Metropolitan Archivist VolumeVolume 15, No. 2 Summer 2009
ARTNY 1979 - 2009 Special 30th Anniversary Issue ART has joined Facebook!! Have you? BoardMichael of SimonsonDirectors President Vanessa Cameron Vice President Larry Weimer Treasurer Leilani Dawson Secretary Chris Lacinak Coordinator, Education Committee Rachel Chatalbash Coordinator, Communications & Outreach Committee Our group page is a place to connect with other archivists and share ideas. Karen Murphy Co-ordinator, Meeting & Nominating Committee If you aren’t already a member, Facebook is easy to join. Once you are registered, you can join the group, participate in discussion threads, and post photos. Webmaster Brian R. Stevens See you there!
Editor-in-Chief The mission of the Metropolitan Archivist is to serve members of the Archivists Rachel Chatalbash Round Table of Metropolitan New York (ART) by: • Informing them of ART activities through reports of monthly meetings and committee activities. Features Editors • Relating important announcements about individual members and member Celia Hartmann repositories. Joy Weiner • Reporting important news related to the New York metropolitan area archival profession. Book Review Editor • Providing a forum to discuss archival issues. Kristen Nyitray The Metropolitan Archivist (ISSN 1546-3125) is issued semi-annually to the members of ART. Comments, questions, or submissions for features should be Student Section Editor directed to the editor at [email protected]. Deadlines for submissions Holly Deakyne are April 30th and November 15th. Similar inquiries and submissions for reviews should be directed to [email protected]. Layout Design Preferred length of submissions is 800-1000 words for feature articles and 400-500 Bonnie Marie Sauer words for reviews.
The Metropolitan Archivist and ART assume no responsibility for statements made by contributors.
The Metropolitan Archivist accepts sponsorship from businesses providing services of professional interest to ART members. Rates and other related information can be obtained by contacting the editor or visiting the ART website at www. nycarchivists.org. Please note: Sponsor recognition by the Metropolitan Archivist does not constitute an endorsement or recommendation of the advertiser’s product or service by ART or the Metropolitan Archivist. www.nycarchivists.org Metropolitan Archivist VolumeVolume 15, No. 2 Summer 2009
Contents
President’s Message 6
Editor’s Note 6
Feature Articles: ART’s 30th Anniversary First President of ART Recalls How it All Began 7 Barbara Haws
Early Days at Archivists Round Table: Q&A with Mimi Bowling 9 Celia Hartmann
Recollections 9 Linda Edgerly
Looking Back and Ahead 10 Ellen Sowchek
Serving ART in the 1990s: Augmenting Archival Skills through Professional Development 11 Ira Galtman
The Adventures of a New Archivist: The Value of Networking 13 Megan A. Hibbits
Communications and Outreach: An Ever-Changing Position 14 Compiled by Sarah Hodge
Member Feedback: ART’s Future 16 Collected and Compiled by Sara Henderson
The Metropolitan Archivist is sponsored by
Front Cover Image: LBS / Archival Products Lexington Avenue-53rd Street http://www.archival.com Station (IND Queens Boulevard Line), September 25, 1979 Photographer: Harold I. Wright Cuadra Associates, Inc. Courtesy New York Transit http://www.cuadra.com/products/archives/html Museum
AudioVisual Preservation Solutions http://www.avpreserve.com Contents (continued) Interview with the Archivist Barbara Niss 20 Ellen Mehling
Student Section Archivist: The Next Generation 25 Ashley Marie Biggs Department of Cinema Studies/Tisch School of the Arts/New York University: Moving Image 27 Archiving and Preservation Program Student Thesis Presentations
Book Reviews Manhattan’s Chinatown (Postcard History Series), by Daniel Ostrow 29 Review by Eunice Liu
Managing Congressional Collections, by Cynthia Pease Miller 30 Review by Margot Note
Navigating Legal Issues in Archives, by Menzi L. Behrnd-Klodt 31 Review by Ellen R. Drucker-Albert
ART News: News Around the Tables The New York Preservation Archive Project 32
New Collection Open at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum Archives 32
METRO’s Digital Dilemmas Symposium Surfaces Opportunities & Best Practices 33
The Haddash Archives Receives Film Preservation Grant 34
Stony Brook Special Collections and University Archives 35
Member News: Margot Note to Present Student Poster at SAA 36
Senior Priest Oral History Project at the Archives of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn 36
Launch of Digital Murray Hill 37
Metropolitan Museum of Art Archives Opens New Collections 37
Treasures from Newark Library’s Collection Trace History of Printing 38
Outreach to the Public: Call for Participation 38
The Abraham Lincoln Brigade Archives 39
La Guardia and Wagner Archives 40
ART Membership: Who Are We? 40
ART’s New Discussion Listserv is Up & Running 40
Meeting Roundup: Spring 2009 41
Financial Report for Fiscal Year 2008 42 Welcome New Members! The following individuals have joined the Archivists Round Table of Metropolitan New York since July 2008.
Russell Abell Peter Edelman Brian Mahoney Angel Roman Archivist Senior Photo Archivist Student Daily News Megan Malta Pratt Institute, School of Danielle Apfelbaum Student Information and Library Student, LIU, C.W. Post Bob Fagan New York University/Long Science Island University Casey Babcock Matthew Flaherty Jane Rothstein Assistant Archivist Assistant Archivist, Hostos Stephen McCarthy Archival Assistant La Guardia and Wagner Community College Archivist/Librarian American Civil Liberties Union Archvies Stident, Pratt Institute Danielle McGurran Marvin Rusinek Laura Baldwin Rubyliza Gaba Student, Queens College Assistant Archivist, American Student Jewish Historical Society Eileen Gatti Timothy Ryan Mendenhall Student, Pratt Institute Christine Beardsley Student, Pratt Institute Student Student Sibyl Schaefer Roud Jill Goldstein Student, Queens College User Server Liaison, New York Maria Bernhey Student, Pratt Institute University Buyer Deborah Nitka Archives Analyst, Archivists’ Accessory Technologies Corp/ Michael Guerra Student, Brooklyn College Toolkit Queens College Student, Pratt Institute Gretchen Opie Scott Sharon Katherine Borkowski Bobby Hansen Archivist Student Student, Pratt Institute Student Assistant, Special Dedalus Foundation Collections Beth Taboh-Bley Mitchell Brodsky Kristine Paulus Student, Queens College Digital Initiatives Archivist Caroline Higgins Librarian & Archivist American Jewish Joint Digital Archivist New York Academy of Art Anne-Marie Viola Distribution Committee The Archives of the Episcopal Student, Pratt Institute Church Alexis Pavenick Jonathan Cain Student, UCLA Heather Walters Reference Associate Sarah Hodge Archivist New York University Student, NYU Nicholas Pavlik Polytechnic Institute of NYU, Student, Queens College Bern Dibner Library of Science Amelia Carling Michael Kahn and Technology Circulation MLS Student, Ladino Books Eric Pellerin Pelham Public Library College Project Employee Library Assistant/Student Bahati Williams Queens College/Yeshiva The Graduate Center Library, Student, Brooklyn College Michael Cruz University CUNY Student, LIU Laura Williams Aiza Rianna Kasey Rebecca Pou Metadata Librarian Kathryn Dundon Student, Pratt Institute Project Archivist Student/Government New York Academy of David Williams Document Assistant Shirin Khaki Medicine Library Student, Queens College New York University School Student of Law Lauren Robinson Angela Lawrence Student, Queens College Student Intern Leo Baeck Institute, Center for Jewish History Page 6 Metropolitan Archivist, Vol. 15, No. 2
President’s Message
As President of the Archivist Round Table of Metropolitan professional experience and New York, I am pleased to present the latest issue of your willingness to share that Metro Archivist. This issue celebrates our existence as an experience with others in organization for 30 years. ART has undergone a number the field that ART continues of changes in its growth process, but always with the to move forward. Examples mission of the organization being to bring archivists of this moving forward include the recent creation of together in an environment of sharing knowledge and a listserv to share experiences and problem-solve in experience. I am certain we will be able to successfully the professional archival arena, and a new outreach to continue this mission into the future. library students focusing on archives in their education. In addition, we continue, through grants from corporate I’d like to thank all the members of ART for making our sponsors, to offer as affordable a fee as we can for our organization possible. Whether you are more actively programs and educational workshops. involved, attending programs, serving on a committee, attending ART sponsored workshops, nominating In conclusion, I urge all members of the Archivist individuals for the yearly awards, or are involved Round Table to take advantage of the many things we only peripherally with the occasional attendance at a offer to the community. Especially in these troubled meeting and using the website to seek positions and economic times, the importance of archivists to network basic information, you are helping to ensure the survival professionally about available positions, new practices, and outreach of the Association. It is through your and continuing education is more important than ever.
Sincerely,
Michael Simonson
Editor’s Note
This issue of the monthly meetings, or simply through helping to plan Metropolitan Archivist is ART’s future. As ART is a volunteer-run organization, our first thematic issue. We participation of members is essential. The ART Board are dedicating this issue to and Metropolitan Archivist staff would like to thank all ART’s 30th Anniversary, and ART members whose volunteer activities have sustained have collected articles from many members who have the organization and developed it into the engaged made a great impact on the organization over the past community we have today. thirty years. Rachel Chatalbash A common thread running between all the articles is the call for participation – through work on committees, Editor, Metropolitan Archivist serving on the ART Board, attendance at or leading of [email protected] Metropolitan Archivist, Vol. 15, No. 2 Page 7
First President of ART Recalls How it All Began
Barbara Haws Archivist and Historian, New York Philharmonic
Thirty years ago I wasn’t an archivist, yet. Only two years Barbara Haws at her desk with her “new” IBM PC. before, I arrived in New York just in time for the garbage New York Philharmonic Archives, 1986. strike, newspaper strike and the great July blackout, falling completely in love with the City. One of the reasons President of the Archivists Round Table. I took a keen interest in becoming an archivist was it allowed me to work on the “inside” of the City. Another What makes the archival world in New York City distinct was that NYU’s Mike Lutzker told me there were “more from any other place is the extraordinary diversity of jobs than there were archivists to fill them.” I signed on. archives – government, business, religious, education, special collections and libraries, performing arts, The 1980s were a particularly heady time for New York museums, ethnic, activist groups, and movements – no City archivists. Old and not-so-old institutions were either other locale can boast such an interesting array of specific coming of age or realizing they needed to have control history collections, large and small, old and not-so-old. over their burgeoning paper legacy. Some were finding And it seemed like every week or month a new archives that their past might prove useful in celebrating their was being launched. One of the early ideas that ART longevity or in capturing the stories of their illustrious decided to embrace that fall was New York Archives founders. Even a silver anniversary was construed as Week. The planning group consisted of Archivists from significant enough to require a look back – twenty- the Y Associations, American Express, DORIS, NY Stock five years was the “new old”. Archives were becoming Exchange, Wagner Labor Archives, the American Bible increasingly relevant, coming out of the basements and Society, South Street Seaport, to name a few. Sitting engaging the public with their stories. around the planning table, we were New York City, representing all of its interests and endeavors – it was In 1988, I was just four years into my position as Archivist/ exhilarating. Historian at the New York Philharmonic, a first for the 142- year-old institution. Characteristically, the archives was The stated goal of the week was to “increase awareness located in an underground area known as the “concourse” among our constituencies, resource allocators and the with the processing room backing up to a wall that had general public of archives’ contributions to the quality subway tracks and the No. 6 train just a few feet on the of life in New York City.” The ultimate hope was that all other side. No matter, we were on the cutting edge when, collections and every archivist would be involved either by with great pride, the archives was the first Philharmonic doing an exhibit, writing an article for an organization’s department to get the new PC – an IBM, 64K, single- newsletter or participating in joint projects sponsored floppy-disc-drive version. That September, I was elected continued on next page Page 8 Metropolitan Archivist, Vol. 15, No. 2
How It All Began - continued from previous page the paper work completed by ART. In a February establishing ART as a not- newsletter I wrote that for-profit organization. planning for such an event in New York has plusses And so for the next thirty and minuses: “one plus years, where should we is the large number of be focusing our energies? repositories, each with its Even though I believe own great story to tell; the that we have achieved a minus is the size of the high degree of respect city, filled with competing for archivists and a events. In short, in order public understanding to make a splash in this and appreciation of their pond, we will have to act work, there is a new group like a big fish!” And that Invitation for ART’s Opening Night Celebration of New York that we need to inform is what we set out to do. Archives Week, October 2, 1989. New York Philharmonic Archives , 1989. and “sell” our message to An honorary committee was formed that included no less the MoMA event came from a senior and they are the Chief Information than Leonard Bernstein, Paul executive at the New York Stock Officers and Information Technology O’Dwyer, Allen Ginsburg, Archbishop Exchange, “I never have a boring departments who didn’t really exist Iakovos, Richard Jennrette, and conversation with an archivist.” The some twenty years ago. In this Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. A publicity first Archives Week proved to be a world the very word “archive” has committee was created whose goal success. become diluted and meaningless was to get the word “archives” and since it can refer to material that is the faces of archivists into all media Another major effort that year was kept anywhere from thirty days to outlets – through “photo ops” with to take a look inside our own ART eight years, but rarely in perpetuity. borough presidents and the mayor, organization and see if it could better From digital preservation, description all declaring “New York Archives serve the community’s needs. At standards metadata and contextual Day” or articles on Family History that time, ART was not incorporated search, the archivist needs to be a Fair. But to be a really big fish, we and had no bylaws. As we were part of those conversations within needed a big event and that was demonstrating our own individual the institutions that are creating and accomplished by honoring David professionalism through public preserving our future legacies. Most Rockefeller and holding the main outreach, it seemed a natural next archivists are not consulted regarding “kick-off” event at the Museum step to formalize some of ART’s digital documents and are generally of Modern Art. This guaranteed a structure. Again, committees were out of the loop in making the mention in Liz Smith’s column, as well impaneled to study the situation decisions related to long term care as getting the attention and interest and gather information from sister and access and yet the archivists have of many of the archivists’ bosses organizations. Mission statements so much to bring to that conversation. who were invited and attended the and bylaws were drafted. The One of the great services ART could event. All of this, large and small was Board was expanded and officers’ take on is facilitating the conversation to raise the profile of archivists and responsibilities were defined. And between archivists and the IT folks to their contributions. One of the most finally a pro bono “Lawyer for the ensure that our digital documentary gratifying comments overheard at Arts” was engaged to help us get heritage is not lost. Metropolitan Archivist, Vol. 15, No. 2 Page 9
Early Days at Archivists Round Table: Q&A with
Mimi Bowling professional organizations. One Meetings were held once a month, Interview conducted by reason that I haven’t been as active as they are now, at a repository and Celia Hartmann in the organization’s leadership then a lot of us would go out to dinner since those days is that archivists together – maybe a dozen or so of What was your earliest involvement newer to the field need to have those us looking for somewhere to hold a with Archivists Roundtable? opportunities, too. group that big. There was an annual I heard about the formation of the softball game for a couple of years, organization while I was working at What value did you find in your organized by the late Leslie Hansen Columbia, when it was structured involvement with the organization? Kopp, who was a performing arts with a more limited membership. It Of course there were the professional archivist and one of the first surveyors sounded like a great idea, and so a networking opportunities, but there in New York State’s Historical group of us attended one of the early was also a great sense of camaraderie Documents Inventory program in meetings in 1979, and subsequently and fun in the early days when I the 1980s. The first game was a joined. I served as Secretary-Treasurer belonged to Archivists Roundtable. huge success: we played in Riverside from 1980 to 1982, at the time that continued on page 19 Anne Van Camp was Chair, and as Chair from 1984 to 1985. At that time there were only three board positions: Recollections Chair, Vice Chair, and Secretary- Treasurer. After that, the organization Linda Edgerly grew very rapidly and was vigorous in Managing Director, The Winthrop Group its activities and programs. Probably the earliest and clearest the disadvantages of replicating the How would you characterize the recollections I have about the Round purposes and services of SAA and organization when you were first Table relate to the discussions, MARAC and spreading too thin the involved with it? sometimes rather heated, about volunteers whose time was critical to On a professional level, the whether the group should remain success. The fears some expressed organization served much the same ‘informal’ versus becoming more even included what I saw as a very purpose that it does now: to provide organized. As I look back, it is an unlikely ‘probability’ that archivists networking opportunities among intriguing development because it would drop their MARAC and SAA working archivists in the area, and to replicates part of what one frequently memberships. introduce us to different repositories sees in the evolution of many and to some idea of best practices companies and organizations. Often The Round Table’s move toward in our field. There were not as many this is a painful stage, one that can formal organization proceeded. This professional education opportunities redefine everything from the focus, did bring an infusion of new blood available as there are now, so it mission, and/or products/services, without alienating founders (at filled that gap as well. It gave us a to the very culture of an entity. least not insofar as I am aware), and chance to get to know each other, to Sometimes the change brings in new ultimately two results that, in my socialize, and to learn. blood but tends to alienate founders. opinion, are clearly identifiable now. In other instances the outcomes are And, as it still does today, it served completely positive, such as when First, for some of us in the profession as a kind of archival leadership farm a spark of innovation is struck and -- archivists who were involved in team. It gave archivists newer to spreads throughout an organization. the founding and early years of the field an opportunity to assume the Round Table, but also were leadership roles that they could The conversations and discussions beginning to be active in SAA -- a take forward into their work life or within the Round Table, as I more organized entity here in NYC into involvement with the national remember them, were more about continued on page 18 Page 10 Metropolitan Archivist, Vol. 15, No. 2
Looking Back and Ahead
Ellen Sowchek University Archivist, Pace University
It is hard to believe that thirty years have passed since a few of us got together to discuss professional issues and to network. This exchange led to the birth of the Archivists Round Table of Metropolitan New York. Most archivists are aware of the importance of anniversary Group photograph (left to right): Leonora Gidlund, Ellen Sowchek, celebrations for historical and promotional purposes, so and Barbara Niss at MARAC Conference in Williamsburg, Virginia, it is appropriate that we take advantage of our own, and Fall, 1988. use ART’s 30th Anniversary as an opportunity not only to reflect on the past, but also to think about what is to The issue of rapidly developing technology requires that come. archivists quickly adapt to using it, and at the same time, anticipate its obsolescence. For example, there is the Looking back over the last thirty years, I think the most question of digital-born material. remarkable change we have experienced as a profession is the double-edged sword of accelerated developments in How do we make sure it remains available, accessible, and technology. A new archivist entering the profession now reproducible? How do we preserve and research what, in has tools available that were unimaginable in 1979. At that terms of historiography, is a very immediate past? These time, most documents were paper, with microfilm the issues are complicated and sometimes troubling. But standard for long-term preservation in non-paper format. it is here that professional organizations like ART can Originals were stored in Hollinger boxes, named for the play an important role, by creating awareness, providing only company which manufactured them at that time. For education, and promoting advocacy. more fragile material, Mylar encapsulation offered a new option for in-house, relatively low-cost preservation. Reel- The other major change that has occurred in the last to-reel sound recordings were made obsolete, replaced thirty years has been the “professionalization” of the by cassette tape. Videotape was just starting to be used archival profession. During this period, the idea of for the documentation of events. Standard practice for certifying archivists became a reality. Also around this magnetic media was to rewind at least once annually, time, New York City developed a civil service test for hiring to maximize usable lifespan. The total lifespan of these professional archivists and technicians. But archivists are technologies was as yet unknown. Finding aids were not created by a credential or an exam result alone. We still being typed, on acid-free paper, typically on an IBM must have access to continuing education and – some Selectric typewriter, sometimes on one equipped with a things never change – workshops and classes must be magnetic memory card. Indexing and cross-referencing made available at a low cost. This was one of the reasons were still done manually. The rate of change was slow, why ART was founded – as a place where local archivists giving archivists the time “to wait- and- see” if the newest could share information and continue to develop new “solution” to storage and preservation problems would skills while maintaining and refining the ones already hold up over the long term. acquired.
Digital technology changed everything. The possibility of Providing resources for the continuing education of our creating, distributing, storing and retrieving materials in members is and should continue to be our most important new non-paper media, with heretofore unknown speed, was a true revolution. continued on page 19 Metropolitan Archivist, Vol. 15, No. 2 Page 11
Serving ART in the 1990s: Augmenting Archival Skills through Professional Development
Ira Galtman Corporate Archivist, American Express
Most archivists acquire the requisite skills for their profession from a combination of formal university degree and certificate programs, continuing education workshops, archives organizations’ conferences, and on- the-job training. We learn everything from appraisal to arrangement and description to preservation to providing reference to digitization of archival materials. Another Archivists Round Table “About” webpage, 2000, screenshot. source of professional development is volunteering for our with content producers for the website, the New York local and national professional organizations. In my case, Archives Week Committee leaders, and the web designer. this took the form of serving on the Board of Directors Other challenges included ensuring that the website of the Archivists Round Table of Metropolitan New York had the right look and feel as well as arranging and (ART). The organization’s 30th anniversary is a perfect communicating its information in a clear and organized opportunity for me to reflect on the ways in which my manner. I learned organizational skills from more senior ART membership and subsequent Board experience in archivists and appreciated the value of the teamwork the 1990s complemented my archival skills and helped required to accomplish this. Forging professional me grow as a professional. I found value and professional relationships and expanding my network were other growth through my service to ART in three areas: benefits. My experience gave me the confidence to accept teamwork, project management, and leadership. more responsibility in the organization. Joining ART in 1994, while a graduate student in New York PROJECT MANAGEMENT University’s Archival Management and Historical Editing In June, 1996, I had the honor to be elected to the ART program, I was introduced to the profession’s variety. Board of Directors as Coordinator of the Education I experienced the incredible diversity of repositories in Committee. In that capacity, I assembled a small team of the metropolitan New York area, the critical issues facing colleagues to assist me with the launch of two workshops archivists and, most importantly, the passionate and per year. After reviewing members’ feedback from tireless advocacy of ART members for the preservation previous workshops, the consensus was that digitization of historical records and support of archives. I became an was the most requested topic for future ART workshops. active ART member in the spring of 1996, when I joined Once again teamwork was important to executing our the New York Archives Week Committee. I was fortunate plans. We worked together to identify a speaker, secure a to be part of the subcommittee that launched the first venue, communicate to the membership, and ensure that ART website as a communication vehicle for New York the workshop ran smoothly. Archives Week activities in October 1996. Serving in this position for two years, I learned that good TEAMWORK project management skills were valuable in the planning ART’s first website was modest in design and functionality by today’s standards. Our team needed to coordinate continued on next page Page 12 Metropolitan Archivist, Vol. 15, No. 2
Serving ART in the 1990s continued from previous page project management and outstanding teamwork ensured that the exhibit accomplished its objectives and was launched in time for New York Archives Week in October, 2000.
The most important lesson I took from my presidency was the value of leadership. Leading a team in a voluntary organization poses a unique set of challenges. How do you achieve meaningful results through the collaboration of others, who are working above and beyond their full- time job? As President, I learned that it was important to listen to multiple Archivists and diverse voices, to set priorities, Round Table and to delegate the right tasks to the Virtual right people. Good leaders encourage Exhibit Home their team to be accountable for Page, 2000, their work, yet also make themselves screenshot available to listen to team members’ concerns and provide guidance. and implementation of successful effective and timely communications. Responding to your members’ workshops. Best practices of project feedback in a timely manner, whether management include a defined scope Another ART milestone was the you agree with their ideas or not, of work, logical timeline of tasks, launch of a virtual exhibit on the ART is another sign of a strong leader. budgetary control, and the flexibility website, which had been redesigned Presiding over monthly meetings and to overcome unexpected challenges. in 1999. The exhibit, From the other ART events made me accessible My leadership of the Education Seaport to Silicon Alley: A History of to the membership and assured them Committee was an excellent training Technology in New York City, 1820- that I understood my responsibilities ground for me to hone and apply 2000, was one of the first joint online as the organization’s leader. these important skills to more exhibits by a professional archives complex ART initiatives. organization in the United States. Learning and improving on these Featuring over 60 images from 26 leadership qualities helped make me LEADERSHIP different archival repositories in a well-rounded corporate archivist in My next opportunity was in June, the metropolitan New York area, my professional capacity at American 1999, when I was elected President it illustrated the diverse range of Express, which in turn improved my of ART. One of the highlights of my technological innovations and its ability to execute various archival professional career, my three year applications in and around New York projects. My service to ART in the tenure afforded me the privilege of City from the early 19th century to 1990s helped me contribute to key working with terrific members of the late 20th century. Disciplined organization initiatives and grow as the Board of Directors. The Board’s a professional. I encourage all ART accomplishments included two members to volunteer and contribute administrative changes: extending to 30 more successful years of service Directors’ terms to two years, with to the profession. only half the Board positions open each year; and introducing the ability Ira Galtman is Corporate Archivist, American Express to receive ART communications via Company. All comments or statements made in this e-mail. The former improved the article, however, reflect the views of the author and are continuity of the organization while not necessarily the views of American Express Company. the latter resulted in more cost- © Dwight Carter Photography (2008) Metropolitan Archivist, Vol. 15, No. 2 Page 13
The Adventures of a New Archivist: The Value of Networking
Megan A. Hibbits
FINDING ARCHIVES Cedar Jack’s Last Strand Clam Bar in the Melrose neighborhood of Like many children, I often thought about what I wanted The Bronx, circa 1890. The African American proprietor (standing to be when I grew up. From an FBI agent to an animal at left) offered clams, clam chowder, and cigars. trainer, my possible career choices always reflected Courtesy of The Bronx Historical Society. a wide variety of interests. I had considered working in the history field, but did not want to be a teacher. I University and the Brooklyn Museum, I continued to had never even heard of being an archivist until after a attend ART meetings on a regular basis. The most discussion with a career advisor at my university, who meaningful for me focused on the Lower East Side advised me to look into it. After some additional research Squatters/Homesteaders Archives Project, funded by a about the profession, I completed an internship at the grant through the Documentary Heritage Program. This History Room of the Marin County Public Library in San presentation brought home for me the crucial importance Rafael, California. I fell in love with working with archival of documenting both underdocumented populations and materials and became fascinated with the long forgotten the events relating to such groups. information told through these collections. Of particular interest were the papers of the Federal Writers Project, After a later meeting, in which David von Drehle, the which contained information regarding Marin County’s author of Triangle: The Fire that Changed America, told silkworm industry and a sanatorium located in Sausalito. the spellbinding story of the fire, his efforts to document After completing the internship, I could not imagine it, and its catalytic role in New York labor history, I myself doing anything else but becoming an archivist. read the book and continue to recommend it to those interested in labor or urban history. At each meeting I PROFESSIONAL NETWORKING OPPORTUNITIES attend, I have learned practical information about archives Having relocated to New York City, because I believed management, whether the specifics of planning and there were greater opportunities for archivists in the implementing digitization projects, continuing education tristate area, I enrolled in the MLS program at Long Island about the Archivists Toolkit, or the upsides and downsides University. During one of my courses, I learned about of minimal processing techniques for manuscript the Archivists Round Table (ART) and attended my first repositories. meeting in September 2004, at Columbia University. In addition to learning about the evening’s topic, “The USA GIVING BACK TO ART Patriot Act: Implications for Librarians, Archivists, and All In July 2006, I was hired by The Bronx County Historical Americans,” I was also able, for the first time, to network Society to conduct The Bronx African American Archival with other professional archivists. That opportunity, Survey, funded by the Metropolitan New York Library afforded by ART’s monthly events on a wide range of Council’s (METRO) Documentary Heritage Program. It topics, continues to be an important aspect of my career appeared to be a straightforward project: who wouldn’t development as an archivist. want their records to be considered historically significant
As a professional archivist working part-time at Columbia continued on page 39 Page 14 Metropolitan Archivist, Vol. 15, No. 2
Communications and Outreach: An Ever-Changing Position
Compiled by Sarah Hodge NYU Graduate Student, Archives Program
In March of 2009, two former Communication and Outreach Coordinators, Joe Ciccone and Rebecca Altermatt, and the current Communications and Outreach Coordinator, Rachel Chatalbash, met to discuss the evolution of the Communications and Outreach position. The discussion was based on the notion that this position has changed greatly since its inception, mostly due to the growth Metropolitan Archivist, of communication tools. Volume 12, No. 2, Summer 2007
GETTING STARTED directory and email the same question to different people. Rachel Chatalbash: What interested you in this position in particular? RA: It’s a good way to gauge what people think about certain issues and get people more actively involved. Joe Ciccone: Ira Galtman, the outgoing president at the time, asked if I was interested in a position and described THE NEWSLETTER what each did. I had no experience with newsletters, but it JC: When I took over the newsletter it was just me seemed like the most interesting one. basically doing the work. After the first issue, I thought this was silly; this is just too much work, and ultimately I RC: What about you, Rebecca? was able to recruit Kristen Nyitray to edit book reviews, Celia Hartmann helped out with a couple of other Rebecca Altermatt: I guess it was a couple of things. sections, Ellen Mehling did interviews, and there were one One, Joe pressured me into doing it – kidding! The other, or two other people helping out. Essentially, I was able to Linda Edgerly at Winthrop wanted us [Winthrop Staff] to get to a stage where my job was to put together the basic be more active professionally. The Archivists Round Table layout. My predecessor, Marianne LaBatto at Brooklyn was a good way to become more familiar to the archives College, did quite a bit to improve the newsletter. She first community and to learn about the archives of New York put it on a schedule, essentially the schedule we have now City. Also, when I was in high school I was the editor of the (the winter and summer issues) and named the newsletter paper, so I’ve done this kind of stuff before and I thought along with some of the basic series, such as the Archivist it would be fun. A lot of it was about networking and the Roundup. need to know more people RC: So, the newsletter has been an important part of the JC: It was one of the great and unexpected benefits of position for the last ten to twelve years. having the position, it gave me an opportunity to network and meet folks. I would talk to people at meetings and JC: Marianne did a great job of helping me with the email them in connection with newsletter pieces. We had transition. She sent me a complete run of the newsletter this roving reporter section for only two or three issues. until that point, which I sent to ART’s archives after my We’d pick a topic and then email various members to term ended. I think that when position was created in the get their opinion on it. That actually worked out great, early 90s it had been the responsibility of the position to because I was able to do it through the membership continued on next page Metropolitan Archivist, Vol. 15, No. 2 Page 15
Communications & Outreach continued from previous page RA: And you started the advertising I thought putting it online would be a edit the newsletter and do one or too? time and money saver. two other small things, but it seems with the title of Communications and JC: We also started the advertising. RC: The online format allowed us to Outreach they had a grander vision. When the size increased, the cost cut advertisements. In the latest issue increased. Previously, a printer in they no longer exist - instead we have RA: The newsletter is a lot of work sponsors. It’s an annual sponsorship and I don’t think people realize it, and we link to the sponsor’s site from such as finding people to write and our website. We tried to strip out the reminding them to write. extra stuff and focus on gathering content, because once you have the RC: What was the newsletter like newsletter online you’re no longer when you started? limited by anything besides your own labor. We had a number of lead JC: It was four pages, basically a articles and we had more ART news. ledger size, folded in half with a We returned to the old model for ART half dozen short articles. There was news, which I think had dissipated already some of today’s formatting, in favor of the lead articles. Also, the Archivist Roundup section and we are producing our first thematic the title, Metropolitan Archivist. issue dedicated to the ART’s 30th I’m the one who bears the blame anniversary. for expanding it, because it didn’t make sense to me to continue it in RA: I tried to do that when I was its current version. I suggested either there, to give more regular news. get rid of it or expand it. I talked to the board and brainstormed ways to RC: I think this is the first time we’ve develop it and that is when it evolved been successful in that in a couple of to its current format. Top: Metropolitan Archivist, years. Volume 13, No. 1, Winter 2007 RA: You had different kinds of articles Bottom: Metropolitan Archivist, RA: Maybe because it’s online, it’s Volume 13, No. 2, Summer 2008 included in the newsletter when I more gratifying for people to see took over, like exhibit reviews and the repository review. New York had been used and the cost RC: Also, people can link to it. I think was incredible. I found a printer who that’s the great thing. If you google JC: Generally there were two or three charged half as much in New Jersey, Metropolitan Archivist right now, a feature pieces. One of those was which enabled us to incur significant lot of hits come up and people are a repository review and then Ellen savings, but it still cost a lot to mail talking about their articles and linking Mehling volunteered to interview the the newsletter. I started the ads as to them. members. The idea was that there a way to balance the cost of mailing would be a review of the repository and printing. By the time I left, the JC: It expands circulation so much and a review of the membership. Joe advertisements were pulling in further. Komljenovich suggested adding book several hundred dollars and with the reviews. So, I added book reviews, reduced price of printing it balanced RA: It would be nice to put the old two or three, and then there was out the costs. newsletter issues up so people could the ART news section, which was see how it’s changed and then to the meeting roundup and award RA: The only thing I wanted to do eventually put up all the newsletters ceremony article. When I started, with the newsletter was make it would be a good idea. what’s now in the ART news section electronic. It would be cheaper, is essentially what the newsletter had because it cost a lot to print, and we OUTREACH been. would no longer have to spend all RC: Another way the position has those man-hours preparing it to mail. continued on page 28 Page 16 Metropolitan Archivist, Vol. 15, No. 2
As 2009 marks the 30th anniversary of the organization, the Communications and Outreach Committee thought it would be an excellent opportunity to highlight the history of ART and you, the members who have been vital to its success.
Looking back, we decided to mark the occasion by beginning Member Feedback: a discussion on the future of ART. Over the past three decades, ART continuously adapted to meet changes in the ART’s Future archival field, technology, and members’ lives. We asked a few members to open the dialogue regarding ART’s future by answering three questions. Collected and Compiled by Sara Henderson The Communications and Outreach Committee thanks those who participated and invites you to continue this discussion, bringing new ideas to the table and relating to those presented here. We welcome all comments at [email protected].
I hope ART will continue to reach out at other archives and hear what to a broad and diverse spectrum of archivists are working on creates institutions, collections and archivists. From your an atmosphere very conducive to - Grace Lile, learning from others. The workshops perspective, what Media Archive and Distribution Manager, provide an opportunity to learn a WITNESS should ART focus upon new skill, or more about specific or do to remain a relevant archival issues, and the listserv is I’d like to see ART continue to have and useful organization quickly becoming another way to meetings that provide insight into to archivists in the communicate with local archivists interesting archival issues and Metropolitan area? with similar problems or experiences. problems, applicable to members All of these pieces will serve ART well who work at large and small in the future. - Susan Woodland repositories; that highlight collections Director, Hadassah Archives or exhibitions that have a special value to New Yorkers in general; and As a student looking to break into that provide networking possibilities This is totally self-serving (I’m the professional archival field, I for new and working archivists. currently underemployed), but I think it is important for ART to hold - Janet Bunde, Assistant University and think it would be great to do more workshops/ possibly training sessions Brademas Congressional Papers Archivist for budding archivists. For current New York University Archives free events--resume writing, basic workshops (digitization, EAD, etc). archivists, it might also be useful for Also, there should be more outreach ART to provide refresher courses in the latest technology (since digital A stronger presence in the archival to students, so they can get involved media and tech seems to constantly community at large is needed. This from the get-go. I noticed you be changing) and how archives can can be accomplished through sending recently joined facebook, which was a incorporate it into their collections. representatives to MARAC and NEA really great move. I guess keeping on - Heather Ball conferences; a greater presence on top of digital/web trends can help you the A&A Listserv; and joint workshops stay relevant as well. - Anne DiFabio or presentations with other local As one suggestion for making ART groups. more relevant, perhaps it could - Sharon A. Pullen, C.A., expand its role in helping area Archivist Office of the County Clerk, I find ART to be extremely helpful Historic Documents Library , as a networking organization, and archivists by setting up some kind of Office of Suffolk County Clerk the opportunity to attend programs knowledge bank – i.e. let members Metropolitan Archivist, Vol. 15, No. 2 Page 17
Also more socializing opportunities after the case study presentation. could be very beneficial, both for Perhaps the best way around this indicate in what areas they have networking and commiserating would be to make sure that the issue expertise, and if they would be willing purposes, like happy hours for for discussion was quite targeted, to answer questions – perhaps this instance. intentionally designed to appeal to could be indicated in the membership - Cynthia Tobar only a subset of ART members at directory. (The membership directory Archivist/Cataloger a time. I can imagine, for instance, is a very useful resource in any case.) New York Public Library a meeting for issues of collection - Kenneth Cobb management in Archivists’ Toolkit, or Municipal Archives As an archivist working for a small questions about alternate methods of non-profit in this economy, and describing and measuring graphic arts ART is an outstanding organization. with little experience in fundraising, collections. These are just two topics ART attracts archivists from all over workshops on grant-writing and I happen to be interested in, but of from NYC as well as from the tri- other funding opportunities would course there are many, many more state area. Outreach is critical to be useful, as well as workshops to out there. And I would bet that there reach new members. As a former help keep my skills current regarding are a lot of archivists who, like me, Outreach Committee chair who archives-related technology and would welcome the chance to join a pushed successfully for ART to have resources such as the Archivists focused but informal conversation a newsletter, getting out the word Toolkit. with colleagues. To choose issues - Kristine Paulus, to the membership and recruiting is for discussion, perhaps the ART Librarian & Archivist, critical. ART has done an excellent website could feature a “round table New York Academy of Art job. The question that ART should ask suggestion” section where members itself is, “Is the membership up and could pitch ideas for meetings. has it remained stable? Having an - Wendy Scheir, Director, Kellen Archives, influx of new members and retaining I’d like to see ART take the “round Parsons The New School for Design the current membership helps keep table” in its name literally, with ART vital. One challenge that ART entire meetings devoted to active Money. That is my concern. I work should consider is, “How to get those discussions centered around an issue in the archives of a small historical individuals on board to join ART but or situation faced in our work. While I society, where funding is already consider themselves librarians, thus enjoy finding out about collections in difficult. It will probably get harder. ART isn’t relevant to them. Perhaps other repositories, I sometimes leave Anything the Round Table can do one solution is publicity beyond the ART meetings feeling that I haven’t to help members share winning archival world to let those individuals had the chance to really engage with strategies for attracting funding, know that ART offers the opportunity other archivists around an issue. The sponsorships, grants, and the like— to develop ties professionally with round table meetings I’m envisioning particularly for little places—will be an others doing similar work. could be structured differently from asset. - Valerie Wingfield, Archivist, New York the current social hour/presentation/ - Philip Blocklyn Public Library, Manuscripts and Archives question-answer/tour format. In the Archivist and Librarian Division round table meetings one--or more Oyster Bay Historical Society than one--archivist could present a short case study describing a ART has done such a great job with project in which the given issue was As a longtime member of ART, I’ve arranging tours of fantastic archives encountered, focusing on blind alleys benefited greatly from attending and professional workshops. The as well as successes. Following that meetings and workshops and value one thing that comes to my mind would be a sit-down, informal group the friendships made and resources is the need for us to form more conversation where ideas are shared, discovered. I salute the past and opportunities amongst archivists in questions raised, other perspectives present leadership of ART, and hope the area to get together and share offered, and possibly even some that ART will continue to expand advice, especially during tough solutions found. This format would programs and ways to “connect” even times like these. It doesn’t have to probably not work well in the large in these challenging times. be scary. Maybe by organizing more gathering format of the current - Carolyn Kopp, Research Manager, job fairs with tips for resume-writing, monthly meetings, unless we were Archives interviewing, networking and the like. to break out into smaller groups TIAA-CREF Page 18 Metropolitan Archivist, Vol. 15, No. 2 Question #2. As for the next year, I think, for me The basic pattern of monthly personally, that any training sessions meetings has worked well and should What can ART do or meet-and-greets ART could continue. And I believe that the that would help provide me with would be pivotal to meeting programs do support the jumpstarting my career as soon as I goals of the organization. It might YOU during the finish my MLS. be helpful to have the presentation next year? - Heather Ball first, followed by the socializing, as the evenings often run late. Perhaps I believe that ART can best support I would find it helpful if there were fewer speakers at any one meeting, its members by continuing to offer also opportunities to talk about the for the same reason. and to expand its excellent program financial climate and the employment I understand that given the way of workshops and professional situation, and to share ideas and transportation systems work in the development opportunities. leads for job-hunting, learning metro area -- intended to make it - Grace Lile, Media Archive and Distribution about unadvertised jobs, and to easy to get into and out of Manhattan Manager, WITNESS discuss cutbacks and changes at – it is best to have meetings there, work. Perhaps time could be set but perhaps once in a while, an Scheduling a couple of meetings aside at regular monthly meetings organization somewhere else in about an hour later or at a suburban for a 15 minute discussion, or the region might be persuaded to location would be helpful to me perhaps separate meetings could be host a meeting – there are so many and other “outlying” members. scheduled for those actively looking interesting repositories represented Frequently I feel as if ART is the for work, including current archives by our members. “New York Manhattan Archivists students. Being responsive to current I know that meetings are not held Roundtable.” - Sharon A. Pullen, C.A. market trends and financial situations during July and August, but perhaps Archivist, Office of the County Clerk, will help ART remain relevant. this tradition could be revisited with Historic Documents Library - Susan Woodland a summer meeting substituting for a Director, Hadassah Archives winter one, when the weather is often The workshops I’ve attended in recent a factor. - Kenneth Cobb years were great--I’d love to see more Municipal Archives of them! - Janet Bunde Assistant University and Brademas Recollections continued from page 9 Congressional Papers Archivist to move on to involvement in the New York University Archives did require extra time if we were to be growth and leadership of MARAC deeply involved. I think this tended and SAA. The latter of these I see as Workshops! I’ve noticed since to accelerate our move toward an unfortunate outcome both for the graduating in December that there leadership commitments in MARAC New York area archivists and for our are some holes in my archivist and/or SAA. That is, we didn’t have regional and national professional education. I would love to be a part of time for everything and so chose to organizations which would benefit an organization that helped fill these put our energies into the professional from having more New Yorkers in holes in both cheaply and locally. For environments that had regional and their leadership ranks. I would be example, the NY librarians meetup national character and offered us new delighted to be proven wrong about group is doing a power resume and broader challenges. this, and would welcome a discussion writing workshop later in the month, with anyone who is interested in the which would be great. Second, the improved organizational subject. As far as topics to cover, obviously structure of the Round Table digitization. As I said before, stuff made possible some significant Linda Edgerly is a founding partner about EAD, copyright issues, etc. I accomplishments on an area level, and currently Managing Director of The also would love to see more focus on particularly in giving younger Winthrop Group and Director of Winthrop’s environmental/green aspects that professionals important opportunities Information and Archival Services Division. can be used in archives. Furthermore, to develop and practice their The Winthrop Group is a consulting firm more discussion on social issues (race, that helps corporations, arts-related leadership skills. Sadly, it seems to organizations, philanthropic entities, gender, class, LGBT community, labor me, it also has tended to lessen an issues, etc) would be great in NYART private families, and established artists inclination on the part of those same identify, preserve, and use their archival events. - Anne DiFabio young professionals in the NYC area assets. Metropolitan Archivist, Vol. 15, No. 2 Page 19
Question #3. I think the value of ART, particularly ART could also be more proactive given the number of archival in recruiting library and archives What can ART education programs in the students – perhaps a meeting once do that would area, is that it can really provide a year could be at one of the library mentorship possibilities for new schools, or could be structured to help YOU in the archivists. I’d also like to see ART directly address issues of new and play more of a role in helping future archivists. next decade? members submit proposals to ART is in a good position to MARAC and SAA (and other less continue to attract new members, If possible, I would like ART to bring archivally focused conferences, if because it is an excellent forum for back the popular calendar. This gave applicable) for session panels or making contacts, learning about ART members the opportunity to posters. - Janet Bunde jobs, and improving professional promote their holdings and allowed Assistant University and Brademas skills. a joint participation in one particular Congressional Papers Archivist - Susan Woodland event. ART should continue to New York University Archives Director, Hadassah Archives hold classes on relevant topics to the community at large. Why not More frequent workshops offered As for the next decade, I think (as I consider having a topic of the day with an emphasis on “hands-on.” said before) that refresher courses using something like “Twitter” where More communication with members on changing technologies will help there is instantaneous input from via an online searchable directory and to keep archivists up-to-date, so members. - Valerie Wingfield, other online services. that we can incorporate technology Archivist, New York Public Library, - Sharon A. Pullen, C.A., into our archives, instead of being Manuscripts and Archives Division Archivist, Office of the County Clerk, left behind in the technological Historic Documents Library dust. - Heather Ball
Early Days Looking Back and Ahead (“the computer will do it”), there are continued from page 9 continued from page 10 still basic principles involved that Park and members showed up with mission. But it is a mission which every archivist should know. This is their spouses and significant others, must strike a balance between where ART can play an important role children, dogs. We probably played newcomers and experienced by providing a forum for its members a few such games; we had to give it professionals and between the to discuss ideas, moving beyond the up as it got harder and harder to find specialist in a large institution and the simple (or not-so-simple) “how to” to a softball space in Manhattan. It’s “Lone Arranger” (a term coined by the fundamental “why”. hard to maintain that family feeling one of ART’s original members, the as an organization grows, but it was late Brother Denis Sennett). To this ART has one more important definitely there in the early years. I would add: between theoreticians function: providing its members and technicians. In the past few years, with the opportunity to give back Mimi Bowling is a Consulting Archivist in I have attended continuing education to the profession. Membership in the New York metropolitan area and an workshops where the emphasis ART is important, not only for the adjunct faculty member at Long Island was entirely on technology. While networking and social opportunities University’s Palmer School of Library and this is important – gaining greater it offers, but also because it gives Information Science. Her courses include knowledge was certainly one of my members a chance to put their Archives and Manuscripts, and Appraisal of Archives and Manuscripts. She received her objectives for attending – let us not experience and expertise at the MLS from Columbia University’s School of overlook the “theoretical”. By this, I service of their colleagues and to Library Service and served as the reference mean the fundamental ideas of our newcomers who will, in turn, do the librarian in the Rare Book and Manuscripts profession which do not change as a same. This is something that exists Library at Columbia. She subsequently function of technology. For example: beyond technology, and is the true spent 5 years as Archivist at the Edison What makes a good finding aid? While meaning of continuing education. National Historic Site and 13 years as technology makes them easier to May ART continue to fulfill this Curator of Manuscripts at The New York generate – transforming the task of function for its members, and for the Public Library. indexing almost into an afterthought NY archival community. Page 20 Metropolitan Archivist, Vol. 15, No. 2
Interview with the Archivist: Barbara Niss By Ellen Mehling
Barbara Niss works in The Archives Division of the Levy Library at Mount Sinai. The archives is charged with identifying, collecting, preserving, and making available documentary evidence relating to The Mount Sinai Hospital (1852- ), Mount Sinai School of Medicine (1963- ), and The Mount Sinai Medical Center. There is also an extensive collection of material relating to The Mount Sinai Hospital School of Nursing (1881-1971). Ellen Mehling – Where were you born? Where did you putting things in order? grow up? BN – Yes, I remember when I was young and my mother Barbara Niss – I was born in Malone, New York, which would always leave us our chores for the day and I always is way, way up in Northern New York, and I grew up in got the chore of having to organize all the cupboards, you Watertown, New York…which isn’t quite so far up. know, all the pots and pans, all the spices, whatever. It sounds so silly but I was just the ‘organizing one’. EM – What did you want to be when you were a kid? EM – And you enjoyed that… BN – I don’t think I had a very well-formed idea of that. I remember thinking when I went away to college that I was BN – There’s something kind of neat about making order going to be a lawyer, and so for a brief moment I double- out of chaos. majored in history and poli sci. And somewhere during freshman year that fell apart and then I had no clue. EM – Do you enjoy organizing things both at work and outside of work? EM – OK, but you did have history in there… BN – I don’t…I don’t like the term ‘OCD’ (smiling) but you BN – Oh, absolutely, I was a declared history major my know I do like to have things organized. Neat is a whole first day of college. I also had work-study in the library, other thing, but organized, yes. so I spent many hours in the library and that’s actually where I first learned about archives, because my college, EM – What was your very first job? the College of New Rochelle, had an institutional archives, and when the archivist needed some help I volunteered BN – Before archives, or as an archivist? and they allowed me to shift my work-study hours to the archives. EM – Your actual, very first job.
EM – Nice! So you were an undergrad, at that point, when BN – I worked at the snack bar of our local bowling alley, you first started getting interested in archives? for quite a few years. Our family was very involved in bowling, and I taught bowling to younger kids, even as BN – Yes, and it seemed like it was the perfect profession a kid and all through high school. I was on our school for me, because it was all about organizing things and teams and we bowled all the time… My mother actually arranging things, and history, and it fit very well with me. owned the concession to the snack bar at the bowling alley…and then later became employed by the Brunswick EM – Is that something that comes to you naturally, continued on next page Metropolitan Archivist, Vol. 15, No. 2 Page 21 continued from previous page
Corporation and became a manager of bowling alleys, EM – So you started the program here? later, when I was older in high school. So, yeah, I spent a great deal of time in bowling alleys when I was younger. BN – On a professional basis. There was a collection here. There had been a doctor that had been collecting EM – So, from bowling alleys to archives! (both laughing) records for twenty years. He was a real Renaissance man, a wonderful, wonderful man, Dr. Albert Lyons. So there BN – Yeah, they’re so similar! was a collection that he kind of oversaw, in between other things, and he also taught history of medicine courses, but EM – You mentioned the College of New Rochelle…what he was getting older so he convinced the administration other schools did you go to and what degrees did you get? that they should hire a professional. He worked with the library director to have a professional position in the BN – I have my bachelor’s from the College of New library as a division of the library and that is indeed what Rochelle and then during my senior year I applied for a happened, and so I was the first professional to come in Herbert H. Lehman Fellowship that’s offered through and really organize and the collection. New York State to people that are going to get a graduate degree in the humanities but not become a teacher. By EM – How long ago was this? that time I had decided that I would like to become an archivist. They required that you go to a school in New BN – It was 1986. I have not been at Mount Sinai York so I went to the NYU Archives program, which I continuously, though, I stayed home from ’93-’95 to raise think at that time was “Archival Management”…oh God, my kids, and from ’95 to ’99 I was part-time in the Library. it changed it’s name…and “Historical Editing”, I can’t At the Library I did a collection inventory and worked on even remember…”Museums” or something, it was weird. the newsletter. Then in ’99 I returned to the Archives. Now it’s “Archives and Public History”, but it had a much The administration allowed me the flexibility to raise my different name before. I took like one historical editing children; I needed and still have an early schedule. So I course so I never even mention historical editing any was able to balance family and work, which was good. more! (laughing). So I went to the NYU History/Archives program, received a Master’s and a Certificate in Archival EM – And what kind of shape was the collection in? Management. BN – Oh, I have photographs! It…Dr. Lyons had a series EM – The NYU Archival program, it’s a degree in history…? of helpers over the years that…took things apart and put them into nice subject folders and, you know, ‘people’ BN – It’s a graduate degree in history. folders, and various things. There were boxes…it was like cabinets on two sides, lateral filing cabinets, with boxes EM – That’s what I thought. What was your first job as an and piles down the middle, and all pretty much…what archivist? they had gotten to, was all taken apart and put in subject and person files. So one of the first things I did was to, BN – [During the] last year [at NYU] I did an internship at you know, put collections back together, whatever I the New York Hospital Archives and that grew into my first could discern of the collections, and some of them were job as an assistant archivist at New York Hospital-Cornell easily discernable. And also to put together the standard Medical Center, as it was then called, Archives. I was there kinds of collections institutional archives have, you know, for a couple of years and then I became an archivist at the publications and reports, and newspapers and things like LaGuardia Archives at LaGuardia Community College. that. There was a lot of good stuff there, it was just a Back then they were called the LaGuardia Archives, of question of, you know, trying to give it order and to create course now they have a much longer name to reflect their the first description of any of it, as well, the first finding increased collections, but I was brought in at the point aids. Dr. Lyons was also, it’s strange, he was a surgeon where they were taking in the records of the New York but he was also one of the founders of the Oral History City Housing Authority and concentrated mostly on that Association and was very…and he used to go to SAA and project. I was there for two years and then I started here whatever…was very interested in oral history and in the at Mount Sinai, to establish the archives program here. sixties he started doing interviews with some of the older
continued on next page Page 22 Metropolitan Archivist, Vol. 15, No. 2 continued from previous page doctors who were here that come up… You know, when were real pioneers. Our oral you’re a lone arranger, I was history collection, he was thinking today on the way getting started, you know, in, I was thinking about the when Columbia was really interview…I could devote all gearing up their program of my time to my oral history and so, in fact, worked a collection. Right now one of little with Columbia. Some the things I’m doing is we’re of our interviews, our early getting them transcribed interviews are…they have and so I’m going through the a Mount Sinai Collection transcripts. Many of them there. But he did many, many are already transcribed but interviews and they are still there are some that never here and they are really a were so I’m going back and valuable resource that we digitizing them myself. have. So yeah, he collected a Provided by Mount Sinai Medical Center Archives. Many of them are on reel-to- lot of really great stuff. reel tapes and those I don’t actually worry about as much as the cassette tapes, so, those are the ones I’m trying to EM – How big is the staff here now? get copied. I’ll get digital copies, which I’ll make myself, then we e-mail them off and they’re transcribed and, of BN – As of today it is one and a half. There is myself, a course, I have to go through the transcripts and listen and full-time person and I have a half-time assistant but that’s to take care of that. So I could spend all of my time doing only in this past year, in 2008, that I was finally able to oral histories, between cataloging, and if you digitize it, get a real, professional half-time person as an assistant. wow you can put it up online and do cool stuff. Or, I could I’ve been alone lo these many years…and actually she’s spend all my time on my photo collection; that’s a one- leaving in May and once she’s gone, because of the person job right there, or I could actually process, which economy I will not be able to re-hire for the position, at trust me does not happen much, or… you get the idea… least not right away, but hopefully at some point in the future I will be able to re-fill that position because it’s been EM – Any one of those things could take up all of your wonderful! (laughing) time.
EM – Yes, I can imagine, having that help! Are you still BN – Yes, and deserves to take up all of my time. doing oral histories? Absolutely. But we are real service-oriented here in the library, and it’s also my preference, you know, to help BN – No. We…for the hospital’s sesquicentennial, in 2002, people so generally doing reference comes first and the another doctor here, another surgeon actually, Arthur other stuff comes in when you can. Aufses, and I, co-authored a book on the history of The Mount Sinai Hospital [This House of Noble Deeds] and a EM – Who are your users? couple of years later we did the history of the school as well [Teaching Tomorrow’s Medicine Today]. As part of BN – We are primarily in-house users, and I just did my that, Arthur hired student help and between them and statistics yesterday but I think like…60 out of 80, and himself did many interviews with people at the time. We that’s just rough numbers, were in-house. And within have interviewed some people at in-between times. We that, it varies, it varies from faculty members that need also have tapes of events, ceremonies, and things like images for some presentation, to risk management that, and we have 146 interviews with individuals… that needs some policy and procedure because we’re involved in some litigation somewhere, to students that EM – So, it’s sporadic now, that you’re doing any oral are interested in pursuing and doing a history of medicine histories? project and so they need some guidance, whatever… administrators looking to re-do their websites and they BN – I would say it is almost non-existent. If it would continued on next page Metropolitan Archivist, Vol. 15, No. 2 Page 23
need information, some department having a centennial, graduate school, were involved in the Round Table. so it’s a range of things. We also have the records here of The Mount Sinai Hospital School of Nursing, that was EM – So that was your introduction to it? from 1881 to 1971, and so I do get requests for transcripts and other student records out of there, that’s a small, BN – Yes, oftentimes they would meet at Tamiment small subset. So there’s a whole range of things. A lot Library at NYU, or at the NYU Archives, they often hosted, of requests are looking for digital images. If you walk so they were right there, why wouldn’t you go? And it around Mount Sinai enough you will notice that our walls was brought home to us that you should be professionally are splashed with historical pictures; a lot of people like to involved, you should go out and meet other archivists and decorate with history and for a while I felt absolutely like network, and…then once you went it was a nice friendly that was all I was doing, because the other thing I also do group. It was obviously smaller back then, but still, it was is I do all my own scanning. There’s no one else to do it, a group of archivists that, you know, you could meet and I do it. That was a big project for a while…but it’s good, identify with. We traveled around to the various places because it gets the images out there, it gets the history and we got to see many different repositories that way. A out there. I have also noticed over the past few years I’m lot of the meetings early on were just learning about that getting many, many more requests from abroad. repository and their collections, and it may or may not involve a tour, but the speaker often matched the venue. EM - Oh, yes? Now I think we’re somewhat limited in venues because of our size. Back then size wasn’t an issue! (laughing) BN – Because of the web. We get, traditionally, we get quite a few requests from Germany, because we…many EM – About how many would show up to a meeting then? Jewish doctors, in the 1930s, obviously, started coming to our country and for many of them the first stop would BN – I have no idea…thirty? You know, I …I really couldn’t be Mount Sinai. And a lot of people - whether the doctors tell you but I think around thirty and we developed a came here or not - this is oftentimes the first place they group of us would go out to dinner afterwards, a large think of them coming, as a Jewish-identified institution. group, and it was a great way to meet people and I still So they contact me for information on various individual am friends with those same people. And it’s been a great physicians. As I said, I just did my statistics yesterday, help professionally because you can always call them. so this quarter I had a request from BBC Scotland, I had So it was…and I think I was not a member for a couple something from Jerusalem, Germany and Australia, a of years there, when I stayed home and took care of my filmmaker in Australia. kids for a year and a half. I stopped going to Round Table [meetings] and now I actually still don’t go all that much EM- So, all over the place! unless it’s really compelling. I don’t go for the social… anymore. I go for the topic now. BN – Yeah, you know they just find you through the web and it’s cool, they’re all very legitimate questions. Also in those early years a few of us created a MARAC brochure entitled, “Selecting an Archivist” and saw the EM – How long have you been a member of the Archivists beginning of ART’s “Archives Week”, which later expanded Round Table? to NY State and later still became national. There were even subway ads for “Archives Week”! BN – Oh, God, I would have joined when I was still in graduate school so probably since, probably thirty years EM – What do you like to do in your free time? this year. No, I take that back, not thirty years, probably since 1980, ’81 at the latest. BN – I have to say I have no hobbies. You know, there’s nothing I do. I have two teenagers, I’m either driving them EM – What made you decide to join the Archivists Round somewhere or they’re just totally gone. So we hang out. Table? My husband and I like to go to movies, I like to read books.
BN – Oh, how could you not join? (laughing) It was…the people that ran the NYU Archives program when I was in continued on next page Page 24 Metropolitan Archivist, Vol. 15, No. 2
EM – (laughing) Those are hobbies! EM – So, chocolate chip or chocolate-chocolate chip… BN – We’re so boring! (laughing). I clean my house on weekends. That’s not boring? I don’t collect anything… BN – Sure! Any of those…
EM – Is there one place you’ve always wanted to visit but EM - Next is my traditional final question – if you could you’ve never gone there? work in any archives, real or fictional, where would you like to work? BN – England. BN – I…this is really hard, because I would just be here, EM – Any place in particular in England? you know, because the longer you work in a place, the more you know about it. I find Mount Sinai fascinating, BN – No. (laughing) When I was an undergraduate I just fascinating, because of what I know about it. The little took some courses in English history and I just find it minutiae, that no one else would notice, to me is a story. interesting. And I speak the language! So, I think I would like to work in an improved Mount Sinai Archives: one, that had the…where the collection, not EM – Yeah, that helps! When you’re traveling… Do you anything had slipped away, where the chairman hadn’t have any pets? retired and given his papers somewhere, or where they hadn’t thrown it all away before I got there or, you know, BN – We have a dog. something like that. I would like to work at the dream Mount Sinai Archives. EM – What kind of dog? EM – Where everything that should end up here… BN – He’s a mongrel. He’s a mutt that we got from the shelter and his name, he came with the name ‘Babe’. And BN – …ended up here, and where somebody else had we couldn’t agree on anything different so it stuck, so he’s already processed it! (laughing) still Babe. So when my husband takes him to the park and lets him off his leash then he’s calling, “Hey, Babe! Hey, EM – Oh…kay! It arrived all ready… Babe!” (both laughing) BN - …with a digital finding aid, or at least a folder listing, EM – That’ll get people’s attention! and then I would be incredibly happy. I’d be happy to do the research and writing at the front end. Do the scope BN – Yeah, it does. It does. and all that other stuff, that’s the fun part. At this point I cannot imagine starting over somewhere else. It would EM – Favorite kind of music? have to be a medical place… I am very interested in the history of medicine, the history of medical education, BN – Pop. and the history of nursing, and things like that. So at this point, anyplace I worked in would have to be related to EM – Here’s a little-bit-unusual question: What’s your that. favorite breakfast? EM – It sounds like you’re in just the right place for you. BN – [long pause] Ugh, I’m so boring! (laughing) Ummm… a muffin? BN – I absolutely am.
EM – Any particular kind of muffin?
BN – Anything with chocolate is always good! (laughing) Metropolitan Archivist, Vol. 15, No. 2 Page 25
Student Section The Student Section of the Metropolitan Archivist is written for and by students in archives programs in the New York metropolitan area. We invite all up and coming archivists to write about the profession and/or any issues important to archives students, new archivists and the archiving community. This includes opinion pieces, news or events. Photographs accompanying the articles of students in action are welcome. Please submit all proposals and questions for the next issue via email to Holly Deakyne at [email protected].
Archivist: The Next Generation
Ashley Marie Biggs Graduate Student, LIU Palmer School
Millennials12 are quickly moving into the ranks of the archival only come from the infusion of new blood at the upper- profession. Within the next few years, the Millennials will management level. As Millennials reach those levels of transition from lower and middle management workers to the archival world, they will be hard pressed to follow the program directors and senior administrators. What will are traditional, hierarchical management style, and will most the implications of this transition? likely try to seek a happy medium between old and new. The resistance they encounter will come primarily from The education of future archivists and archival managers those tenured archivists who may view change as a possible consists of a wide variety of classes, yet few of them go into challenge to their positions of authority or as detrimental detail regarding the management of an archival institution to the archival mission of their institution. as a whole. This may be a hindrance to those who have only a formal archival education with little practice. Most Unlike most of their predecessors, Millennials are fully Millennials will compensate for this educational gap by reliant on technology: Bluetooths, IPods, PDAs, and cell tapping other talents, such as technological understanding phones are devices that most Millennials grew up with and and outreach, while actively seeking workshops, additional would be hopeless without. As a result of the complete classes, or group exercises in business and personnel immersion into the technological, most Millennials want management. As a result, the anticipated archival instant gratification and high-efficiency, regardless of the management style will become a complicated and delicate cost. To apply this concept to the archival field, Millennials blend of all access, all technology, few traditional methods, will continue in the steps of their most recent predecessors, and some traditional archival education. but will place a greater emphasis on the digital preservation of historic documents and electronic records rather than Based on the reading of Managing Generation Y by preserving their physical counterparts. Traditionally, Carolyn Martin and Bruce Tulgan,3 Millennials will be the information and document management included the driving force behind the change in management style of desire to preserve the physical document for future use. public, private, and corporate archives. As with corporate For Millennials, depending on the situation they inherit institutions, change from the status-quo in archives will continued on next page Page 26 Metropolitan Archivist, Vol. 15, No. 2 Student Section Archivist: The Next Generation continued from previous page from their predecessors, the attempt disastrous as auctioning off part of becomes redundant, expensive, and to save redundant or extraneous the collection. The combination of takes up space in the repository that physical information may be a waste these factors will require Millennials could be put to more constructive of resources: financial, physical, and to redefine the previous management or profitable use. Determining the personnel. The practical nature of techniques and ideologies, some of important records, the ones with Millennials will ask: “If the document which are not open to modernization intrinsic or informational value, will exists in electronic form, does the or creativity. be harder than it has ever been. After archive need to keep multiple physical reviewing the literature and following copies for future use?” Millennials will This does not mean that Millennials the trends, I believe that I and other weigh this question greatly before will separate themselves fully from Millennials will be forced to make hard arriving at a logical, albeit unorthodox, their predecessors. Some Millennials decisions in financially desperate and conclusion: rid the storage center of will follow traditional management informationally overwhelming times. redundant or extraneous documents practices, while others may eradicate As we move into the new frontier after a digital copy has been created. the old system and replace it with of archival management, with the This does not mean, however, that a different and unknown approach. next generation moving through the Millennials will clean house, or rid The best ones, however, will update ranks of archival leadership, we must the entire institution of physical and reform those practices in archival remember one key element: It is only documents. On the contrary, they management that have not changed through managerial change, through will likely be the most selective and since Schellenberg’s time without defining and providing the necessary discriminating version of archivists to compromising the integrity of what information to the current society, date, as they will be forced to be more has passed before. The information that we will become fully and diversely explicit in explaining their reasons for management style of the Millennial effective in our positions as archivists. destroying the physical documents archival manager likely will reflect than previous generations. As a his or her desire for the complete Endnotes result of the ever changing and highly digitization of the archives while not 1 “Generation Y.” Wikipedia. http:// dynamic technological advances, impeding the archival mission of their en.wikipedia.org/wiki/generation_Y most Millennials will push for better institution. (accessed April 22, 2009) 2 and more stable technology to be There is a decided discrepancy and overlap by various authorities as to the introduced, before removing the As an archivist, I have no doubt that official birth date range for Millennials original copy, or physical document, my philosophy of instant digital (a.k.a Generation Y). For the purposes of from the repository. access will be met with apprehension this paper, assume that members of the and resistance. While I respect the Millennial group were born between 1980 Another management challenge idea of housing physical documents, and 1998. that Millennials will face, and one for I do not see the need to keep every 3 Martin, Carolyn A. and Bruce Tulgan. which they will have little preparation, version of a record: a scan, a copy, Managing Generation Y. Amherst, M,A.: is the need to raise funds to support an original, or a carbon-copy. It HRD Press, INC., 2001. an archival institution. Historically, archival institutions have run on nearly non-existent budgets. Should Ashley Marie Biggs is a 2009 graduate of the the current economic situation Palmer School of Library & Information Science extend into the future, Millennials and currently is employed by the St. Tammany may find that even demonstrating the Parish Library of Covington, LA. This article has value of an archives does not lead to editorial contributions by Dr. Gregory Hunter of sustainable funding, and will be forced the Palmer School of Library and Information to find assistance in unorthodox ways. Science, Mr. Bill Larsen-Ruffin of the St. This could be something as basic as Tammany Parish Library, and Mr. Al Barron of corporate or private sponsorship of the St. Tammany Parish Library. an exhibit to as controversial and Photography by Jillian Garner Metropolitan Archivist, Vol. 15, No. 2 Page 27 Student Section Department of Cinema Studies / Tisch School of the Arts / New York University: Moving Image Archiving and Preservation Program Student Thesis Presentations
The Master of Arts Degree Program in Moving Image Archiving and Preservation (MIAP) is a two-year course of study in the Department of Cinema Studies at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, that educates students in the theories, methods, and practices of audiovisual preservation, training future professionals to manage collections of film, video, and digital media. During the second year of the program, MIAP students must complete a capstone project in the form of a thesis or portfolio. This year’s graduating class presented their final projects on April 14th to April 17th, covering a wide range of subject areas and media formats. A brief summary of each project is included here.
Audrey Young for the creation of a practical archive made with the goal of assisting Phonodiscs from the Texas for BCAT. Of central concern is institutions with CD-ROM holdings Borderlands: A Consideration of establishing a collection policy in determining methods of defining Regional Music and Modes of and physical plan for preserving what is valuable and what is Production the station’s history and cultural expendable. significance, as well as supporting The University of Texas at Austin current in-house production activities Gwan Yong Jeong contains two separate but related and actively preparing future content A Proposal for a Digital Archive for the collections of Mexican-American for a place in the archive. Korean Film Archive phonodiscs from the 1940s-1960s, comprising a unique history of John Migliore This presentation focuses on the regional music and modes of “Voyager’s Middle Name Is Phoenix”: Korean Film Archive (KOFA) and its production. After situating these Preservation of CD-ROMs at the Avery- digital archives project. discs within the South Texas Fisher Media Center Based on independent research and landscape of the period, preservation an examination of digital archives in issues specific to the collections will This project centers on CD-ROMs other foreign countries, Gwan Yong be addressed. produced by the Voyager Company Jeong will provide recommendations during the 1990s and held in the for KOFA’s new initiative. Steven Villereal multimedia collection of the Avery BCAT: Consolidating & Creating a Fisher Media Center at New York John Passmore Brooklyn Community Television Archive University. In addition to a basic Investigating Paul Sharits: Issues in the assessment of this collection, the Preservation and Conservation of Time- Originally founded in 1991, Brooklyn thesis focuses on the history of the Based Media Art Community Access Television (BCAT) format and of the Voyager Company, serves the borough both as an as well as preservation factors Over the last eight months, John information-provider and a platform surrounding CD-ROMs in general Passmore has been cataloging, for local self-expression. Brooklyn and Voyager titles in particular. inspecting, identifying, and repairing itself has changed immeasurably in Several case studies will examine the some 250 film and audio elements that time, and with it the station’s potential migration value of individual in the Paul Sharits Collection at purpose and programming. This CD-ROMs. Recommendations for project looks at recommendations retention and preservation will be continued on next page Page 28 Metropolitan Archivist, Vol. 15, No. 2
Student Thesis Presentations continued from previous page
Anthology Film Archives in New York the production and exhibition of aimed as a practical guide to media City. This preservation project took Pearson’s 16mm films, as well as the conservation and preservation that an unexpected turn in the spring historical and cultural significance of will translate “best practices” into real of 2009 when the Greene-Naftali these works. For her thesis project, world applications. Gallery exhibited one of Sharits’ Kimberly Tarr collaborated with locational works, Shutter Interface, Northeast Historic Film on a grant Crystal Rangel for the first time in nearly 30 years. proposal for the preservation of The YouTube Archivist: Bringing This thesis will focus on the specific Pearson titles. Archival Methods to a Non-archival preservation and conservation issues World surrounding Shutter Interface as well Peter Oleksik as what happens when the worlds Found it in the Trash: A Collection This project will look at the of conservation, preservation, and Assessment of the Dischord Records/ preservation issues surrounding archiving collide. Fugazi Archives digital video initially created for video hosting sites by members of Kimberly Tarr Created in 1980 to document the decentralized organizations with The World She Watched: An music of the Washington D.C. punk no archiving background. I will be Examination of the Adelaide Pearson community, Dischord records has examining the necessary technical Travel Films been actively recording the sounds information about video created and images of D.C.’s underground by still digital cameras, cell phone From 1931-1940, social philanthropist music ever since. The Archive is cameras, and other widespread Adelaide Pearson traveled an “accidental” collection that has digital video formats and developing throughout the world documenting grown out of 20 years of living in and workflows and documentation quotidian activities, directing her working out of the “Dischord House”. resources that would be useful for the keen eye to ritual, dress, and craft. This thesis is a collection assessment sustainability and future access of the Integrating poignant intertitles, of the various media types housed video files. the films provide an unparalleled at the “Dischord House” with perspective of the everyday lives of access being the driving motivator For more information about the MIAP those living in remote communities in in the assessment of the material. program, please visit http://www.nyu. Algeria, Palestine, Guatemala, Siam, Stemming from the “Do It Yourself” edu/tisch/preservation/program/ and India. Considering the genre of attitude that has been Dischord’s amateur travel film, this thesis covers operating mission, this assessment is
Communications & Outreach continued from page 17 Table exists and that it’s a way to be past for membership and begin a changed is through outreach to professionally active. conversation. student members. When I started the position, I suggested that ART make RC: We’re doing a focus group to find TECHNOLOGY student membership free, which it out what students want. I went to RC: This position is changing a lot now is. We are trying to develop a library science school in Boston and I and part of it has to do with new dialogue with students. Part of that don’t know what the programs here technologies. The newsletter has dialogue includes a new student offer students. I think it’s important become just one facet of the position: section in the newsletter. It’s a way for the students to tell us what they it’s not the focus of the position for students in archives programs need instead of us guessing. Do they anymore. I think it’s a good thing to in New York to gather their voices want to meet other archivists, do use technology, such as websites together. they want resume help, or do they and email, as a way to communicate want programming? I can offer an with people who grew up with it. I RA: That’s where the future members outlet in the newsletter for them didn’t think twice about creating a are coming from. Students can be to send in their articles. I think it Facebook page, but someone of an any age and you want to reach out to is important to identify groups them, to let them know the Round we may have overlooked in the continued on page 34 Metropolitan Archivist, Vol. 15, No. 2 Page 29
Connors was a showman their own after a successful Book Review who would take slummers tour of a San Francisco- on vice tours to opium based Chinese theater Manha�an’s Chinatown dens, among other places troupe came east during (Postcard History Series) of attraction, to view what the late 1880s. Shortly By Daniel Ostrow; Ostrow describes as “well- after, an opportunity Foreword by Mary Sham rehearsed scenario[s] of came about for the Arcadia Publishing 2008. 128 pp. friends portraying doomed basement at 5-7 Doyers ISBN-13:9780738555171. $19.99. opium addicts.” It is such Street to be transformed additional information into Chinatown’s original Review by Eunice Liu. relating the content of Chinese Theatre. Images the images that brings of the entrance to the cohesion to the history Theatre show that it being told. became popular with both Images of places of Chinese and non-Chinese In Manhattan’s of the establishments faith, family associations, audiences, which benefited Chinatown, author Daniel and in some, proprietors and private organizations late-night restaurants in Ostrow bestows readers and customers. These convey a sense of the area. A photograph of with fascinating glimpses ephemeral pieces are community in Manhattan’s an all-Chinese male cast into the early livelihoods, particularly striking Chinatown. Exterior and in a 1903 performance is cultural, and social lives of because they symbolize interior views of True indicative of the “bachelor Manhattan’s most Chinese- a layer of Chinatown that Light Chinese Lutheran society” of Chinatown’s populated community. was constructed by its Church, founded in 1935, early years. The Chinese Postcards selected from residents for non-Chinese show members gathering Exclusion Act (1882- his collection of Chinatown visitors. Elaborate Chinese- for worship and children 1943), a federal law which ephemera comprise most style ornamentation, in Sunday school. True excluded people based on of the images in this such as the pagoda-style Light is still in existence. nationality, made it difficult volume, ranging from late façade to Port Arthur In other religion-oriented for Chinese men to come 19th century to the 1980s. Restaurant and Soy Kee & postcards, views of to the United States and Ostrow categorizes the Company, exemplifies an Buddhist temple interiors prohibited Chinese women material by subject and by exaggeration of exoticism show intricately carved and children to move to location: early Chinatown in a style that Chinese altars and sculptures. The this country. Those that businesses; street scenes business owners felt would author states that the managed to circumvent of Chinatown; Chinese appeal to customers. Eastern Sates Buddhist this act of bias were restaurants; churches and Ostrow refers to some Temple of America (shown considered fortunate. In temples; Pell, Mott, and non-Chinese customers in a 1962 postcard) Ostrow’s chapter of street Doyers Streets; the original as slummers, a term that was established for the scenes, an early 1900s Chinese Theatre; and came about prior to the exclusive purpose of photograph shows a young Mulberry Bend Park. Gay Nineties to represent introducing Buddhism Chinese father and his Postcards were American tourists in search in the United States; the friends doting on a baby. typically distributed of exotic adventure. His temple also remains in The author’s as advertisements for inclusion of menu samples existence. selection of ephemera restaurants and available also confirms that many Ostrow’s chapter captures the services in Manhattan’s dishes were invented for devoted to the history interconnection of different Chinatown, in addition the sake of appealing to of the Chinese Theatre aspects of life in Chinatown to functioning as slummers – chop suey explains how recent – entrepreneurial spirit, souvenirs for visitors. being the most popular. Chinese immigrants faith, recreation, and The postcards created One photo postcard from needed an outlet in which familial ties. The postcards by businesses feature 1896 shows a non-Chinese to relax and enjoy a familiar prove that Chinatown was real-life photographs individual, Chuck Connors, form of entertainment. not completely isolated that reveal either the dining with Chinese New York Chinese residents exterior or the interior patrons in a restaurant. yearned for a theater of continued on page 31 Page 30 Metropolitan Archivist, Vol. 15, No. 2
management and use of sources of our nation’s Book Review these records of enduring history. As archivists, value. House Concurrent we must rise to the Managing Congressional Resolution 307, included challenge of preserving and Collec�ons in the volume, was passed presenting congressional By Cynthia Pease Miller by the House on March 5, documentation. Society of American Archivists, 2008 and the Senate on 2008. 138 pp. June 20th. The resolution Margot Note is the Archivist ISBN 1-931666-29-6. $19.95. states that congressional and Information Manager at papers should be properly World Monuments Fund, the Review by Margot Note. maintained; that each foremost private, nonprofit organization dedicated to the member should take preservation of endangered necessary measures to architectural and cultural sites Managing readers from acquisition manage and preserve around the world. She has an Congressional Collections, to outreach. Chapters also their papers; and that they MLIS from Drexel University a project of SAA’s focus on administration, should be encouraged to and a MA in History from Congressional Papers transfer, processing, and donate their papers with Sarah Lawrence College. She Roundtable funded by reference. She offers a research institution that is currently working towards a Post-Master’s Certificate the National Historical advice on calculating is properly equipped to in Archives and Records Publications and Records space, personnel, and preserve them and to make budgets; offers ideas them available for use. Management at Drexel Commission, assists University. archivists who preserve the for sustainability and While the resolution does manuscripts of members external funding sources; not define the content of Congress. A senator and proposes cost-saving or scope of the papers, it Manhattan’s Chinatown generates approximately strategies. She also states the members’ belief continued from previous page discusses access issues in the manuscripts’ value 100 boxes of archival from the rest of New York regarding classified, “as indispensable sources material a year. These City, and that an ethnic declassified, and for the study of American papers are historically neighborhood could thrive reclassified documents. representative democracy” significant, yet are often in spite of anti-foreign Appendices include and in the importance of underused and poorly sentiment and the law. a chronology of advances preserving documentary understood by researchers Furthermore, Ostrow’s in managing congressional evidence that results from and repositories. Holding passion for the history of collections, network national service. “tremendous, and often Manhattan’s Chinatown is information, a sample deed Managing untapped, historic value,” felt through his attention of gift, a congressional Congressional Collections congressional collections to details in describing the office staff list, guidelines benefits all archivists, simultaneously document content of the images. for file disposition, who encounter in national, regional, and This volume would appeal frequently asked questions, their collections local public policy issues, to readers who are both and a bibliography. similar difficulties displaying complex knowledgeable and The manual’s that congressional relationships between unfamiliar with the history publication is well timed manuscripts present, as senators, representatives, of Manhattan’s Chinatown. and the people they serve in an election year and they “epitomize every after Congress’ resolution management problem (p. 2). Eunice Liu is an archivist for associated with twentieth Author Cynthia urging members to save The Winthrop Group, Inc. in Pease Miller, former their papers for public and twenty-first century New York City. She received her assistant of the House use. Beginning with records,” including high Master of Science in Library of Representatives, staff the establishment of a profiles, elevated donor and Information Science from archivist for three senators Historical Office in the expectations, significant Pratt Institute and is a Certified and a Senate committee, Senate in 1975, scholars, costs, and obstacles to Archivist. and founding member librarians, archivists, access (p. 5). Congressional of SAA’s Congressional and administrators have papers are the fabric of our Papers Roundtable, steers advocated improving the democracy, the primary Metropolitan Archivist, Vol. 15, No. 2 Page 31
discussion by providing digital, or museum Book Review concrete examples of the collections, this section concepts explained in the provides a solid foundation Naviga�ng Legal Issues in text. This section clearly of the basics, and nuances, Archives explains complex areas of copyright law. The By Menzi L. Behrnd-Klodt. of abandoned materials, author explains issues of Society of American Archivists, tax considerations, permissions, releases, 2008. 340 pp. risk management and music and moral rights. ISBN 1931666288. $64.95. insurance, and highlight Intellectual property those issues of particular rights, such as trademarks Review by Ellen R. Drucker-Albert importance to archivists, and patents, are clarified special collections benefiting the corporate managers and curators. archivist managing Navigating Legal impact an archive. The text Navigating Legal product development, Issues in Archives is a emphasizes the importance Issues in Archives also technological or scientific manual addressing an of policies to appropriate addresses access and advancement records. extensive range of legal archival planning. The administration issues. The author is an issues that arise in the rights and responsibilities The author examines archivist and attorney, archive setting, and will of the archivist as a the archivists’ challenge a fact evident by the educate the archivist in client, and attorney as to balance “the public’s text’s comprehensive and appropriate collection the legal representative, right to know” and accurate content. The management consistent are well delineated. The individual privacy rights. A author includes a disclaimer with current legal legal process is explained comprehensive collection that laws, as well as requirements. through a step-by-step of Federal law summaries judicial interpretations of The text format explanation of the basics that concern privacy and them, change frequently. includes a useful of civil litigation. A sample access is included. The Therefore, the reader is introduction to each mission statement, and author explores issues advised that this book is chapter in which the author legal forms and motions of confidentiality and only a guide to assist the asks, “Why is this topic further educate the access in relation to archivist in understanding important to archivists?” archivist in the legal basics. institutions that manage legal issues that will arise and “Who will find this The next section attorney case files and in an archival context and chapter especially useful?” delves into legal issues organizational legal how to more effectively The author’s responses particular to acquisition and files, student education work with their lawyer. aid the reader in assessing ownership. Transfer of legal records under the Family Archivists in a variety of the relevancy of each title and rights associated Educational Rights and settings and roles will chapter to their areas of with record ownership Privacy Act, medical find this volume to be a responsibilities. Another are well summarized. records, presidential practical and valuable useful feature is the A checklist of points to records, and public record professional reference. inclusion of sample forms consider when negotiating archivists. This section and examples of legal and with donors provides the also addresses replevin, Ellen R. Drucker-Albert is a other relevant documents reader with a useful tool. records management, reference librarian at the Cold Spring Harbor Library and thus adding to the utility of Appraisal, reappraisal, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act’s Environmental Center. She this manual as a teaching impact on archives and and deaccessioning as an received a MLIS and Certificate records management, and tool, and enhancing the essential part of archival in Archives & Records reader’s understanding of collections management cultural property. Management and completed the concepts referenced in are thoroughly discussed. The last section a concentration study in Rare the text. Loans and loan agreements of this volume focuses on Books and Special Collections Navigating Legal are addressed. Sample copyright and intellectual from Long Island University. Issues in Archives’ first forms including deed of property law. Essential She also received her Juris section provides an gift, authorization for reading for archivists or Doctor from Hofstra University overview of the legal deaccession, and loan curators who manage School of Law. framework that will agreements enhance the literary, photographic, Page 32 Metropolitan Archivist, Vol. 15, No. 2 Th e New York Preservation Archive Project online database’s main mission, however, is to direct the The New York Preservation Archive visitor to in-depth primary and secondary source material Project (NYPAP) will be launching an online on these entries. The Archive Project aims to identify database of information on the history of archival collections, oral histories, and other rich resources preservation in New York City at the end of that are relevant to each entry in the database and make May 2009 on www.nypap.org that helps to their locations and accessibility available to the public and fulfi ll its mission of preserving, documenting, easy to fi nd. and celebrating historic preservation’s rich NYPAP’s online database will remain a constant past. NYPAP’s online database will cover work-in-progress, as NYPAP continues researching more people, places, organizations, agencies, events, about the history of historic preservation in order to campaigns, and court cases that played key provide a holistic view of the fi eld. By cataloguing the roles in the history of preservation in New York history of historic preservation and making it accessible City from the 19th Century to the early 21st to the public, the New York Preservation Archive Project’s Century. online database will provide an invaluable tool for Each entry will provide a brief future preservationists, historians, and students. NYPAP background on its respective topic, a list of continues to seek funding to continue building the key dates, and links to other relevant entries database. If you have any questions about the Archive within the database that will illustrate the Project and its online database, please feel free to email d the Table Aroun News interconnectedness of preservation. NYPAP’s us at [email protected].
New Collection Open at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum Archives
The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum For more information please contact the Archives is pleased to announce the opening of a newly Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum Archives at processed collection, The Learning Through Art records. [email protected] Run by the Guggenheim’s Education Department, Learning Through Art is an artists-in-the-schools program that encourages teachers and teaching artists to design art projects that support student learning across the curriculum. The program focuses on both looking at art and hands-on art making. It was founded in 1971 by Natalie K. Lieberman in response to the elimination of art and music programs in NYC public schools in the 1960s. The collection dates from 1970 to 2008 and is 48 cubic feet in size. It documents the creation and existence of Learning Through Art as an educational organization and the programs it off ers. The online fi nding aid for the collection can be found at: http:// www.guggenheim.org/new-york/collections/library- and-archives/archive-collections/A0015 This project was made possible in part by a grant from the Documentary Heritage Program of A Year With Children Exhibition, 1982-1983. the New York State Archives, a program of the State Photographer: David Heald Education Department. © The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, New York
Metropolitan Archivist, Vol. 15, No. 2 Page 33
News Aroun d the Table METRO’s Digital Dilemmas Symposium Surfaces Opportunities & Best Practices Tom Clareson and Jason Kucsma
New technologies have quickened the pace of societal change, and Digital Dilemmas – a day-long symposium hosted by the Metropolitan New York Library Council on April 16, 2009 – addressed some of the ways libraries might benefi t from this changing landscape and deal with the challenges therein. Digital Dilemmas assembled leading thinkers in digital information management and digital scholarship fi elds: Cliff ord Lynch, Director of the Coalition for Networked Information; (left to right) Jason Kucsma, METRO; Roger Schonfeld, Ithaka; Evan Evan Owens, Chief Technology Owens, Portico; Pat Aufderheide, American University; Cliff Lynch, Offi cer, Portico; Roger Schonfeld, Coalition for Networked Information; Dan Cohen, George Mason Research Manager, Ithaka; Patricia University; Tom Clareson, Lyrasis. Photo by Ken Levinson. Aufderheide, Director, Center for Social Media, American University; communities’ information needs. have become “content creators,” and and Dan Cohen, Director, Center One common theme in many of need to think more like publishers, for History and New Media, George the presentations was the notion considering issues like fi le storage, Mason University. that libraries need to deal with the version control, and new business The diverse perspectives of entire lifecycle of digital information practices, according to Owens. Owens the speakers reinforced the notion management – from creation to was not alone in recommending that libraries are part of a larger presentation, discovery to long- that libraries, like publishers, need ecosystem of digital information term maintenance. Not only do to focus on documentation of management that includes our institutions have to deal with all institutional activities and carefully publishers, scholars, students, and of these phases of digital program measuring communities’ use of digital almost any individual or institution development, we must also aid our information resources. creating and using information users in understanding how best to In the ever-changing arena of in a digital environment. As part create their digital materials and copyright, Aufderheide suggested of that ecosystem, libraries may how to plan for digital preservation. attendees look at other disciplines look to other institutions wrestling Strategic thinking about these issues such as documentary fi lm-making, with similar digital information must be infused into every stage of a fi lm and media studies, and management and delivery challenges. project’s lifecycle, whether working media literacy to see how they are The group looked at some of these with digitized or born-digital objects. developing best practices in fair use challenges facing libraries and other Libraries were heralded as leaders for digital and new media projects. types of cultural heritage institutions, in collaboration by several speakers In his closing keynote, “Scholars and many of the presentations and who were not librarians by training, and the Everywhere Library,” Cohen discussions with the audience focused but almost all of the speakers noted noted that the sheer “abundance” on the wide range of opportunities, that libraries and librarians were of digital materials which are being tools, and best practice models used becoming more and more like created may make some types of in areas other than libraries which publishers as we delve deeper into scholarship more diffi cult while might be used to best satisfy our digital practice. With that in mind, we continued on page 35 Page 34 Metropolitan Archivist, Vol. 15, No. 2
auspices of Youth Aliyah. Hadassah Th e Hadassah was for many years the primary American source of funds for Youth Archives Receives Film Aliyah, a program begun in 1934 to rescue Jewish children from Germany Preservation Grant and to resettle them in youth villages Hadassah National Board member in Palestine. After the end of WWII, The Hadassah Hazel Greenwald (later Berkowitz) the program had expanded to the Archives has recently been unoffi cially founded the Hadassah rescue of Jewish children orphaned awarded a fi lm preservation Film Department in January 1942 across Europe, for education and and digitization grant when she requested $300 to produce Jewish homes in Israel. from The Women’s Film a fi lm celebrating the Jewish The preservation and Preservation Fund, for the women’s organization’s thirtieth digitization will be done over the 1950 Hadassah fi lm, A Land of birthday. This action inaugurated next few months at Cineric, a fi lm lab Their Own. what became an annual output of still located in Manhattan. A Land of The fi lm was 1-2 fi lms documenting Hadassah’s Their Own will then be accessible in eligible for this grant philanthropic projects in Palestine and, digital form for research purposes, because the producer and later, Israel. … These fi lms educated as well as for the use of Hadassah’s cinematographer was a Hadassah members, their families, and video department in creating new woman, Hazel Greenwald, sympathetic friends about Hadassah’s videos for marketing and fundraising a long-time member of long-standing work in Israel … for our projects in Israel. d the Table Aroun News Hadassah’s national board. A Land of Their Own, a 16mm For more information, The following is from the fi lm 20 minutes in length, documents please contact Susan Woodland, grant application, written by the transfer of European Jewish Director, Hadassah Archives at the Jenny Swadosh: children orphaned during World War American Jewish Historical Society, II to youth villages in Israel, under the [email protected].
Communications & Outreach as a way to disseminate information. with a chair. Right now the newsletter continued from page 28 You could really make the website a doesn’t have a manager/chair and it older generation may not have looked focal point for the Round Table. should. The web committee would to that medium as a way to contact have the webmaster just as the the community. We’ve had over 100 RC: The website is certainly an listserv has the listserv administrator. members join already and people important communication tool. These committee chairs will be continue to join everyday. People Communication used to be through the people that are ultimately communicate in really diff erent mail or on the telephone, and now responsible for all these projects. ways. The listserv is also picking we have email, the listserv, and a Right now the Communications and up momentum. It has about 145 website. The technology has changed Outreach Committee is comprised members on it so far. but the function hasn’t. We are going of twelve people and they are all to be developing a way to help Brian actively working. I don’t see that RA: It’s good to have a local listserv, Stevens, the webmaster, manage the other positions are expanding like where people can ask specifi c website workload. A web committee this one and I really think it’s due to questions that apply to local is in the planning stages. technological developments. I don’t institutions. know what it means for the future RA: What if the webmaster position is of the position. You don’t want one JC: It can also be a good tool for two people, sort of like the president position to have a disproportionate vendors and announcements. and vice president, where one gets amount of work. the articles and amasses content and RC: It’s a way to get information the other does the technical part. JC: Then it makes it diffi cult to attract out there to people especially about other candidates. programs that are not ART programs. RC: That’s why I’m trying to make these Communications and Outreach RC: Or maybe it makes it more RA: I had hoped to use the website Committee sub-committees, each exciting.
Metropolitan Archivist, Vol. 15, No. 2 Page 35
News Aroun d the Table Stony Brook Special Collections and University Archives Kristen J. Nyitray Stony Brook University dependent on the intelligence being matched the handwriting Libraries (SUNY) recently acquired gathered by Townsend. He states to in “Culper Jr’s” letters to a second secret wartime letter Tallmadge, “…he may rest assured, Washington with the script authored by General George that should he continue servicable contained in ledgers and other Washington to his chief spymaster (sic) and faithful, and should the documents found in Oyster Bay. Benjamin Tallmadge at Christie’s issues of our Aff airs prove as The acquisition of these auction house in Manhattan. These favorable as we hope…I think myself letters was made possible acquisitions document Long Island’s bound to represent his conduct in the with private funds from an critical role during the American light it deserves and procure him a individual donor, Dr. Henry Revolution and specifi cally the compensation of another kind.” Laufer (a former professor of actions of the Culper Spy Ring, which Townsend’s true identity was mathematics) and from the was based in Setauket, New York. concealed even from Washington New York State Legislature The fi rst letter, dated September 24, (by the Commander-in-Chief’s own through Assemblyman Steven 1779, reveals Washington’s daring preference). Although the British Englebright. game of espionage, as he instructs captured a Washington letter to spy Please visit http:// his spymaster Benjamin Tallmadge Abraham Woodhull that referred www.stonybrook.edu/ about how to manage a key New York to “Culper,” they never fi gured out libspecial/acquisitions.shtml agent, referring to Townsend (1753- his identity and Townsend took his for more information or 1838). secret with him to the grave in 1838. contact Kristen J. Nyitray, Written from Bergen County, His double life remained a secret Head, Special Collections and September 16, 1780, the second letter until the 20th century when Long University Archives at Kristen. suggests that Washington was quite Island historian Morton Pennypacker [email protected].
Digital Dilemmas continued from page 33 opening up new opportunities. In an example of social media’s power to connect individuals with similar or complementary interests, Cohen challenged followers on Twitter to help him solve a history mystery. Thirty minutes into his speech, the mystery had been solved by dozens of people working together on Twitter. For more in-depth information on the Digital Dilemmas Symposium, visit the symposium page on METRO’s website at http://bit. ly/digitaldilemmas or contact In this letter written on September 24, 1779, George Washington Jason Kucsma, Emerging communicates to Benjamin Tallmadge, his chief spymaster on Long Island, Technologies Manager at METRO techniques and methods to gather and transmit intelligence. at [email protected] or 212-228- Courtesy of Stony Brook University Libraries. 2320, ext. 23. Page 36 Metropolitan Archivist, Vol. 15, No. 2 Member News Margot Note to Present Student Poster at SAA
Margot Note, Archivist and Information Manager at World Monuments Fund (WMF), an architectural conservation organization, will present at SAA’s student poster session at their annual meeting. “Strengthening Foundations: Improving Description of and Access to Archival Materials” discusses access strategies with immediate user- centered and long-term institutional benefi ts. She developed profi les of past conservation endeavors requiring extensive use of primary sources, including paper and electronic records, architectural drawings, photographs, maps, audiovisual materials, ephemera, and other documentary evidence. The profi les provided a consensus on work that spanned decades, demonstrating the diversity of conservation eff orts at the medieval rock-hewn churches of Lalibela, Ethiopia, the extraordinary monuments of Easter Island, and the celebrated Venetian buildings damaged by the 1966 fl ood. Using the research project to identify areas where access could be improved, she created fi nding aids of WMF’s slide, photograph, and video collections; digitized publications, periodicals, images, and documents; improved metadata of existing photos; and built an intranet page of descriptive tools and digitized records. Additionally, she identifi ed collections for deeper description to guide users in the discovery process.
d the Table Aroun News Through the project, the archives repositioned itself from custodian to knowledge creator, ensuring access to rich resources on architectural preservation and heritage management. Margot is currently working towards a Post-Master’s Certifi cate in Archives and Records Management at Drexel University. Senior Priest Oral History Project at the Archives of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn The Archives of the Roman to priestly ministry in parishes and about individuals, places, events and Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn has specialized ministries. Depending on subjects mentioned in the interviews. made signifi cant progress with its their ethnic background and where Project staff anticipates Senior Priest Oral History Project. they were assigned, individual priests’ that the information contained in Since December 2007 it has memories can include experiences the interviews will interest people conducted interviews with thirty-two working and living with African- researching diocesan, parish and senior priests of the Diocese. These Americans, Italians, Hispanics and local history, sociologists and others priests were ordained between the other ethnic communities. It is interested in neighborhood and end of World War II and the beginning believed that this will be the most ethnic history. It will also educate of Vatican II. The interviews extensive program of its kind ever students at various academic levels. themselves range from one hour up undertaken by a diocese in the United The Archives staff also envisions using to seven hours. They encompass the States. the material for the diocesan website entire life story of each priest from The oral history project and other internal purposes. youth to retirement. Preserving their made progress under the leadership The project is funded by recollections enables us to not only of Joseph Coen, C. A., Archivist, the Alive in Hope Foundation which save an important part of diocesan and the project director, Dr. Patrick awarded a grant to the Archives history, but also local and ethnic McNamara, Assistant Archivist. from for the project. The Archives is history as well. Topics covered range Over 100 hours of video interviews seeking funding from other sources from memories of family, parish and have been recorded. They are being to enable staff to interview the rest neighborhood as a youth through transcribed and indexed in order to of the priests living at Douglaston, seminary training and ordination provide access to the information as well as other senior priests living elsewhere, in future years.
Metropolitan Archivist, Vol. 15, No. 2 Page 37 d the Table Launch of Digital Murray Hill News Aroun Angela Sidman and Kevin Reiss
The Mina Rees Library, CUNY neighborhood right up to the present image location was recorded Graduate Center is proud to announce day. and used to visualize search the launch of the Digital Murray Hill Metadata creation for the and browsing results on a website, http://murrayhill.gc.cuny. Murray Hill project took place in customized Google map for edu, which traces the architectural ContentDM. The public website that integrates both project history of Manhattan’s Murray Hill was created using Wordpress, an metadata and project images neighborhood through photographs open-source content management into the neighborhood display and maps. system. The project staff modifi ed • A community photo page In 1976, as the United the program’s basic theme to which allows visitors to load States celebrated its Bicentennial, include maps and browsing features their own images of Murray Hill the Murray Hill Neighborhood that provide a unique view of the into a group fl ickr account for Association (MHNA) organized an Murray Hill neighborhood. For more display on the website exhibition of images which depicted information on metadata creation, • Defi nitions for architectural how the neighborhood had changed controlled vocabularies, content terms from the Getty’s Art and over the last hundred years. That management, and website design, Architecture Thesaurus exhibition, which for many years was please visit http://murrayhill.gc.cuny. • Short biographical on display at the CUNY Graduate edu/about-us/ . statements for select Center, is at the heart of this digital Site features include: architects and architectural project. With the help of a grant • Category browsing by: Architect, fi rms from the Getty’s Union from the Metropolitan New York Architectural element, Architectural List of Artist Names Library Council, staff expanded upon style, Building materials, Building • Illustrated walking tour the original exhibition materials by type, Date, Landmark status, and guides commissioning new photographs and Street • The exhibition site was built hiring a graduate student to research • Relationships built into records so using Wordpress, the popular the architectural history of each site. that the history of a single site can be open-source web content The photographs and images tracked across time management and blogging originally gathered together by the • Geographic metadata for each system. MHNA fell into two categories. 1. Historic photographs and engravings created between the mid- Metropolitan Museum of Art 19th and early 20th centuries Archives 2. Photographs taken in 1976 The Metropolitan Museum of Art fi nding aid are available here: when the MHNA revisited the sites Archives announces the availability http://library.metmuseum.org/ documented in the historic images of two new collections: The record=b1698309~S1. The John No original photographs Havemeyer Family Papers relating Taylor Johnston Collection consists or engravings were included in to Art Collecting, 1901-1922, and of travel journals, visitor books, the 1976 exhibition. Images were the John Taylor Johnston Collection, correspondence, family histories, reproduced on exhibition mounts 1832-1981. The Havemeyer Family and other documents relating to and it was these mounts, some Papers include correspondence, the life, travels and family history of which showed marked signs of writings, notes, and ephemera of the Metropolitan Museum of deterioration, which were scanned for regarding New York art collectors Art’s fi rst President. A catalog digitization when this project began Louisine Waldron Elder (1855- record and fi nding aid are available in early 2008. In June and November 1929) and Henry (Harry) Osborne here: http://library.metmuseum. of 2008 the project’s Photographer Havemeyer (1847-1907), who org/record=b1694874~S1. For revisited the sites which had already assembled a large and diverse general information regarding been captured on fi lm twice before. collection of paintings, sculpture the Metropolitan Museum of Art These new digital images trace the and decorative art between 1876 Archives visit http://libmma.org/ development of the Murray Hill and 1924. A catalog record and portal/museum-archives/. Page 38 Metropolitan Archivist, Vol. 15, No. 2 Treasures from Newark Library’s Collection Trace History of Printing Treasures from will trace the history of written the fi rst time these works have the Richard C. Jenkinson communication from ancient times been exhibited in 20 years. Collection of the History through today with special emphasis Curated by Willam J. Dane of Fine Printing, including on materials from the 1880’s to and Chad Leinaweaver of the Special a copy of the Nuremberg 1950’s and will feature examples of Collections Division, this exhibition Chronicle and leaf from the European manuscripts that served and public programs were made Gutenberg Bible, will be as prototypes for the fi rst Western possible by a grant from the New on display at the Newark printed works. Jenkinson, a 30-year Jersey Council for the Humanities, a Public Library’s third fl oor library trustee and colleague of state partner of the gallery, from April 27 to July John Cotton Dana-- the institution’s National Endowment for the 3, 2009 as part of an exhibit second librarian and father of the Humanities. entitled: History of Fine modern library--bequeathed his own The Library is located at 5 Printing: with a Special Salute set of 1,000 books on printing and the Washington Street, Newark. For to the Richard C. Jenkinson fi ne art of printing to the Library over group tours or more information, Collection of Notable Books 85 years ago. The collection has since please call 973-733-7745 or log onto and Broadsides. Cases grown to over 3,600 volumes. This is the Library’s website at www.npl.org.
d the Table Aroun News Outreach to the Public: CALL FOR PARTICIPATION
private archives and manuscript Fair has been discontinued, the collections. We need your help Communications and Outreach in developing a new public Committee has the goal of outreach program. developing a new public outreach In the past, ART’s annual program over the course of the Family History Fair, the public summer of 2009. The scale of this highlight of New York Archives program and its target audience Week, functioned to help fulfi ll (individuals or organizations) this mission. Coordinated by has yet to be determined. Stephen Siegel, the last Family Sustainability of the program and History Fair was held in 2005. grassroots impact are the two goals Seven hundred attendees we have set for ourselves thus far. explored 45 exhibits and 15 We hope to have our fi rst outreach workshops representing many event during Archives Week 2009. Archivists Round Table Family History Fair areas of genealogical research. If you are interested in webpage, 2000, screenshot Exhibitors present included helping to create new outreach ethnic and regional societies, opportunities for our organization The ART libraries, archival repositories, and our larger community, please Communications and Outreach government agencies, professional e-mail the Communications Committee is embarking upon groups, and booksellers. The 2005 and Outreach Committee at a new project. Part of the ART Fair was part of a great ART tradition, [email protected]. mission is to educate the public educating the public about archives Student participants are more than about the legal, historical and and their value for 17 years. welcome. cultural value of public and Since the Family History
Metropolitan Archivist, Vol. 15, No. 2 Page 39 d the Table Th e Abraham Lincoln News Aroun Brigade Archives The Abraham Lincoln In the coming months, ALBA to promoting public awareness, Brigade Archives (ALBA) is proud to will be adding to this online collection research, and discussion about announce the creation of the ALBA in conjunction with the organization’s the Spanish Civil War and the Digital Library. The project is made growing professional development American volunteers who risked possible through a collaboration workshops and teachers’ institutes. their lives to fi ght fascism in of the Metropolitan New York The ALBA Digital Library allows Spain. Using its continually Library Council, ALBA, and New teachers, students, and researchers expanding archival collections York University. The digital library from across the world to access in exhibitions, publications, was created using CONTENTdm ALBA’s New York University-housed performances, and educational collection management software archives. programs, ALBA preserves the and adheres to Dublin Core We invite you to view the legacy of progressive activism metadata standards. collection at http://cdm15052. and commitment of the Currently two ALBA contentdm.oclc.org/cdm4/browse. Abraham Lincoln Brigade as collections are available through php. an inspiration for present and the digital library: the Herman A designated page on the future generations. Greenfi eld Papers and the James ALBA site, www.alba-valb.org, is For more information, Lardner Papers. Both of these forthcoming. contact ALBA Assistant Director young men were killed during the The Abraham Lincoln Brigade Jill Annitto, MLIS, MPA, at Spanish Civil War which took place Archives (ALBA) is a non-profi t [email protected], or 212- from 1936-1939. educational organization dedicated 674-5398.
Adventures of a New Archivst continued from page 13 by archivists and historians? we were having with the project was completed in the archival survey. Like I was completely mistaken. project. July 2008, with 23 archival the original ART meeting, From not getting phone surveys regarding Bronx- both presentations went calls returned, to the Our presentation at the based African Americans. very well and I received advisory committee not January 2007 meeting was The project certainly further valuable advice fully understanding the my fi rst as a presenter would have not been as from my colleagues, which scope of the project, this to my professional successful without the helped move us towards survey was extremely colleagues, rather than valuable contributions we completing the project. diffi cult to conduct. A as audience member. I received from my fellow couple of months after reviewed the history of ART members. Having now completed my the project started, The African Americans in The master’s in library science, Bronx County Historical Bronx; how the survey TAKING IT FURTHER worked freelance as an Society was asked to team was conducting the Making the presentation at archivist, and begun studies participate in an ART project; and the problems that meeting also opened towards an additional meeting about the archival we had encountered. the doors for me to make degree in history, I survey. Since I regularly Afterwards my ART additional presentations recognize the role that attended those meetings, colleagues provided a to other professional ART and other professional I was very excited about range of support, including organizations, including development activities the opportunity to present numerous suggestions on the Fall 2007 MARAC have played in my career so some of our information how to conduct the survey meeting. A few months far and will continue to do yet also very apprehensive, and of organizations that later, I participated in a in the future. due to the diffi culties should be contacted. The METRO workshop about Page 40 Metropolitan Archivist, Vol. 15, No. 2
La Guardia and Wagner Archives Casey Babcock, Assistant Archivist, La Guardia and Wagner Archives/CUNY
The La Guardia and Wagner Archives, in Friedlander, Carol Greitzer, Karen Kosolowitz, Carolyn association with the Department of Records and Maloney, Ruth Messinger, Eva Moskowitz, Juanita Information Services, have recently completed a Watkins, and Priscilla Wooten. 10 of the 14 collections multi-year processing project of The Council of the City will be permanently housed at the La Guardia and of New York: Women’s Collection. This is a valuable Wagner Archives. The remaining 4 collections (Carol collection not only for female students seeking role Bellamy, Miriam Friedlander, Carol Grietzer, and models in public offi ce but also for researchers of Ruth Messinger) will be permanently housed at the New York City history. Documents range from the Department of Records and Information Services, charming, such as a letter from a 4th grader to City Municipal Archives. Council President Carol Bellamy regarding feminism, The papers have been indexed in our to matters of life and death exemplifi ed in bill jackets database and are now searchable at http://www. containing correspondence and committee reports laguardiawagnerarchive.lagcc.cuny.edu/nycccol/. which argue for strengthening domestic violence laws. (A link to a guide to the collection can be found at The collection, which is over 365 cubic feet, includes the bottom of the page under the title “Women In the papers of City Council President Carol Bellamy Government.”) The collection is open and available and Council Members Una Clarke, Yvette Clarke, to researchers. A plan is also in place to digitize and Lucy Cruz, Ronnie Eldridge, Kathryn Freed, Miriam microfi lm the papers. d the Table Aroun News ART Membership: Who Are We? ART has now been helping local ART’s New Discussion archivists connect with like-minded colleagues for thirty years. During that time, thousands have joined its Listserv Is Up & Running! ranks serving as members, volunteers ART’s listserv facilitates communication among members regarding and Board members to make the topics related to the professional archives fi eld. This communication organization thrive. In honor of this may include announcements of archives-related events and educational anniversary, we thought it would be opportunities not sponsored by ART, questions concerning archival practices interesting to take a closer look at and procedures, discussion of issues aff ecting the archives community, who composes our membership. Of notifi cation of relevant exhibits, and postings of open archives positions in the New York metropolitan area. our current 372 members, 3 members (or a little over 1 %) joined during the Subscription is available to members only, by request. If you would like to 1970’s, when ART was fi rst beginning. be added to the discussion list, please email our list administrator, Lesley 40 current members (almost 11%) Espenship, at [email protected]. joined during the 1980’s, 58 (almost We hope that you will fi nd this list to be a helpful communication tool. 16%) in the 1990’s, and 268 (72%) since 2000. Almost 36%, or 133 members, joined during the 2008-09 decision to eliminate membership the wisdom of those who are well- membership year. In addition, 22 % dues for students earlier this year. established in their careers and the (83 members!) of our membership is This diverse mix of experience is enthusiasm of those who are just made up of students, a statistic which a benefi t both to the organization embarking on their journeys as is no doubt encouraged by ART’s and to its members, who gain both archivists.
Metropolitan Archivist, Vol. 15, No. 2 Page 41
NewsAroun Table the d Meeting Roundup: Spring 2009 Photos by Bonnie Marie Sauer, except where noted.
January: Carnegie Hall Archivist Gino Francesconi (pictured at left) spoke about the development of the concert hall’s collections and gave the group a tour of the space. 110 people attended.
Larry Weimer views the exhibit at Carnegie Hall
February: Hostos Community College William Casari (pictured on left) and Matt Flaherty (pictured on right) presented on the institution’s history and the information literacy program. 25 people attended.
March: Fashion Institute of Technology N.J. Wolfe, Denyse Montegut, Colleen Hill and Karen Cannell spoke about the collections and current exhibits. 60 people attended.
April: American Numismatic Society Joseph Ciccone (pictured at left), Robert Wilson Hoge, and Elizabeth Hahn (giving a tour at right) discussed ANS collections and gave a tour of the library. 27 people attended. (Photos by Joanne Isaac, American Numismatic Society.)
May: NYU’s Asian/Pacifi c/American Institute Graduate students Nancy Ng Tam, I-Ting Emily Chu, and Hillel Arnold spoke about their experience conducting a large- scale, community based archival survey project. 30 people attended. Page 42 Metropolitan Archivist, Vol. 15, No. 2
Archivists Round Table of Metropolitan New York, Inc. Financial Report for Fiscal Year 2008 9 months through March 30, 2009
Current Year Prior Year REVENUE 2008-2009 2007-2008
Membership dues 7,175.00 7,425.00
Contributions, gifts, grants, and similar amounts: General donations 200.00 355.00 Grants 6,000.00 6,000.00 Total contributions, gifts, grants, and similar amounts 6,200.00 6,355.00
Program service revenue: Program meetings and holiday event 1,366.00 2,455.00 Workshops 2,315.00 1,635.00 Newsletter ads 300.00 400.00 Total program service revenue 3,981.00 4,490.00 Interest on Bank Accounts 119.73 93.42
TOTAL REVENUE 17,475.73 18,363.42
EXPENSES
d the Table Aroun News Program expenses Program meetings and holiday event 7,087.38 3,242.93 Archives Week 4,311.81 3,847.37 Workshops 1,296.25 300.00 Newsletters, website, directory 136.44 99.00 Total program expenses 12,831.88 7,489.30
General expenses (insurance, supplies, bank fees, filing fees, other) 105.91 618.38
TOTAL EXPENSES 12,937.79 8,107.68
Excess or (deficit) year to date 4,537.94 10,255.74 Beginning of period net assets (from June 30 of prior year) 22,016.09 14,255.65 Other changes in net assets - - Net Assets at March 31 (Bank account balances & cash) 26,554.03 24,511.39
Unrestricted net assets 25,378.08 24,511.39 Temporarily restricted net assets 1,175.95 - Permanently restricted net assets - -
Through nine months of fiscal year (FY) 2008, ART's total revenue is down slightly from FY2007. Program meeting revenue is down $800 because grant funds were used instead of door fees for several programs in 2008. Other revenue categories reflected smaller decreases. Two workshops were conducted in 2008, resulting in an increase over 2007 revenue, offsetting some of the other revenue declines. Expenses show an increase of $4,800 over 2007. This increase is principally the result of an additional $3,600 expended on the 2008 holiday event and $1,300 spent on the second workshop. Despite these expense increases, ART has a year-to-date gain, and ART's total assets are at $26,554, an increase of $2,000 over 2007. A portion of it assets are from grants, restricted in purpose to program activities.
Additional financial information about ART can be found at the New York State Charities Bureau registry at http://bartlett.oag.state.ny.us/Char_Forms/search_charities.jsp
Submitted by: Larry Weimer, Treasurer Membership Form
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Make check or money order payable to the Archivists Round Table of Metropolitan New York, Inc. (ART) and mail to the address below: Membership Archivists Roundtable of Metropolitan New York P.O. Box 151 New York, NY 10274-0151 Archivists Round Table of New York PO Box 151 New York, NY 10274-0151
The Metropolitan Archivist is sponsored by
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