Digital Commons Network^™

Libraries On The Inside: A Study Of Public Library Outreach To Correctional Institutions, Annaliese Melvin

SLIS Connecting

In 1911, the American Library Association (ALA) formed its first committee on prison libraries. While this committee opened the door to important conversations on correctional libraries, the ALA did not actively become involved in correctional systems until 1944, when the Objectives and Standards for Libraries in Adult Prisons and Reformatories were approved (Austin, 2019). The real catalyst for creating nationwide libraries for the incarcerated came in 1971, when “Congress passed the Law Enforcement Administration Act, which funded prison law libraries and provided budgets for other reading materials” (Sullivan, 2000, p. 57). This led to what was coined the “golden age …

Managing Sustainability And Scalability With Successful Archival Projects: Two Lone Arranger, Dual-Role Archivist Case Studies, Autumn M. Johnson, Ann E. Merryman

Provenance, Journal of the Society of Georgia Archivists

Two lone arranger, dual-role archivists are faced with highly successful, yet outsized, collaborative projects that have placed unexpected demands on time and resources. The archivists describe their successful projects which similarly engage students with primary source archival materials in innovative ways, from expanding the use of the institutional content management system (CMS) for student creators to providing career-relevant training to German language students. While these projects provide opportunities for institutional and community recognition and engagement with the archives, they require the archivist to consider ways to manage sustainability, scalability, and assessment of their collections along with their overwhelming workload. Lone …

In With The Old: Encouraging Archives Use With Innovative Faculty Outreach, Kimberly Veliz, Ronald Rozzell

Kansas Library Association College and University Libraries Section Proceedings

In order to encourage archives usage, an instruction librarian and archivist at a small community college collaborated to design an interactive instruction session for faculty. The session was to use breakout boxes to demonstrate how to incorporate archival materials into classroom activities at an institution wide professional development workshop event. Plans for an in-person breakout box session were scrapped after the COVID-19 Omicron wave forced workshops online. After designing and carrying out an online archives introduction, the session was reconfigured back into an in-person session utilizing breakout boxes. Despite lower-than-expected attendance, the innovative outreach made faculty and staff aware of …

Slis Director's Report, Stacy Creel, Ph.D. Usm Slis

SLIS Connecting

Welcome to the Summer/Fall issue of SLIS Connecting.

Review Of Deconstructing Service In Libraries: Intersections Of Identities And Expectations, Emily Komornik

Journal of Contemporary Archival Studies

In Deconstructing Service in Libraries: Intersections of Identities and Expectations, Veronica Arellano Douglas and Joanna Gadsby bring together nineteen essays from the perspectives of library workers of differing race, ethnicity, gender identity, and job title to discuss service and what it means in their respective roles. Arellano Douglas and Gadsby’s edited volume offers essays that highlight the frustration of librarians who feel underappreciated, undervalued, and, perhaps most importantly, underestimated in their professional spaces. Within Deconstructing Service in Libraries, Arellano Douglas and Gadsby collect insightful, real-world examples of library professionals tackling these issues, offering solidarity alongside valuable professional advice. This book …

Unboxing Time Capsules: Managing And Using Time Capsules In Your Archive, April K. Anderson-Zorn

Faculty and Staff Publications – Milner Library

In Spring 2016, a phone call arrived at the Rayfield Archives from the demolition site of an Illinois State University campus dormitory. Workers at the site had uncovered a time capsule and didn’t know where to send it. In the following months, the Rayfield Archives partnered with ISU units, including Marketing and Facilities, to promote the find and redirect a narrative of the sad loss of a dormitory to one of renewal and discovery. The work to triage the damaged capsule materials and make them immediately accessible was made all the more exciting by a second surprise time capsule discovery. …

Advocating For Social Justice And Diverse Voices In The Virtual World, Annie E. Tummino, Jo-Ann Wong

Publications and Research

Queens Memory is a local community archiving and oral history project, co-administered by Queens Public Library and Queens College, CUNY. Due to COVID-19 safety protocols, all projects and programs were required to move to a virtual setting. While under these restricted measures, members from both institutions found an opportunity to embark on a collaborative virtual event series for our respective library communities. The programs covered current events and their historical contexts, social justice, and creating positive social change. Key ingredients fueling the success of this initiative included building relationships with multiple co-sponsors; bringing together multigenerational, diverse panelists; and creative use …

Corporate Archives In Silicon Valley: Building And Surviving Amid Constant Change, Paula Jabloner, Anna Mancini

Journal of Western Archives

An historical understanding of the phenomenon that is Silicon Valley requires the collection and preservation of original records. With the rapid pace of change in the technology industry, how can archivists and their institutions preserve this corporate history? Two archivists address how they were able to found an archives at Cisco Systems and maintain another at Hewlett-Packard. Two common elements emerged: 1) the formation of a licensed limited company (LLC) as the legal structure for the archival repository, and 2) the use of outsourcing to staff both repositories. Outsourcing via a non-profit, in this case the Computer History Museum, or …

History Allies: Helping Protect Your Past: Resources On Managing Archives & Records For Community-Based Organizations, Ruth E. Bryan, Sarah Dorpinghaus, Matthew Strandmark

Library Presentations

Since 2015, the UK Libraries Special Collections Research Center (UK SCRC) has offered “archives basics” workshops for community-based organizations in central Kentucky. These workshops, titled “History Allies: Helping Protect Your Past,” are free and open to the public and often hosted in partnership with area public libraries. Attendees have been from African American churches, LGBTQIA organizations, genealogical groups, museums, and more. Topics include the historical value of organizational records, selecting records for permanent retention, inventorying and storing physical and digital records, providing access to researchers, managing volunteers and volunteer projects, digitization methods and standards, and outreach and exhibits. The workshops …

Timelords & Timelines: Four Web Apps For Storytelling In Libraries, Rachel S. Evans, Sharon Bradley, David Rutland

Presentations

From online embeds to interactive displays, timelines can serve many purposes and tell powerful stories. In this panel librarians discuss collaboration and how to bring history to life through displays, events and online platforms for engaging students and preserving community milestones. Four of our favorite tools for creating digital timelines and gathering content will be shared including Prezi, TikiToki, TimeToast, and Piktochart. Comparisons will be given based on cost, technical limitations, and general ease of use. Specific examples will also be shared and discussed.

Contemporary Art And Historical Archives: Collaborations And Convergences In A Digital Multicultural Age, Suzanne S. Lapierre

School of Information Student Research Journal

Literature illuminating the relationship between contemporary art and historical archives around the turn of the twenty-first century and how these interactions inform the evolution of archives in a digital multicultural age is the topic of this review. The literature reveals the extent to which art has been a means for members of marginalized groups to address their representation in historical archives, and also a means for archives to connect with a broader audience. Collaborations between artists and historical archives add new dimension to the debate about the nature of the archive as a creation in and of itself, and in …

Marketing And Outreach Program Showcase, Gary Marks, Hilary Westgate, Denise I. O'Shea, Kim Reamer, Tara Maharjan, Allison Piazza, Kate Hossain

Denise O'Shea

As marketing and outreach increasingly become core values for librarians, we are always looking for fresh ideas on how to best reach our users. Come and hear from a varied panel of academic librarians about ways to market your resources, services, and events/programs. Each panelist will be discussing a specific marketing or outreach program that their library has initiated recently. We hope to showcase the great work that NJ academic libraries are doing and inspire you to try something new at your library!

A Time Lord, A Timeline And Legal Instruction, Rachel S. Evans, Sharon Bradley, Eleanor Lanier

Presentations

From online embeds to interactive displays, timelines can serve many purposes and tell powerful stories. In this session librarians team up with an archivist and a clinician to bring history to life, engage students, and preserve the scholarly and institutional milestones. A variety of tools for creating digital timelines and gathering content will be shared including TikiToki, TimeToast, and Piktochart. Comparisons will be given based on cost, technical limitations, collaborative potential, and general ease of use. Potential applications for timelines will also be shared in the form of examples including:

• a TimeToast embedded timeline tribute for individual faculty scholarship as …

Making A Case For Local Relevance: Strategic Exhibition Planning For The Gordon W. Prange Collection, Yukako Tatsumi

Journal of East Asian Libraries

In the changing academic libraries environment, area studies and special collections, marked by a high level of expertise in a specialized area, are faced with the challenge of articulating their value and becoming connected with a broad range of local users. This article shows that exhibitions can be a powerful instrument for making a convincing case for the relevance of these specialized collections to local users. It discusses a model case of strategic exhibition development for the Gordon W. Prange Collection, which archives Japanese-language print publications issued during the first four years of the U.S. Occupation of Japan, 1945-1949. Making …

Marketing And Outreach Program Showcase, Gary Marks, Hilary Westgate, Denise I. O'Shea, Kim Reamer, Tara Maharjan, Allison Piazza, Kate Hossain

Sprague Library Scholarship and Creative Works

As marketing and outreach increasingly become core values for librarians, we are always looking for fresh ideas on how to best reach our users. Come and hear from a varied panel of academic librarians about ways to market your resources, services, and events/programs. Each panelist will be discussing a specific marketing or outreach program that their library has initiated recently. We hope to showcase the great work that NJ academic libraries are doing and inspire you to try something new at your library!

Digging Up The Past: Archival Issues With Found Time Capsules At Illinois State University, April K. Anderson-Zorn

Faculty and Staff Publications – Milner Library

During the demolition of an Illinois State University dormitory in the spring of 2016, workers discovered two time capsules. Tasked with their care, the university archivist looked for archival guidance on the safe handling of time capsules, best practices for working with their contents while balancing public demand for access. This case study examines the time capsule as an object of collective memory, how it fits into an institutional collection, the archivist’s work to document and recover materials in two recently discovered time capsules, and how to work with multiple institutional departments to make them accessible. It suggests best practices …

History In The Making: Outreach And Collaboration Between Special Collections And Makerspaces, Erin Passehl-Stoddart, Ashlyn Velte, Kristin J. Henrich, Annie M. Gaines Mlis

Collaborative Librarianship

Makerspaces present unique possibilities for creative partnerships within libraries, including the opportunity for interdisciplinary use of emerging technologies with archival objects and primary sources. One example of this type of interdisciplinary collaboration is the fabrication of cultural heritage replicas via 3D scanning and printing of historical university objects in academic libraries. Two departments in the University of Idaho Library, Special Collections and Archives (SPEC) and the Making, Innovating, and Learning Laboratory (MILL), partnered on such a project as a way to broaden maker competencies across library departments, leverage interdisciplinary connections between emerging technologies and historic archives, and create innovative outreach …

Getting To Tier 1 By Revitalizing A Special Collections Program With Cultural Competence, Mark L. Shelstad

Journal of Contemporary Archival Studies

Seeking to revitalize a special collections program at a Tier 1 aspirant university, the author introduced a variety of contemporary and innovative management strategies along with new outreach opportunities to demonstrate its value toward fulfilling the university's strategic plan. The revitalization efforts included creating a manuscript and rare book collection development policies that incorporated web harvesting, making connections with the community, and finding new audiences using social media. The dramatic increase in collection use and collaboration demonstrated the value of special collections to the community and the university.

Moving Toward A Reparative Archive: A Roadmap For A Holistic Approach To Disrupting Homogenous Histories In Academic Repositories And Creating Inclusive Spaces For Marginalized Voices, Lae'l Hughes-Watkins

Journal of Contemporary Archival Studies

In 2013, Kent State University’s Department of Special Collections and Archives launched the Black Campus Movement (BCM) Collection Development project to acknowledge the imperfection of past collection development practices that resulted in a scarcity of documentation from historically underrepresented communities. The department ventured to strengthen its holdings by acquiring records relating to the university’s rich, multilayered and diverse narratives, specifically the narratives of black student activism, 1968–1971. The Kent State shootings on May 4, 1970, resulting in the death of four white students, changed the trajectory of the Vietnam War and introduced a new discourse into the predominately white antiwar …

Journeywoman: A Lone Arranger On The Final Frontier, Laura Frizzell

Provenance, Journal of the Society of Georgia Archivists

The state of Alaska has no shortage of fascinating history and culture. What it does lack, however, is the presence of enough trained archivists to ensure the proper treatment and preservation of historic and cultural collections across the state’s numerous, albeit small, repositories. As such, the Alaska State Historic Records Advisory Board (ASHRAB) has developed the Journeyman Archival Processing Program, which provides an interested lone arranger the opportunity to work in an Alaska archives for six weeks. In May 2017, I ventured to the 49^th State in this very capacity. In this paper, I detail my experience working as …

Always Be Teaching: Reading Room Exhibits And Displays As Instructional Tools, Joshua Youngblood

University Libraries Faculty Publications and Presentations

A university's special collections is often a featured stop on campus tours, whether for visiting dignitaries, prospective students, or guest lecturers. This poster presentation highlights successful planning that has allowed a special collections without dedicated classrooms or galleries to utilize limited exhibit spaces in the reading room for rotating and long-term exhibits that align with library-wide initiatives while also focusing student and visitor attention on curatorial strengths, cross-disciplinary opportunities, emerging research trends, and hidden collections.

This study outlines the exhibiting of the University of Arkansas Libraries Special Collections. Founded in 1967, the department is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year. …

Show Us Your Omaha: Combating Lgbtq+ Archival Silences, Angela J. Kroeger, Yumi Ohira, Amy Schindler

Criss Library Faculty Proceedings & Presentations

The University of Nebraska at Omaha (UNO) Libraries offers a variety of unique and specialized collections in the Archives & Special Collections (ASC) for UNO and Omaha community members. In 2015, ASC began planning for preserving and providing access to Omaha’s LGBTQ+ history through the Queer Omaha Archives. Archival silences were defined by archivist Rodney Carter as the manifestation of the actions of the powerful in denying the marginalized access to archives with further definition by archivists and researchers expanding this definition. The UNO Libraries has invested in developing digital engagement as a strategic priority through building infrastructure and expanding …

"I Go To School, But I Never Learn What I Want To Know": Archival Advocacy And Outreach As Expressed In Educational Settings, Jeremy Brett, Jasmine Jones, Leah Edelman

Provenance, Journal of the Society of Georgia Archivists

As part of an ongoing study designed to foster a dialogue among archivists about how the profession regards the concepts of advocacy and outreach, the authors conducted a survey (distributed to SAA members from January-March 2015) focused on these concepts as they are expressed or taught in educational settings. Survey findings include a gap between what people want to know and what graduate programs and professional organizations teach. The authors of the survey propose that, given that archivists desire and welcome more information relating to advocacy and outreach, graduate institutions develop curricula that includes more robust and comprehensive attention paid …

The Austin Archives Bazaar: A Collaborative Outreach Event, Daniel Alonzo, Amy Rushing, Kristy Sorensen

Provenance, Journal of the Society of Georgia Archivists

The Austin Archives Bazaar (AAB) is a biennial, multi-institutional, community outreach event organized by the Archivists of Central Texas (ACT), an all-volunteer group of archivists in Austin, Texas. It is designed to be free, fun, and appealing to the general public, including folks who may not even know exactly what an archives is. This paper looks at the planning and execution of the 2016 Bazaar and reflects back on how it built on lessons learned in 2014 with a focus on issues of governance, fundraising, publicity, logistics, and the participating repository perspective. This case study of a creative, multi-institutional outreach …

Developing An Outreach Plan For Unt Scholarly Works, Pamela Andrews, Daniel Alemneh

Central Plains Network for Digital Asset Management

The University of North Texas Scholarly Works collections functions as our institution’s open access repository. This summer, we conducted a preliminary analysis of the collection’s holdings to assess our progress in archiving UNT faculty research in support of our Open Access and Long-term Digital Stewardship policy as passed in 2012. As we do not subscribe to any current research information systems (CRIS), this analysis took the form of a census using current faculty senate data to understand who is and is not contributing to the repository. After looking at our contribution population, we also examined what resource types are contributed …

Review Of Start A Revolution: Stop Acting Like A Library, Philip Shackelford

Journal of Contemporary Archival Studies

Start a Revolution: Stop Acting Like a Library is a convenient and thought-provoking manual for libraries and other cultural institutions interested in enhancing their community presence and marketing efforts. Technology Director Ben Bizzle offers insights gained from experience, marketing results, and other individuals who contribute appendices on related topics.

“Save Our History!” Collaborating To Preserve The Past At Umass Boston, Meghan Bailey, Patricia Bruttomesso, Andrew Elder, Carolyn M. Goldstein, Jessica R. Holden, Joanne Riley

Joseph P. Healey Library Publications

Sparked by the 50th anniversary of the founding of the University of Massachusetts Boston in June 1964, University Archives and Special Collections (UASC) staff in the Joseph P. Healey Library collaborated with departments across campus to carry out a wide range of initiatives, all focused on locating, accessioning, preserving, and sharing the physical evidence of the university’s history. This poster outlines the various collecting activities, outreach methods, digitization projects, and dogged detective work that resulted in the addition of more than 2,500 linear feet of unique historic materials to the University Archives, as well as a number of well-received public …

Marketing Finding Aids On Social Media: What Worked And What Didn’T Work, Felicia Williamson, Scott Vieira, James Williamson

Fondren Library Research

Sam Houston State University’s Special Collections (SHSU) needed a way to expose finding aids to more users. Using social media to promote online awareness, while simultaneously improving search engine result rankings for the finding aids, seemed like a potential solution to this problem. With this goal in mind, SHSU researchers selected ten social media sites to test the assumption that posting information about finding aids to social media would be an effective marketing strategy. Following three months of posting information about finding aids while tracking user traffic to finding aids from social media sites, the research findings indicate that a …

Filling In The Gaps: Using Outreach Efforts To Acquire Documentation On The Black Campus Movement, 1965-1972, Lae'l Hughes-Watkins

Lae'l Hughes-Watkins

Freedom Is Everybody's Business: Using Multi-Faceted Outreach To Draw Student Attention To Local Archival Collections On The Civil Rights Movement Of The 1960s, Joshua Youngblood

University Libraries Faculty Publications and Presentations

As the recent celebrations of the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington demonstrated, numerous digital projects and numerous scholarly and popular print publications have made the grander stories and lessons of the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s widely available. But what about the lesser known heroes and the local and regional episodes that have not received the same level of interest? Manuscript collections that capture those hidden stories, integral to the achievements—and setbacks—of the Civil Rights Movement, can provide students access to richer understandings of the social and political watersheds of the era. By utilizing select …