Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Review Of Moving Image And Sound Collections For Archivists, Lauren Sorensen

Journal of Contemporary Archival Studies

Review of Anthony Cocciolo's Moving Image and Sound Collections for Archivists.

Review Of Classroom Action: Human Rights, Critical Activism, And Community-Based Education, Rachel M. Grove Rohrbaugh

Journal of Contemporary Archival Studies

Book review of Classroom Action: Human Rights, Critical Activism, and Community-Based Education by Ajay Heble, ed. Classroom Action poses questions that can and should be of interest to archivists and special collections librarians, particularly those interested in social justice education, radical teaching practices, and community partnerships.

“Tell Us About Your Digital Archives Workstation”: A Survey And Case Study, Elvia Arroyo-Ramírez, Kelly Bolding, Faith Charlton, Allison Hughes

Journal of Contemporary Archival Studies

Archival staff in the Manuscripts Division, Department of Rare Books and Special Collections (RBSC) at Princeton University Library lacked a fully-equipped digital processing workstation to capture, transfer, and secure born-digital and digitized archival content for long-term preservation and access. Staff recently conducted a survey that included information about the digital processing workstations of twenty institutions. The results of this survey informed a successful proposal to acquire a Forensic Recovery of Evidence Device (FRED) to serve as our digital processing workstation. The article will share details about the survey and considerations that went into our decision-making process, as well as introduce …

Review Of Nonbinary Gender Identities: History, Culture, Resources, Chris Babits

Journal of Contemporary Archival Studies

McNabb introduces the definitions, histories, and cultures of nonbinary individuals and provides scholars, archivists, librarians, and teachers with an array of resources to research the history and contemporary experiences of nonbinary people. Although the text privileges gender variance in Western nations and could have included more on gender theory, McNabb offers a strong introduction to the topic of nonbinary gender identities. Researchers will especially appreciate the comprehensive list of resources.

Lessons From The Treblinka Archive: Transnational Collections And Their Implications For Historical Research, Chad S.A. Gibbs

Journal of Contemporary Archival Studies

In work for his 1979 book The Death Camp Treblinka, Alexander Donat began the process of locating survivors of the camp and recording their histories. In a telling testament to the lethality of this place, he could identify only sixty-eight survivors. Analysis of Donat’s early findings—emerging six years prior to the publication of any major academic monograph on the subject—offers a window into the difficulties of conducting research on this Nazi extermination camp and its widely-scattered witnesses.

Treblinka’s disembarkation ramp was effectively the eye of a transnational needle through which so many passed and so few emerged. Victims of …

Review Of Participatory Heritage, Allyson E. Smally

Journal of Contemporary Archival Studies

This review of Participatory Heritage, edited by Henriette Roued-Cunliffe and Andrea Copeland, focuses on the book's relevance to the archives field. It highlights some of the chapters that will be most relevant to archivists, provides overviews and highlights of each of the book's three sections, discusses some of the main themes that come up throughout the book, and mentions a few strengths and drawbacks to the book’s approach. It addresses some ways the book relates to important topics in the archives field today and what areas of the field it has particular relevance for. The review concludes that Participatory …

Excuses For Silence: A Review Of The Silence Of The Archive, Anna Robinson-Sweet

Journal of Contemporary Archival Studies

The Silence of the Archive by David Thomas, Simon Fowler, and Valerie Johnson promises to investigate the causes of archival silence, and to find solutions for dealing with these silences. The topic is timely and important at a time when distrust of power is high, and there exists a concomitant expectation of finding truth in the archives. The book is reticent in its investigation, however, shying away from calling out the way power is exercised to create silences. The exception is Valerie Johnson’s argument on the necessity of silence, which challenges the tendency toward stasis in the archive.

Review Of Displaced Archives, Charlotte S. Kostelic

Journal of Contemporary Archival Studies

Displaced Archives, edited by James Lowry, addresses the concept of archives that have been removed due to war, conflict, or other international strife.

Review Of Creating A Local History Archive At Your Public Library, Emily Gibson

Journal of Contemporary Archival Studies

Phillips's book provides a unique look at the history of local history archives and methods of administering local history archives in public libraries, including management practices, how to process archival collections, and caring for archival collections. The bulk of the text pertains to processing archival collections. Its intended audience is public library staff with little to no archival experience. While there is much to recommend the book, it would benefit from a discussion of key archival concepts.

The Nuremberg Trials Project At Harvard Law School: Making History Accessible To All, Judith A. Haran

Journal of Contemporary Archival Studies

This article is primarily a case study of the Nuremberg Trials Project at the Harvard Law School Library in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It begins with an historical note about the war crimes trials and their documentary record, including the fate of the several tons of trial documents that were distributed in 1949. The second part of the article is a description of the Harvard Law School Nuremberg project, including its history, goals, logistical considerations, digitization process and challenges, and resulting impact. The structure and function of the project website is described, followed by a description of a typical user experience, the …

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.

Researcher Access To Born-Digital Collections: An Exploratory Study, Julia Y. Kim

Journal of Contemporary Archival Studies

While a small, but growing number of institutions offer access to born-digital collections, there is scant literature documenting researcher interaction with these materials. This paper addresses this gap through documenting and analyzing researcher interactions to portions of born-digital collections at New York University (NYU) Libraries, with the cooperation of NYU’s Fales Library and Special Collection and the Digital Library and Technology Solutions Department, as well as the National Digital Stewardship Residency (NDSR) program. From September 2014-May 2015, NYU Libraries began implementing an “access-driven” born-digital workflow for their 3 archives: Fales Library and Special Collections, NYU University Archives, and the Tamiment …

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 …

Review Of Curators: Behind The Scenes Of Natural History Museums, Danielle Castronovo

Journal of Contemporary Archival Studies

Book review of Curators by Lance Grande.

Review Of Queer Library Alliance: Global Reflections And Imaginings, Matthew P. Messbarger

Journal of Contemporary Archival Studies

With global perspectives from librarians and archivists who promote innovative methods to improve services to LGBTQ populations, Queer Library Alliance serves as an excellent primer and resource for critical thinking about how information professionals can best serve queer communities.

Exploring The American Archivist: Corpus Analysis Tools And The Professional Literature, J. Gordon Daines Iii, Cory L. Nimer, Jacob R. Lee

Journal of Contemporary Archival Studies

The literature of a professional community provides insights into what members of that community value and underscores key professional issues. Periodic analyses of professional literature are an important way for these communities to identify trends that deserve further exploration. This article introduces the use of corpus analysis tools such as Voyant Tools and discusses their value in performing periodic analyses of professional literature. As an example, it presents a limited study examining the use of the term “theory” in the American Archivist.

Adapting An Analog Records Management System For The Ingest And Accession Of Permanent Electronic Records, Brandy Tunmire, Amy Dinkins, Mary K. Coker, Shelly J. Croteau, John Korasick

Journal of Contemporary Archival Studies

The Records and Archives Division of the Office of the Missouri Secretary of State (hereafter MSA) received two National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC) grants for the purpose of establishing an electronic records program at the Missouri State Archives. The first grant covered planning, staff training and a consultant who determined that minor modifications to the current State of Missouri Agency Records Tracking (SMART) System would allow for the ingest of permanent electronic records. The second grant funded the SMART upgrade and the purchase of data-grabbing equipment. The upgrade succeeded and MSA was able to ingest 150 GB of …

Nineteenth-Century Depictions Of Disabilities And Modern Metadata: A Consideration Of Material In The P. T. Barnum Digital Collection, Meghan R. Rinn

Journal of Contemporary Archival Studies

The Library of Congress subject headings have been examined in the past for their classification of subjects relating to race, gender, and sexuality. Overlooked is subject headings that relate to disabilities. In the course of creating records for the archival and object material that form the P.T. Barnum Digital Collection, the project discovered the imperfections of the Library of Congress subject headings, and the need to develop standards and protocols for the material. This resulted in a balance of language that respects the preferences of living communities and their best practices, and the existing language in the Library of Congress, …