bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Teaching Archivists About Electronic Records and Automated Techniques: A Needs Assessment
Authors: Hedstrom Margaret
Published: October 2015

This article assesses the knowledge and skills that archivists need to administer electronic records and apply automated techniques in archives. The author discusses how rapidly changing technology, ongoing debates about the relevance of archival theory, and evolving practices and methods present particular challenges for the development of a curriculum on automation. She outlines a curriculum organized into four broad areas: (1) archives and information technology, (2) basic concepts and terminology, (3) electronic records, and (4) automated techniques, ending with a discussion of the overall learning objectives for such a curriculum.
The Roles of Graduate and Continuing Education Programs in Preparing Archivists in North America for the Information Age
Authors: Cox Richard
Published: October 2015

This essay argues that the North American archival profession has not adequately dealt with educating archivists to manage automated techniques and, especially, electronic records because of a variety of structural problems in this field: There are few archival educators qualified to teach such topics, few satisfactory archival programs for handling such functions, and little research being done on these concerns. The essay presents five actions the archival community could take to rectify the dilemma: (1) expand the concept of graduate archival education, (2) make such education interdisciplinary, (3) emphasize research, (4) develop higher visibility with archival empoloyers and prospective student recruits, and (5) build a foundation for effective continuing education programs. This essay was prepared prior to Cox's assuming the editorship of the American Archivist. The essay is published as part of the CART Curriculum Conference Proceedings.
Teaching Archivists About Information Technology Concepts: A Needs Assessment
Authors: Kesner Richard
Published: October 2015

With the growing use of information technologies in all aspects of work and leisure, automation and electronic records have become commonplace within most modern organizations. To address the varied and often complex user-support requirements associated with these developments, we must educate a new breed of information services professional. The traditional role models of archivist, records manager, librarian, museum curator, and the like will not suffice. The accompanying essay briefly describes the emerging information services environment, the special demands it places on archivists, the types of skills required in response to these articulated needs, and a strategy and criteria for a programmatic response. This paper was originally prepared for the Society of American Archivists' Committee on Automated Records and Techniques as part of a NHPRC-funded grant to develop an automation curriculum for the archival profession.
The Archival Setting and People with Disabilities: A Legal Analysis
Authors: Gilardi Ronald
Published: October 2015

Legal rules and regulations, with increasing regularity, determine how we operate our institutions. The Americans with Disabilities Act illustrates this point well. It has affected archives in several ways, and will continue to do so. The act influences archival employment practices and will assuredly influence the nature and quality of service made available to patrons with disabilities. This article explores, in general terms, the relevance of the Americans with Disabilities Act to the archival setting.
Nixon's Legal Legacy: White House Papers and the Constitution
Authors: Montgomery Bruce
Published: October 2015

After President Richard M. Nixon resigned his office under threat of impeachment, Congress seized his White House papers for the continuing Watergate trials and investigations. With some justification, Nixon vigorously argued that the records were his private property, and thus began an extraordinary legal campaign to reclaim them. Nixon's protracted legal fight has not only caused the overturning of the historical tradition of private ownership of presidential records but has generated an important legacy of constitutional law concerning the presidential prerogatives of the separation of powers and executive privilege. Although Nixon lost his case for ownership before the Supreme Court, he has since managed to block the National Archives and Records Administration from releasing the majority of his White House records. Nixon's continuing and highly effective lawsuits against the National Archives raises the question of who really controls the White House materials of the Nixon presidency.
The Epic Struggle: Subject Retrieval from Large Bibliographic Databases
Authors: Tibbo Helen
Published: October 2015

Archivists have talked at length about the virtue of contributing records to a national bibliographic utility to provide enhanced access to collections. There has been little discussion, however, of the difficulties of finding materials in such large database environments. This article discusses a retrieval study that focused on collection-level archival records in the OCLC Online Union Catalog, made accessible through the EPIC search system. Data were also collected from the local OPAC at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill (UNC-CH) in which UNC-CH-produced OCLC records are loaded. The chief objective was to explore the retrieval environments in which a random sample of USMARC AMC records produced at UNC-Chapel Hill were found—specifically, to obtain a picture of the density of these databases in regard to each subject heading applied and, more generally, for each record. Key questions were (1) how many records would be retrieved for each subject heading attached to each of the records and (2) what was the nature of these subject headings vis-à-vis the number of hits associated with them. Findings show that large retrieval sets are a potential problem with national bibliographic utilities and that the local and national retrieval environments can vary greatly. The need for specificity in indexing is emphasized.

This article is based on a paper given at the Society of American Archivists' 1992 annual meeting in Montreal. OCLC supported this research. The author wishes to thank Patricia Haberkern, who did much of the searching.
Appraisal or Documentation: Can We Appraise Archives by Selecting Content?
Authors: Menne-Haritz Angelika
Published: October 2015

The author outlines the various roots of today's appraisal theory and traces their influence on issues debated today. She describes the influence that early twentieth-century Weberian bureaucracy had on archival principles, and she suggests linkages with theories that precede the Second World War and were the basis for the Schellenberg bulletin. She shows how archival theories and debate were overlaid by the political impact of the Cold War confrontation before the fall of the Berlin Wall and the Iron Curtain, noting that since that time, archives have been able to assume their role as windows on government. Now archives must clarify their tools and methods to ensure that traces of decision-making processes are visible and transparent. Different methods, such as documentation strategy and acquisition strategy are discussed in the context of their impact on daily work in archives.
Understanding Administrative Use and Users in University Archives
Authors: Yakel Elizabeth , Bost Laura
Published: October 2015

The users of institutional archives range from local and professional historians to lower- and upper-level administrators. In many cases, administrators are the primary user population. Past archival studies, however, have focused on users with principally a historical purpose. The lack of research is surprising since most archival programs rely on their parent institutions for funding. This study is an initial attempt to examine administrative use and users in a university archives setting. It raises some interesting questions concerning how administrators analyze primary sources, what types of finding aids are most appropriate, and how much interpretation archivists need to do. The research suggests that archivists should look at themselves less as the historical voice in an institution and more as part of the administrative team.
The Freedom of Information Act in the Information Age: The Electronic Challenge to the People's Right to Know
Authors: Brown Thomas
Published: October 2015

While the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) guarantees the American people access to information in federal records, the legislation predates the proliferation of computers in federal agencies. While FOIA applies to information in electronic records, the full impact of FOIA on computerized records is not clear. This paper traces the case law on how FOIA relates to the records of the new technology, discusses the unanswered questions, and outlines three possible scenarios for the resolution of these public issues.
Thinking About Archival Preservation in the '90s and Beyond: Some Recent Publications and Their Implications for Archivists
Authors: Walters Tyler
Published: October 2015

A profusion of new preservation literature has rapidly developed from current research, technological experimentation and pilot projects, task forces, and conferences. The drive to disseminate new approaches in preservation management to practicing collections managers has also contributed to this new base of literature. This essay introduces recent advances in preservation administration and their implications for archival practice, through an examination of the preservation-related publications released in the last few years. It also confirms a growing interest among archivists in preservation ideas from other information management fields, particularly in the areas of selection for preservation, standard preservation assessment methods, preservation of electronic media, the use of digital technology in preservation reformatting, and specialized media preservation.
On Being an Archivist
Authors: Daniels Maygene
Published: October 2015

Without a doubt, promises of high pay and generous fringe benefits do not lure most archivists to the profession. Why then do we become archivists? In view of the great diversity within the profession, evidently it is not because of any particular external characteristics or interests that we share. Instead, three core attitudes shape the professional life of archivists and draw us to this profession. These are a commitment to service, an ability to search for evidence and meaning in the documentary record, and a rich appreciation of the passing human scene.
The Political Commercial Archive: Management of Moving Image and Sound Recordings
Authors: Haynes Kathleen , Kaid Lynda , Rand Charles
Published: October 2015

The Political Commercial Archive is part of the University of Oklahoma's Political Communication Center. It is the largest and most comprehensive repository of its kind in the world. In this paper, the authors report the results of a project designed to manage more than 55,000 film, audio, and video recordings. Fields in the local database that provide access for item-level records are detailed, and the organization of the collection-level records for the MARC AMC format is noted. Also discussed are special problems related to preparing these items for scholarly use by individual researchers, universities, museums, and media professionals.
Architectural Archives in the Digital Era
Authors: Mitchell William
Published: October 2015

As with records everywhere, more and more architectural records are being prepared in a digital format. Even though this format shift is taking place gradually due to the complex nature of programs used in architectural design, digital designs are quickly becoming the designs of record, especially those of three-dimensional models. The increased digital nature of architectural records, many of which are viewed as disposable by their creators, raises questions for archivists about the records' intellectual and artifactual values. In addition, archivists must deal with the vast amount of digital records, the instability of their storage media, and the short life span of most software and hardware products used to create architectural designs. Developing strategies to deal with these issues is essential to the survival of architectural records created in the late-twentieth century and by future generations.
The Hennebique Archives: Toward a New Corpus for Contemporary Architectural History
Authors: Ragot Gilles
Published: October 2015

The voluminous archives of the Hennebique engineering firm, which was a pioneer in reinforced concrete construction, provides an example of processing procedures and priorities for architectural records. The completeness and heterogeneous nature of architectural records greatly influence processing time. It is necessary to balance the needs of both historians and archivists when processing records, and it is also necessary to preserve the records not just of significant buildings or architects, but of the ordinary architects, and the non-architects who influenced architectural works, in order to develop a fuller picture of the development of the landscapes in which we live.
Documenting Twentieth-Century Architecture: Crisis and Opportunity
Authors: Olsberg Nicholas
Published: October 2015

Architectural records come in many different formats and are used by a variety of users for diverse reasons. The records share, however, some common characteristics--their awkward sizes, their fragile physical form and increasing electronic existence, and their ever increasing volume. Little has been written on the archival view of appraisal and selection criteria for architectural records. With this in mind, and with the belief that a documentation strategy would provide a useful beginning to set appraisal guidelines, the Working Conference on Establishing Principles for the Appraisal and Selection of Architectural Records was held in April 1994 at the Canadian Centre for Architecture. At the conference, archivists, curators, and users gathered to discuss the inherent principles and problems in the appraisal and selection of architectural records, and to propose an agenda for the future analysis of these issues and for the development of a model documentation strategy.
A Historian's Experience of Architectural Collections
Authors: Thomas Christopher
Published: October 2015

Studies by the author of the history of the architecture and architects of Canadian post offices and of the Lincoln Memorial demonstrate the usefulness of architectural records. Because architectural design is not undertaken in isolation, the influences it and the architect receive from outside sources can be discovered through the review of a variety of architectural records. There is no single definition of what does or should make up an architectural collection. The historical value of such records for a variety of research purposes suggests that collections should be kept complete and intact to the extent possible, guaranteeing their availability for the many sorts of architectural record users.
In Search of the Past: A Lawyer's Perspective
Authors: Nowacki James
Published: October 2015

Like historians, lawyers use architectural records as evidence, but their goal is not to interpret the past, but to prove it. The most important element architectural records provide to the defense of legal claims against architects and engineers is the dimension of time. Being able to determine a sequence of events relating to a claim is paramount when arguing whether an architect or engineer acted in a professional manner and exercised professional standards of care in the performance of work. Therefore, until the threat of litigation on a particular project or building is past (and it rarely ever is), the retention of all architectural records is safest. Then, in the event of litigation, using their own versions of selection, arrangement, and description, legal teams can work to re-create the events and circumstances of the past.
The Place of Archives in the Universe of Architectural Documentation
Authors: Willis Alfred
Published: October 2015

Architectural drawings are not synonymous with architectural archives, but they do constitute a significant part of architectural documentation. With many of the earliest architectural collections containing only books, the interpretation of the importance of architectural drawings has changed over the years. It has been shown, however, that the primary users of architectural archives are not architects looking for design ideas, but those conducting historical research. All forms of architectural records--books, journals, models, pictures, working drawings, and specifications, to name a few--provide different intellectual content to a researcher. Therefore, the elimination of working drawings from the archival architectural record would not eliminate duplication of content, but would substantially change the documentary record available.
A Historian's Perspective on Archives and the Documentary Process
Authors: Kuhn Clifford
Published: October 2015

The respective processes employed by film documentarians and print-based historians in presenting the past are in many ways distinct. Nevertheless, film makers and print-based historians are increasingly engaged in a dialogue with each other, a dialogue that involves archivists as well. While there exist problematic aspects of the use of archival materials in film, there are also documentarians who are appreciative of archives and sensitive to issues of historical context and specificity. The making of a recent film, The Uprising of '34, provides a model for the creative interaction between film makers and archival materials, and suggests ways to strengthen the relationship between film makers, print-based historians, and archivists.
Diplomatics of Modern Official Documents (Sixteenth - Eighteenth Centuries): Evaluation and Perspectives
Authors: Barbiche Bernard
Published: October 2015

The author looks at the science of diplomatics within the context of documents generated from the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries. The study of documents according to set diplomatics categories was complicated by the sheer bulk of documentation due to two reasons—the decentralization of the chancery and the emergence of new types of documents linked to the development of the administrative monarchy. The author advocates the application of diplomatics methods to the study of these modern documents. He also presents several examples that underscore the importance of the form of the document in undertaking the decision processes and activities of an administrative body; also that text edition remains for our own time as well as for earlier periods, the ideal testing ground for the techniques of diplomatics.
Diplomatics and Institutional Photos
Authors: Parinet Elisabeth
Published: October 2015

Concerned about the potential of new technologies for the alteration of photographs, the author argues for the need to establish a new diplomatic for images. She explores the institutional and artistic origins of photographic images, and argues that the same principles used in source criticism by historians to evaluate documents should now also be applied to photographic images.
The Expansion of Diplomatics as a Discipline
Authors: Guyotjeannin Olivier
Published: October 2015

The author discusses the origins of diplomatics as a distant intellectual discipline in the second half of the seventeenth century. With the strong influence of classical philology and positiveness, diplomatics became more refined and specialized. The field created a structure which is formed by certain steps to be taken in the study and analysis of a document according to a taxonomy. He concludes by examining diplomatics in the 1950s when the field, though rooted in the analysis of ancient documents, tests the borderlines between documentary analysis and historical research.
Not Just Business as Usual: Evolving Trends in Historical Research at Baker Library
Authors: Linard Laura , Sverdloff Brent
Published: October 2015

Since its founding, Baker Library has collected rare and unique materials to support the curriculum of the Harvard Business School. Today, Baker Library holds one of the preeminent collections of historical materials on business history and economic philosophy in the world. Included in the collections are manuscripts, rare books, pamphlets, broadsides, photographs, prints, trade catalogs, trade cards, and annual reports. The earliest records extend back to the banking and patronage activities of the Medici family in the fifteenth century. Harvard Business School students and faculty as well as leaders in the field have used this resource material to learn from the experiences of the past and to understand the historical development of business functions. More recently, however, the material has also been drawing ever-increasing numbers of international students and scholars from a broad range of disciplines, such as cultural anthropology, ethnic and gender studies, industrial archaeology, sociology, fine and decorative arts, maritime history, and engineering. This essay presents an overview of the Baker Library collection, traces changing uses and users, and reviews current plans for the future of the collection and its place within the Harvard Business School and the wider world of American business history.
Life After the "Big Bang": Business Archives in an Era of Disorder
Authors: Rabchuk Gord
Published: October 2015

The future of business archives rests solely on the ability of business archivists to develop client-sensitive services and products. In this essay, the author argues that business archivists must revamp their image within the business community by becoming more proactive in their attempts to understand and anticipate the real information requirements of their client base. The author also contends that a successful business archives program must be built upon efficient information management technology that allows the client to reap the benefits of timely and accurate responses.
The Development of Business Archives in the United States: An Overview and a Personal Perspective
Authors: Adkins Elizabeth
Published: October 2015

This essay provides an overview of the development of business archives in the United States. The author reviews the uncertain beginnings of corporate archives programs in the 1950s and 1960s, the sudden rush of programs in the 1970s, and the harsh reality check caused by reengineering and downsizing in the 1980s and 1990s. She also reviews the role of public repositories which house corporate archives collections in preserving corporate records. In addition, this essay also presents the author's reflections on the interaction between corporate archives and repositories which collect business records, as a result of her participation in the Records of American Business (RAB) Project. She also lists a number of unanswered questions arising out of the RAB project, requiring further research and writing by the business archives community. The essay concludes with an annotated list of major American corporate archives.
"Camp Pitt" and the Continuing Education of Government Archivists: 1989-1996
Authors: Olson David
Published: October 2015

This article traces the development, implementation, and effects of a series of advanced institutes held at the University of Pittsburgh from 1989 to 1996. It provides an in-depth assessment of each year's program and commentary about its usefulness. These grant-funded institutes offered a unique opportunity for government archivists to receive a continuing education on advanced technology, and their impact on state archival programs has been significant.
Navigation, Access, and Control Using Structured Information
Authors: DeRose Steven
Published: October 2015

Document representations are gradually moving from format orientation to a more structural orientation, where their internal structure is made available to the machine for more effective processing. This is very much like the move of databases toward more explicit, unambiguous, standardized forms. The data found in documents is quite different from traditional, tabular database records, however, and requires new models. SGML has been at the center of this move because of some very simple characteristics, such as allowing authors to create the particular labels needed for their specific applications. These characteristics led to its use by the Text Encoding Initiative and for Encoded Archival Description. Finding aids pose some uniquely challenging problems for encoding, now addressed by EAD in a way that should make such information far more accessible for the future.
Multi-institutional EAD: The University of Virginia's Role in the American Heritage Project
Authors: Seaman David
Published: October 2015

In 1996 the National Endowment for the Humanities awarded a joint grant to the University of California at Berkeley, Duke University, Stanford University, and the University of Virginia to produce a body of Encoded Archival Description (EAD) finding aids and to test the assumption that a collection of such guides could function both as a local resource and as a multi-institutional union database. This paper concentrates on the issues of workflow and on-line delivery for the University of Virginia guides, which employ Web forms for data creation, on-line searching, and "on the fly" conversion to HTML.
Arthur Agarde, Elizabethan Archivist: His Contributions to the Evolution of Archival Practice
Authors: Yax Maggie
Published: October 2015

In his various capacities as deputy chamberlain of the Exchequer, antiquary, scholar, and writer, Arthur Agarde (1540-1615) played an integral role in Elizabethan society—a society in which recordkeeping activities and use certainly reflected the political climate. The rise of England as a nation-state not only created a spirit of insular nationalism but also engendered political, religious, and legal controversies. During this era, antiquarian scholars increasingly consulted Britain's vast accumulation of documents to research the past and help settle debates. This dramatic growth in the use of historical records pointed out the need for improved recordkeeping procedures. An examination of Agarde's life and career reveals his contributions to an evolving archival practice, especially in description, arrangement, and preservation.
Harnessing the Power of Warrant
Authors: Duff Wendy
Published: October 2015

Over the last decade a number of writers have encouraged archivists to develop strategies and tactics to redefine their role and to insert themselves into the process of designing recordkeeping systems. This paper urges archivists to exploit the authority inherent in the laws, regulations, standards, and professional best practices that dictate recordkeeping specifications to gain great acceptance for the requirements for electronic evidence. Furthermore, it postulates that this proactive approach could assist in gaining greater respect for the archival profession.
An Exploration of K-12 User Needs for Digital Primary Source Materials
Authors: Gilliland-Swetland Anne
Published: October 2015

With the rapid development of the global information infrastructure and networked multimedia systems, is it possible to make access to archival materials and their descriptions truly virtual, to make their use more diverse, and user interaction more effective? Part I of this article examines trends in K-12 pedagogical and curricular innovation that are leading to increased integration of primary sources, facilitated by new learning technologies, into the classroom. In Part II, the author argues that what is required is a conscious approach to the selection, representation, and presentation of digitized and digital archival materials, informed by sound empirical knowledge of the needs of targeted user groups. In Part III of this article, the author reports on research underway at UCLA exploring the needs of K-12 teachers and students, both for locating and using primary source materials, and for incorporating those materials into learning systems design. The author also speculates on the potential of Encoded Archival Description to provide the descriptive infrastructure for a multimedia archival information system that would address some of the needs identified for K-12 users.
The Applicability of Natural Language Processing (NLP) to Archival Properties and Objectives
Authors: Greenberg Jane
Published: October 2015

Natural language processing (NLP) is an extremely powerful operation—one that takes advantage of electronic text and the computer's computational capabilities, which surpass human speed and consistency. How does NLP affect archival operations in the electronic environment? This article introduces archivists to NLP with a presentation of the NLP Continuum and a description of the Archives Axiom, which is supported by an analysis of archival properties and objectives. An overview of the basic information retrieval (IR) framework is provided and NLP's application to the electronic archival environment is discussed. The analysis concludes that while NLP offers advantages for indexing and accessing electronic archives, its incapacity to understand records and recordkeeping systems results in serious limitations for archival operations.
Developing International Cataloging Standards for Archival Holdings: Rosarkhiv-RLG-Hoover Project, 1994-1997
Authors: Lyandres Natasha , Leontieva Olga
Published: October 2015

This article describes the first joint international cataloging project designed to develop mutually acceptable standards of exchanging Russian archival descriptions through the Research Libraries Information Network (RLIN) using MARC AMC format. The participants in the project were the Federal Archival Service of Russia (Rosarkhiv), which selected appropriate archival repositories and supervised the project's implementation in Russia; the Hoover Institution Archives, which performed quality control for all RLIN records created by Russian archivists; and the Research Libraries Group, which provided a wide range of technical support and the RLIN database to host the created records. The authors discuss project standards and methodology, work organization and implementation, as well as the need to develop mutually acceptable international bibliographic and subject standards to facilitate information exchange through the international multiscript databases.
The Archival Image in Fiction: An Analysis and Annotated Bibliography
Authors: Schmuland Arlene
Published: October 2015

The news media, television, and nonfiction and fiction books all disseminate and perpetuate many stereotypes of the archival profession. This article is a study of the images of archives and archivists based on a reading of 128 novels. It is divided into four parts: how authors define the term "archives," perceptions of the archivists themselves, the issues of dust and the images of death regularly associated with archives, and the importance of archives and archival holdings. The images of archives and archival work presented in these books are discussed in the context of archivists' long-standing concern about their professional image.
Preserving Anthropology's Heritage: CoPAR, Anthropological Records, and the Archival Community
Authors: Parezo Nancy
Published: October 2015

Unpublished anthropological records contain a vast array of information about historic and contemporary human diversity as well as information on the history of anthropology and related humanistic and scientific disciplines. The rapidity of worldwide socio-cultural change renders such information irreplaceable. This article describes the efforts of the Council for the Preservation of Anthropological Records—a group of anthropologists, historians, archivists, and librarians—to ensure that this singular body of information is preserved and made accessible to present and future researchers. It ends with suggestions on how the archival community can help anthropology preserve primary cultural knowledge of the world's peoples.
Looking at Archives in Art
Authors: Craig Barbara , O'Toole James
Published: October 2015

Studying the depiction of records, documents, books, reading, and writing in art is more than an aesthetic exercise for archivists. The authors examine a selection of British and American portraits and genre paintings, discussing their presentation of records as well as the contexts in which the paintings were created and the importance of the records depicted. Archivists can use this "iconography of archives" to understand contemporary perceptions of records by artists, sitters, and viewers, thereby placing textual records more fully in their historical context.
"The Imperative of Challenging Absolutes" in Graduate Archival Education Programs: Issues for Educators and the Profession
Authors: Cook Terry
Published: October 2015

This article reflects on various themes discussed by the authors of papers and the audience at the Archival Educators' Day, and a related program session at the 1999 annual meeting of the Society of American Archivists in Pittsburgh. It posits a gulf between archivists in academia and in the workplace that needs to be addressed, crossing various misunderstandings of discipline versus profession; theory versus practice; education versus training; and "new" recordkeeping, electronic-records models versus "traditional" cultural, heritage, and historical orientations for the profession. It asserts that both academics and practitioners may be overlooking the importance of educating students in conducting the in-depth contextual research required to be first-class working archivists.
The Society of American Archivists and Graduate Education: Meeting at the Crossroads
Authors: Cox Richard
Published: October 2015

The author argues that something unanticipated has occurred, graduate archival education has expanded and matured and graduate educators have assumed leadership in the continued development of this aspect of the profession. These developments create new tensions about where graduate education is heading and the role of professional associations such as the Society of American Archivists. The author considers options for how educators ought to work on nurturing graduate archival education, believing that no matter what options are selected, the future of graduate archival education rests primarily with what graduate educators deem it to be.
The Usability of On-line Archival Resources: The Polaris Project Finding Aid
Authors: Altman Burt , Nemmers John
Published: October 2015

This case study examines how the Florida State University Libraries' Claude Pepper Library planned the first phase of the Pepper OnLine Archival Retrieval and Information System (POLARIS) Project—the development of an on-line finding aid and search engine—to provide electronic access to its unique resources. It also demonstrates how the project staff studied the research usability of the Pepper Collection finding aid in the on-line environment. The identification of potential users, creation of a focus group based on a sampling of these users, and the compilation and analysis of focus group responses were important factors in planning the first phase, evaluating usability of the finding aid, and influencing the changes that the POLARIS Project team made.
Analysis of Remote Reference Correspondence at a Large Academic Manuscripts Collection
Authors: Martin Kristin
Published: October 2015

This paper analyzes 595 letter, phone, facsimile, and e-mail correspondence units sent to the Southern Historical Collection and General and Literary Manuscripts (SHC) at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1995 and 1999, to observe the effects of providing online holdings information and the increased use of e-mail in reference correspondence. From 1995 to 1999, e-mail became the preferred method of inquiry, more questions came from casual users researching for personal reasons, more users took advantage of online holdings information to shape their reference questions, and the proportion of remote users visiting in person decreased. The paper concludes by suggesting ways for archivists to prepare for new influxes of remote researchers and methods to improve remote reference services.
A Question of Custody: The Colonial Archives of the United States Virgin Islands
Authors: Bastian Jeannette
Published: October 2015

This article examines the relationship between custody, access, and provenance through a case study of the records of a former Danish colony, the United States Virgin Islands. In 1917, when the United States purchased the Virgin Islands from Denmark, Danish archivists removed the majority of records created there during colonial rule and deposited them in the Danish National Archives. Following its establishment in the 1930s, the National Archives of the United States sent an archivist to the Virgin Islands to claim most of the remaining records and ship them to Washington. The native population of the Virgin Islands, primarily former colonials whose ancestors were brought from Africa as slaves, were left without access to the written sources that comprised their history. While all three parties have claims to custody of the records, the claim of the people of the Virgin Islands relies on an expanded definition of provenance that includes territoriality or locale, as well as on a custodial responsiblity for access. The competing custodial claims suggest a dissonance between legal custody, physical custody, and archival principles that may be resolvable through post-custodial management practices.
Finding Finding Aids on the World Wide Web
Authors: Tibbo Helen , Meho Lokman
Published: October 2015

This study explored how well six popular Web search engines performed in retrieving specific electronic finding aids mounted on the World Wide Web. A random sample of on-line finding aids was selected and then searched using AltaVista, Excite, Fast Search, Google, Hotbot, and Northern Light, employing both word- and phrase-searching. As of February 2000, approximately 8 percent of repositories listed at the "Repositories of Primary Resources" web site had mounted at least four full finding aids on the Web. The most striking finding of this study was the importance of using phrase searches whenever possible, rather than word searches. Also of significance was the fact that if a finding aid were to be found using any search engine, it was generally found in the first ten or twenty items at most. The study identifies the best performers among the six chosen search engines. Combinations of search engines often produced much better results than did the search engines individually, evidence that there may be little overlap among the top hits provided by individual engines.
The Archivist as Educator: Integrating Critical Thinking Skills into Historical Research Methods Instruction
Authors: Robyns Marcus
Published: October 2015

Archivists are increasingly developing workshops and courses in order to help students better understand and use archival materials. The incorporation of critical thinking skills into these instructional programs can significantly enhance them and improve the ability of students to analyze and interpret primary sources. This article first provides an introduction to critical thinking instruction and then describes how the university archivist successfully implemented critical thinking skills into a historical research methods course at Northern Michigan University.
Preservation Strategies for Electronic Records: Where We Are Now—Obliquity and Squint?
Authors: Cloonan Michèle , Sanett Shelby
Published: October 2015

This article reports on a survey of the activities of thirteen institutions and projects in the United States and abroad that employ or are exploring strategies to preserve authentic electronic records. These strategies include preservation techniques (e.g., refreshing, migration, emulation); selection for preservation; staffing configurations; cost modeling; access to preserved records; and policymaking. Particular attention is paid to three broad areas: the evolution of the definition of "preservation," the role of costing in preserving electronic records, and the gap in policy development in which to situate and strategize the present and future preservation of electronic records. By documenting the variety of approaches that are being taken, the authors seek not only to shed light on current practices, but also to offer informed consideration on where preservation might be headed.
Presidential Materials: Politics and the Presidential Records Act
Authors: Montgomery Bruce
Published: October 2015

President George W. Bush's Executive Order No. 13,233, issued on 1 November 2001, marked the latest attempt by the executive branch to circumvent or otherwise nullify the key provisions of the Presidential Records Act. Congress passed the Presidential Records Act in 1978 in the wake of the Watergate scandals to assure public ownership and control over presidential materials. Nonetheless, starting with the presidency of Ronald Reagan, who was the first president to be covered by the act, the executive branch has repeatedly attacked the statute through various regulatory schemes and overly broad claims of executive privilege. Indeed, with their historical reputations and legacies at stake, presidents have never fully accepted the concept of yielding control over their presidential materials. This article reviews the troubling history of the Presidential Records Act and the implications of the latest attempts to restrict access to presidential papers.
Where Is the List with All the Names? Information-Seeking Behavior of Genealogists
Authors: Duff Wendy , Johnson Catherine
Published: October 2015

Until the 1990s, archivists gave very little attention to studying their user population. None of the user studies that have been conducted in the last decade have focused solely on genealogists, one of the most frequent users of archives. This paper gives the results of a study involving in-depth interviews with ten genealogists. The findings provide information on the stages of genealogical research, how genealogists search for information, the access tools they use, the knowledge required, and the barriers they face. The findings of this study can be used to improve the design of archival information systems that will facilitate access for this important group of users.
AI: Archival Intelligence and User Expertise
Authors: Yakel Elizabeth , Torres Deborah
Published: October 2015

User studies in archives have long focused on researchers' satisfaction, behaviors, and use of primary sources. Yet, archivists have never defined what characteristics denote an expert user of archives. This article reports on a research study involving in-depth interviews with twenty-eight individuals. The analysis of these interviews led to the development of a model of researcher expertise that might be incorporated into archival user education to create information literacy for primary sources. The authors assert that there are three distinct forms of knowledge required to work effectively with primary sources: domain (subject) knowledge, artifactual literacy, and the authors' own concept of archival intelligence. Archival intelligence is a researcher's knowledge of archival principles, practices, and institutions, such as the reason underlying archival rules and procedures, the means for developing search strategies to explore research questions, and an understanding of the relationship between primary sources and their surrogates. This is separate from domain or subject knowledge and artifactual literacy, or the ability to interpret and analyze primary sources. Archival intelligence encompasses three dimensions: 1) knowledge of archival theory, practices, and procedures; 2) strategies for reducing uncertainty and ambiguity when unstructured problems and ill-defined solutions are the norm; 3) and intellective skills.
Frost on the Walls in Winter: Russian and Ukrainian Archives since the Great Dislocation (1991-1999)
Authors: Bolotenko George
Published: October 2015

Much has been written on Russian and Ukrainian archives since the collapse of the Soviet Union. Most writings on this subject key on legislative and structural issues, the more formal aspects of the transformation of Russia and Ukraine into more open, democratic polities. This paper concentrates on the blood-and-bones reality of the effects of this transformation on the everyday life of archivists and their managers and administrators at various levels. This new "Time of Troubles" imposed heavy personal burdens on all who work in the archival service, and it posed extraordinary professional challenges. During the 1990s, archival directors and archivists in Russia and Ukraine faced a decade of extreme privation and trial, but they responded with a stoic heroism.
Avoiding the Golden Fleece: Licensing Agreements for Archives
Authors: Loe Nancy
Published: October 2015

The need to negotiate licenses protecting the rights to intellectual property in archives is an emerging and complex area. This article provides archivists with a better understanding of the legal and economic issues arising from commercial requests for archival materials, examining five key areas relating to licensing: the technology, the players, the economics, the rights, and the consequences. The article presents guidelines, strategies, and a sample licensing agreement to help archivists make informed decisions about whether and on what terms to license materials from their collections for commercial use.
"The Old Version Flickers More": Digital Preservation from the User's Perspective
Authors: Hedstrom Margaret , Lee Christopher , Olson Judith , Lampe Clifford
Published: October 2015

Most criteria for evaluating digital preservation strategies are based on needs and requirements from the archivist's perspective. In the CAMiLEON Project, we wanted to learn what significant properties users consider worth preserving. In this article, we present the results of two experiments that used human subjects to learn about user preferences for different formats of preserved digital objects. We tested subjects' reactions to digital materials that were preserved using three common methods: 1) conversion to a "software-independent" format; 2) migration; and 3) presenting the original bitstream using emulation. The results of this exploratory study suggest directions for further research and help archivists understand how user needs and preferences may inform selection of preservation methods. Further research on the effectiveness of emulation and migration needs to account for the quality of the emulator, the impact of specific approaches to migration on document attributes and behaviors, and numerous aspects of the original computing environment that may affect the user experience. Research on the importance of authenticity should consider how users judge authenticity and the tradeoffs they are willing to make between using the original source and the ease of access and use.
Archives, Power, and History: Dunbar Rowland and the Beginning of the State Archives of Mississippi (1902-1936)
Authors: Galloway Patricia
Published: October 2015

The histories of archives are especially significant because their collecting practices affect the writing of the history going on beyond their walls. This essay explores the early history of the Mississippi State Archives through the activities and practices of its first archivist, Dunbar Rowland. Rowland was not only a member of the first generation of southern state archivists, but was also a member of the Mississippi planter elite and an aspirant to participating both in the wider world of archival practice and thought and in the post-Reconstruction interpretation of southern history. This investigation divides Rowland's work into three periods: foundation, collection, and publication, and argues that Rowland's example shows how archival practice itself can reflect the stance of its times toward the construction of public memory.