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Archival Science Commons

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Full-Text Articles in Archival Science

Perspectives And Practices: Archival Processing Metrics Survey Findings, Cyndi Shein, Sarah R. Jones, Tammi Kim, Karla Irwin Oct 2020

Perspectives And Practices: Archival Processing Metrics Survey Findings, Cyndi Shein, Sarah R. Jones, Tammi Kim, Karla Irwin

Journal of Contemporary Archival Studies

Professional literature and case studies demonstrate that processing metrics are valuable in advocating for resources, informing priorities, supporting grant proposals, and predicting costs for collection storage and care. This article analyzes responses to an archival processing metrics survey that gathered perspectives and practices from archivists working in a variety of repository types. The findings describe how archivists collect processing metrics in different ways, what data points they view as essential, and how they use certain data points to serve specific purposes. The findings indicate that although most respondents acknowledge the value of processing metrics, the majority of them still do …


Teaching Undergraduates With Primary Sources 2020 Research Study Report, Jay-Marie Bravent, Deirdre Scaggs, Matthew Strandmark, Danielle Gabbard Sep 2020

Teaching Undergraduates With Primary Sources 2020 Research Study Report, Jay-Marie Bravent, Deirdre Scaggs, Matthew Strandmark, Danielle Gabbard

Library Reports and White Papers

This report presents the findings of an exploratory examination of the pedagogical practices of social sciences and humanities instructors who teach undergraduates with primary sources at the University of Kentucky (UK). Conducted in December 2019 and January 2020 by a research team from the University of Kentucky Libraries Special Collections Research Center, the study reveals areas of success within existing programs and services, the benefits and drawbacks of teaching with digitized primary sources, as well as inherent pedagogical challenges to overcome. A list of recommendations based on the findings seeks to address these challenges and concludes the report. As part …


Born-Digital Preservation: The Art Of Archiving Photos With Script And Batch Processing, Rachel S. Evans, Leslie Grove, Sharon Bradley Jul 2020

Born-Digital Preservation: The Art Of Archiving Photos With Script And Batch Processing, Rachel S. Evans, Leslie Grove, Sharon Bradley

Articles, Chapters and Online Publications

With our IT department preparing to upgrade the University of Georgia’s Alexander Campbell King Law Library (UGA Law Library) website from Drupal 7 to 8 this fall, a web developer, an archivist, and a librarian teamed up a year ago to make plans for preserving thousands of born-digital images. We wanted to harvest photographs housed only in web-based photo galleries on the law school website and import them into our repository’s collection. The problem? There were five types of online photo galleries, and our current repository did not include appropriate categories for all of the photographs. The solution? Expand our …


Institutional Repository And Archives Partnerships And Futures, Elizabeth James, Lindsey M. Harper, Lori Thompson, Gretchen R. Beach Jul 2020

Institutional Repository And Archives Partnerships And Futures, Elizabeth James, Lindsey M. Harper, Lori Thompson, Gretchen R. Beach

Librarian Research

A reality of dwindling resources in archives, as well as in higher education more broadly, is that the ability to purchase and maintain a specialized archives management and content management software is often out of reach. For Marshall University Special Collections, the solution to make finding aids and other digital archival materials accessible online required evaluating software already available at the university. Marshall Digital Scholar (MDS), an instance of the bepress institutional repository software, was chosen for its immediate availability, robust discovery services within the repository and through outside search engines, statistic tracking capability, metadata flexibility, support for multiple file …


Return To Work Planning: Covid-19 Re-Opening And The Uncertain "New Normal", Jay-Marie Bravent Jun 2020

Return To Work Planning: Covid-19 Re-Opening And The Uncertain "New Normal", Jay-Marie Bravent

Library Presentations

Jay-Marie Bravent discusses the University of Kentucky Libraries Special Collections Research Center's plans for fall instruction and public services.


Kicking & Streaming! Enhancing Digitally-Born Oral History Collections In Digital Commons, Autumn Johnson May 2020

Kicking & Streaming! Enhancing Digitally-Born Oral History Collections In Digital Commons, Autumn Johnson

Digital Commons Southeastern User Group 2020

Oral history collections pose unique challenges for archival institutions. Making these important histories available to researchers is often impeded by complex issues of access, privacy rights, and media obsolescence. These challenges are magnified when histories are digitally-born. Not only do they face the same issues as their analog counterparts, but digital materials have their own unique preservation and access issues with which archivists are still struggling to identify best practices. Digital Commons offers archivists a platform for sharing digitally-born oral histories that mitigate many of these complex issues. Not only does the platform allow for the consolidation of files from …


Treasures In Special Collections At Wcu, Christopher Borroughs Apr 2020

Treasures In Special Collections At Wcu, Christopher Borroughs

English Student Work

The Special Collections Department at West Chester houses an impressive array of children’s literature, though this collection has largely remained untapped and unstudied. However, I have identified many significant holdings upon the shelves, such as Newbery and Caldecott-winning titles, esteemed children’s classics, and other notable works by local authors and illustrators. My presentation will propose several potential research topics for scholarly investigation within the collection, such as studying the history of illustration through our Wind in the Willows collection, observing how depictions of race have progressed over time, and conducting gender and other theoretical studies. I also propose methods to …


Polaroids From Heaven: Experiential Learning With Special Collections, Jillian M. Ewalt Apr 2020

Polaroids From Heaven: Experiential Learning With Special Collections, Jillian M. Ewalt

Marian Library Faculty Presentations

This presentation covers an experiential learning collaboration between the Marian Library and the course Alternative Photography at the University of Dayton. Instructors developed a series of hands-on sessions in which students interacted with the Marian Apparitions photograph collection to inform the image-making process.


Balancing The Art And Science Of Archival Processing Metrics And Assessment, Cyndi Shein, Sarah R. Jones, Tammi Kim, Karla Irwin Mar 2020

Balancing The Art And Science Of Archival Processing Metrics And Assessment, Cyndi Shein, Sarah R. Jones, Tammi Kim, Karla Irwin

Journal of Western Archives

At the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) University Libraries, archival processing metrics are used to support value propositions, project proposals, project management, and strategic planning. When making data-driven decisions, UNLV Special Collections Technical Services staff strive to balance the art and science of archival processing metrics—to critically assess their data and look beyond the numbers for additional information that brings meaning to the metrics. In this research paper, the authors review processing metrics across the profession and place their own archival processing field data within the context of more than three decades of professional practice. They report and explore …


On-The-Job Information Literacy: A Case Study Of Student Employees At Purdue University Archives And Special Collections, Tracy Grimm, Neal Harmeyer Feb 2020

On-The-Job Information Literacy: A Case Study Of Student Employees At Purdue University Archives And Special Collections, Tracy Grimm, Neal Harmeyer

Libraries Faculty and Staff Scholarship and Research

This chapter presents Purdue Archives and Special Collections as a case study in growing an organizational culture committed to teaching information literacy parallel to classroom learning through student worker experiential learning. While student employment or internships may not traditionally be considered co-curricular activities, Purdue University Archives and Special Collections provides an environment not only for students to gain pre-professional experience but also expertise, confidence, and competence in information; for many students, this preparation has resulted in careers in museums, archives, libraries, and cultural heritage institutions. The result is a new approach to student employment: one designed to establish an environment …