Archival Science Commons^™

Chain Of Custody: Access And Control Of State Archival Records In Public-Private Partnerships, Sarah E. Carlson

Provenance, Journal of the Society of Georgia Archivists

As I write this, Ancestry.com is a central party in a lawsuit with the organization Reclaim The Records, citing that it, a private corporation, received preferential priority and access to public records before individual patrons of the public in Freedom of Information requests for genealogical records.^[i] Concern that public records may move into private hands demarcates an increasingly digital realm of record-keeping and public history. As companies and the public jockey for access to records in a race for access – one open and the other annexed behind a paywall – the blatant corruption is alarming. Yet, public records …

Using Captions And Controlled Vocabulary To Describe Visual Materials As An Alternative To Digitization, Eric Willey

Provenance, Journal of the Society of Georgia Archivists

This article describes an Illinois State University Research Grant funded project which created newspaper style captions and controlled vocabulary terms for visual materials. These materials were not intended to be digitized, and a guide separate from the finding was created including that metadata to improve access. The collection described consisted of materials donated by Lois Lenski, who donated her collection to institutions across the United States. Student workers were hired with grant funds to provide the metadata, and difficulties, successes, and outcomes encountered during the project are described..^[1]

^[1] Eric Willey, et al. “Guide to the Graphic, Scrapbook, and …

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Provenance, Journal of the Society of Georgia Archivists

Front Matter

Book Reviews, Joshua Kitchens, Erin Lawrimore, Pamela Nye, Cheryl Oestreicher, Martin T. Olliff, Amanda Pellerin, Kay Strahan

Provenance, Journal of the Society of Georgia Archivists

Book Reviews

News - Digital Library Of Georgia, Mandy L. Mastrovita

Georgia Library Quarterly

News from the Digital Library of Georgia from February-April 2020

Editor's Note

Provenance, Journal of the Society of Georgia Archivists

Editor's Note

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 …

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Provenance, Journal of the Society of Georgia Archivists

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A Circulation Worker Visits Special Collections, Anne Kristen Hunter

Georgia Library Quarterly

In spring 2019, I started an internship in the Special Collections department in Ingram Library at the University of West Georgia. I worked with Dr. Michael Camp, and learned the basics of archival processing while working with two collections of documents donated by Congressman Mac Collins (R-GA, 1993-2005). When I started the internship, I had already worked for more than a year in the Circulation department at Ingram. The internship was, for me, a bit of professional cross-training, as well as a requirement for the post-baccalaureate Certificate in Museum Studies offered by the Public History program within UWG’s History department. …

The Friendly Orange Glow: The Untold Story Of The Rise Of Cyberculture, Alissa M. Helms

Faculty Articles

Book review of The Friendly Orange Glow: The Untold Story of the Rise of Cyberculture by Brian Dear.

Trust Matters, Anne J. Gilliland

Provenance, Journal of the Society of Georgia Archivists

This paper was first presented as a keynote at the Society of Georgia Archivists' Annual Meeting, November 3, 2017.

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Provenance, Journal of the Society of Georgia Archivists

Editorial Board and Table of Contents

Re-Conceptualizing Oral Culture Collections And Archival Practices, Amy L. Catania

Provenance, Journal of the Society of Georgia Archivists

Western ethnographers, archaeologists, and researchers have collected information on indigenous cultures for centuries, but often without the input or permission of those cultures. This creates a situation in which indigenous peoples are essentially colonized anew. Recent trends in academia, including archival studies, have sought to decolonize research. This article explores past and present methods of the collection and preservation of oral histories from indigenous persons in both the United States and Australia in order to seek the best practice(s) for such endeavors. The author argues that indigenous groups need to be consulted when collecting stories and considering access to potentially …

Mplp Ten Years Later: The Adventure Of Being Among The First, Janet Hauck, Rose Sliger Krause, Kyna Herzinger

Provenance, Journal of the Society of Georgia Archivists

The Northwest Archival Processing Initiative (NWAPI) was the first consortium to implement Greene and Meissner’s “More Product, Less Process,” and its member institutions were among the earliest to adopt MPLP methods. Now, ten years after the close of this NHPRC-funded initiative, MPLP is a widely-recognized methodology that has been applied to many collections, but MPLP has also influenced archival functions other than processing. This article revisits the original eight NWAPI consortium participants to explore how successfully archivists that were trained in MPLP were able to institutionalize its processing methods over the last ten years, and how MPLP affected other areas …

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Provenance, Journal of the Society of Georgia Archivists

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If You Describe It, They Will Come: Processing Guidelines For Audiovisual Materials At The Rose Library, Laura Starratt

Provenance, Journal of the Society of Georgia Archivists

Audiovisual materials can be overlooked by researchers due to their more complicated access issues, but archivists can facilitate their use by creating more granular finding aids that incorporate audiovisual materials by content rather than format. Using the procedures at Emory University's Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library as a case study, the author argues for a professional culture in which collections are not viewed as “finished” until all components are accessible.

Book Reviews, James L. Baggett, Mary Jo Fairchild, Ian Franklin, Esther-Julia Howell, Pamela Nye, Sarah Quigley, Laura Starratt

Provenance, Journal of the Society of Georgia Archivists

Creating a Local History Archive at Your Public Library. Faye Phillips.

Paper Cadavers: The Archives of Dictatorship in Guatemala. Kirsten Weld.

The Silence of the Archives. David Thomas, Simon Fowler, and Valerie Johnson.

The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu and Their Race to Save the World's Most Precious Manuscripts. Joshua Hammer.

The International Business Archives Handbook: Understanding and Managing the Historical Records of Business. Edited by Alison Turton.

Putting Descriptive Standards to Work. Edited by Kris Kiesling and Christopher J. Prom.

Moving Image and Sound Collections for Archivists. Anthony Cocciolo.

“No Rhyme Or Reason:” Surveying Legislative Records Retention Practices In The U.S. House Of Representatives, Nahali R. Croft

Provenance, Journal of the Society of Georgia Archivists

Because the records of individual Members of the House of Representatives are considered personal property, what happens to those records once a Member leaves office is up to him or her. Legislative records, particularly files and reports used to develop policy and draft bills, have historical value and are one of the types of files most used in current Congressional collections, as they point toward legislative intent. The House Records Management Manual for Members suggests that offices permanently maintain these types of files. This study reveals to what extent House offices are preserving records that provide future researchers with legislative …

The Library Of Virginia, Local Records, And The Civil War, Eddie Woodward

Provenance, Journal of the Society of Georgia Archivists

Virginia’s city and county court records are not only the resources used to write and interpret history, but they have a history in and of themselves--if they survived. Unfortunately, because of records' legal and administrative importance, they are prime targets during a war; destroying these materials not only erases history, but can also cause a great amount of disruption, confusion, and anxiety among residents. This was the case in 1861, after Virginia seceded from the Union and its state capital also became the national capital of the Confederate States of America. As the courthouses were seen as the head or …

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Provenance, Journal of the Society of Georgia Archivists

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Book Reviews, Tommy Brown, Amanda Hawk, Joshua Kitchens, Muriel M. Jackson, Shanee’ Yvette Murrain

Provenance, Journal of the Society of Georgia Archivists

A History of Archival Practice. Paul Delsalle. Translated and revised by Margaret Procter.

Archival Arrangement and Description: Analog to Digital. Lois Hamill.

Participatory Heritage. Andrea Copeland and Henriette Roued-Cunliffe.

Managing Local Government Archives. John H. Slate and Kaye Lanning Minchew.

Archiving Websites: A Practical Guide for Information Management Professionals. Adrian Brown.

Front Matter, Heather Oswald

Provenance, Journal of the Society of Georgia Archivists

Front Matter

Recovering From Hurricane Sandy: A Municipal Government Archives Role In Disaster Recovery, Bryan J. Dickerson

Provenance, Journal of the Society of Georgia Archivists

On October 29, 2012, Hurricane Sandy struck New Jersey with catastrophic results for many communities, including Brick Township. Located on the Atlantic Coast, Brick Township suffered damage to approximately 10,000 of its 26,000 residences from the hurricane. Nearly 500 of these homes were destroyed or required demolition afterwards. Since then, the Township of Brick Archives has been using its digitized Construction and Land Use records to support the community’s recovery from this devastating storm. When the Township implemented document digitization in 2006, disaster recovery was not its intended purpose. However, having these digitized records readily available has proven to be …

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 …

Eating In The Archives? A Review Of Archival Outreach And Engagement Through Food History, Kara Flynn

Provenance, Journal of the Society of Georgia Archivists

For decades now, archivists have been working to make archival spaces more approachable and accessible, especially through archival outreach endeavors. Utilizing food history as archival outreach is a growing trend among archival institutions, as evidenced by the increasing numbers of events, exhibits, and online resources being offered. Food history provides the opportunity to build archival outreach and engagement opportunities by utilizing materials often already in archival collections. These materials open up dialogue and engagement with community members about something they are familiar with, even if they have never stepped foot in the archives. This article will review archival outreach events, …

"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 …

A Shared Space: The Collaborative Alliance Between The College Of Charleston Special Collections And The South Carolina Historical Society Archives, Mary Jo Fairchild, Molly Inabinett, Joshua Minor

Provenance, Journal of the Society of Georgia Archivists

In December 2014, the South Carolina Historical Society relocated nearly 5,000 linear feet of manuscript material and more than 3,000 rare books and monographs to a shared space within the Special Collections department at the College of Charleston’s Addlestone Library. Exploration of the antecedents and evolution of this partnership between a private non-profit manuscript archive and a public academic repository can demonstrate lessons learned from the process of condensing archival spaces and personnel to create a deeply rich repository for research and inquiry. In the absence of a formula or analytical framework for the envisioned collaboration, stakeholders at each institution …

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Provenance, Journal of the Society of Georgia Archivists

Front Matter

Editor's Note, Heather Oswald

Provenance, Journal of the Society of Georgia Archivists

Editor's Note

Books Reviews, Katy Sternberger, Brandon Wason, Donnie Summerlin, Joshua Minor, Amanda Pellerin, Erin Lawrimore, Anne Graham

Provenance, Journal of the Society of Georgia Archivists

Peer reviews of:

• Becoming a Trusted Digital Repository, by Steve Marks
• Digital Preservation Essentials, by Erin O'Meara and Kate Stratton, edited by Christopher J. Prom
• Teaching with Primary Sources, edited by Christopher J. Prom and Lisa Janicke Hinchliffe
• Donors and Archives: A Guidebook for Successful Programs, by Aaron D. Purcell
• Archives in Libraries: What Librarians and Archivists Need to Know to Work Together, by Jeanette A. Bastian, Megan Sniffin-Marinoff, and Donna Webber
• Adjusted Margin: Xerography, Art, and Activism in the Late Twentieth Century, by Kate Eichhorn
• Conceptualizing 21st-Century Archives, by Anne J. Gilliland …