Melissa
Townsend-Crow
LIBR256
Assignment #4 – Final Exam
December 5, 2013
3) How has the continuing evolution in
information technologies and communications methods affected the various stages
of an archivists’ work (acquisitions, processing, preservation, reference,
etc.) and the work of archival researchers? Given your knowledge of the
evolution in these technologies (as a user/student/etc.), what issues continue
to need addressing? What issues are being posed by some of the newest technologies?
One of the most
significant challenges we face these days is keeping up with the ever and
rapidly changing technology. There are so many things to consider, so many
confusing terms: metadata, Web 2.0, etc.
If the librarian or archivist is to avoid becoming obsolete, we have to keep
up, even while dragging our heels and clinging to our paper and pencil and card
catalogs. The most obvious use of technology in archival practice is in
digitizing records and born digital records. There are, however, new technological
advances in every aspect of archiving and the practice evolves as the new
technology advances.
Acquisition
and appraisal
Acquisition starts with appraisal. According to our class lecture notes,
"our most important and intellectually demanding task as archivists is to
make an informed (italics mine) selection
of information that will provide the future with a representative record of
human experience in our time." Part of being informed means having access to
the latest information available and the speed at which that information is
disseminated to the archival professional community has increased with
technology. An online journal can be accessed by tablet or iPhone in seconds.
Provenance is an issue in acquisition.
By provenance, I am not referring to
the principle or respect de fonds,
but to the concept of ownership and/or legal custody of records and materials.
It gives a repository bragging rights to own a particularly rare set of papers
– for example a diary belonging to George Washington, but if ownership cannot
be traced to a legal source of acquisition, then problems arise. Technology in
the form of electronically stored records of acquisition make the process of
tracing the trail of ownership and custody faster and more accurate.
Processing
According the SAA
definition, processing is "the arrangement, description, and housing of
archival materials for storage and use by patrons." I would add cataloging
and the creation of finding aids to this. These days, paper-based catalogues
have been replaced by digital ones and with keywords, it makes finding things a
lot faster and easier. In our assignment number two, the creation of a finding
aid, the electronic manipulation of data made the work faster and smoother. The
fact that the records had been digitized (even if only for the purpose of the
assignment) made an inventory of each piece possible.
Again, in our class notes, specifically in
the discussion of documentation strategy, we learned that "no single
institution could accomplish the immense task of documenting society
alone." Through networking with other repositories, the information that a
user needs or desires can be made available, either through ILL – or
inter-institutional loan – or through digitization, which is much faster than
photocopying records and sending materials through the mail or by messenger.
Preservation
and Conservation
I will get into more of how technology
can assist with preservation and conservation of materials in the second part
of this exam, but briefly, I am interested in methods used to preserve and
conserve the actual materials of the records. When I look up the subject on any
database or search engine, however, there is a plethora of articles and
material on digitization as a means of preservation, but very little on
preserving the analog materials. Yet, as we learned in week one, archivists are
interested in preserving the materials at least as much as the information they
represent. The archival concept of provenance, the respect de fonds, places a value on the context of the records
which often includes the very materials of which the records are composed. When
we talk about technology in the context of archives, we should not be focused
solely on the bits and the bytes, but also on the methods of preservation to
slow or stop the inevitable decay of acid-based inks and paper, among other things,
like humidity control or the dim lighting at the Los Angeles County Museum of
Natural History's display of Amelia Earhart's journal.
I think the real challenge in
preservation is in born digital records. I have five inch floppy discs with
information I will never be able to retrieve again, yet I hang onto them"
just in case." I don't even know if they still have the information they
originally were used to store because the material was so fragile; one
accidental swipe in front of the monitor and the magnetism of the screen could
wipe out all the memory. I also have many 3 inch floppy discs, but no access to
a machine that can read them. According to Lee, et. al., "The acquisition
of digital materials by collecting institutions — libraries, archives and
museums (LAMs) — has resulted in the need to incorporate new tools and methods
into curatorial practices" (p 1). The project they are proposing, the
BitCurator Project, "aims to incorporate digital forensics tools and
methods into collecting institutions' workflows" (Lee, et. al.). When
complete, the project could be implemented by repositories to not only ensure
the preservation of born digital records in their original format, but also to
facilitate access to these records by users.
Web
2.0
When I see Web 2.0, I automatically
think of Facebook and Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram. Social networking is
not the only application for this technology, though; Mary Samouelian discusses
several ways to use Web 2.0 technology in her article, "Embracing Web
2.0: Archives and the Newest Generation
of Web Applications, " including repositories digitizing materials for
display on their websites. This is one use of the technology I found
particularly useful in my History of Books and Libraries class last semester
when access to the real Ellesmere Chaucer at the Huntington was impossible to
acquire (and rightly so since I have no training in handling such a rare
treasure). This semester, I am taking a 287 course on immersive education via
virtual world technology, specifically Second Life (LIBR 287-15, "Living
in Tudor Times"). In the course of the semester, I had to opportunity to
visit several archival sites "in-world" and found the opportunity to
be enlightening. There is no other way I would be able to travel to visit the
Holocaust Museum in Washington D.C., yet, I have had the privilege of viewing
and learning from many of the exhibits through virtual reality.
Technology expedites our work. It makes
access and use easier, faster, and more efficient. What happens, though, when
that technology breaks down? Recently, the library where I work experienced a
system-wide outage. The OPACs were down and so were the reference and
circulation systems. At the risk of sounding like a Luddite, I was yearning for
a card catalog that day, however, even as I type this, I am reminded that even
paper and pencil is technology.
References
Daniels,
M. (1984). Introduction to Archival Terminology. Archives and Records
Management Resources. Retrieved December 4, 2013, from
http://www.archives.gov/research/alic/reference/archives-resources/terminology.html
Lee, C., Kirschenbaum, M., Chassanoff, A., Olsen, P.,
& Woods, K. (2012). BitCurator: Tools and techniques for digital
forensics in collecting institutions. DLib, 18(5/6), 1-6.
Retrieved December 4, 2013, from the DLib Magazine database.
Thomas, L. (2012). The Embedded
Curator: Reexamining the Documentation Strategy of Archival Acquisitions in a
Web 2.0 Environment. ACRL Publications
for American Library Association, Association of College and Research Libraries
database, 13, 38-48. Retrieved December 3, 2013, from h
ttp://commons.lib.niu.edu/handle/10843/13303.
Final, Part II
1)
In
week one, we noted that "archivists live on the horns of a dilemma," with
numerous
conflicting goals (preservation vs. use, access vs. privacy, long-term
preservation vs.
rapidly-changing media). Choose one of these conflicting goals and
explore how it
affects archival practice (acquisitions, processing, preservation, reference,
etc.) and where the profession stands today in balancing this conflict.
Preservation vs.
Use
The conflict is between protecting and preserving
rare materials and giving the public free access to these things. The primary
purpose for archived materials is use so, if no one can ever see or handle
these things, then for what purpose are they being preserved? The problem has two components: 1) preservation/protection and 2) access.
While
digital preservation is certainly one method of preservation and conservation
which gives access to many more people
who are interested in studying archival materials, there is an inherent,
ineffable value in the actual physical material itself. The intrinsic value of
the material itself, the history behind it, makes these items irreplaceable and
invaluable, as well as adding context to the information contained therein, yet
it is difficult to appreciate what one cannot see or touch. There is far less contemporary literature on
the actual preservation of the materials from which rare books, papers,
photographs and manuscripts were created than there is on the digitization of
these materials. Sophia Jordan (2000) wrote a helpful literature review on the
subject of materials preservation. The objects themselves, have a historical
and cultural value. Michelle Cloonan writes,
Preservation must be a way of
seeing and thinking about the world, and it must also be a set of actions. For
some it is only a technical problem, for others an aesthetic one. But
preservation also has broader social dimensions, and any discussion of
preservation must include consideration of its cultural aspects (p. 232).
Yet,
just as the caves of Lascaux and Chauvet finally had to be closed to the public
to protect the prehistoric treasures inside from human breath, eventually
archived materials require protection from human contact if they are to be
preserved. Additional protection from theft and vandalism is required by the
inherent monetary and collectible value of the materials.
Mary
Clapinson (1993) writes, "Repeated handling eventually takes its toll on
bindings, text, paper and illuminations (p. 5). and she states that in some
cases, digital facsimiles of primary sources are a reasonable substitution.
This may be an acceptable compromise and digitization is a viable and popular
means of providing access to distant users, as well. As Clapinson suggests in her study (p 7), facsimiles of
some of the materials can be made and when feasible, made available as a
substitute for the actual materials or displayed for the public as has been
done in other libraries, such as with the Ellesmere Chaucer's Canterbury Tales housed at the
Huntington (Schulz, p 60).
In
addition to digitizing as many of the materials as is reasonable, repositories
can create programs of conservation for their collections. Environmental
conditions are also a factor in conservation of materials, so temperature and
humidity monitoring and control must also be a consideration.
Clapinson
proposes the notion that not everyone who wants
access actually needs access to these
materials (p. 6-7). It seems that one answer to the
preservation/conservation/protection of these rare materials is restriction of
public access. Yet, Jennifer Sheehan writes:
When the "form" and "substance"
of a given object are indistinguishable, we are challenged to evaluate
collection materials in terms of their inherent value, which includes both the
text and the intangible information the materials provide (Sheehan, 2009, p 1).
Clearly,
a balanced approach will be required and compromises sought from both sides of
the argument of protection versus accessibility. It is also clear that a great
deal more research needs to be done on this question and it is likely that a
definitive answer to the dilemma may never come to be, but each repository must
find a compromise that works for it and its users.
References
Clapinson,
M. (1993): Services and developments issues related to manuscripts and other
unique materials. Journal of Library
Administration, 19(1), pp. 35-52
Cloonan, M. V.
(2001). W(HITHER) preservation? The
Library Quarterly,71(2), pp. 231-242.
Geselbracht, R.
H. (1986). The origins of restrictions
on access to personal papers at the Library of Congress and the National
Archives. The American Archivist,49(2), pp. 142-162.
http://www.jstor.org/stable/40292983. Accessed: 12/03/2013.
Schulz, H.C. (2004-06-07). The Ellesmere manuscript of Chaucer's
Canterbury tales. The Henry E.
Huntington Library and Art Gallery: San
Marino, CA.
Sheehan, J. K.
(2009). Making the most of what we have:
A framework for preservation management in rare book collections. RBM: A
journal of Rare Books, Manuscripts, and Cultural Heritage, 10(2), pp. 111-121.
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