Research Value

Today I was working on organizing the personnel files in the Bureau of Public Discussion Records.  I was planning on just restricting the whole subseries.  I thought this would be a good choice since each folder seemed to contain a great deal of sensitive employment information and job recommendations.  Also, this way I could just restrict the entire subseries and not have to worry about marking each folder on the finding aid.  However, as I was leafing through a folder to find dates for the file I realized that there didn't seem to be any sensitive information.  In fact everything in the file was from after the woman retired and was mainly about her retirement and memorializing her after her death.  I recognized her name, Mary Anderson, and knew that she had been an integral part of the restructuring of the Bureau in 1949.  The materials in this file, therefore, had important research value, so I began questioning whether all of the records should be restricted. 

In other folders I found additional mixed folders.  There would be sensitive information, but also a reading course that that individual had edited or correspondence regarding a program that they were involved in.  Researchers should be able to access that sort of material.  I talked to Carrie and Dina and we decided that since it was only about a box (a little less) that I could go through and separate the sensitive materials from those that don't need to be restricted and shouldn't be isolated since they do have good research value.  Research value is somewhat subjective, so basically anything that doesn't need to be restricted.  Some folders may be entirely restricted and others will be split into restricted and unrestricted folders.  In this process I'm also removing performance reviews, recommendations for employee action, and other materials that do not need to be included in the collection at all.  I sort of feel like I'm reading people's mail as I attempt to separate the confidential from the benign.

I also removed a few personnel folders that seemed to be from instructors teaching classes under Dr. Hattery, the Director of the Bureau of Public Discussion in the 1970s,  but he was also a government professor.  These materials seemed to have more to do with Hattery's teaching career rather than the Bureau, though.  We're going to talk to Phil about these, but they will likely not be included in the collection since they really don't belong with the Bureau of Public Discussion Records.

All in all a productive week.  The collection is arranged (for the most part) and the finding aid is coming together.  Also, not internship related but work related, I learned how to hyperlink in EAD today, so good day!

Reading Response Five: Fundamentals

The Management of College and University Archives chapter on “Fundamentals of Academic Archives”

William J. Maher

I decided that with the goal of a gaining a better understanding of university archives I should read about the fundamentals.  Although it was published in 1992 it is still a valid and relevant source for the management of university archives.  Phil, the director of IU’s archives told me that he still consulted it, so I read on.

Maher began the chapter by setting forth the basic goal of the academic archives being, “to aid the institution in its survival and growth, especially by making sure that the roots to the past are intact.”  I like this description.  Many of the records are important or kept for legal reasons, others are useful for publicity or advertising, but many also are important to remind those associated with the institution of their history.  After seeing historical images of the campus and learning more about the university’s history I really do feel more connected to the school than I did before I began at the archives.   Next Maher outlined the fundamentals needed to be an academic archive.  These are mission and establishment, administrative location, holdings, personnel, space and facilities, and service goals.  It may seem a bit like common sense, but it was helpful to see them all laid out.  He then went into more detail about each one.

First and most fundamental is a clear statement of purpose.  Maher states that these will vary, but outlines the “Guidelines for College and University Archives,” and suggests developing a mission tailoring these elements to the individual institution.  An authorizing document is also necessary to provide continuity, direction, and protection, as well as a rationale for the program.   

As far as administrative location, I had never really thought of the archives being outside of the library.  I realize that IU’s used to be part of the president’s office, but the library just makes sense to me.  When talking to Phil he challenged me to think of reasons why archives would be placed in different places.  The location in the hierarchy can affect authority and visibility, so being part of the central administration can make the archives more visible to those in the central administration, as well as perhaps giving them more authority.  The library is a more central location for use and research by other users, though.  Really no location is perfect, so it’s important for archivists to have strong relationships across campus.

Holding can vary, but there are a number of core documents that Maher outlines in detail.  Common files for archival retention are subject files, project files, case files, and summary financial records.  A major effort is put into acquiring personal papers from faculty and administration.  Archival work is a distinct profession and the archives should have at least one full-time permanent staff member with the same employment status as other non-teaching professionals.  There is also the need for support staff and students workers, but there are no clear guidelines for staff to holdings ratio.

There are three components to space and facilities, storage, staff, and public.  These three seem to get juggled.  Storage space is important and needs to be adequate.  Processing takes a lot of space, though, and you need room for people to work.  At the same time you need enough space for researchers to work and for exhibits to provide outreach.  It seems like there is never enough space for any of these, however, but it’s important to keep them in mind.  It is also important to know your service goals and meet them.  This involves juggling the constituency needs for students, faculty, and administrators.

Maher, William J.  (1992). The Management of College and University Archives.  Society of American Archivists and Scarecrow Press, Inc.  

Arrangement

I ended last week with thinking about the arrangement of my collection on paper.  I actually looked up some different series possibilities in the SAA Glossary and by reading some completed finding aids.  I decided that there were items in the administrative files series that didn't quite belong.  I then discovered program files.  This series worked well for some floating files that didn't quite fit where they were.  This series particularly worked well for the Package Library materials, which make up a large chunk.  I felt like I had a better handle on the what the arrangement should be after doing some research and creating the new series.

Once I was satisfied with my arrangement on paper (or Word), it was time to tackle physical arrangement.  This was a daunting task.  Materials were scattered throughout the boxes so I had to spread out.  Lesson learned, arrangement can require a lot of space.  Luckily I was able to steal a cleared table next to mine and then clear it again when I was done for the day.  IU is fortunate to have the processing space that they have, but I really think that any archival institution could always use more.

There was a whole box of personnel records (and a few more files scattered about).  They are arranged where they would be intellectually in the finding aid.  That is to say, if they were not restricted that is where it would make sense to find them.  They are currently not in my equation for physical arrangement, though.  They are sorted into a box that I'm keeping under the table to give me more space.  When I'm finished arranging they will be the last box.  In the finding aid, as always, they are marked in bold, "Restricted" denoting to the archivist that they are at the end of the collection and not in the box with the other files that it is described with.

We also questioned whether or not the reference requests should be restricted.  Now library records are considered private because what people read and research could potentially be used to cause harm to that person.  Carrie and I talked to Phil and it was decided that these records from the 1960s were okay, though.  Restricting them would be acting over-sensitively.  The question then became do we need two boxes of these reference requests or could we sample them, or only keep some to represent the whole.  I thought that they could definitely have research value in that you can see what people in a certain area were researching and asking for in that time period.  It was decided that since it was just two boxes and not twelve that it would be okay to just go ahead and keep them all.  This means less work for me, even though we could potentially save a little space by only keeping a sample.

Arranging this collection is taking longer not only because the size, but also because I have had to put a lot of things into new folders or into folders at all.  This is more time consuming than what you would initially think, especially when you have a few boxes worth of folders to create.  I can see how not refoldering if you don't have to can save time, but also how it is necessary at times.  Even though I had it arranged on paper beforehand I still made a few slight changes as I went.  Actually looking what was in the folder again instead of at just the folder name gave me a different perspective on some files.  The process is coming along, though.

Reading Response Four: Institutional Repositories

“Institutional Repositories and the Institutional Repository: College and University Archives and Special Collections in an Era of Change”

Elizabeth Yakel, Soo Young Rieh, Beth St. Jean, Karen Markey, and Jihyun Kim

The title of this article confused me initially.  My first thought was, isn’t that the same thing.  Luckily the authors explained it quite well!  Basically institutional repositories (IRs) are becoming an extension of the intuitional repository, or archives.  This article served to report on the 2006 Census of Institutional Repositories in the United States. 

The article quoted Clifford Lynch’s definition of institutional repositories as being “a set of services that a university offers to the members of its community for the management and dissemination of digital materials created by the institution and its community members.”  After reading this definition I thought of Ball State’s Cardinal Scholar and IU’s ScholarWorks, which contain materials produced by the those communities to promote open scholarly communication. 

The questions asked were if institutional repositories could be an opportunity to improve the management of digital data and if they are a sign that archivists are losing control of electronic institutional records.  The major issues looked at were the role of archivists in the development of institutional repositories, content recruitment, and preservation of materials. 

The results of the study should that 75% of respondents considered archivists to be engaged in the institutional repository process.  This presence increased as the institutional repository progressed.  When discussing content recruitment, thirty-seven digital documents types were identified, thirty of these could be considered archival.  A majority of the archival materials in IRs are theses and dissertations.  With theses and dissertations included in the equation archival materials make up 70.6% of IRs holdings, seemingly making it necessary for at least some level of input and control from archivists.  There is also the importance of archivists in recruitment of materials because they have had the most experience interacting with faculty and different departments for collection development.

Preservation is seen as somewhat or very important, but according to this study the archives role shows little difference on the importance of preservation.  It seems as though the expertise for this is seen to be elsewhere.  There is also uncertainty regarding digital preservation as it is still an unknown in many ways.  A call for trusted digital repositories is also heard, with the need for bench marking guidelines and certification requirements.  This raises the question of if the role of the archivist will need to evolve so that they can position themselves as digital preservation experts and if that a positive or negative thing.  Are IRs really even the most compatible access tool for archives?  After all, they cannot provide a hierarchical display and they require item-level description.  I believe they can be used as an access tool, but definitely not to replace existing tools.

Yakel, Elizabeth, et al. “Institutional Repositories and the Institutional Repository: College and University Archives and Special Collections in an Era of Change,” The American Archivist , Vol. 71 (Fall/Winter 2008): 323-349.

Bureau of Public Discussion and Some Lee Hamilton

This week I finished going through the boxes from the Bureau of Public Discussion.  Today I finished typing up a rough container list based on where things are now.  I then stared at this for a little bit.  This collection is larger than my last two and it's taking me a bit longer to wrap my head around what the best series would be.  It's also from five different accessions with files that will need to be put together.  Additionally I believe that things are not in there original order since even files that should be in alphabetical or chronological order are all over the place.  After taking a lunch break and re-examining what I had in front of me I made some decisions.  There will clearly be administrative files, correspondence, one for the conferences and seminars, and probably a publications one.  The administrative files will have the personnel records and other working documents.  The publications will likely contain the reading courses and possibly the Package Library Briefs.  This is where I may do some rethinking tomorrow.  There is also a lot of other information about the Package Library service in the other series I have thought about.  If I find that there is evidence that this was it's own office it may merit it's own series.  That will take some digging tomorrow. 

While checking one folder to make sure that it belonged in the conferences/seminars series I discovered a photograph.  I instinctively made note of this so that it could be pulled and placed in the photograph collection.  Then on the back it said "Lee Hamilton."  Lee Hamilton was a congressman from Indiana and he had apparently been a speaker at this conference on U.S. Foreign Policy Toward Southeast Asia in 1965.

It was like two worlds intersected.  In my job at the archives I work for Kate, the Political Papers Archivist.  It really hasn't been difficult separating the job and internship because I am doing very different things for two different people.  But today the met for a bit.  In my job I have been doing item level description of some of Lee Hamilton's papers in EAD.  Gaining EAD experience has been great and by doing item level description (so that it can be fully digitized) I have learned a lot.  Part of what I like about working in archives is all the new things that you learn that you never even thought you'd need to know.  Since I've been learning so much about Lee Hamilton (and feeling like I'm getting to know him) it was exciting to make a connection to him in another collection.  And Kate was excited because she didn't have that photograph of him, so now she can have a scan for her records.  It made my day, so I felt like I should write about it! 

To wrap up, I'm glad that I'm getting experience with this collection that is a bit bigger.  It is causing me to think more about the best way to arrange it.

Some Finishing Touches and New Finds

I worked on all three collections today!  Monday I spent some time trying to find more information on Eleanor Long for the biography in the finding aid.  I had quite a bit on her husband, but the reference files contained very little on her.  After searching catalogs and bulletins and years she might have taught and searching online for obituaries I had to give up for the day without finding out much more.  This morning I came in to find an obituary sitting on the processing table.  Dina had the idea to try the Monroe County Public Library and their resource of providing the Herald Times obituaries.  I felt like I had failed a bit as a library student by not finding this, but this is why it's important to reach out for help when you cannot find something. Using the obituary I was able to add a lot to Eleanor Long's biographical information, providing a much better description.  I was a bit said to learn that she had died, though.  She seemed like a really amazing woman!  She had a Ph.D. I guess (I just learned that today), taught English, raised a son, wrote musicals and pageants with her husband, participated in numerous university groups, founded a girl's club in Monroe County, and wrote a young adult book.

I then moved on the the Jewish Studies Collection for a bit.  Last week I flagged some potentially sensitive materials.  It was decided that we probably didn't need to be that careful.  Some things could just be thrown out if they had sensitive information but contained no real research value.  This is somewhat subjective.  Carrie told me that I could just separate everything that I had flagged into new folders with the same name as the originals only with the note "RESTRICTED."  I then reflected in the finding aid the folders in which restricted materials had been removed and shifted the folders to make room for the new folders at the end of the collection.

Finally I returned to the Bureau of Public Discussion.  I'm still just going through the boxes and making notes about what there is.  Today there were some older records that weren't in the best shape (and caused me to feel the need to wash my hands a few times).  I made it through a few boxes, leaving about 6 1/2.  I found a lot of materials that helped me get a much better idea of what the department did.  I also really enjoyed looking at older materials. I found a pamphlet about the Ball State Teachers College Art Gallery which made me happy.  Yay Ball State!  My favorite find of the day were some reading course booklets.  From what I ascertained the IU Bureau of Public Discussion handled the course on behalf of the U.S. Bureau of Education for residents of Indiana.  People could sign up for the course, then read and submit summaries on the books.  They would then receive a certificate.  Topics ranged from literature to parenting.  There were a few that were labeled "After War Reading Course."  At first I figured that this would be after WWII.  Then I realized that everything else was from the 1920s and 1930s.  So with a little detective work, I believe that it's after WWI, which I got really excited about.  The images are really nice in this series, as well.  I also found one that was a reading course for boys that reasoned that boys only work ten hours a day, six days a week, which leaves plenty of leisure time for reading.  Perhaps parents and grandparents are right.  Kids do have it easy these days! 

Also if people were wondering what rubber bands from the 1950s look like, here you go!  Much of this collection is going to need to be refoldered, or even just foldered since some things are only separated by dividers.  A majority of the folders seem to be fairly poor condition.