Reading Response Nine: Electronic Records In Manuscript Collections

Yale archivist Michael Forstrom discusses some of the basic strategies for capturing digitally-born records in “Managing Electronic Records in Manuscript Collections:  A Case Study from the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library.”  This 2008 work uses the case of author George Whitmore to exemplify the challenges archivist face in preserving, describing, and providing access to electronic documents.  Forstrom discusses a series of pilot programs at Yale designed to improve upon electronic document archival workflows, as well as the challenges in conforming to descriptive standards such as DACS (Describing Archives:  A Content Standard).  The results at Yale thus far have been positive; the current study is ongoing through 2012. 

Part of the digital workflow at Yale utilizes proprietary software to render a multitude of file types.  While presently effective, the use of proprietary software is a danger to the long-term sustainability as well as accessibility of archival records.  As a general rule, archives should attempt, whenever possible, to utilize open source tools.  Of course, creators of digital documents will most likely use proprietary software in the creation process.  Understanding the provenance of the document will go a long way to better deliverance of archival-quality preservation.  Digital documents born today contain at least basic metadata for use by archivists.  Mr. Forstrom concludes his remarks stating, “Staff members in collecting repositories need to be proactive.  …repository employees are creating and sharing digital preservation guidelines with authors, conducting records surveys, developing new done and legal agreements and transfer tools, and arranging snapshot accession of authors’ digital archives.” Such a stand is aggressive and a difficult practice to apply with any consistency, nor can an archive expect to reach a great percentage of prospective donors with such a program.  However, if the message is publicized, perhaps a little bit of information for potential manuscript donors will go a long way.  This program certainly may become a new trend in the way archives approach collection development and electronic records preservation.

Forstrom, Michael. “Managing Electronic Records in Manuscript Collections: A Case Study from the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library.” American Archivist, Volume 72, No. 2, Fall/Winter 2009, pp. 460-477.

Reading Response Eight: Better Practices For Presidential Libraries

Former Truman Library Director Larrry J. Hackman argues in favor of new procedures in the administration of presidential libraries in “Toward Better Policies and Practices for Presidential Libraries.”  Hackman finds the overall administration, direction, and policies of today’s presidential libraries to be incomplete and somewhat wrong-headed.  These libraries, which often have museums attached to them, are under the purview of NARA, the National Archives and Records Administration; yet often formulate their own missions, collection policies, and budgetary choices.  Presidential libraries, though centers for American history, are not necessarily fulfilling their obligation as a well-rounded educational enterprise.  Furthermore, Hackman goes on to state that each library can vary widely in their programming, leaving gaps in some areas so to under educate researchers and visitors.  The authors goes on to enumerate a significant list of problems currently associated with the presidential library system, then lists a multitude of solutions aimed at increasing collaboration between the libraries and NARA as a means to improve the collections, policies, and educational capabilities of the libraries and museums.

The article touches on several points that make a reader take notice.  Presidential libraries are ideally suited to become centers for national educational programming, yet Hackman states this is not necessarily the case.  In fact, he claims some libraries exaggerate the roles and accomplishments of their namesakes simply because of a need for publicity and recognition.  This is a breach of ethical protocol in the information profession, where the librarian or archivist, is not meant to bend history to support the fact but instead to present the facts for others to contemplate.  The presidential library and museum system is decentralized with more local governance than national direction; a more equal partnership would go a long way to standardizing historical content and education.  One can only hope that an effort to utilize the best practices of the profession will allow for improving libraries, comprehensive in collections and strong in educational programs for the millions of visitors to them across the country.

Hackman, Larry J. “Toward Better Policies and Practices for Presidential Libraries.” The Public Historian, August 2006, Vol. 28, No. 3: 165–184.

Reading Response Seven: What's History Got To Do With It?

Tom Nesmith discusses the relevance of historical background knowledge in archives with “What’s History Got to Do With It?  Reconsidering the Place of Historical Knowledge in Archival Work.”  Early on, Nesmith states, “…archivists could draw more deeply on historical information and interest in order to perform better their distinctive archival work and to meet the challenges they face as a distinct profession.”  Understanding more about the history of a record, going even beyond its provenance, may allow an archivist to form conceptual relationships beneficial to institutional memory and historical research.  Through appraisal and the creation of online finding aids, archivists are becoming part of the document history as well.  Nesmith connects the necessity for complete metadata associated with electronic documents with acknowledgement and understanding of the importance of historical relevancy.  In other words, all documents from all eras benefit from framing within the properly associated context.  The movement toward digital repositories creates new challenges but also new means of creating these historical connections.  Archivists are historians—perhaps not in a traditional sense—and a strong knowledge base will not only allow the archivist to better understand the collections present but to also develop a deeper grasp of the gaps in the historical record within the archive.  To refute historical knowledge, to attempt to set learning aside because it is not a specific part of the job description, is heresy.  An archivist’s job is to preserve those records deemed worthy of such treatment.  In doing so, the archivist helps mold the known history, and in doing that, is a part of the history itself.  The least the archivist can do is take the time to understand what brought their institution—and themselves—to today.

Nesmith, Tom. “What’s History Got to Do With It?:  Reconsidering the Place of Historical Knowledge in Archival Work.” Archivaria, Spring 2004.

Reading Response Six: Oral History in the Archives

“Oral History in the Archives:  Its Documentary Role in the Twenty-first Century” by Ellen D. Swain analyzes the array of challenges in the creation, preservation, accessibility, and future of oral histories in the archival community.  Historically, Swain notes, oral histories have not been seen as a large component of the archival mission; not until the latter half of the twentieth century did a move toward creation and storage these histories begin.  With oral histories, should archivists act as collection developers, as creators of material meant directly for archival storage?  Swain presents both sides of the argument, and then chooses to discuss the problems of copyright and access that plague the medium.  Furthermore, tape and video recordings will eventually degrade in the best of environments, so a move to digitize oral history original carriers is now underway.  Swain argues oral histories have their place in archives and will only continue to serve as key evidentiary pieces to the historical puzzle in the future.  Archives must face down any inherent issues, create, and preserve these histories for cultural memory.

The article specifies that oral historians need the skills of both historians and archivists to properly understand the methods in creating a worthwhile historical document.  Issues include the best methods of storing the original audio and visual interviews, choices in transcription, and the demand of digitization of each as obsolescence and degradation threaten old recorded oral histories.  The digital transference of recorded histories is essential in the sound and paper records.  Fully searchable digital transcripts are the dream of every archivist and researcher; unfortunately, resources to create such a scenario are slim.  Technological leaps in voice recognition may allow for digital sound files to auto-transcribe the oral histories.  One can expect other technologies to come forth to increase accessibility of these one-of-a-kind records.  Another debate is whether oral histories belong in an archive or library; this debate seems unnecessary, as the accessibility and preservation of these unique histories is most important, not where they are housed.  One would hope the debate would rage over the best manners to preserve history, not who is able to claim it.

Swain, Ellen D. “Oral History in the Archives: Its Documentary Role in the Twenty-first Century.” American Archivist, Volume 66, No. 1, Spring/Summer 2003, pp. 139-158.

Reading Response Five: Institutional Repositories

“Institutional Repositories and the Institutional Repository: College and University Archives and Special Collections in an Era of Change,” by Elizabeth Yakel and others, encompasses the results of a 2006 study of the growing archival involvement in the digital institutional repository, or IR for short.  The authors were desirous to learn the involvement levels of library and archival staff, the types of documents (archival or not) kept in IRs, and the viability of institutional repositories as an archival tool in the expanding digital era.  Through a series of surveys and questionnaires, the authors discovered the number of IRs increasing on college and university campuses as archives play a part in their growth.  Yet archivists often do not serve as the technical experts but instead continue to serve traditional roles as preservation and appraisal experts.

Indiana University has two institutional repositories worth noting for archivists and scholars alike.  IUScholarWorks serves as a repository for academic and scholarly publications.  Faculty and advanced students are encouraged to house their work in this institutional repository.  The other large IR is the Archives of Institutional Memory, or AIM, which serves as an archival tool for a variety of documents from departments across campus.  The AIM is not meant to serve academia but instead the operations of the University, including bulletins, newsletters, and reports.  Each serves an important purpose in maintaining the contributions and history of IU.

The institutional repository is a new tool for archivists in the ever-changing document production environment.  Their existence has the potential for simplifying the preservation of reports born in a digital environment.  I learned during my internship that the Archives of Institutional Memory houses documents in PDF-A format in order to ensure continued accessibility far into the digital age.  Policies such as this allow for electronic work to be processed, preserved, and accessed as easily, if not more easily, than their paper counterparts.  The need for expansive institutional repositories will only increase over time, and one can imagine a 2010 study identical to this 2006 work would produce fascinating results in comparison.  Hopefully archivists will develop more skill in working in digital technologies, increasing their impact on the structure as well as the content of a growing part of their archives.

Yakel, Elizabeth, et al. “Institutional Repositories and the Institutional Repository: College and University Archives and Special Collections in an Era of Change.” American Archivist, Volume 71, No. 2, Fall/Winter 2008, pp. 323-349.

Reading Response Four: Meeting the Challenge of Contemporary Records

In her Presidential address to the Society of American Archivists in August of 1999, Luciana Duranti chose to speak to the fundamental roles of the archival profession in the face of debate of the changes surrounding archival practice. Duranti compares a number of publications and opinions, alike and unalike, in order to frame the opinion that archives, no matter the change in methodology and technology, hold true to their mission as repositories of cultural heritage. Archivists take on as many roles as needed to fulfill their duties: as an administrator, employee, and public contact, to name a few. Duranti states to do so requires the archivist to hold true to the values archives have possessed since the French Revolution: to maintain for the public those records necessary to keep for the posterity of generations to come.

Archivists are expected to undertake a tremendous amount of personal stake in the repositories in which they work. The archive will achieve as the archivist achieves—an archive operated by a staff devoted to upholding the best practices and performing at the highest levels will grow to become an important institution. These are high-level thoughts and ideals, and in a perfect world even the best archivist cannot great the best archive. The work is hard and the expectations day-to-day are often difficult to overcome. Yet, one can attempt to do so. Duranti hopes that by reminding the profession of their long history of honored historical maintenance, conservation, and preservation, its professional membership will be reinvigorated and rise once again to the challenges at hand today.

Duranti, Luciana. “Meeting the Challenge of Contemporary Records: Does it Require a Role Change for the Archivist,” American Archivist, Vol. 63, No. 1 (Spring/Summer 2000), pp. 7-14.

Reading Response Three: Appraisal of Personal Papers

Riva Pollard discusses the plight of personal papers in her article “The Appraisal of Personal Papers: A Critical Literature Review.” Pollard comments upon the lack of respect personal papers have received in the archival discussion over time, noting Hilary Jenkinson stated archives are intended to work with official documents and records. Historically, personal papers were not seen as an important segment of the archive. Due to their so-called biased origin, institutional archives may have been fearful inclusion of personal papers in their repository would go against their inherent mission. In more modern times, personal papers, including manuscripts, have become more commonplace in institutional repositories. However, collection development in this area is inconsistent and problematic; the appraisal of the personal material is rife with difficulty. With no specific interactions or functions relatable to well-known components of the institution, the archivist must process and appraise personal papers as with a brand new and often unique construct. Yet the basic procedures are the same: appraise with the intent to preserve for the posterity of the individual while simultaneously looking for research value.

The collection I am charged with processing during my internship is composed entirely of personal documents, including letters, research, essays, and manuscripts. In order to process this collection, I found myself confronting many of the problems and issues noted by Pollard. I was forced to build a plan from scratch after careful study of the entirety of the collection at large. The actions and functions performed by Professor Nugent are unique to his life. This is not to say that other history professors or writers do not perform the same tasks, but instead to note that Professor Nugent performed these tasks in a manner unique to him. Personal paper appraisal means attempting to understand the life the subject lead, choosing the most appropriate functions, and only then beginning the appraisal process. I believe to do otherwise will invite the potential of disorganization and misappropriation of information. This article is a great read for anyone called upon to process and appraise personal papers.

Pollard, Riva. “The Appraisal of Personal Papers: A Critical Literature Review.” Archivaria, No. 36, Autumn 1993, pp. 136-150.

Reading Response Two: How Goes It With Appraisal?

In his fall 1993 article, "How Goes it with Appraisal," Terry Eastwood evaluates the historical background, methodologies, patterns, and inherent complications involved in the archival appraisal process. Eastwood approaches appraisal from the point of view of one consumed with the manner in which archives are perceived by the population at large; he believes archives are seen as sources of information but not proprietors of historical evidence. "Archives," Eastwood states, "are a means of memory, not memory itself, because there is no communal memory without someone acting upon archives as public dialogue."

Appraisal is everywhere, not just in the archival profession. The act of appraising documents determines what memories are left intact. Over time, the interpretation of the memory, and of the appraisal itself, may change. Documents are assessed, or appraised, from the moment of their creation; the archivist or records manager determines the continuation or refutation of a document life cycle. What is the true value of a document? Is it in its uniqueness? Person(s) or place(s) of origination? Or is in the value to future researchers? Nearly everyone would agree decisions are made based on multiple facets, not any one factor. Though appraising a document is not often the end-all-be-all in determining the historical record, the very possibility it may be is a perplexing realization. As Eastwood comments, appraisal is both narrow contextually as well as broad in view. Appraisal is never meant to advance any idea, philosophy, or agenda. To do so would violate the ideals of freedom of information and preservation of the historical record. Furthermore, archivists should never be guilty of haphazardly documenting world memory. From the largest of historical events to the smallest of transactions, appraisal best practices should hold true.

Eastwood, Terry. “How Goes It with Appraisal?”Archivaria , No. 36, Autumn 1993, pp. 111-121.

Reading Response One: Macro-Appraisal and Social Value

For my first reading response, I chose to read "Macro-appraisal and Functional Analysis:  documenting governance rather than government" by well-known Canadian archivist Terry Cook.  I wanted to assess an article that focused on appraisal methodology and the role of the archivist plays in the processing of collections.  I am more familiar with appraisal, which deals with specific records, than macro-appraisal, which is done at the collection level.  So this article is both informative and answers some of my questions regarding the impact of archivists themselves in appraisal decisions.  Although not expressly intended or consciously undertaken, archivists do assume some role, small or large, in the creation process of archival collections.

Societal structure and functions of citizens imbue records with their importance.  Correspondingly, archivists act, in some way, as co-creators of collections by choosing those materials to archive and those to destroy.  As the records creation process is invariably a result of the iterations and movements of a functioning society, the role of the archivist as the final determining factor in the social memory must be as objective as possible.  The archivist is charged with appraising, processing, arranging, and preserving the functional memory of government, business, university, etc.; this is done by understanding the provenance and relevance of materials.  Whether top-down macro-appraisal or bottom-up appraisal is better is difficult to ascertain; in any case, those materials selected for the archives will tell the tale for future researchers.

Though the title of the article indicates a government-central theme, the actual content is applicable to a wide variety of businesses.  The main goals of an archivist, no matter the collection or its provenance, is to appraise the materials and leave with only the "best records" remaining.  Cook believes this is possible using the top-down approach of macro-appraisal and functional analysis.  The most intriguing aspects of the article focused upon the role social values and norms play in the record creation and appraisal process.  Cook states the work done by individuals interacting with or within the government (for example) has dramatic influence not only on the types of records created through said interaction but then again influence what records are appraised as archive-worthy.  In each case the values of the citizens interacting with the institution impress their current beliefs into and upon the acts recorded and maintained for posterity.  These social norms are visible through the functions created, maintained, or eliminated as time passes.  As Cook states, "The principal focus is on civil governance and citizen-state interaction, not on documenting the functions of government."  The article can be interpreted differently by each reader, much like one appraising a collection for those "best records."


Terry Cook, “Macroappraisal and Functional Analysis: documenting governance rather than government,” Journal of the Society of Archivists 25, no. 1 (2004): 5-18.