SCA: Going Digital: Less Process, More Content

/ dwakimoto

Happy Saturday! Time for session notes from the first talk of the day. Let’s talk about digital materials and processing. Allons-y!

Moderator: Lellani Marshall (Sourisseau Academy for State and Local History, SJSU)

Speakers:
Paula Jabloner (Computer History Museum)
Russell Rader (Hoover Institution Archives, Stanford University)
Lisa Miller (Hoover Institution Archives, Stanford University)

Topic: Ways in which we can apply “More product, less process” in digital realm. Speakers will be sharing two case studies.

Lisa Miller (Hoover Institution Archives)
Hoover is well-funded compared to most, but still lacking some tools for digital processing and preservation. Shows a wish list: digital repository system, dedicated IT staff, computer programmer, DAM system, Tools for METS, PREMIS, etc..

Available resources; PC and Mac computers, floppy disks, server space, some staff time, and eager researcher for the Katayev Collection (2007). Spurred the archives to create basic processing procedures. Mostly had Web 1.0 files (Word files, non-interactive media, etc.). Researchers just wanted content, not concerned so much with authenticity issues (diplomatics) like archivists.

Basic steps:

  1. Find computer media: looking for media in collections via finding aids and catalog. No standard way of indexing media, so serendipity plays a role in finding them.
  2. Get files off the disks. Scan for viruses.
  3. Use checksums for file integrity (MP5 checksums). Can also be used to de-dup collection. Verify checksums when move or duplicate the files.
  4. Preserve files with unaltered bits and with author’s filenames intact. Sometimes change to target formats (.txt, PDF, PDF/A, delimited text for spreadsheets and databases). Try to do as much batch processing as possible. Add prefix to filename to delineate converted files
  5. Centralize files in one place on a server. Verify checksums regularly and do backups on tape. Manually initiate checksum verification each month.
  6. Document work with a “Read Me” text file. (Nice idea.) Explains processing steps-unstructured metadata.
  7. Use creator’s semantic folder system. Researchers can use at the Hoover Institution. The files are not available online because of copyright issues, etc..
  8. Describe the aggregate in the finding aid. Put information on finding aid on OAC, even if just a stump record without the rest of the collection having been processed. Description based on creator’s file structure and naming convention. Still trying to figure out meaningful ways to describe the content and extent.

Problems:

  • Viruses= stop doing anything with the file.
  • Unformatted disks
  • File extensions are lacking
  • Filenames don’t have any meaning. Problem with digital camera photos,
  • Corrupted files.
  • Character and coding problems, especially with data from other countries.
  • Scalability of: unstructured metadata in read me files, workflows for hundreds of media items, Web 2.0 formats (complex formats)

Ending thoughts: not ideal process, but files are recovered and can be used by researchers. “Preservation is for five years or forever, which ever comes first.” In the future, want to make part of regular collection processing workflow, create truly compliant PDF/A files, establish quarantine station, find digital tools to facilitate/expand workflow, and optimize file delivery for researchers.

Russell Rader (Hoover Institute)
Digital projects exceed our reach and Rader posits that we stopped asking the right questions. (What are the right questions?) Also believes that archivists are still afraid of “the digital.”

Talking about keeping workflows simple, which is a good idea. Using open source and free programs and tools are good ideas. Archivists need to learn more technology.

Paula Jabloner: Welcome to Nerdvana
Started at Computer History Museum in 2004 and needed to get stuff online. Over 80,000 records online. Museum has a “get it done” attitude. Everyone was for online access because if it isn’t online it’s a “black hole.” Concentrated n the doable not the perfect, one catalog for all artifact types (physical objects, software, A/V, and digital files), simple and seamless online experience (so get easy search process, but may not be exhaustive or authoritative)= broad based access, not an interpretive catalog.

Idea behind quick and dirty processing is to make it available asap. Put a lot of trust in the audience, because the audience is highly technical. Expect the audience to understand the content of the records. Also, used a lot of volunteers and interns for the creating the catalog.

Implementing MPLP: two year processing experiment. One full-time processing archivist supervising interns and volunteers. 12,500 folder level records created by the end. Stripped down metadata entry: set it up so almost everything could be entered automatically. Could duplicate records to speed up processing too.

Finding aids available on website and OAC. No open hours at museum; everything is by appointment for research use of materials. Finding aids are very stripped down. Not a lot of context given in the finding aids and you get minimal access. Always a trade-off between speed of processing and describing and many access points with contextual finding aid. 70% of collection now available online via catalog records.

Success: 16 finding aids online (entire archival collection in catalog), 32,000 searchable catalog records, 575,000 page views for a year, and 450,000 catalog page views in a year. However, records can be confusing, searching could be more user-friendly, too many databases to manage, etc..

Take Home Message
Processing and preservation of digital materials is difficult. You can speed up processing, but will lose extensive metadata creation and some ability to scale process (example, scaling text “Read Me” files). I’m conflicted about MPLP: I want more stuff online and available, but don’t think that there will be time to go back are reprocess, so will this minimal processing and metadata creation be a detriment in the future? Or does it not really matter as “digital preservation is for five years or forever, which ever comes first”?

SCA: Virtual Worlds in Archival Settings

/ dwakimoto

Time for the session notes from the afternoon session on Virtual Worlds in Archival Settings, moderated by Mattie Taormina (Stanford University). Allons-y!

Speaker list:
Henry Lowood (Stanford University)
Bob Ketner (Manager of The Tech Virtual, Tech Museum of Innovation)
Pamela Jackson (Information Literacy Librarian, San Diego State University)

Most of panelists will be talking about projects done in Second Life. Examples: using Second Life for exhibits after the exhibit is closed in physical realm. Using Second Life for reference and integrating all Web 2.0/social media feeds in Second Life.

Pamela Jackson: San Diego State University in Second Life
Public services perspective: outreach to students and teaching instructors to teach in Second Life. Started in 2007 through 2009, focusing on faculty. Faculty thought it was a lot of work and didn’t embrace the technology. Received Information Literacy Grant Project for 2008-2009 to create a library, created online tutorials and had links to help via link to reference librarians in the physical library, but not enough students to justify having a librarian in Second Life.

In 2009, bought island: Azlan Island and shifted focus to students so students could explore 3D environments. Created a few landmarks that map to buildings and landscape features of campus. Worked with 3D modeling class and imported models into Second Life. Senior students in Art and Design create virtual exhibits for the University Art Gallery. One student created a studio for machinima film. Also used by educational technology students for a summer class.

Considerations:

  • If you build it, will they come? Mostly middle aged women in Second Life instead of college students. May be able to get students come in with cool stuff.
  • Staff time and expertise: someone needs to be supported to manage the Second Life stuff
  • Technology Requirements: need higher-end computers, admin rights, etc.
  • Digital “ownership”: need to own your stuff in order to have it not disappear-ephemeral nature
  • Transferability: need to be able to transfer your content to other virtual worlds; can also transfer skills between platforms

Bob Ketner: Tech Museum of Innovation: Virtual Worlds: Archive of the Imagination
Tech Virtual: virtual prototyping space for museum exhibits, use it for a collaborative space, test interactive exhibits
Used because: great tools, rapid speed of visualization, diversity of input from experts

Roots of virtual words in “Augmenting the Human Intellect” by Doug Engelbart. So longer history than most people think.

Teens transformed an entire gallery space (not part of a formal class). Created exhibits about microchips and technology, also created interactive exhibit. Have weekly design meetings/sessions.

Questions: Can you archive a virtual “place”? What to do with models if move away from Second Life? Can you archive a zeitgeist (spirit of a time)? (thinking points for the audience)

Bruce Damer (damer.com) working on archiving virtual worlds.

Henry Lowood (Stanford University) Life Squared: Archiving the Virtual Archive
Dante Hotel (now the Hotel Europa): first example of site-based art installation-recreated in Second Life now. Lynn Hershman created the art installation. Archives has documents and photographs from Hershman. Integrated documents in Second Life model.

Used actual floorplan of hotel for Second Life hotel and created hotel, incorporated documents and photographs to create an immersive experience. Created “meta-archive.” Lowood showed a video of the hotel tour in Second Life. Also use space to show films and other art exhibits.

Worked on project, Preserving Virtual Worlds, on issues of preservation metadata, encoding standards, selection, etc.. Second Life was probably the most negative aspect of project for preservation. Linden Lab does not assert copyright over what users create in Second Life which is very progressive, but makes preservation difficult because you need to obtain permission from each user to archive stuff and many users are anonymous (only know the individual’s avatar).

Lowood teaches archival courses at SJSU SLIS. Over half of his students in a class said we shouldn’t archive virtual worlds/Twitter. (Interesting) Some are resistant to having their creations move into an archives.

My question: Can you get usage statistics off of Second Life?
Can get some usage statistics of exhibits and galleries in Second Life, but it’s not automatic (except for number of avatars landing on the island). But can create counters, see number of unique visitors, figure out what they touch, can also figure out how much time avatars are spending in the archives, etc. (pretty cool metrics)

Take Home Message
It is a ton of work to create stuff in Second Life and it is very time-consuming and difficult to preserve the created virtual world. I’m still not sold on investing in creating archives in Second Life. I am glad to hear you can get metrics out of Second Life, though. Let’s hear it for using evidence-based practice for evaluation and assessment of all projects through using metrics.

SCA Session: Taking Our Pulse: The OCLC Research Survey of Special Collections and Archives

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Next up: Taking Our Pulse: The OCLC Research Survey of Special Collections and Archives. Allons-y!

Talks by David Zeidberg (Huntington Library), Tom Hyry (UCLA) and Mary Morganti (California Historical Society)

Overview of Survey Results (You can check out the report here: PDF of report.

  • Collections size is growing
  • Use is increasing
  • Backlogs continue to grow
  • Staffing is stable
  • 75% of library have had budget cuts

275 Libraries surveyed, 61% response rate
Wanted diversity of special collections and archives represented, but academic archives were most heavily represented in respondents.

ARL collection growth since 1998: Archives/manuscripts: 50% growth (average)
Special collections in remote storage: 67% of respondents use remote storage

Access/Use
Use of archival materials is increasing, which is cool. Many archives provide access to uncataloged/unprocessed materials (we do or we wouldn’t be able to let people see anything!). In 87% of the special collections reading rooms, you can use digital cameras.

So access is increasing and archivists and special collections librarians are getting better about being flexible for giving access to collections.

Cataloging/metadata
50% of archival materials are available via online catalogs
Backlog is decreasing with implementation of “More product, less process”
Need cataloging and metadata processes that are scalable

Archival management
40% of archival finding aids are online
34% of respondents are using Archivists’ Toolkit

Digitization
One of the great challenges for archives-we can never do enough.
52% of an active program of digitization
38% have completed large-scale digitization of special collections (systematic reproduction of entire collections using streamlined production methods that account for special needs)

Born-digital Materials
Undercollected, undercounted, undermanaged, unpreserved, and inaccessible.
Need to do more with the born-digital materials; most people need more training
Funding named as biggest challenge of managing born-digital materials

Mary Morganti (CHS)
Small staff and lots of different materials (museum materials and archival materials)
Can solve everything with creativity, time and money! (very true)
Space is a huge issue for many organizations. Talking about lack of space for storing collections (also environmentally controlled storage)
CHS are looking at “right sizing” the collection storage in the correct boxes. (We’re doing this with our collections, too! It’s amazing the kind of shelf space you can regain)
Uses Archivists’ Toolkit (very cool) and contributes to the OAC (Online Archive of California)
Her concerns: metadata discovery, access, decreasing backlogs, funding

David Zeidberg (Huntington Library)
Thinking about the issues philosophically. We all continue to collect faster than we can catalog. Collection development and access to collections (decreasing the backlogs) should be the top priorities (they are at the Huntington). Two schools of thought of collection development: take everything lest it be lost; take only those collections that can be processed in a reasonable period of time to put in hands of researchers. Need to remember ethical responsibility to donor to process the collection. Take material that can be used= need to be more selective in acquisition. Need to do field appraisal before saying you will take the collection.

Reaction to low level of formalized collection development reported in OCLC survey: haven’t seemed to work or be sustainable. Practical alternative: update and share collection development policies with one another. Then we can see who is collecting in particular areas. Need to behave ethically, always.

Tom Hyry (UCLA Special Collections)
Despair over increasing A/V materials, ’cause we weren’t that good at these before, backlogs are growing, and budgets have been cut.
Hope over using streamlined processes and getting more materials online.
At UCLC, reading room is too small as usage has gone up. UCLA is collecting aggressively.

Trends in research libraries: selection is changing, budgets have shrunken, approval processes for purchasing, cataloging departments have changed, and how to support emerging fields (e.g. digital humanities).

Growth areas in research libraries: digital libraries; teaching and outreach; growth of special collections and prominence of special collections. Opportunities for special collections to capitalize on interest in special collections: example, using catalogers with language skills and training them in archival cataloging.

See born-digital materials as an opportunity as they be able to serve our users better. Can serve the materials over networks (don’t have to digitize them). Argues that appraisal is more important now than ever.

Take Home Message
Interesting data and results. Tip for presenters: if you are going to go over a lot of statistics, either go slower so people can take notes and process the information (and give less of it) or make sure to tell people (up front) where you will make your slides available online. Acquisitions and backlogs are important issues facing the profession. Always behave ethically= motto to archive by and if you remember this point, you’ll do well in your archival work.

SCA Friday Plenary: David E. Hoffman

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Happy Friday! First up at Society of California Archivists’ Annual General Meeting: David E. Hoffman, “Inside the Kremlin: Unraveling the papers of Vitaly Katayev and Soviet thinking during the latter stages of the Cold War.”

Talking about how he used an archives for his research for his book (The Dead Hand: The Untold Story of the Cold War Arms Race and Its Dangerous Legacy He won the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for General Non-fiction.) Tried to write a book from his archival research and his own experiences.

Parallels he saw: Cold War Symmetry with shape of bombs, space shuttles, etc. in the thinking and engineering.

Asymmetry after the Cold War was in understanding and making sense of the Cold War. In the United States= triumphant versus in Russia= introspective and reflective, not triumphant

Challenge: how to write a history that reflects both sides and also getting access to archives (lots of stuff still not open) Very difficult to get into archives in Russia

Goal: To tell the Cold War story from both sides and try to figure out what was going on in the Soviet system

Discovered papers of Vitaly Katayev (former professional staff member, Defense Department, Central Committee, 1974-1991). 10 boxes of papers acquired by Hoover Institution Library and Archives prior to 2001. These papers are very important as most information from the Kremlin is not available. (Katayev died in 2001) In November 2004, Hoffman received a Hoover media fellowship and used time to search collection of Katayev papers. No finding aid, not processed collection. Hoffman was a third of the way through his book research when he began with Katayev’s papers.

Found two inventories: one in Russian and one in English. The one in English referenced 79 floppy, but only a few floppy disks found in the collection. The collection was quite raw-not processed and no finding aid.

Found insights into Soviet thinking that never seen before through the records of Kataylev (many bound volumes). Kataylev wrote a manuscript on the reactions of the Kremlin to Regan’s announcement of SDI (aka Star Wars). Ideas for tons of missiles, a Soviet Star Wars program, etc. Very detailed notes and technical details on spreadsheets. A treasure trove of information, not on Kremlin gossip, but on important technical tests and meeting decisions. This collection allowed Hoffman to see into the Soviet thinking during the Cold War that wasn’t understood before using Katayev’s papers.

Hoffman did an index of nine boxes in 2005 and did a survey with Pavel Podvig in 2006. (Lucky archivists to get the help to index the collection!)

The papers have allowed Hoffman, with the help of scientists, to piece together insight about the actual capacity of the Soviet Union in terms of accuracy of missiles and other technologies. A big mystery was how much Gorbachev knew about the Soviet biological weapons program. United States discovered that the Soviets were not following the agreement to not create chemical and biological weapons.

In 2007, when the box was able to be opened in Kataylev’s collection, Hoffman found documents chronicling the Kremlin’s decisions on biological weapons. Shows decisions under Gorbachev began in 1986. Up until this was revealed, we didn’t know who knew in the Soviet Union and when. The Central Committee resolutions means, according to Hoffman, that Gorbachev must have known about the biological weapons program.

Katayev took very good notes (was the official note-taker at many meetings). Because of his great notes, Hoffman has been able to piece together a lot of new insights on the Soviet weapons programs.

In August 2007, Hoffman met Ksenia Kostrova (26) the granddaughter of Katayev. She was very close to Katayev and became the custodian of his records after his death. Discovered in apartment: family photos, additional documents, 79 floppy disks, and a memoir. From August to December, Kostrova made a mast index and Hoffman photographed all of the paper documents. Copied all the disks and sent entire collection via FTP to Washington immediately. Was able to read 40 of the disks. (Talk about a find for a historian–it’s amazing!) But had problems reading the files. Talked with Kostrova about the procedure to open the files she did when she was 11 years old to decode the files. 19 more of the floppy disks had recoverable data, done by a UK specialist.

Didn’t have to use Russian official archives. Much of the collection is still raw with many documents to be examined. No official Russian government reaction to Hoffman’s book. Hopefully Katayev’s memoir will be published sometime next year.

Take Home Message: Archives are exciting and you can find information that is unique and incredibly important for the understanding of past events and reactions to these events. Many times, you have to do a lot of work and sort through a lot of documents, but it is worth it in the end. Nice work, Mr. Hoffman.

Speaking Gigs

/ dwakimoto / 1 Comment

Happy Wednesday! I hope your week is going well. I can’t believe we are already to the middle of the week. Today’s post will be short as I have just a few updates on some speaking gigs this week. (Also, I really have a bunch of stuff to do before leaving for a conference at the end of the week, so I best get to that instead of doing a very long blog post, dear readers.)

Tonight I’m speaking to the Library Connection group about information literacy instruction. Library Connection is organized in part by one of the student groups at San Jose State’s School of Library and Information Science. It should be fun, but as per usual I’m finding last minute stuff I want to include in the presentation. Luckily it’s not until 7:30 this evening. If you are in the Bay Area, stop on by. It’s being held at Cal State East Bay’s University Library.

On Friday and Saturday of this week I’ll be down in San Jose for the Society of California Archivists’ Annual General Meeting (AGM). Hopefully there will be wifi and I’ll be posting some session summaries during the conference. I’ll be chairing a panel on Saturday at 10:30am, so do stop by and say hello. It should be a great discussion on networking, professional development, job searching, and more.

So that’s all I have today, as I’ll hopefully be posting multiple times later this week from the conference. Oh, but writing about speaking gigs made me think of a Lifehacker article, so I have to share it: How to Overcome Burnout when You’re a Superachiever. It’s a good read for all of us stressed by the end of the academic year craziness and those just stressed in general.

As a middle of the week break, check out Festo’s Aqua Penguins:

Take care, have a great rest of your week, and I’ll be back on Friday with some conference session notes. Allons-y!

Random (Helpful & Fun!) Stuff for Friday

/ dwakimoto

Happy Friday and Happy Earth Day! I can’t believe we are at the end of another week. Luckily workweeks end on a Friday (for many people) which means helpful, fun, and random links of goodness are sure to abound in today’s post. So let’s get to it.

Next week I’m chairing a panel at the Society of California Archivists’ Annual General Meeting/Conference, so I’m in conference prep mode at the moment. Lifehacker, as always, had some great posts about conference worries in general over the last few weeks. First, if you have issues with public speaking, check out how to activate your go system. Also, Lifehacker had an interesting post on why one should carry blank business cards. Not sure that I buy the argument, but it was an interesting read. Personally, should you be at the conference, you will be handed one of my recently redesigned business cards that I’m rather fond of (complete with QR Code linking you to my about.me page because, yes, I’m that kind of person).

Oh, and because conferences can produce many discussions, in person and online, I think it is the perfect time to say, go read Stephen Abram’s piling on on the web post. Then reaffirm your commitment to disagreeing with others respectfully at all times. The world could use more kindness, or at least manners.

If you manage somehow to run out of things to do this weekend, may I suggest this project to you: add ground effects to your bed for gentle night lighting? I think this looks pretty awesome and useful. Hopefully in the next week or so I’ll have time to do this to my bed.

And because we all need a laugh on a Friday and I’ve been working my way through Top Gear (I swear it’s because my cat likes it, really!), I think you should watch watch Jeremy drive the world’s smallest car. It is hilarious. Or, if cars aren’t your thing, but cats are, take a break and watch Simon’s cat in ‘Hop It’:

Have a wonderful rest of your day, a fantastic weekend, and I’ll be back next week with more technology, library, and archives fun. Allons-y!

Librarian ≠ Archivist

/ dwakimoto / 1 Comment

Happy Wednesday! I hope you are having a good day. As you read this post, hopefully I will be happily ensconced in the archives at University of California, Santa Cruz doing research. (That is, of course, if Highway 17 hasn’t been closed because of an accident caused by someone driving ridiculously, but I digress.) I love researching in archives. Well, as readers of this blog know, I just love archives in general. Which is why, today, I want to once again re-emphasize that while complementary, libraries are not archives and librarians are not archivists.

So why have I decided to talk about archivists, again? Well, I was reading this article by Michael Stephens, Stuck in the Past. Overall, it is a fantastic article. We would expect nothing less from Michael Stephens and I agree with the need to adapt and evolve in our roles as librarians. However, there was one line that caught my eye and reinforced the fact that even some of the most brilliant and technically advanced librarians have no clue about the differences between librarians and archivists.

Stephens wrote:

Archives and rare books collections will always need librarians to curate and preserve…

To which I say, while I adore librarians, please get them out of my archives. Archives need trained archivists, not librarians. There are fundamental differences between libraries and archives that make it necessary to have educated and trained archivists overseeing archives. We need their expertise in the archives in order to have archives that are organized, respect provenance and are of value to researchers. Archivists are important, not only in managing physical archives, but in curating digital archives as well.

You may be familiar with statement used in many geometry classes: All squares are rectangles, but not all rectangles are squares. A similar, albeit not as cut-and-dried statement about archivists and librarians can be made: (almost) all archivists are librarians, but not all librarians are archivists. Many archival science programs are now located in library science schools and thus many trained archivists also have taken the required library science courses to get their MLS or MLIS. So your local archivist most likely knows the basics of library science in addition to being well-versed in archival science.

However, in my experience, the reverse isn’t true. Many librarians have never taken an archival science course and don’t understand the profound differences between the two professions. While each is part of the larger field of “information science,” archival science is not equivalent to library science. I don’t think one is better than the other, but I do think it is foolhardy to try to say they are the same thing or that the archives is a specialty of library science. Archival science and the national society in the United States grew out of the field of history and the American Historical Society, not out of ALA and library schools.

So please, all I’m asking is to stop equating librarians with archivists. It is a disservice to both professions and both disciplines. Each has a lot to offer and we need to acknowledge the differences between the two. Just as librarians don’t just shelve books all day, archivists don’t just put things in boxes. Let’s work together to conquer the information world, not try to subsume the archives under the library.

That’s just my two-cents as someone who has been trained as both a librarian and an archivist and works professionally as both. Both sides are wonderful, complicated, and at times frustrating, but they are in no way the same. So please, in our professional discourse at least, let’s try to get it right on this count.

I’m off my soapbox now and will return later this week with some technology tips and maybe even some tidbits from my research trip. If you have a different view of archivists and librarians, please tell me in the comments. I always like a good discussion. Allons-y!

Visualizations

/ dwakimoto

Happy Friday! Can you believe that we are at the end of another work week? Time just speeds up in spring term. Anyway, today I wanted to share some interesting, pretty, and useful links about visualizations. So let’s get to the links and get you on your way to enjoying the weekend.

As so much information is conveyed in visual ways (as opposed to strictly textual), it behooves one to study good graphic designs and practice designing things. Today’s post is dedicated to a bunch of recent links coming over the feeds. (Plus, I just love design and can’t seem to go more than a few weeks without doing a post that is about, at least in part, design. Speaking of which, thanks to litbrarian to letting me know about fab.com which has a ton of design inspiration. If you want access, you can go here to request an invite as it is still in pre-launch phase.)

Okay, so getting to the actual links, if you want to create a website you should head on over to Lifehacker’s complete guide on how to make a website. Aren’t Lifehacker Night Classes just a bunch of fun? Plus, they are a friendly way to get one’s feet wet in record time and actually acquire some usable skills.

Who hasn’t heard of infographics? It is the buzzword in design lately. But before you go wild with infographics, check out Blue Glass’ post on diagnosing infographic bipolarity and learn some tips to making your infographics stand out, in a good way.

And no post about visualizations and graphics would be complete without a nod to Photoshop. So check out Gizmodo’s 10 quick and easy Photoshop tips. Don’t let Photoshop intimidate you. Just start playing with it and you’ll get the hang of creating awesome graphics and touching up photos in no time.

Oh, and while not strictly about visualization, check out the good news of new features of goo.gl. I really like goo.gl for link shortening, the statistics, and the QR Code generation.

Now moving on to some visualizations of food, or rather, some yummy recipes to try for your weekend and some awesome photos to look at while stuff is baking. As it is still wintry in a lot of the Northern Hemisphere, I suggest making some of Joy the Baker’s cheddar black pepper biscuits. They taste fantastic with a fried egg. And for dessert, I’d suggest chocolate bundt cake. I know people who don’t really like cake and they like this one. Also, If you love tea, you should check out the wonderful photographs of processing black tea from the National Anthropological Archives. Then go boil some water and have a cuppa.

Finally, I have to leave you with something cool to watch, so enjoy watching Festo’s Aqua Ray swim (really, it’s awesome):

Have a wonderful rest of your day, a lovely weekend, and I’ll be back next week with more thoughts on tech, archives, and libraries. Allons-y!

Students and the Wonders of Archives

/ dwakimoto

Happy Wednesday, dear readers! I hope your day is going well. I can’t believe we are halfway through another week. When did time get so wibbley, wobbly? Anyway, today I just want to discuss brieflythe wonders of archives, students, and why I love physical records in the archives.

While I am a big fan of technology (and shiny stuff in general, if I’m being truthful), I probably love physical archival records even more than digital technologies. I know I’m very old school about this, but bear with me while I explain. I love digital archives, I love having finding aids online, and I love all the work archivists are doing to make their archives more accessible and user-friendly. All of this makes my own work and research as both an archivist and an historian easier. But there is nothing like actually seeing the records in person to make me *squee* with joy.

I won’t try to describe my rather unprofessional happy dance when we found a signed, manuscript copy of Henley’s famous poem, “Invictus” (yes, the one used in the movie). Or my reaction to finding a beautifully preserved illuminated manuscript in the archives. Or my joy at receiving a small grant to do preservation work on a collection of letters and other family documents that date from the late 1700s to the 1900s from a local immigrant family. There is something beautiful and engaging about documents. If you don’t believe me, check out James M. O’Toole’s amazing article, The Symbolic Significance of Archives. While digital surrogates are wonderful for preliminary research, there is nothing like seeing the original documents to make me (and I think many others) fall in love with our work as archivists, researchers, historians, teachers, and students all over again.

And these physical records also help me when I’m teaching, which brings me to my second point of this blog post. I could show students digital surrogates of archival records along with the databases for their secondary research, but that’s not what gets them to engage during the instruction sessions–that would be the actual documents. I taught two history seminar classes last week, which was a bunch of fun (and a lot of work, I have to give props to Collin for helping set up the very temperamental laptops for the sessions). The students were wonderful throughout the sessions, but really came alive when I started showing examples of old college scrapbooks, photos from Homecoming Parades in the 1960s, watercolor paintings from the mid-1800s, and especially the amazing 3D images produced by an old stereoscope.

These students, some of whom will become historians, were excited about the documents in ways that I just don’t think they’d get excited about if I had only shown them images on the screen. While it is fantastic, and does open up access, to have the Book of Kells available online, it’s a completely different experience to see it in person.

Using these records also allowed me to discuss archival research in general and the proper behavior in archives. It also generated my absolute favorite question of the academic year: “How do we keep from pissing off the archivist?” This came after I told the students that the archivist is their best friend for finding obscure records and collections they might not have discovered on their own as often the archivist is the only one who really understands what is held in the archives.

So, I just wanted to say I love archives. I love teaching about the archives and archival research and I love sharing archives with others. I’ll end this love letter to archives now, but if you haven’t said hi to the archivist at your institution, make a point to do it this week. You never know when you might need some archival materials for your own research or a library exhibit.

To end, another fun Simon’s Cat video, “Snow Business”:

Have a great rest of your day and I’ll be back on Friday with some tech and library news. Oh, and Happy National Library Week! Allons-y!

Happy Stuff for a Friday!

/ dwakimoto

Happy Friday, dear readers! Today I’m taking my lovely friend Hanna’s idea of sharing fun stuff on Friday. I have many ideas for longer blog posts percolating in my head, but as I’m still neck-deep in transcribing interviews for my research, they are all pretty jumbled at the moment. I promise more coherent thoughts on libraries, archives, and technology next week. But for today, let’s get to some interesting news and fun stuff for the weekend.

First, some tech tips to share with others. If somehow you missed National Backup Day last week, check out Lifehacker’s guide on how to set up an automated, bulletproof file backup solution. Also, check out this nice article on how to rip, watch, and organize everything. Plus, for Gmail users, definitely go over to the Gmail Blog to find out about some really awesome fixes that have been rolled out. Finally, check out this article on extending your phone or laptop battery life.

Now on to the fun for the weekend. I’ve been having people over to my place for dinner a lot lately, so I’ve been cooking way more than usual. I think a lot of people start thinking about having people over when the weather gets better and we all come out of hibernation. So if you are like me and need some inspiration for dinner, I can’t recommend highly enough Joy the Baker. Don’t be misguided by the name, even though Joy does a lot of baking, she also has fabulous savory recipes. This last week the big hits in my house were her baked curry sweet potato fries and goat cheese biscuits. So go make something yummy this weekend.

And to end, enjoy a short break with Simon’s Cat in Cat Chat:

Have a wonderful rest of your day, a relaxing weekend, and I’ll be back next week with some thoughts on students, archives, and teachable moments (among other things). Allons-y!