Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Articles 1 - 30 of 148

Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

Stewardship And Sustainability: Applying The Tcos Framework To Reappraisal, Karen Glenn, John Murphy, Cory L. Nimer, Dainan M. Skeem May 2024

Stewardship And Sustainability: Applying The Tcos Framework To Reappraisal, Karen Glenn, John Murphy, Cory L. Nimer, Dainan M. Skeem

Journal of Western Archives

This article reports on a Brigham Young University Library Special Collections reappraisal pilot project based upon OCLC's Total Cost of Stewardship (TCOS) framework. The case study considers how reappraisal activities align with TCOS principles, and its use in reviewing faculty papers. The pilot measured reappraisal and reprocessing costs for a small sample of papers of university administrators, and identified all other collections of faculty, staff, and administrators for reappraisal in both university archives records and manuscripts collections. Findings identified through the pilot will inform a larger reappraisal project in Special Collections to refine appraisal and processing work and reclaim repository …


A New Generation Of Collecting Priorities: Case Studies From The Northwest, Jodi Allison-Bunnell, Linda Long, Trevor J. Bond, Chloe Nielsen, Amy Valentine May 2024

A New Generation Of Collecting Priorities: Case Studies From The Northwest, Jodi Allison-Bunnell, Linda Long, Trevor J. Bond, Chloe Nielsen, Amy Valentine

Journal of Western Archives

The last twenty-five years have brought lively, important, and difficult discussions around heritage collections. We are called to broaden our collecting activities to be more inclusive of (among many things) all races, classes, and experiences. We have begun to move away from the troubled legacy of taking collections away from creators and toward empowering those same creators to steward their heritage. We confront a vast universe of current holdings and possible collections and have few models for assessing the opportunities. We also operate with some firm limitations on our budgets, personnel, and space that we have outdistanced with our collecting. …


Beyond Efficiency: An Impact Assessment Of The Uc Guidelines For Efficient Processing, Laurel Mcphee, Kate Dundon, Courtney Dean, Elvia Arroyo-Ramírez, Audra Eagle Yun May 2024

Beyond Efficiency: An Impact Assessment Of The Uc Guidelines For Efficient Processing, Laurel Mcphee, Kate Dundon, Courtney Dean, Elvia Arroyo-Ramírez, Audra Eagle Yun

Journal of Western Archives

The Guidelines for Efficient Archival Processing in the University of California Libraries established shared principles and recommendations for increased processing efficiency in archives and special collections in the UC system. Since its publication in 2012, the Guidelines has become an influential resource for archival workflows nationwide. In this paper, the authors evaluate the Guidelines' impact over time on backlogs, collection management policy, and day-to-day archival practices across the UC libraries by assessing collections, processing practices, and staffing levels.


Secondary Processing At Utah State University Archives, Kelly Rovegno, Heather Housley, Paul Daybell May 2024

Secondary Processing At Utah State University Archives, Kelly Rovegno, Heather Housley, Paul Daybell

Journal of Western Archives

In 2018, Utah State University Special Collections and Archives undertook a Remediation Project to create finding aids and library catalog records for all its holdings, including University Archives. During this project, additional issues were found with the arrangement, description, and preservation of University Archives. A new workflow, called secondary processing, grew out of efforts to address such issues while completing the original goals of the Remediation Project. This article examines how secondary processing was used at Utah State University and the challenges and opportunities uncovered as work progressed. It also discusses how secondary processing was used to improve discoverability and …


Introduction To “Collection Stewardship In The Age Of Finite Resources”: A Special Issue For Journal Of Western Archives, Ryan K. Lee May 2024

Introduction To “Collection Stewardship In The Age Of Finite Resources”: A Special Issue For Journal Of Western Archives, Ryan K. Lee

Journal of Western Archives

Introduction to the special issue on collection stewardship in the age of finite resources.


Documenting Wonderland: Conducting A Collection Survey To Inform Collecting Policies, Sara Pettinger, Anne L. Foster Apr 2024

Documenting Wonderland: Conducting A Collection Survey To Inform Collecting Policies, Sara Pettinger, Anne L. Foster

Journal of Western Archives

Collection surveys and collecting policies have become standard for effective archival collection management. But in recent years, surveys have most often been used to establish processing and preservation priorities and collecting policies are often considered static documents that, once established, change little as the collections grow. The Yellowstone National Park Archives, with a mandate to update its collecting policy and limited space and resources, developed a project to survey its collections in order to inform an updated policy. With a more granular focus on analyzing collections than previous surveys have undertaken, this case study focused on defining success and fulfillment …


Leveraging The Protocols For Native American Archival Materials To Support Indigenous Digital Collections: A Case Study From The Sherman Indian Museum Digital Project, Eric L. Milenkiewicz Apr 2024

Leveraging The Protocols For Native American Archival Materials To Support Indigenous Digital Collections: A Case Study From The Sherman Indian Museum Digital Project, Eric L. Milenkiewicz

Journal of Western Archives

The Sherman Indian Museum houses a rich collection of archival materials that document the student experience, institutional culture, and community history of California’s sole remaining off-reservation American Indian boarding school. To broaden access to its collection for community and scholarly use, the museum partnered with the University of California, Riverside Library on a grant-funded project to digitize and provide online access to nearly 14,000 items from their collection. With a shared understanding of the unique ethical and communal protocols present in a digital project of this scope, the two repositories turned toward the standards and goals articulated in Protocols for …


Review Of Decolonial Archival Futures, Rachel A. Ernst Feb 2024

Review Of Decolonial Archival Futures, Rachel A. Ernst

Journal of Western Archives

Review of Decolonial Archival Futures by Krista McCracken and Skylee-Storm Hogan-Stacey.


Creation Of A Southwestern Authors Archive: Revisiting The Laverne Harrell Clark Collection Ten Years Later, Erin R. Wahl, Pamela Pierce, Wendy Burk, Julie Swarstad Johnson, Sarah Kortemeier Feb 2024

Creation Of A Southwestern Authors Archive: Revisiting The Laverne Harrell Clark Collection Ten Years Later, Erin R. Wahl, Pamela Pierce, Wendy Burk, Julie Swarstad Johnson, Sarah Kortemeier

Journal of Western Archives

This article details the processing of the LaVerne Harrell Clark Photographic Collection by University of Arizona Poetry Center librarians, archivists, and interns, and the current status and next steps of the collection. The LaVerne Harrell Clark Photographic Collection, which contains thousands of portraits and candids of poets taken circa 1960-2000 by LaVerne Harrell Clark, the Poetry Center’s first director, is deeply entwined with the Poetry Center’s institutional identity. In addition, the authors explored ways in which the collection and the institution as a whole are positioned as uniquely Western and also of national significance. Those processing the collection became interested …


Reaping The Harvest: Developing The Idaho Harvester, Robert Perret, Michelle Shannon, Amy Thompson, Courtney Berge, Devin Becker Sep 2023

Reaping The Harvest: Developing The Idaho Harvester, Robert Perret, Michelle Shannon, Amy Thompson, Courtney Berge, Devin Becker

Journal of Western Archives

Social media platforms like Tumblr offer a quick, easy, and popular way for archives to conduct outreach and engage users with collections without requiring technical expertise like computer programming and web design. However, as the University of Idaho Library, Special Collections and Archives Department discovered after years of using Tumblr for online outreach, there are significant disadvantages to using a third-party social media platform. Unable to control the discoverability, display, and preservation of blog posts, it became clear that Tumblr was no longer serving the department’s evolving needs, necessitating an alternative solution moving forward. Special Collections & Archives partnered with …


Making Hay While The Sun Shines: Answering The Urgency In Audiovisual Preservation, Benjamin Harry Sep 2023

Making Hay While The Sun Shines: Answering The Urgency In Audiovisual Preservation, Benjamin Harry

Journal of Western Archives

Many twentieth-century audiovisual formats are becoming obsolete and/or the physical carriers are deteriorating, warranting the need to digitize this content as soon as possible. Balancing efficiency and urgency with digitization and digital storage resources is a challenging endeavor. This article documents the efforts of the L. Tom Perry Special Collections (LTPSC) at Brigham Young University to begin a systematic effort to digitize audiovisual content found in manuscript collections.


Mrs. His Name: Reparative Description As A Tool For Cultural Sensitivity And Discoverability, Elspeth A. Olson Aug 2023

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 …


Assessing Finding Aid Discoverability After Description Improvements Using Web Analytics, Ashlyn Velte May 2023

Assessing Finding Aid Discoverability After Description Improvements Using Web Analytics, Ashlyn Velte

Journal of Western Archives

Archivists use best practices, like More Product Less Process, and professional standards, like Describing Archives: A Content Standard, to create descriptions of archival collections that promote collection use and discoverability. However, most existing usability literature assessing online finding aids looks at navigability and ease of use, but does not examine increase in traffic and discoverability of those finding aids. University of Colorado Boulder Archives improved online finding aid descriptions on ArchivesSpace during 2020. Google Analytics data from 2020 and 2021 show an increase in users and sessions on ArchivesSpace. It also indicates that most users arrive to the site from …


Defining And Interrogating The Collection File In Archival Collection Management, Audra Eagle Yun Apr 2023

Defining And Interrogating The Collection File In Archival Collection Management, Audra Eagle Yun

Journal of Western Archives

What is a collection file, anyway? This work-in-progress summarizes the results of a sample survey of archivists to better understand the purpose, function, and contents of collection files, how archivists learn to create collection files, and their potential for public access and use. From these results, we can extrapolate a preliminary definition of the collection file, as well as the potential for future study and critical analysis of the practical elements of collection file work, especially in relation to archival accessioning, deaccessioning, and repatriation.


Review Of Museum Archives: Practice, Issues, Advocacy, Laura J. French Apr 2023

Review Of Museum Archives: Practice, Issues, Advocacy, Laura J. French

Journal of Western Archives

Review of Museum Archives: Practice, Issues, Advocacy.


Review Of Born-Digital Design Records, Nicole Grady Mountjoy Apr 2023

Review Of Born-Digital Design Records, Nicole Grady Mountjoy

Journal of Western Archives

Book review of Born-Digital Design Records part of the Trends in Archives Practice series by the Society of American Archivists.


Review Of Managing Business Archives, Erin M. Louthen Apr 2023

Review Of Managing Business Archives, Erin M. Louthen

Journal of Western Archives

Business archivists need to be flexible, adaptable, and creative so that they can easily pivots to meet their companies' changing priorities and needs. With insightful examples and practical discussions, Managing Business Archives provides direction for archivists making decisions in a dynamic business climate, as well as archivists in all fields.


Candles Burning At Both Ends: Experiences Of Dual-Role Archivist/Librarians, Robert Perret Apr 2023

Candles Burning At Both Ends: Experiences Of Dual-Role Archivist/Librarians, Robert Perret

Journal of Western Archives

Workers with both archivist and librarian responsibilities were surveyed to examine their experience of this dual role. Their self-identity, training, responsibilities, and place of work are explored, as well as their feeling of being prepared for a dual role. This study finds that while the preponderance of respondents feel prepared, more than half regularly engage in more than 40 job activities spanning both archives and libraries. The diversity of responsibilities, combined with the tension between two distinct professions, places significant strain on those in a dual role. At the same time, respondents felt isolated and underappreciated, and expressed feelings of …


Neon In Nevada: A Case Study In Statewide Collaboration, Amy J. Hunsaker, Cory Lampert, Teresa Auch Schultz Apr 2023

Neon In Nevada: A Case Study In Statewide Collaboration, Amy J. Hunsaker, Cory Lampert, Teresa Auch Schultz

Journal of Western Archives

Neon signs in Nevada capture the spirit of glitzy gambling meccas, boom and bust towns, and frontier settlements that dot the vast geography of this unique state. However, many iconic and hidden signs are in constant danger of disappearing as populations shift and the elements naturally break down the physical aspects of the signs. In addition, neon signs in Reno and remote, Northern Nevada locales have remained relatively undiscovered. UNLV has had a long history of documenting the art of neon and has partnered with the Neon Museum in Las Vegas to preserve this rapidly disappearing cultural heritage. Digital Humanities …


Review Of Metadata For Digital Collections: A How-To-Do-It Manual, Elyse Fox Jan 2023

Review Of Metadata For Digital Collections: A How-To-Do-It Manual, Elyse Fox

Journal of Western Archives

Review of Metadata for Digital Collections: A How-To-Do-It Manual, Second Edition by Steven Jack Miller.


Getting To Know Digital Collections Users, Emily Lapworth Jan 2023

Getting To Know Digital Collections Users, Emily Lapworth

Journal of Western Archives

Use and user studies can provide valuable information to archivists and librarians who wish to improve their services and systems. However, studying the use and users of digital archival collections can be challenging. This study describes the methods and findings of a study conducted by the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) to explore questions such as, who is using UNLV Digital Collections? How are they using the materials? What are their user interface preferences? Are they satisfied? The methods used include web analytics, an online survey, and interviews. The author shares lessons learned to aid other repositories in designing …


Cycles Of Learning And Growth: Developing The Tribal Digital Stewardship Cohort Program Guided By Indigenous Perspectives, Lotus Norton-Wisla Nov 2022

Cycles Of Learning And Growth: Developing The Tribal Digital Stewardship Cohort Program Guided By Indigenous Perspectives, Lotus Norton-Wisla

Journal of Western Archives

This article provides lessons learned through four cycles of the Tribal Digital Stewardship Cohort Program at Washington State University’s Center for Digital Scholarship and Curation. The author coordinated the hybrid online and in-person training program from 2015-2020, focused on the unique needs of staff at Indigenous archives, libraries, and museums at the beginning of digital projects with unique access considerations. The learning and professional growth of program staff was informed by the participants in the program, whose words and work are highlighted in the article. The author reflects on the program design, curricular outcomes, site visits, building relationships and peer …


Review Of Making Your Tools Work For You: Building And Maintaining An Integrated Technical Ecosystem For Digital Archives And Libraries, Lindsey Memory Oct 2022

Review Of Making Your Tools Work For You: Building And Maintaining An Integrated Technical Ecosystem For Digital Archives And Libraries, Lindsey Memory

Journal of Western Archives

Review of Making Your Tools Work for You: Building and Maintaining an Integrated Technical Ecosystem for Digital Archives and Libraries.


"To Keep The Church Record And History": The Evolution Of The Church Historian's Office, Cory L. Nimer Jul 2022

"To Keep The Church Record And History": The Evolution Of The Church Historian's Office, Cory L. Nimer

Journal of Western Archives

Authors looking at the development of the field of Mormon history have often evaluated it in terms of historiography—as its progression from the domain of amateurs to the output of academics. However, studies of the composition and development of the larger history profession have focused on the discipline's fragmentation and the formation of an "archival divide" between those that write history and those collecting and preserving its sources. This latter approach provides a useful framework for understanding the evolution of the Church Historian's Office of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, from its origins in 1831 to its …


Review Of Archival Virtue: Relationship, Obligation, And The Just Archives, J. Gordon Daines Iii Jul 2022

Review Of Archival Virtue: Relationship, Obligation, And The Just Archives, J. Gordon Daines Iii

Journal of Western Archives

Review of Archival Virtue: Relationship, Obligation, and the Just Archives by Scott Cline.


Documenting A Move Using Archival Description: Tools For Bridging The Gaps Between Physical And Intellectual Control, Bolton Doub Jul 2022

Documenting A Move Using Archival Description: Tools For Bridging The Gaps Between Physical And Intellectual Control, Bolton Doub

Journal of Western Archives

Following the move of approximately 40,000 linear feet of archival material between offsite storage facilities, the University of Southern California (USC) Libraries began a project to document these holdings’ new locations using ArchivesSpace. This case study explores a combination of tools--including the ArchivesSpace API, Python scripts, OpenRefine, and spreadsheet applications--that the USC Libraries used to batch-edit and create container data in ArchivesSpace following the move. The paper discusses the challenges and shortcomings of these tools for editing particular forms of legacy data entered into USC’s instance of ArchivesSpace long before the move. When the creators of this past description prioritized …


Review Of “All Shook Up”: The Archival Legacy Of Terry Cook, Grant G. Mandarino Jul 2022

Review Of “All Shook Up”: The Archival Legacy Of Terry Cook, Grant G. Mandarino

Journal of Western Archives

Review of “All Shook Up”: The Archival Legacy of Terry Cook.


Land Acknowledgments At Land-Grant Libraries And Archives: A Systematic Review, Kimberly Anderson May 2022

Land Acknowledgments At Land-Grant Libraries And Archives: A Systematic Review, Kimberly Anderson

Journal of Western Archives

Increasingly, land-grant universities are acknowledging their history of benefitting from colonization and the dispossession of Indigenous communities through the Morrill Act of 1862. This study looks at whether academic libraries and archives acknowledge this history in the form of online land acknowledgments; and, where such acknowledgements exist, whether the university also acknowledges its occupation of Indigenous lands. A systematic review of the websites of land-grant colleges and universities and their libraries and archives was conducted. The results indicate that a majority of 1862 land-grant colleges and universities do have a land acknowledgment for the entire campus, but most academic libraries …


Review Of Reference And Access For Archives And Manuscripts, Cindy Brightenburg May 2022

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.


To The Moon And Mars And Back To The Archives: Working With Modern Space Collections At The University Of Arizona Libraries, Molly Stothert-Maurer, Lisa E. Duncan May 2022

To The Moon And Mars And Back To The Archives: Working With Modern Space Collections At The University Of Arizona Libraries, Molly Stothert-Maurer, Lisa E. Duncan

Journal of Western Archives

With a long history at the University of Arizona with excellence in the lunar and planetary sciences, the University of Arizona Libraries Special Collections has increased its collecting of the History of Science and Technology. These large, modern space collections pose unique challenges and require specific needs to be addressed in order for the collections to be stored, processed and made available for access. It is essential for archivists working with these collections to ask their donors the right questions and learn the limitations and restrictions that often come with acquiring modern space collections. Archives around the country have started …