Library and Information Science Commons^™

How Accessible Are European Public Archives? An Assessment Of The Compliance With The Council Of Europe Recommendation R(2000)13 On A European Policy On Access To Archives, Michael Friedewald, Ivan Szekely, Murat Karaboga

Journal of Contemporary Archival Studies

This paper takes as its starting point the lessons learned from the second pan-European study on access to archives conducted 20 years after the first one – with the understanding that these results may also provide global lessons. The principal aim of the study was to assess the European archives' compliance with the Council of Europe Recommendation No. R(2000)13 on a European policy on access to archives, which was adopted in July 2000 and was the first international norm in this field. Although the overall access situation in Europe has significantly improved over the past 20 years, several practices still …

Mrs. His Name: Reparative Description As A Tool For Cultural Sensitivity And Discoverability, Elspeth A. Olson

Journal of Western Archives

Reparative description, a term coined by La’el Hughes-Watkins to describe the role of revising archival metadata in social justice, becomes a tool of both practical discoverability and cultural sensitivity toward the past when applied to the issue of married women’s names in legacy metadata in finding aids. The Mrs. His Name Project at the University of Nevada, Reno, represents a case study in balancing the practical with the ethical in identifying married women formerly identified solely by their husband’s names in finding aids. The project further suggests methodology which may be applied to other reparative description projects in archives, and …

Review Of Archival Accessioning, Bree'ya Nadia Brown

Journal of Contemporary Archival Studies

In Archival Accessioning, editor Audra Eagle Yun and eleven authors compile essays on modern theories and practices to accessioning collections in archival settings. Authors in this anthology share knowledge and assert scenarios supporting their arguments, while also providing resources as guides for professionals who tackle the challenges of accessioning records and collections.

Archival Discretion: A Survey On The Theory And Practice Of Archival Restrictions, Katrina Windon, Lydia M. Tang

Journal of Contemporary Archival Studies

In 2019, the Society of American Archivists’ Privacy and Confidentiality Steering Committee surveyed SAA members with the goal of identifying current practices and concerns across the field regarding archival access restrictions. Survey results yielded rich and sometimes contradicting information about how archivists approach access restrictions in theory and practice. The authors explore the survey methodology and results. Key observations include the ubiquity of restricted collections across archival repositories; the influence of donors on repositories’ restriction decisions; and variances in approaches to administering, tracking, and lifting expired restrictions.

Not having a comprehensive codified professional standard for privacy and restrictions is entirely …

Review Of Reference And Access For Archives And Manuscripts, Cindy Brightenburg

Journal of Western Archives

A review of the book Reference and Access for Archives and Manuscripts by Cheryl Oestreicher.

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 …

Privacy, Ethics, And Access In Digital Libraries, Kelley Rowan, Rebecca Bakker

Works of the FIU Libraries

This presentation shares privacy challenges that librarians in the Digital Collections Center at FIU have encountered when working with the creators of content in the institutional repository and digital collections. The presenters share a brief history of privacy laws and the ethical concerns inherent in the juxtaposition between access and privacy. This presentation suggests possible solutions for other digital librarians concerned about privacy and take down requests.

Participatory Archival Research And Development: The Born-Digital Access Initiative, Alison Clemens, Wendy Hagenmaier, Jessica Meyerson, Rachel Appel

Provenance, Journal of the Society of Georgia Archivists

In an effort to advance the professional discourse around establishing best practices for access to born-digital archival collections, we designed a multi-phase, mixed-methods initiative, begun in 2014, that aimed to identify gaps and challenges in existing access methods and identify plans for how cultural heritage organizations hoped to improve access practices in the future. Over the course of our collaboration, our goals quickly evolved beyond the scope of collecting and publishing a static data set. We were inspired by models of research in practice, participatory action research, and research and development to translate our results into action by using the …

Srj: Leading The Genre-Defying Lis Profession, Greta Snyder

School of Information Student Research Journal

No abstract provided.

Ischool Student Research Journal, Vol.9, Iss.2

School of Information Student Research Journal

No abstract provided.

Spaceport: A Finding Aid Launchpad, Rebecca B. French

Rebecca B. French

JMU Libraries distributes its Special Collections finding aids to a number of discovery platforms, a process which historically has involved a significant amount of hand-encoding and manual data entry. We recently developed and implemented Spaceport, a Python app that has revolutionized this workflow. This presentation provides an overview of the app's functionality, which includes generating EADs for Virginia Heritage, HTML files for upload to the Libraries website, and MARCXML records for our catalog and OCLC. It also describes the efficiencies and other benefits we have observed from Spaceport's use.

Spaceport: A Finding Aid Launchpad, Rebecca B. French

Libraries

JMU Libraries distributes its Special Collections finding aids to a number of discovery platforms, a process which historically has involved a significant amount of hand-encoding and manual data entry. We recently developed and implemented Spaceport, a Python app that has revolutionized this workflow. This presentation provides an overview of the app's functionality, which includes generating EADs for Virginia Heritage, HTML files for upload to the Libraries website, and MARCXML records for our catalog and OCLC. It also describes the efficiencies and other benefits we have observed from Spaceport's use.

Taking Control Of Archdesc: Implementing Spaceport For Special Collections Finding Aids, Tiffany Cole, Rebecca B. French

Rebecca B. French

This poster describes a project to develop Spaceport, a Python app that transforms EAD finding aids from ArchivesSpace into EADs for Virginia Heritage, HTML files for the JMU Libraries website, and MARCXML records for the catalog. It outlines the challenges and needs that led to Spaceport's development and describes benefits experienced from its implementation.

Taking Control Of Archdesc: Implementing Spaceport For Special Collections Finding Aids, Tiffany Cole, Rebecca B. French

Libraries

This poster describes a project to develop Spaceport, a Python app that transforms EAD finding aids from ArchivesSpace into EADs for Virginia Heritage, HTML files for the JMU Libraries website, and MARCXML records for the catalog. It outlines the challenges and needs that led to Spaceport's development and describes benefits experienced from its implementation.

Discovering Digital Archives: A Successful Collaboration Between Archivists And Technical Services Librarians, Christina A. Beis, Kayla Harris, Stephanie Shreffler

Kayla Harris

Effective collaboration between archives and technical services increases the discoverability of special collection materials. Archivists at a medium-sized institution had been using Archive-It to collect websites for a few years, but the information was isolated in a separate platform and wasn't effectively marketed to users. Working together, the team of archivists and technical services librarians incorporated the website collections into the discovery layer. Metadata was added at the seed level and indexed on a single, user-friendly platform. Attendees learned about implementing digital archive collections and explored how to increase their visibility through marketing.

Review Of Things Great And Small, Lydia Tang

Journal of Contemporary Archival Studies

Things Great and Small: Collections Management Policies, 2nd edition, by John E. Simmons is a helpful overview and guide for crafting museum collections management policies.

Discovering Digital Archives: A Successful Collaboration Between Archivists And Technical Services Librarians, Christina A. Beis, Kayla Harris, Stephanie Shreffler

Roesch Library Faculty Presentations

Effective collaboration between archives and technical services increases the discoverability of special collection materials. Archivists at a medium-sized institution had been using Archive-It to collect websites for a few years, but the information was isolated in a separate platform and wasn't effectively marketed to users. Working together, the team of archivists and technical services librarians incorporated the website collections into the discovery layer. Metadata was added at the seed level and indexed on a single, user-friendly platform. Attendees learned about implementing digital archive collections and explored how to increase their visibility through marketing.

Breaking Out Of The Box: Transforming Archival Collections And Workflows Through Collaborative Description Projects, Cindy Cline, Libby Hertenstein, Lindy Smith, Rachel Howard, Rebecca Pattillo, Ruth E. Bryan

Library Presentations

Archivists and archival collections can often be siloed into the “special” corner of their parent library: under described, underutilized, and often even unknown. Finding a path out of isolation may require taking a new look at collection management needs and considering new partners in the work. Collaboration with colleagues can result in positive ripple effects that extend beyond the initial project goals. This session will highlight three innovative description projects where archivists partnered with non-archivists to improve access to targeted collections and will detail how their collaborations transformed their archival collections, work structures and relationships, and, ultimately, their users. After …

Review Of Music Preservation And Archiving Today, Christina Taylor Gibson

Journal of Contemporary Archival Studies

Music Preservation and Archiving Today, a collection of essays edited by Norie Guthrie and Scott Carlson documents some of the most pressing issues confronting contemporary music archivists, particularly those working with popular music and their relevant communities. This review presents a summary of the essays included and considers the breadth of questions asked and answered therein. Particularly of interest are the relationships described and documented with those ordinarily excluded from the archive because of class, ethnicity, or race.

The Historical Hazards Of Finding Aids, Gregory Wiedeman

University Libraries Faculty Scholarship

Archivists have traditionally understood access through finding aids, assuming that—through creating them—they are effectively providing access to archival materials. This article is a history of finding aids in American archival practice that demonstrates how finding aids have negatively colored how archivists have understood access. It shows how finding aids were originally a compromise between resource constraints and the more familiar access that users expected, how a discourse centered on finding aids hindered the standardization of archival description as data, and how the characteristics of finding aids as tools framed and negatively impacted the Encoded Archival Description (EAD) standard. It questions …

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 …

Here, There And Everywhere: An Analysis Of Reference Services In Academic Archives, Amanda Oliver, Amanda Jamieson, Anne Daniel

Western Libraries Publications

The purpose of this study is to investigate how archivists conduct reference services. The investigators administered two surveys to 19 participants at 15 Canadian academic archives to understand archivists’ behaviour while performing reference. There is no standard approach to reference as many archivists use institution-specific tools coupled with their own knowledge. Finding aids are the most frequently accessed tool and are most often used in conjunction with other tools. Limited resources are the primary barrier to the provision of effective reference services. The tools that are employed by archives are archivist focused, which results in reference services that are not …

Collaborating Across Workflows: Managing Creative Assets From Legacy Works, Patrice-Andre Prud'homme, Jennifer Hunt Johnson

Central Plains Network for Digital Asset Management

From the perspective of two distinct workflows, this presentation will illustrate how library departments, Digital Collections and Conservation collaborate on the production of digital assets. In essence, both digitization and analog preservation workflows aim to guarantee that collections are easily retrieved and usable. This case study will illustrate two examples. The first one is more linear yet regional; it aims to create digital assets to engage the community by means of crowdsourced transcription. The second one is hands-on, as it addresses the long-term research value of the physical material for use in classrooms by Special Collections. While these workflows may …

Say Yes To Digital Surrogates: Strengthening The Archival Record In The Postcustodial Era, Cyndi Shein, Emily Lapworth

Journal of Western Archives

Shein and Lapworth demonstrate how employing “scan-and-return” practices to strengthen and diversify archival collections is a creative and responsible way to provide researchers with equitable and ongoing access to a more inclusive and democratic historical record. The authors review some of the main archival theories and practices of the postcustodial era to show how their position is built on professional values and widely-accepted premises. They explain how and why UNLV Special Collections has joined a community of practice that validates stewardship of digital surrogates in support of the preeminent mandate of archives to preserve and provide broad access to cultural …

Give Us Your Stuff! Streamlining University Records Transfers, Carly Dearborn, Neal Harmeyer

Libraries Faculty and Staff Presentations

Purdue University Archives and Special Collections seeks out content created by university-affiliated departments, groups, and personnel. The collection development policy of Archives and Special Collections specifically states that documents important to capture university history, administration, or culture will be collected. This presentation outlines the steps and initiatives undertaken by Purdue Archives and Special Collections to implement a rigorous, standardized digital records transfer process.

Search, Explore, Connect: Using Ohms To Enhance Access To Oral History, Douglas A. Boyd

Library Faculty and Staff Publications

No abstract provided.

Accommodating Individuals With Autism Spectrum Disorder In Museums, William S. Tyler

History Theses

The purpose of this thesis is to examine the question of how current museum access programs meet the needs of individuals with Autism Spectrum disorder (ASD). ASD is an umbrella classification that presents many challenges for individuals in terms of social development and academic growth. It is important that all individuals are given the opportunity to experience the museum setting to their full ability. With this population of individuals at the forefront, an analysis will be done to examine what needs are present and how museum programming serves them. There are a variety of strategies and accommodations that museums can …

Ethics Of Access In Displaced Archives, Samantha R. Winn

Provenance, Journal of the Society of Georgia Archivists

This paper presents an exploratory review of archival literature on access to displaced archives. In order to understand the ethical imperatives that govern access to displaced archives, archivists must navigate a complex web of competing moral claims, contradictory legal frameworks, shifting national security norms, and customary practices that reflect centuries of colonization, occupation, and conquest. In the absence of either rigorous professional engagement or a clear ethical framework, institutions managing displaced archives may establish policies that unnecessarily restrict access, violate the values of the creators, privilege certain groups of users over others, or inflict harm upon members of the originating …

Privacy, Restriction, And Access: Legal And Ethical Dilemmas, Camila Z. Tessler

School of Information Student Research Journal

This paper examines the intersection of privacy and access in archival repositories. Archival repositories are well known for containing restricted material, and for protecting the privacy of the donors. This literature review examines the need for restricted material from both legal and ethical standpoints, as well as discussing culturally sensitive materials while determining what archives and libraries can do to protect both themselves and their donors while enhancing accessibility and freedom of information.

From Accession To Access: A Born-Digital Materials Case Study, Cyndi Shein

Journal of Western Archives

Between 2011 and 2013 the Getty Institutional Records and Archives made its first foray into the comprehensive ingest, arrangement, description, and delivery of unique born-digital material when it received oral history interviews generated by some of the Pacific Standard Time: Art in L.A. project partners. This case study touches upon the challenges and affordances inherent to this hybrid collection of audiovisual recordings, digital mixed-media files, and analog transcripts. It describes the Archives’ efforts to develop a basic processing workflow that applies the resource-management strategy commonly known as “MPLP” in a digital environment, while striving to safeguard the integrity and authenticity …