</span></li>
</ul>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Gerry Ham</b><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="mso-list: l1 level1 lfo3; text-indent: -.25in;">
</div>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Symbol; text-indent: -0.25in;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">“If appraisal is so important to archivist, why
do we do it so poorly?”</span></li>
</ul>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Maynard Brichford</b><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="mso-list: l1 level1 lfo3; text-indent: -.25in;">
</div>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Symbol; text-indent: -0.25in;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">“Not all accession materials are worth
extraordinary conservation efforts.”</span></li>
</ul>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Susan M. Heathfield</b></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="mso-list: l1 level1 lfo3; text-indent: -.25in;">
</div>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Symbol; text-indent: -0.25in;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">“Living your values is one of the most powerful
tools available to help you lead and influence others.”</span></li>
</ul>
<!--[if !supportLists]--><o:p></o:p>Chaitra Powellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10378223325366418587noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3327539494542269950.post-13942228427679260862014-03-10T15:45:00.000-07:002014-03-10T15:45:59.391-07:00LIB 122: Week 8 (March 4, 2014)<div class="MsoNormal">
In the past, I have only learned about metadata schemas as
they were utilized in the particular projects that I was working on, namely
EAD. In this course, I am increasingly appreciative of the exposure to the
history and functionality of various metadata schemas. The more that I review
archives job descriptions and tried to educate myself on the relevance of alphabet
soup terms like METS, MODS, EAD, XML, I thought I would need some clever mnemonic
device to keep them straight in my mind. Of course no rote memorization
technique is better than genuine understanding, which I have come to obtain through
learning about the reasons that these standards came into place, who was
invested in their success, and which descriptive void it attempts to fill. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So
far we have Dublin Core which was devised to help librarians catalog the
internet which explains its broad interpretations. Now, we have MODS which came
out of the MARC camp which was full of old school library catalogers,
challenged with the advent of shelf ready library in the 1990’s. The intention
of MODS is to provide more granularity than Dublin Core, and it has the added
bonus requirement of being written in the highly interoperable XML programming
language. The 50 elements within MODS, are based on the 900 MARC fields, but
they are given intelligible names rather than the three digit numeric codes
that only library catalogers are familiar with. Lastly, MODS does not require
catalogers to user AACR2, and it supports any controlled vocabulary or
thesauri. Our assignment at the end of class was to match up the Dublin Core
elements that we had used for our photo project last semester with the MODS
elements that we just learned about. I definitely ran into some confusion as
the “dc: description” field could be used for both “mods: abstract” or “mods:
tableofcontents”. Once again local standards would determine which elements should
be used and we could be consistent within our organization.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
Next week is Spring Break at Pasadena City College, so I’ll
be back to blog on March 18, 2014…. <o:p></o:p></div>
Chaitra Powellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10378223325366418587noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3327539494542269950.post-58073281982252263822014-02-23T17:10:00.001-08:002014-03-10T15:46:55.888-07:00LIB 122: Week 6-7 (February 18, 2014)<div class="MsoNormal">
In class this week, Dan McLaughlin, one of the founders of
the <a href="http://pasadenadigitalhistory.com/">Pasadena Digital History Collaborative</a> (PDHC), talked to us about assigning
subject headings to photographs. Through my HistoryMakers fellowship, I had
been taught to use a given subject heading if at least 20 percent of the oral
history was about that subject. I knew that would be hard to apply to a
photograph, so I was looking forward to Dan’s thoughts on the assignment of
subject headings. The advice that he shared which has stuck with me is, “if
someone was looking for an example of “x” from a certain time period, what
would “x” be?”. In other words, if there is a faint outline of a bird in the
background, birds should not be a subject heading because there is nothing to
be learned about birds from that image. Just like the HistoryMakers had to
establish some local practices, Dan shared the subject heading handbook that
the PDHC uses for consistency when dealing with images that their catalogers
come across frequently. One thing that the PDHC encourages that The
HistoryMakers did not is the use of a notes field to record any of the relevant
findings that a cataloger comes across while performing subject heading
research. I understand that this could spiral out of control for super detailed
individuals but it does create richer metadata records that enable more
contextual linkages over time. Cataloging managers have tough decisions to
make when deciding how detailed the records should be throughout a given
project. Dan showed us some resources on the Los Angeles and Pasadena Public
Library websites that would help us to identify the people, buildings, and
businesses in the images that we would be working with on our homework
assignment. Both of the images that I worked with had some significant
historical context that I was happy to include in the notes field of the
record. Thanks to this class, I now know who <a href="http://socaluncensored.com/2004/02/07/socal-legend-baron-michele-leone-biography/">Baron Michele Leone</a> is!<o:p></o:p><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
The following Tuesday, Dan came back to our class to give
commentary while everyone took turns showing our assigned images on the
projector and sharing how we arrived at our particular choice of LCSH terms.
The class seemed to drag on as the same individuals chimed in to give me and my
classmates, additional terms to search in the LOC subject authority’s website.
Once again the subjectivity of cataloging photographs met with the criteria of
the assignment. After four or five terms, I’m ready to move on to the next photograph,
but some people seemed intent on staring at an image until they have exhausted
all of the possibilities. In conclusion, I would love to be photograph
cataloguer with a sensible manager that understands when enough is enough….according
to me, <span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-char-type: symbol; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-symbol-font-family: Wingdings;">J</span> <o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
Chaitra Powellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10378223325366418587noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3327539494542269950.post-84874316041278865932014-02-23T17:03:00.000-08:002014-02-23T17:03:21.857-08:00LIB 122: Week 5 (February 11, 2014)<div class="MsoNormal">
In class this week, we continued our discussion of
Dublin Core metadata elements. We spent a significant amount of time looking at
how different institutions manage the “rights” field in their metadata records.
Some require users to contact the department to determine terms of access and
others use blanket statements about fair use, public domain, and relevant copyright
laws. My favorite came from East Carolina University who had a <a href="https://digital.lib.ecu.edu/1507">rights statement</a>
related to orphan works which essentially asked end users to let them know if a
particular image fell under copyright and should be taken down. I liked it
because it did not assume that the cataloger was an authority on the content of
the digital object, and encouraged the general public to participate in the
identification of the origins of the image. Linda went on to help us
differentiate between the “type” and “format” elements in Dublin Core. I find
that the distinctions are easier to discern if the cataloger has a good grasp
on what the record is describing, the analog item or the digital object. For
instance, a metadata record for a physical photograph (analog) would have a dc:
type value of “image” and a dc: format value of “8x10”; and a metadata record
for a scanned photograph (digital) would have a dc: type value of “image”, and
a dc: format value of “image/jpeg”. It also helps if I can remember that the
<i>DCMI</i> is the controlled vocabulary that populates “type”, while the <i>MIME
</i>controlled vocabulary corresponds to “format”. Today’s class also featured
discussions on medium, extent, coverage, description, and subject elements. My
experience with archives have enabled me to get familiar with Library of
Congress subject headings but there are so many more to learn about; I’m
looking forward to utilizing the Art and Architecture Thesaurus (AAT),
Thesaurus for Graphic Materials (TGM), Union List of Artists Names, and
Thesaurus for Geographic Names (TGN). Our midterm assignment requires us to
select a metadata strategy and identify metadata elements; determine if they
will be required, searchable, or hidden, if they should utilize a controlled
vocabulary, and what our data entry protocols will be. <o:p></o:p></div>
Chaitra Powellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10378223325366418587noreply@blogger.com0