Archival Science Commons^™

When Building Namesakes Have Ties To White Supremacy: A Case Study Of Oregon State University’S Building Names Evaluation Process, Natalia M. Fernández

Journal of Western Archives

In recent years, more and more communities, including colleges and universities, across the United States are challenging the existence of memorials associated with the Confederacy and white supremacy. Archivists and special collections librarians are often called upon to provide historical context, and have the opportunity to engage their communities in productive and transformative discourses. As a case study, readers will learn about the Building and Places Names Evaluation process at Oregon State University; the process which included developing evaluation criteria, providing historical research assistance to scholars, designing a community engagement plan, and implementing a renaming process. Readers will be able …

The Doorway From Heart To Heart: Diversity's Stubbornly Persistent Illusion, Terry Baxter

Journal of Western Archives

Archivists have been working to diversify the archival endeavor for 35 years. On the face of things, this work has had limited success. Perhaps archivists should recognize that diversity is already in place and their role is in hiding and revealing that diversity. They should also recognize that their power flows from community and connection, not from control.

Seeking Grace: Reconstructing The History Of African American Alumnae At The University Of Denver, Katherine Crowe

Journal of Western Archives

The University of Denver (DU), a private college founded in 1864–12 years before Colorado became a state–has recently begun to grapple with its complex and sometimes fraught histories with alumni of color. The DU Archives has partnered over the past five years with the Sistah Network, a student group formed by Black women faculty to support Black women graduate students, as its founder, Dr. Nicole Joseph, wished to focus specifically on the history of the University's Black alumnae. Since 2013, the Archives has completed several oral histories with alumnae from the 1960s, and have recovered the names, graduation dates, and …

Archivist-In-Residence: Advocating And Managing Archival Diversity Residency Opportunities In University Archives And Special Collections, Angela Fritz

Journal of Western Archives

This article outlines a basic roadmap for administrators of university archives and special collections who seek to develop an "archivist-in-residence" position for the first time. The article explores how university archives and special collections can apply diversity management best practices to optimize their unit and organizational approach to diversity and inclusion initiatives. Topics encompass advocacy models, defining a culture of mentorship, recruitment, onboarding and training, assessment as well as addressing opportunities for innovation and areas of expansion.

Introduction, Helen Wong Smith

Journal of Western Archives

Introduction to the Special Issue on Diversity and Inclusion.

Describing Digital: The Design And Creation Of A Born-Digital Archival Description Standard At The University Of California Libraries, Annalise Berdini, Charles Macquarie, Shira Peltzman, Kate Tasker

Journal of Western Archives

This case study outlines the process of creating a set of standards to guide description of born-digital archival collections materials in an archival context across the University of California (UC) system. The authors outline the need for such a standard, including the research methodology that helped establish this need, and the procedures by which these new guidelines were created, refined, and accepted across the UC. The paper goes into detail about the processes, considerations, and discussions that went into drafting rules for each descriptive element included in the standards. The authors argue that much of the specific guidance for describing …

Donor Relations In The Twenty-First Century, Dainan M. Skeem

Journal of Western Archives

This article explores the professional literature regarding donor relations and then addresses many issues the author has experienced in working with twenty-first century donors. Since manuscript repositories would not exist without individuals willing to donate their materials, it is vital that curators and archivists establish good relationships with their donors and maintain those relationships throughout their careers since many of them will continue to interact with their materials for decades after the initial gift. However, the twenty-first century has brought with it new challenges regarding donor relations that need to be recognized and addressed.

Review Of Government Information Essentials, Dylan Mace

Journal of Western Archives

Review of Government Information Essentials.

Review Of Putting Descriptive Standards To Work, Caroline Bautista

Journal of Western Archives

Review of Putting Descriptive Standards to Work.

Web Archives For The Analog Archivist: Using Webpages Archived By The Internet Archive To Improve Processing And Description, Aleksandr Gelfand

Journal of Western Archives

Twenty years ago the Internet Archive was founded with the wide-ranging mission of providing universal access to all knowledge. In the two decades since, that organization has captured and made accessible over 150 billion websites. By incorporating the use of Internet Archive's Wayback Machine into their workflows, archivists working primarily with analog records may enhance their ability in such tasks as the construction of a processing plan, the creation of more accurate historical descriptions for finding aids, and potentially be able to provide better reference services to their patrons. This essay will look at some of the ways this may …

Review Of The International Business Archives Handbook: Understanding And Managing The Historical Records Of Business, Meg Tuomala

Journal of Western Archives

Review of The International Business Archives Handbook: Understanding and Managing the Historical Records of Business.

Review Of A History Of Archival Practice, Randall C. Jimerson

Journal of Western Archives

A review of A History of Archival Practice, by Paul Delsalle, translated and revised by Margaret Procter.

Review Of Moving Image And Sound Collections For Archivists, Jeffrey Paul Thompson

Journal of Western Archives

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

Case Studies In Campus And Community Outreach: The Life And Legacy Of The Uss Arizona Exhibit And The 75th Anniversary Of The Bombing Of Pearl Harbor, Trent S. Purdy

Journal of Western Archives

December 7, 2016 marked the 75^th anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and the sinking of the USS Arizona. The University of Arizona Special Collections Library holds a large archive documenting the life of the ship and her crew. To commemorate this anniversary, Special Collections curated an exhibit highlighting materials from the collection and a complete refresh of an existing digital collection that was built in the mid 1990’s.

This case study discusses the unique collaborations and partnerships forged by Special Collections with the University of Arizona Athletics Department, University of Arizona Creatives Service & Brand Management …

Reflections On Digitization, Outreach, And The Value Of Ephemera In Special Collections: A Case Study, Gregory K. Seppi

Journal of Western Archives

This case study describes the process L. Tom Perry Special Collections used to create and promote a digital collection of ephemera on Internet Archive. It follows the process from selection to uploading, discusses how decisions related to digitization were made, and how the collection was promoted following digitization. This paper establishes the value of digitizing ephemera related to topics known to be of interest to patrons and demonstrates one approach to special collections outreach. Data gathered during the creation of this case study demonstrates that even small efforts to promote digital collections can significantly improve usage of niche ephemera collections …

Developing Web Archiving Metadata Best Practices To Meet User Needs, Jackie M. Dooley, Karen Stoll Farrell, Tammi Kim, Jessica Venlet

Journal of Western Archives

The OCLC Research Library Partnership Web Archiving Metadata Working Group was established to meet a widely recognized need for best practices for descriptive metadata for archived websites. The Working Group recognizes that development of successful best practices intended to ensure discoverability requires an understanding of user needs and behavior. We have therefore conducted an extensive literature review to build our knowledge and will issue a white paper summarizing what we have learned. We are also studying existing and emerging approaches to descriptive metadata in this realm and will publish a second report recommending best practices. We will seek broad community …

Collaboration Made It Happen! The Kansas Archive-It Consortium, Cliff Hight, Ashley Todd-Diaz, Rebecca Schulte, Michael Church

Journal of Western Archives

This case study explores the formation, current membership, and future goals of the Kansas Archive-It Consortium (KAIC), one of the larger consortia contracting with the Web archiving service Archive-It. KAIC, which is composed of the state historical society and five public universities, has its foundation in a statewide culture of collaboration, and participants have agreed on an informal governance structure with a strong commitment to broadening accessible web resources for researchers. After establishing consortial consistency during its first two years, members have shared documentation with partners and are beginning to do collaborative collecting. In the future, the consortium will seek …

Using Rss To Improve Web Harvest Results For News Web Sites, Gina M. Jones, Michael Neubert

Journal of Western Archives

In the last several years, the Library of Congress Web archiving program has grown to include large sites that publish news–over more than a year we learned they present serious challenges. After thinking through the use cases for archived online news sites, we realized that completeness of harvest was paramount. As we developed our understanding of deficiencies in the completeness of these kinds of sites we began to test use of RSS feeds to build customized seed lists for shallow crawls as the primary way these sites are crawled. Over time we discovered that while completeness of harvest was greatly …

Case Study: Washington And Lee's First Year Using Archive-It, Alston B. Cobourn

Journal of Western Archives

This case study reviews the planning, methodology, and lessons learned during the first year of Washington and Lee University Library's web archiving program.

Introduction To The Special Issue On Web Archiving, Nicholas Taylor

Journal of Western Archives

This article serves as an introduction to the Journal of Western Archives Special Issue on Web Archiving. It provides a snapshot of and reflections on the state of the field, as well as an overview of the works that constitute the issue.

Review Of Teaching With Primary Sources, J. Gordon Daines Iii

Journal of Western Archives

Review of Teaching with Primary Sources.

21st Century Community Outreach And Collection Development: Asu Chicano/A Research Collection, Nancy L. Godoy-Powell, Elizabeth G. Dunham

Journal of Western Archives

Mexicans and Mexican Americans have resided in Arizona since the early 16th century. Their history, however, is severely under-documented in the state’s archival repositories. As of 2012, this community is represented in a mere 1-2% of the state’s known archival holdings, and 98% of such documentation is held at Arizona State University’s Chicano/a Research Collection (CRC). This article provides a historical review of the CRC’s establishment in 1970 and how its founding Curator, Dr. Christine Marín, transformed a small circulating book collection into Arizona’s largest repository for Mexican American history. It goes on to examine how the CRC’s sitting Archivist …

Out Of The Vault: Developing A Wikipedia Edit-A-Thon To Enhance Public Programming For University Archives And Special Collections, Rose Sliger Krause, James Rosenzweig, Paul Victor Jr.

Journal of Western Archives

Academic libraries are more cognizant of their public program offerings than ever before. How does this shift impact the university archives and special collections? How does this area of the academic library meet the challenge of public programming that engages their users with their core missions? At Eastern Washington University (EWU), a regional comprehensive university, library and archives staff collaborated to develop a Wikipedia edit-a-thon that would provide an opportunity for undergraduate students to 1) expose them to archival materials, and 2) provide them with experience in collaborative knowledge creation. This article reviews the literature on the use of the …

Review Of Digital Preservation Essentials, Tawnya Mosier Keller

Journal of Western Archives

Review of Digital Preservation Essentials.

Review Of Appraisal And Acquisition Strategies, Jean Deken

Journal of Western Archives

Review of Appraisal and Acquisition Strategies.

More Than A Mausoleum: The Library At The Forefront Of Digital Pedagogy, Dylan Burns

Library Faculty & Staff Presentations

Some of the more nostalgic set have opined about the “death” of the traditional library and how universities need to “Save the stacks.” Are we losing the traditional library to chase digital trends?

This paper will argue that the incorporation of Digital Humanities into the library is leading to an explosion of new collections adventures. If we take one definition of Digital Humanities as the presentation of humanities research through digital means as Josh Honn suggests ("Never Neutral: Critical Approaches to Digital Tools & Culture in the Humanities" [2013], 6), a shift in focus toward the Digital is providing new …

The Business Of Time Travel: A Case Study Examining The Processing Of The Connie Willis Papers At The University Of Northern Colorado, Emory J. Trask, Katherine Shull

Journal of Western Archives

The work-in-progress article explores the donation, arrangement, and description of the papers of the internationally renowned science fiction novelist and short story writer, Connie Willis, to the University of Northern Colorado. The project is ongoing at UNC, but the article provides a case study exploring the both the value of science fiction collections and the challenges presented in processing them.

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 …

Review Of Archives In Libraries: What Librarians And Archivists Need To Know To Work Together, Amber D'Ambrosio

Journal of Western Archives

Review of Archives in Libraries: What Librarians and Archivists Need to Know to Work Together.

Review Of Rights In The Digital Era, Tammy Lau

Journal of Western Archives

Book review of Rights in the Digital Era.