Category Archive: Blog

Meet the Archivist: Claudia Willett and the John Hay Library, Part V

Working in Archivists’ Toolkit (AT) was an exciting and challenging experience. Everything seemed final and definite once it was entered into its appropriate section. My supervisor talked me down off the ledge and helped me see this program as a sketch pad to help reach the final product. So I jumped into this part of the project head first knowing that I was so close to the final product!  After the arrangement was completed I was able to transfer my physical arrangement, OR the four series, into AT to construct the foundations for the finding aid and the MARC Record fields. In each series I had to count the folders for the corresponding box to allow for some structure without going too far into series level description (remember, MPLP!).

I had done some background research to fill in the gaps on Michael Gizzi for his biographical note and used Google translator to read his diploma for his Masters degree (written in Latin in 1977). After writing this description of his life, I constructed the scope and content note which is useful for researchers to ascertain the types of materials that are in the collection. For example: in the Michael Gizzi collection there is extensive correspondence but it would be important for a researcher to know that the correspondence series is predominately incoming mail to Gizzi that typically dealt with business or editing requests. Additionally, each series has a scope and content note to further identify what specific pieces or materials can be found in each box that could be of value for researchers. From these notes I developed an abstract that will function as the hook for researchers to develop further questions to investigate with the collection.

After these two crucial notes were completed, I was able to index subject headings to increase access to the collection. I was also able to write minor notes on major players, such as Barbieo Barros (Michael Gizzi’s second wife) and Craig Watson (the person who helped open Gizzi’s publishing house). After these subject headings were checked through Library of Congress Authority Headings lists and Brown’s cataloging services through Connexion and Millennium, my supervisor walked me through creating a MARC Record. 

And this, ladies and gentlemen, is the final step before integrating the finding aid and MARC record into the Brown catalog, Josiah, and ultimately to include it in the WorldCat catalog. These steps cannot happen until the boxes are sent to the Annex where they will be housed and shelved in a climate controlled environment to ensure long term preservation. This is important for a collection anticipated to receive a lot of attention and use from researchers.

Meet the Archivist: Claudia Willett and the John Hay Library, Part IV

Thinking that I had actually completed processing the collection was probably a little ridiculous because is processing ever really completed? Processing is one of the most time consuming duties that an archivists has. When you’re working within the scope of a Basic Processing Grant governed by MPLP (More Product, Less Process) principles, you are forced to fight some of your inner instincts to follow the basic guidelines of the project. Somehow in the midst of being MPLP aficionados my supervisor and I completely ignored a whole box of graphic materials! Of course, it wasn’t anything easy like 5 large posters. No. It was hundreds of unmarked photos, an oversized poster accompanied by random unidentified works of art, and cassettes of poetry recordings with a SONY recorder. PROCESSING NIGHTMARE! Constructing the actual EAD finding aid components of scope and content and biographical notes were unfortunately brought to a halt.

After consulting with the friendly and brilliant curator at the John Hay, the photos were sleeved, the art work was placed in folders, and the oversized poster was designated to be housed in an oversized map case. (I am still actively ignoring the cassettes but we housed them too.) All was restored in the universe of MPLP at the John Hay. It seemed pertinent to address another looming and occasionally time consuming task, arrangement. Arrangement, as many practicing and learning archivists know, occurs throughout the processing of a collection. Viewing the materials you establish intellectual and physical access to users by how the information is delineated. I have learned that creating an arrangement is something that I struggle with. Intellectually, I can structure the information but organizing the components appears to be a hang-up. Why would you put correspondence first? You wouldn’t in this case but I kept trying to make that happen! Thankfully, with some guidance and thoughtful explanation the four series of the collection took shape: writings, correspondence, printed materials, and graphic and audio materials.

After the series were established it was time to physically move the proper materials into series structured order. Six hours, infinite paper cuts, chipped nail polish, and 26 boxes later Michael Gizzi was arranged and ready to be made accessible in the Brown catalog, Josiah!

Meet the Archivist: Claudia Willett and the John Hay Library, Part III

It’s like professors plan these things. I have reached the point in processing the Michael Gizzi papers where I can start to construct the finding aid components, specifically the biographical note and the scope and content note. It just so happens that this week in LIS 438 we have an exercise in writing finding aids due on a collection that we have been looking at and working with for over a month! Lucky me, right? After completing the finding aid exercise for class, I went confidently into my Thursday meeting with my supervisor and told him that I would begin working on the biographical note outside of my internship time. Of course now I feel like I might have been a little too ambitious. However, the general research I have done and what I know about Michael Gizzi from the materials I’ve handled has me situated to take this step and write the biographical note.

I’ve mentioned the man responsible for the manuscript collection for the past few posts but I’ve never explained who the man behind the papers is and why he matters. So who is Michael Gizzi?

I don’t want to give too much away because then you all won’t read my incredible finding aid upon its completion. I will tell you that he was born in Schenectady, New York in 1949 and died in Providence, Rhode Island in 2010. He was a quintessentially eclectic American poet of the twentieth century with intimate connections to other interesting characters on the poetry scene (I’ll name drop John Ashbery to perhaps peak some poetry buff’s curiosity). He did more than write poetry; in his lifetime he worked as an arborist (definitely had to look that up) and was also a teacher on the high school and collegiate levels. He opened his own publishing company and worked with international poets. He worked right up to his passing in September of 2010. The last work reflected in our materials is writing lyrics for a song or score, which is pretty cool. Stay tuned for scope and content developments down the road!

Meet the Archivist: Claudia Willett and the John Hay Library, Part II

Many of you probably remember taking LIS 438 or some version of an Introduction to Archives course. You never really get the satisfaction of practical application in a lecture; it really does take an internship to reiterate and reaffirm the lessons from the course. For the past two weeks my LIS 438 class discussed arrangement, description, and the function of archivists—all of which came in very handy on my first day with the Michael Gizzi papers! Before going into my internship I believed that archivists needed to be the main agent in processing and arrangement but the scope of the NHPRC grant does not allow for item level description and an entire overhaul of a collection’s structure. In the very succinct words of my supervisor, “we’re trying to intervene as little as possible in these collections, it’s going to be quick and dirty.” For me that seemed a little silly and worrisome at first. I understood the ideas of original order and provenance but they hardly stood in my mind as pillars for organizing the information. What if we miss something important? What if a lack of intervention handicaps researcher and public usability? I wondered about these and many more questions until I got down into the boxes of materials.

The Michael Gizzi papers were purchased from a dealer and consist of twenty shipping boxes with assorted mediums: print, illustration/graphics, and photos. (I know I keep mentioning Mr. Gizzi but for a number of reasons I’ll hold off on delving in to the man behind the boxes for a later post.) I think now, after sorting through some of the boxes and actually beginning to process the collection, sometimes the materials exist the way they should exist and that archival intervention should be determined on a housing and box level as much as possible. Sometimes the materials are the agent for organizing the information. This collection might be an exception since it came from a dealer and may have been altered for shipping purposes or it might provide a new rule. This is not to say that materials that need serious attention don’t deserve their due consideration—I think I am advocating for a stricter criteria to help save materials that truly are invaluable and in jeopardy. So here’s to my first real-life lesson in being a little more hands off and still being hands on in preserving the legacy of collected materials.

Meet the Archivist: Claudia Willett and the John Hay Library, Part I

The Archivist

Hi! I’m Claudia and am currently in my first semester of the dual-degree program for archives management and history. I graduated this past May from Simmons College with a Bachelor of Arts in history and a minor in East Asian studies. I am obsessed with the American presidency and have a personal goal to read a biography on every president (4 down, 40 to go). After GSLIS I hope to work in an academic/university archive or in a presidential library and museum. When I kick off my academic shoes and relax I enjoy books, running, wine, the Red Sox and pie.

Introduction to John Hay and Michael Gizzi

The big oak doors are opened to student workers at 9:00 AM; the library does not open to the general public until 10:00 AM. Walking into the John Hay Library at Brown University for the first time felt as intimidating as writing this first blog post. I move forward confidently reflecting on how incredible my first experience with a collection that is mine went.

The project I am assisting on, Revealing Brown’s Hidden Archival and Manuscript Collections, is funded by a National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC) grant. The John Hay Library was awarded a two-year Basic Processing Grant of $141,455 from NHPRC to make accessible 892 archival and manuscript collections. This project will reveal a number of significant collections, papers, and records held in Manuscripts and University Archives. These include the papers of prominent literary figures, gay writers, poets, screenwriters, scientists, historians, Brown faculty and alumni, and the records of small presses, literary magazines, and cultural, arts, political, and activist organizations. The grant will support a full-time processing archivist to survey 6,500 linear feet of “hidden” archival and manuscript collections and create catalog records and Encoded Archival Description (EAD) finding aids. In addition, Archivists’ Toolkit will be implemented in order to manage archival and manuscript collections through a single database.

In the following eight weeks, I anticipate working with two or three collections. My first collection is the papers of Michael Gizzi (or, to me, MS 2011. 025). My posts will follow my adventures through protecting, constructing, and accounting for Michael Gizzi’s and others’ contributions to the Brown community and the research community at large by developing finding aids, accession and assessment records, and all of the other cool archives lingo I can manage to conjure up during my posts. Hopefully, you’ll get a sense of what it is like working on a grant-funded project and the turmoil a new archivist feels as a tiny fish in a giant lake.

SAA Guest Blogger: Amanda Strauss

Networking. This word has been the source of great angst for me. In a conference setting, networking means introducing myself to a stranger in a room full of strangers. The introvert in me would rather hide in the corner or melt into a puddle on the floor than do something so brash.

In the weeks leading up to the SAA Annual Meeting in Chicago, I read articles about networking, visited the career counselor for a refresher course, and tried to make a list of things to say to the strangers I would encounter at SAA. Even with all of this preparation, I did not feel fully prepared to begin making professional contacts.

On the first evening of the conference, SAA hosted a “New Member/ First-Timer Orientation.” Outgoing SAA President Helen Tibbo was in attendance, as were SAA Council members, and representatives from the Membership Committee. After saying a few words, Helen Tibbo sat down. The agenda for the evening was not a crash-course on conference survival. Instead, we were meant to talk to each other, to mingle. My group of friends and I clustered around a table – the first and last time we would huddle together at the conference. An SAA Council Member who is a university archivist in Montana sat at our table. A few minutes later, one of my friends asked if she had any advice about the conference. “Talk to people,” she said. “Talk to as many people as you can.” She continued, “People are here to talk, and they will be interested in talking to you. If you find someone who does not want to talk, just move on to the next person. It is not a reflection on you.” As she spoke about the people she has met throughout the years, some of whom have become good friends, others whose expertise she has called upon for professional questions, I began to realize something. The archivists at SAA are not strangers; they are colleagues. They have been (or are) students or new archivists. They are seasoned professionals, they are mentors. Regardless of the differences that separate us, or even the similarities that unite us, we all have one thing in common: the archival profession.

With this new perspective, I was able to quell the fears of my doubting introvert. I did not hide in the corner or melt into a puddle on the floor. I did not seek refuge in a large group of friends. Instead, I did the unthinkable: I spoke with many strangers colleagues. While the sessions I attended were thought-provoking, my most rewarding moments at the conference were found in informal conversations. I came away with a list of people to e-mail and a host of new ideas. Even better, I can count on seeing familiar faces at next year’s conference. The archival profession is small, and it is a community. Archivists are not strangers; they are colleagues you have not yet met.

SAA Guest Blogger: Erin Faulder

Flexibility. After spending a week in Chicago this summer for SAA’s 75th Annual Meeting, I realize that it is a key skill an archivist should cultivate. Whether it’s the flexibility to implement a plan for dealing with born digital records despite not having funding or the all the knowledge about its best practices, or to improvise two additional days of housing, food and entertainment as a result of being stranded in Chicago because of Hurricane Irene, an archivist should constantly be on his or her toes, ready to jump.

At the second plenary session, presiding president Helen Tibbo spoke about the changing needs of the archival profession and how SAA was working to meet those needs. She implored the audience to just “Do Something” when it came to dealing with born digital records. By waiting until we find funding, or agreeing on the right way to preserve these records, we are creating larger problems for ourselves in the future. Archivists need to be flexible and innovative to use what is currently available and start Doing Something about the problems at hand. Incorporating the knowledge that technology and best practices change into the plan to tackle digital records is one way to turn our weakness of knowledge and resources and turn them into a strength for the future. Flexibility is a way towards creativity and potential solutions to the problems at hand.

Several sessions illustrated this attempt towards just Doing Something. The session “Practical Approaches to Born-Digital Records” gave just that: practical ways to deal with this growing problem. They acknowledged the best practices, but realized that most archival institutions are unable, either through funding, time, knowledge or a combination thereof, to fully realize best practices. The solution is to do the best they can, think outside the box about how to best use their resources, and work collaboratively on the problem one byte at a time. Their efforts showed that using the theories already in place while thinking creatively about implementation can result in improved records control from accession to processing to use.

In the “Faces of Diversity: Diasporic Archives and Archivists in the New Millennium” session, Amalia Levi spoke about using Web 2.0 as a way to bring a community together across time and space through crowdsourcing memories. She turned the traditionally distasteful term crowdsourcing on its head by thinking of it as a participatory collective memory exercise. Using the idea of an archive more flexibly in the digital communication era allowed her to explore archives in non-traditional formats. Doing so, she reaches a community broken apart and helps them build an identity using the archival material. For her project, using archival material is a two-way street, where community members interact with the archival material while adding to it from their own memories and experiences. If there is a way to integrate archives into the digital realm, thinking creatively about how to build bridges between past and present dislocated peoples by using memory and identity seems to be a promising start.

Archivists are threatened by the public opinion that we are all stuffy librarians in dusty basements. This is not the case. In order to change this perception we must utilize everything we have. This means thinking flexibly about archives, acting flexibly when it comes to doing archival work, and remembering that when problems occur creativity is our best solution.

SAA Guest Blogger: Rebecca Meyer

The Archives as a Center for Community: The Historic New Orleans Collection and the Aftermath of Hurricane Katrina 

With the current economic challenges we are facing, it is more important than ever for archivists to advocate on behalf of archives. We are in need of gripping stories that illustrate just what an archive can do so as to capture the attention of the public. I found just such a story told in a session that I attended at SAA 2011.

In Session 408, “Cooperation Makes It Happen: Collaboration in Museum Archives,” Dr. Alfred Lemmon spoke about his experience working at The Historic New Orleans Collection  (http://www.hnoc.org) during and after Hurricane Katrina. While Dr. Lemmon did share lessons learned concerning disaster planning – The Historic New Orleans Collection did have a disaster plan in place at the time of Hurricane Katrina, but it was geared towards an institutional disaster, not a regional one – Dr. Lemmon focused on the ways in which The Historic New Orleans Collection served the community. As New Orleans was rebuilt, the Historic New Orleans Collection documented the experience with two initiatives launched in October 2005, barely two months after the hurricane’s devastation. One of these projects was an oral history program, and the other project documented in photographs the damage left by the hurricane. The website Katrina on the Web +5 (http://www.hnoc.org/katsite/Kat.html#) is a version of the site that was created for the exhibit City of Hope: New Orleans After Hurricane Katrina (July 18, 2006 – January 6, 2007) that has been updated since that exhibit with information on the rebuilding.

In addition to ensuring that the events of Katrina would not be forgotten,The Historic New Orleans Collection provided stabilizing and restorative functions to the community. Cultural events held by the organization helped to create a sense of reassurance that things would return to normal. The Collection received loans of important objects from other institutions, a gesture of confidence in New Orleans’s recovery that bolstered morale of both staff and the public. There are more traditional organizational functions, but The Historic New Orleans Collection also found that people came to them for advice on what to do with their family artifacts damaged in the storm.

Dr. Lemmon’s presentation illustrated a prime example of how an archives can not only document but support the community it serves. Thankfully, an archives does not need a natural disaster as a catalyst for deeply engaging with its community. With the destruction caused by Hurricane Katrine, one might think that exhibits would not be a priority for a good while, but this story shows that exhibits can be healing tools for the community, both in terms of what they document and the comforting social structure that they provide.

SAA Guest Blogger: Emily Gonzalez

A great thing about attending a large conference like SAA is that you get to meet so many interesting people with such a wide variety of jobs.  One of my favorite sessions at this year’s conference was paneled by a group of public media archivists, a job title previously unfamiliar to me.  The session, “Long Live the Story! How Public Media Archivists Are Influencing Content Lifecycle Best Practices Outside the Traditional Archive,” focused on how archivists working in “hybridized” archives, such as those of public radio or television stations, can successfully apply archival best practices. While much of the discussion was completely new to me – content management? metadata integration? –  I loved hearing about the panelists’ different job duties.  These ranged anywhere from being a Broadcast Librarian to a “ScrumMaster” (kind of a project manager), to conducting metadata integration or preserving old audio equipment used by a radio station.

Andrew Lanset, Director of the WNYC Archives, presented some gems from the radio station’s archives. These included a sound clip from a Leadbelly and Lomax performance, photos of radio ephemera and a look at WNYC’s Archives and Preservation websites, “Annotations” and “History Notes.”  Jenel Farrell, Digital Archivist for Minnesota Public Radio, was originally hired as the website builder for MPR’s digital archive. Before Farrell could work on this, however, most of MPR’s collections had to actually be digitized first. In addition to building the archive, Farrell added thousands of MPR records to the database. Ryan Weston then described his role as Media Operations Manager for WNET.ORG, the public media provider for New York City and the television stations Thirteen and WLIW21.  Weston, who comes from more of an IT background rather than the traditional library science or archives track, described the complicated processes involved in managing and converting files for WNET.

While all of the panelists’ jobs sounded incredibly interesting and challenging, Farrell and Weston’s presentations especially opened my eyes to some of the skills that might be worth acquiring in preparation for a non-traditional archives job. Along with citing “flexibility” as one of the desired skills for a public media archivist, Farrell noted that a knowledge of programming languages and web-building skills are very useful to have before coming to a digital archives or public media position. Although some may still consider public media archivists and their archives as non-traditional, it was both interesting and refreshing to think about what a huge role their work has and will have in the digital environment.

SAA Guest Blogger: Jasmine Jones

GSLIS community, I have to admit something: I was terrified for SAA.  My anxiety over the conference triggered nightmares… About what to wear of all things!  And yet, when I got there, I realized how silly I had been.  Sure, there is some importance in dressing appropriately or ensuring that one’s business cards have your website, but I had forgotten that SAA is a huge nerd fest.  When you sit in on sessions or section meetings, you feel a rush of excitement that other people care about the same things; will talk to you for over an hour about training practices for future archivists; and will laugh over the same awesome archives jokes that no one outside of the field gets. (http://archiwhat.wordpress.com/2007/04/08/saa-and-nickelodeon’s-tv-land-unveil-joint-campaign/) The image attached to this link was shared at the Museum Archives section meeting by Jessica Gambling in her talk about LACMA’s archival program.  (She borrowed it from the blog Archiwhat… amazing, yeah?) 

SAA’s annual meeting is the archivist version of comic-con, though it took a while for me to realize this.  I sat in on my first session, “Give Me Your Tired, Your Poor, Your Huddled Masses:’ Documenting the History of U.S. Immigration through Records in the National Archives.”  I dutifully took notes and thought of questions; asked said questions; and received a, “well, that’s a great question, but I’m not certain of the answer nor where you should look.”  Needless to say, I was a bit uncertain about how the rest of my day would pan out.  (Don’t worry.  Not everyone you approach is like this.)

Then, guys, oh my goodness, I sat in a session that changed my life!  The session was titled, “Genuine Encounter, Authentic Relationships: Archival Covenant and Professional Self-Understanding.” Finally, I thought, theory!  Philosophizing the system of exchange between the archivist and user!  I’m not going to ruin your excitement over hearing such a session took place by trying to explain it.  It was incredible, and I urge you to look out for the session’s papers, which will be published in SAA’s 75th Anniversary issue of the American Archivist (out around mid-November).

Despite my early anxiety, flight issues, and an extra few days in Chicago, there isn’t much I would change about my first SAA.  The conversations were stimulating, and everyone was filled with such enthusiasm.  Sure, I could have attended another section meeting, stayed a bit longer at the Simmons Mixer, and could have spoken to loads more people.  It’s hard to rectify when things aren’t perfect, but I’ve learned, from the great group of people I went to SAA with, that you have to look to the things that went well.  So, I tell myself that its okay that I didn’t attend everything because I was exhausted, and, most importantly, as socially awkward as I am, I congratulated myself on approaching and networking as much as I had.

I hope you all consider going to SAA next year.  (Yay for my home state of California!  And yay for SAA to choosing a place with wonderful beaches, weather, and the best California burritos around!)  It is intimidating, but there is a great network of Simmons students and faculty that help you get through it.

The end!

- Jasmine