July/August 2016 Published by the Society of American Archivists

www.archivists.org 4 Documenting an 6 The Promise 8 Improv and

Aircraft Carrier of Linked Data The Second
Citys Archives
 July/August 2016

3 4 13

Raising Mobile Intrepid Archivists Genealogists . . .

Devices from
the Dead
How do you run a successful
crowdsourcing campaign? The
Northwestern University Libraries
in Chicago share from their experience
of asking the public for data cables and
cords of obsolete mobile devices.
Laura Alagna
Equipped with headlamps and training in
confined spaces, archivists at the Intrepid
How to Get Them
Sea, Air & Space Museum descend below
deck of a World War II-era aircraft carrier
in the Door
Insights from a genealogist and archivist on
to document historic spaces and artifacts.
how archivists can serve this distinct set of
Katherine Meyers and Ann Stegina users by bringing them into our repositories.
Melissa Barker

FEATURES COLUMNS
2 Presidents Message
6 Linked Data in the Archives No Mission Without a Margin
Kate Barbera
14 From the Archivist of the
8 The Second Citys Second United States
Moving On: NARAs Role in a
Wind Presidential Transition
Archiving the Ephemeral
Jona Whipple 24 From the Executive Director
Summering
10 Exploring the Reaches of DEPARTMENTS
Privacy and Technology
Central State Hospital Digital Archives Project 16 Fiction Through an Archival Lens
Lorrie Dong The World Revealed

18 Kudos
12 Where Oh Where Do the
20 Someone You Should Know
Words Come From? Steven Booth
Rosemary Pleva Flynn

COVER PHOTO
Yukking it Up. Before Saturday Night Live, there was The
Second City in Chicago. The first home for many comedians,
The Second City gave rise to a new kind of funny. These
snapshots feature, among others, Rachel Dratch, Scott Adsit,
and Tina Fey (top); Steve Carrell, Paul Dinello, Stephen Colbert
and Dave Razowsky (middle); and Dan Aykroyd and Eugene
Levy (bottom). Read more about the birth and growth of The
Second City Archives on page 8. Photo courtesy of The Second
City Archives.

A R C H I VA L O U T L O OK 1
 PRESIDENTS MESSAGE
Dennis Meissner
dennis.meissner@mnhs.org

No Mission Without a Margin

G reetings colleagues! In my previous few
columns I have focused on some of
the strategic priorities of SAA, specifically
SAAs financial resources are essentially a
three-legged stool composed of member
members. The next technological step will
be the implementation of a new association
dues, annual meeting revenues, and income management system that should, again,
our advocacy needs and the ground that we from the sale of educational offerings and result in a platform that is easier to manage
need to cover to become a more diverse and publications. These three areas need to and delivers nimble and more powerful
inclusive association and profession. In my stay in balance to ensure stable finances. member services.
final column, I would like to talk about our The recent dues increase helps to sustain
infrastructure, and how we might ensure the balance for the Finally, the SAA
that SAA remains a sustainable and resilient next several years, but Foundation, as it
organizationone capable of delivering on we must always be I would like to see SAA develops in the years
its strategic goals. willing to seek further ahead, will provide
continue to progress an increasingly
increases whenever
As a professional association we exist to from basic sustainability
necessary to rebalance important layer in
carry out our mission, which is actuated in
the associations to true resiliency. our infrastructure.
the key elements of our strategic plan. But it
revenue distribution. As its funds grow, it
has been sagely (if wryly) noted that there
Annual meeting is poised to provide
is no mission without a margin, meaning
income is extremely more scholarship
that all of our professional objectives are
supported by a base of resources that give important to SAA and, to keep it in balance opportunities, more grant-making capacity,
true agency to our dreams. I would like to with other income sources, we need to select and more venture capital to pilot
see SAA continue to progress from basic meeting venues very tactically to make occasional SAA innovations. Not only does
sustainability to true resiliency, to know sure that profitable meetings occur with this result in more mission support, but it
that we can 1) bounce back from short- predictable regularity. also provides some relief to the regular SAA
term setbacks, 2) try out the occasional operating budget.
risky strategic experiment, and 3) provide SAAs technology backbone is a crucial
part of our infrastructure. The recent So as we think about all the great things we
sufficient resources to support all of our
products, benefits, and services. migration to a more powerful and user- can accomplish in executing our mission,
friendly web platform has created an I hope that we will never lose sight of the
Financial resources form the infrastructural environment that saves staff time and essential infrastructure that makes us a
base on which everything else depends. delivers a greatly improved experience to truly resilient professional association.

ARCHIVAL OUTLOOK
Archival Outlook (ISSN 1520-3379) is published six
times a year and distributed as a membership benet
by the Society of American Archivists. Contents of
the newsletter may be reproduced in whole or in part
provided that credit is given. Direct all advertising
The Society of American Archivists serves the education and information inquiries and general correspondence to: Abigail
Christian, Society of American Archivists, 17 North
needs of its members and provides leadership to help ensure the identification, State Street, Suite 1425, Chicago, IL 60602; 312-
preservation, and use of the nations historical record. 606-0722; toll-free 866-SAA-7858; fax 312-606-0728;
achristian@archivists.org; www.archivists.org.

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
Nancy P. Beaumont
nbeaumont@archivists.org
W E B A N D I N F OR M AT IO N
S Y S T E M S A DM I N I S T R AT OR
Matt Black
mblack@archivists.org
E D U C AT I O N CO OR DI N AT OR DI R E C T OR OF E D U C AT I O N G O V E R N A N C E PR O G R A M CO OR DI N AT OR
Mia Capodilupo Solveig De Sutter Felicia Owens
mcapodilupo@archivists.org sdesutter@archivists.org fowens@archivists.org
DIRECTOR OF FINANCE AND E D U C AT I O N CO OR DI N AT OR SERVICE CENTER MANAGER
A DM I N I S T R AT IO N
Peter Carlson Brianne Downing Carlos R. Salgado
pcarlson@archivists.org bdowning@archivists.org csalgado@archivists.org

DIRECTOR OF PUBLISHING E D I T O R I A L A N D P R O D U C T I O N C O O R D I N AT O R S E R V I C E C E N T E R R E PR E S E N TAT I V E M E M B E R S E R V I C E R E PR E S E N TAT I V E

Teresa M. Brinati Abigail Christian Lee Gonzalez Michael Santiago
tbrinati@archivists.org achristian@archivists.org lgonzalez@archivists.org msantiago@archivists.org

2 A R C H I VA L O U T L O OK July/August 2016
 IS ING M OBILE DEVICES
RA

Lessons in Crowdsourcing #UndeadTech

Laura Alagna, Digital Curation Assistant, Northwestern University Libraries

D ealing with obsolete media has become a familiar challenge for archives. Floppy disks,
CD-ROMs, and vintage computers are sources of archival content that many of us
encounter. In the last few years at Northwestern University Libraries in Evanston, Illinois,
we have met with a new type of technological challenge in digital archiving: mobile devices.
Several of our collections contain cell at my local Radio Shack), I decided it would Happily, #UndeadTech was profoundly
phones that were initially treated as be better to search closer to home. Dont we successful on both fronts. We were able to
artifacts when they were donated. Mobile all have that drawer of electronic junk that acquire more than 300 cords, power supply
devices often contain digital content that we keep meaning to send to the e-recycler? units, and other electronic peripherals,
would certainly be preserved if in analog If we could somehow tap into peoples which were organized into a collection
formafter all, digital images, texts and junk drawers, we might be able to find the containing nearly 100 items, 38 of which are
emails, and lists of contacts are just digital missing data cords and charging cables that unique. Furthermore, #UndeadTech reached
versions of photographs, correspondence, would help us archive the contents of our a wide audience on our campus and beyond:
and address books. Therefore, after receiving mobile devices. Media outlets including the Chicago Tribune
permission from donors, we decided to and WBEZ/Chicago Public Media picked
extract anything we could from the cell up the story, and it traveled far and wide.
phones in our collections. Our hashtag was referenced across social
media platforms and we received phone and
We soon faced the main problem in email inquiries from around the country.
archiving data from mobile devices: all of the #UndeadTech was also recognized when the
cell phones in our collections were orphaned, Northwestern University Libraries received
donated to us with no peripheral charging the 2016 John Cotton Dana Library Public
cords or data cables. None of these phones Relations Award.
had any removable digital storage, and many
had proprietary or obsolete ports, manufac-
tured in the days before USB connections
Three Tips for Success
became standard. These mobile devices,
Through the success of #UndeadTech, we
which may have contained valuable digital
learned several key lessons for successful
content, were essentially dead on arrival.
crowdsourcing campaigns:

A Crowdsourcing Strategy Plan ahead. We began planning

After a long and frustrating journey trying
to source obsolete data cables (I spent many
hours on strategies I do not recommend:
endlessly searching online marketplaces,
attempting to order the right connectors
only to find they were out of stock, emailing
manufacturers, and pestering the employees
From this idea, #UndeadTech came alive. A
crowdsourcing campaign would not only help
us build a collection of electronic peripherals
for future use but would also raise
awareness of our digital archiving program
at Northwestern University Libraries.
#UndeadTech six months before its
launch, brainstorming outreach strategies
and the logistics of the campaign with
our Northwestern University Libraries
marketing and communications team.
With their help and insight, we developed
Continued on page 21>>

July/August 2016 A R C H I VA L O U T L O OK 3
Intrepid Archivists
Mapping the Below-Deck Spaces of a World War II-Era Aircraft Carrier
Katherine Meyers, Associate Archivist, Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology,
Harvard University; and Ann Stegina, Collections Manager, Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum
W hen most people think of going to
a museum, they picture galleries
with expansive white walls and brightly lit
exhibits organized in neat cubes. Boarding a
World War IIera aircraft carrier to wander
along its decks doesnt exactly spring to
mind. However, in the early 1980s, Zachary
Fisher, a New York real estate developer,
rescued the ship Intrepid from a scrap
heap with the intention of creating a place
where people could learn the history and
science behind the aircraft carrier. The ship
opened as the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space
Museum, located on Pier 86 on the West
Side of Manhattan, in 1982. Since then,
the museum has expanded into an entire
complex that includes the Cold War-era
submarine Growler, the supersonic jet
Concorde, and the space shuttle orbiter
Enterprise.
Intrepid served in World War II, the Cold
War, and the Vietnam War before becoming
the centerpiece of the Intrepid Sea, Air &
Space Museum. In its 31-year naval service,
the ship survived kamikaze and torpedo
attacks. It also participated in the space
program as the recovery vessel for the
Mercury and Gemini capsules. The ship was
decommissioned in 1974. At that time, the
U.S. Navy removed useful and security-
sensitive items before handing the ship
4 A R C H I VA L O U T L O OK
over to Fisher and the Intrepid Museum
Foundation, a private non-profit 501(c)(3).
From Bow to Stern
In 2010, the museum received an Institute
of Museum and Library Services (IMLS)
Museums for America Collections
Stewardship grant. The grant allowed the
museum to hire two collections assistants
to catalog its backlog of historic items as
well as document the unrestored historic
spaces on board Intrepid. Since becoming
a museum, about half the ship had been
used for offices, exhibitions, classrooms,
and storage. However, the remaining half
had never been systematically documented.
Many spaces had remained untouched since
the ships decommissioning, and historic
artifacts and archives remained in their
original places. Intrepid is 900 feet long
(the length of three football fields) and has
eleven main decks, so this documentation
project was a sizable task.
Over the last few years, the collections
assistants and staff involved in the project
combined their training in museum studies,
archaeology, archives, and preservation
to develop a plan for protecting the ships
historic spaces and artifacts. Moving
systematically deck by deck through the
Above: The legendary aircraft carrier
Intrepid. Right: Sacramental wine and
a Baby Ruth candy bar wrapper found
behind a bookcase in the ships library.
Photos courtesy of the Intrepid Sea,
Air, & Space Museum.
ship, staff identified and photographed
every compartment. Small artifacts and
documents were removed for processing
and storage. Staff developed documentation
to track what was found in each space and
then compiled this information into the
Sites module of The Museum System (TMS,
a collections management system)a
module normally used for archaeological
digs. Throughout the project, progress
was tracked on a color-coded map. Staff
affectionately referred to the project as
spelunking.
Venturing Below Decks
Although the project has been a huge
success, we experienced a wide learning
curve and several setbacks along the way.
The first challenge was implementing safety
measures to visit unrestored areas of the
ship, with the cooperation of the museums
Operations Department. When Intrepid
was decommissioned, ship systems were
deactivated. When it became a museum,
July/August 2016
the ship was equipped with new electric equipment, a few areas were simply too A last challenge was streamlining the
and ventilation systems only in the areas unstable to be documented. process for efficiency. As the project
open to the public progressed, we realized that some steps
or used by staff. As One of the biggest could be reordered or had ceased to be
a result, unrestored setbacks we important. For example, at the start of the
Imagine climbing a encountered was the
areas are unventilated project, every tag indicating that a piece
and, in most cases, ten-foot ladder coated aftermath of Hurricane of machinery was decommissioned was
unlit. Hatches to in grease with only a Sandy, which hit in removed for processing. We then realized
below-deck spaces the fall of 2012. While that some appraisal decisions should be
needed to be opened
headlamp for light. Intrepid weathered the made while in a particular space. With many
weeks in advance storm fairly well, the examples of nearly identical tags already
of documentation flooding knocked out collected, we stopped removing them.
activities to allow for air to circulate. the museums electrical system on the pier.
The museum was closed to the public for
Staff obtained headlamps for unlit areas Grafti and the
and received confined spaces training. two months. As reopening took priority, the
documentation project paused. IMLS was
Chaplains Wine
To address particulates in the
air, staff received Occupational very generous, extending the grant deadline
The objects and archives we discovered
Safety and Health Administration by a year (unfunded) so that staff had time provide insight into the daily lives of
training for protective equipment to complete the project. sailors and the workings of the ship. We
such as respirators. found Lt. Osborne Lee Brockmans stash of
Other challenges involved creating unique
identifiers for each space. Spaces on board manuals and pamphlets in a desk drawer in
After tackling the more accessible
an aircraft carrier are named and numbered, a stateroom. We can imagine him perusing
areas of the ship, the collections
an aviation supply catalog, looking for new
assistants documented decks which may be found by examining maps
gear. Graffiti that counted down sailors
below the waterline. Imagine and signage. However, sometimes different
remaining days in the Navy or kept track
climbing a ten-foot ladder coated spaces have the same purposes, names,
of exercise routines gives a glimpse into
in grease with only a headlamp and even numbers. In order to differentiate
personal feelings and experiences that
for light, and youll have some these spaces, we developed a new naming
may not be documented elsewhere.
idea of what this experience was system that utilized directions as well as
like. Despite our training and supplementary numbers. Continued on page 23 >>

July/August 2016 A R C H I VA L O U T L O OK 5
Linked Data
in the Archives
Kate Barbera, Project Archivist, Carnegie Museum of Art

Linked Data may sound like a promising new way to organize records,
but there is currently no clear path to implementation for our profession.

F or many archivists, Linked Data seems

to be just out of reachthe next big
digital trend. Between 2014 and 2016, my
dissolved in the early 2000s. Artists such
as Stan Brakhage, Hollis Frampton, Robert
Breer, Albert Maysles, Joyce Wieland,
Photo, above: From a 1976 summer program
schedule. Photo courtesy of the Department of Film
and Video Archive at Carnegie Museum of Art.

colleagues and I at Carnegie Museum of Yvonne Rainer, and Buky Schwartz visited
Art (CMOA) in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the museum to present their work and While processing the archive, we quickly
tested Linked Data occasionally create new discovered that many of these items
on a collection in the pieces. In the archives contained valuable historical context for
museum archives. The semantic web are hundreds of letters not only the film and video pieces in the
While exploring the between museum museums art collection but also for many
ups and downs of using forms a giant curators and artists, of the artists, curators, and film scholars
this technology, we constellation of data dozens of letterpress who visited Pittsburgh for screenings and
learned three hard and
fast lessons that helped
that has the potential to posters advertising
screening events and
exhibitions starting in the 1970s. Slowly
over the following months, the scope of our
us make decisions, provide unprecedented exhibitions, and more project expanded to include more robust
even when exploring context for archives in than 200 audio and digital representations of the artwork,
unfamiliar territory. The video recordings of people, and events found in the archive.
final result was a brand the digital world. artist lectures and Our search for an appropriate technological
new website for CMOA, interviews. solution led us to Linked Data.
http://records.cmoa.org,
which explores the collection via semantic In brief, Linked Data is a set of tools that
queries and offers users a Wikipedia-like allow us to semantically link objects,
experience. Although far from perfect, events, people, and other concepts digitally
I hope this example encourages you through an encoded structure. The structure
to reimagine Linked Data as a more organizes information so that computers
approachable means to achieve your goals can understand how these concepts are
and reach new audiences with your archives. related. Using a Resource Description
Framework (RDF), we can build data into
triples that connect subjects with objects
Dene What Linked Data
through predicates. These three elements are
Means for You standardized with unique identifiers, which
we can define using resources like ontologies
The project began in September 2014 and and authority files. For archivists, this
focused on processing and providing digital means that we can digitally express how the
access to CMOAs Department of Film objects, events, people, and organizations
and Video Archive. The archives materials are related within our collections and even
measure a thrilling 450 linear feet and how they connect to concepts outside of our
contains materials accrued by the office archives (as long as the unique identifiers are
within the museum responsible for the care, consistent). It also means that we can create
management, and exhibition of film and relationships with archival materials on the
Poster for independent filmmaker Hollis Framptons
video artworks. The department opened 1971 event at Carnegie Lecture Hall. Photo courtesy of web that even we do not know exist. The
in April of 1970 and was a vibrant part of the Department of Film and Video Archive at Carnegie
CMOAs regular programming until it was Museum of Art. Continued on page 22 >>

6 A R C H I VA L O U T L O OK July/August 2016
The Second Citys
Second Wind
Archiving the Ephemeral
Jona Whipple, Archivist and Digital Resources Librarian,
Chicago-Kent College of Law
D ecember 16, 1959, was a cold night in Chicago.
Those unlucky enough to be out on its streets
would have been experiencing those piercing, snowy
gales for which the Windy City has become famous.
Those fortunate enough to have ducked into the
little theatre at 1842 North Wells Street would have
been experiencing the kindling of improvisational
comedy history.
The Second Citys first comedy revue show took place that evening in 1959.
Established by Bernard Sahlins, Howard Alk, and Paul Sills, the theater was
intended to be cabaret-style, a place where improvised scenes poked fun at
current events and political figures. Even the theaters name was tongue-
in-cheek, in reference to a series of 1952 articles in The New Yorker in which
writer and critic A.J. Liebling heaped derision upon the city of Chicago, a place
he had been forced to live for several years on a writing assignment. Beneath
the banner of runner-up to New York, comedians built a comedy empire that
would become an attraction for both locals and tourists for years to come.
There is no question that history has been made at The Second City: countless
writers and performers launched their careers, moving on to Saturday Night
Live and SCTV. The Second City franchise moved to a second location on
North Wells Street, then spread across the U.S., opening training centers
8 A R C H I VA L O U T L O OK
across the country and in Toronto. As performers,
writers, and directors have crossed the stage and moved
on, time has marched steadily along to the laugh track.
As is the case all too frequently, time moved faster than
efforts to document its passage.
The Birth of an Archives
In 2002, Chris Pagnozzi was an intern at The Second
City while completing his degree in television writing
and producing. His first job was to locate and create
copies of past Second City shows as they were requested
by training center students and instructors. I was
basically just going through a room of boxes of photos
and tapes, Pagnozzi said of the experience. He noticed
that The Second Citys film assets were scattered,
disorganized, and existed in a variety of outdated
physical formats.
The subjects of The Second City comedy shows have
changed over time, but the format has remained the
same. The first part of the show is scripted comedy,
written and developed by the performers. In the
second half of the show, performers build an improv
show based on audience suggestions. No two Second
City shows are alike: each performance on each night
provides an entirely different experience.
July/August 2016
 Photos, far left to right. uses outside of The Second City marketing
Past shows at The and classroom needs. Producers of the
Second City featuring,
among others, Steve
upcoming Mike Birbiglia film Dont Think
Carrell; Dan Aykroyd and Twice were looking for footage of early
Eugene Levy; and Scott Second City content. They hoped to convey
Adsit, Kevin Dorff, and that improv was an art form developed over
Tina Fey. Photo courtesy
a long period of time, not something that
of the Second City
Archives. simply popped up on the comedy scene
overnight. Pagnozzi was happy to provide
historical material that fit the bill. After
the 2013 death of The Second City founder
Sahlins and the death of actor Harold Ramis
the following year, Pagnozzis research and
The Second Citys archives were instrumental
in celebrating their lives and the invaluable
While shows were recorded regularly, their the fiftieth anniversary in 2009. In pulling contributions they made to comedy. These
physical formats were lapsed by years, then together clips and photographs for the projects provided glimpses into the lives of
copied several times over, which put them in project, he found that many in the comedy the comedy giants who shaped the worlds
danger of being lost. Due to the ephemeral community were forthcoming with material. idea of what was funny. I got access to
nature of The Second Citys shows, Harold Ramis personal computer, Pagnozzi
Things like this would just come in all the
Pagnozzis said, smiling and shaking his head in
time, he said, gesturing
first and foremost disbelief. That was amazing.
toward a small stack
preservation concern The influx of material of scrapbooks hed just Pagnozzis days of digging through those
was video footage. received, filled with
He proposed that
related to the history boxes of tapes were essential in changing
reviewsthe good and The Second Citys preservation strategy.
the precious archival of Chicagos premier the not so goodof The digitization vendor was eventually left
footage at least be comedy institution only early shows. Tucked behind in favor of CatDV for storage and
transferred to master inside, a statement typed
tapes. He later sent solidified the need of metadata and a mix of Adobe products
by Sahlins indicated and tools for production. Today, Pagnozzis
the material to an a custodian for its care that a small group of digital repository is robust and flourishing.
outside vendor
for digitization
and maintenance. actors, including one The Second City performers and employees
William Murray, had have full online access to shows, scenes,
and preservation.
each been paid in full and performances that have been carefully
His intervention
($166) for their participation in a show in digitized, described, and placed in the
developed into a full-time project, and The
June of 1974. The influx of material related archive for their use. Film and photographs
Second Citys archival program was born.
to the history of Chicagos premier comedy of early Second City shows, actors, and
institution only solidified the need of a ensemble casts that were once thought to
Glimpses into the Past custodian for its care and maintenance. be lost are now available, inspiring the next
generation of comedy greats.
Pagnozzis first official responsibility as The In recent years, Pagnozzi has been called
Second Citys archivist was to prepare for upon to provide material for a variety of Continued on page 23 >>

July/August 2016 A R C H I VA L O U T L O OK 9
EXPLORING THE REACHES OF
PRIVACY AND TECHNOLOGY
Central State Hospital Digital Archives Project
Lorrie Dong, School of Information, University of Texas at Austin
T he first mental health institution to
exclusively care for African Americans
after the Civil War recently received needed
digital treatment for its sensitive records.
Thanks to a three-year $763,000 grant from
the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation in the
spring of 2015, three faculty members in the
School of Information at the University of
Texas at Austin developed a digital archives
that will preserve and provide access to a
collection of historical records from Central
State Hospital, a nearly 150-year-old mental
institution in Petersburg, Virginia.
Two team membersPatricia Galloway
(co-principal investigator) and Lorrie
Dong (post-doctoral researcher)are
providing the archival perspective to this
interdisciplinary endeavor. Goals for the
project include the creation of a dark
archives and an online portal that will
offer tiered access to handwritten records,
many of which contain sensitive personal
information that carry legal restrictions.
Central State Hospital, formerly called the
Central Lunatic Asylum for the Colored
Insane, was created at the end of the Civil
War by the Virginia state government under
pressure from the Freedmens Bureau.
The hospital was the first mental health
institution to exclusively treat African
Americans.
Along with other medical facilities and
educational institutions, it was built to serve
the needs of newly freed slaves in the South,
and it was one of the few state mental
10 A R C H I VA L O U T L O OK
Womens Epileptic Building, 1898. Photo courtesy
of the Central State Hospital Digital Archives.
facilities for African Americans throughout
the separate but equal Jim Crow years.
The hospital was desegregated in 1968,
information to social historians,
epidemiologists, and genealogists, among
others. Both Galloway and Dong are
and today continues to provide mental working to ensure that the records will be
healthcare to the state. contextualized in the digital archives. By
providing historical context to the records
The University of Texas project is particularly contents and forms, they can assist future
unique due to the many institutional and researchers in understanding the available
individual entities, including the hospital information, even when certain information
administration, who are active participants remains restricted.
in the development of the digital archives.
On the other hand, the intended digital
infrastructure for the collection will
Balancing Access with Privacy maintain a level of privacy protection that
goes beyond existing state and federal
The ethical considerations involved in
laws. Another team member and iSchool
providing digital access to hospital records
professor, Unmil Karadkar, is developing
and thus increasing the potential to expose
customizable digital tools that will be able
sensitive health informationis always at
to search and redact information according
the forefront for the Central State Hospital
to current legal restrictions and the identity
project team. Beyond the Virginia state laws
of the information seeker.
that dictate when and what information
from psychiatric facility records is open
to the public, the team is also guided by
Potential Digital Tools
the multiple stakeholders whose lives and
With the cooperation of state archives across
livelihoods may be affected by the historical
records and the projects goal to facilitate the U.S., Galloway is surveying technological
access to the collection. These individuals and staffing capacities to implement digital
and groups include patients relatives, the projects similar to the one for Central State
current and former staff members at the Hospital. The potential outcome is a set of
hospital, the state archives, and the states digital tools that would help archives make
Department of Behavioral Health and collections with challenging privacy issues
Developmental Services. more readily discoverable and potentially
available for use.
On one hand, the team is striving to provide
information about and digital access to For more information on the project,
records that would otherwise be unavailable go to www.coloredinsaneasylums.org or
in their original paper format. The digitized contact Patricia Galloway at galloway@ischool
records can provide invaluable longitudinal .utexas.edu.
July/August 2016
SPECIALISTS IN DIGITIZATION AND CONTENT LIBRARIES
 devised title

red rot
microenvironment
community archives
refolder

Archive
accrual

cellulose nitrate
catablog

preservation
Where
open access

dictionary

normalizaition
replevin

IDWOH
curration
over sample
assession
ingest
Oh Where
Do the Words Come from?
Rosemary Pleva Flynn, University of North Dakota and Chair, SAA Dictionary Working Group

C ompiling the forthcoming Dictionary

of Archives Terminology can be a
consuming endeavor, but it just got a little
professional terminology. Some of the words
we are defining are new to the dictionary
(we have more than 700 new words we are
for a type of record still used in some states
in the U.S. as part of state probate laws.

more manageable thanks to some recently
acquired software from IDM Innovates,
which allows the nine members of SAAs
Dictionary Working Group (DWG) to
collaboratively work in an environment
specifically designed for dictionaries. IDM,
by the way, powers the OED, so we are in
very good company! As we continue with
implementing the new software, DWGs goal
is to have the dictionary available online by
the end of 2016.
This July marks the second anniversary of
the launch of Word of the Week, a weekly
email produced by DWG that defines new
archives terms and updates entries from
A Glossary of Archival and Records Terminology
(SAA, 2005). A huge thanks to the more
than 1,200 subscribers. (What? Youre not
yet a subscriber?? Sign up at archivists.org
/word-of-the-week. Bonus: You can now find
all of the previous Word of the Week entries
at archivists.org/word-of-the-week/previous.)
One of the frequently asked questions we
field is, How do you decide what words to
include in the dictionary?
Honestly, deciding what words to include
is not an easy task. Members of DWG do a
great deal of reading in order to define our
considering for inclusion), but we are also
looking at words that appeared in the 2005
Glossary. Word usage and meaning changes
over time, and the Dictionary of Archives
Terminology needs to reflect these changes.
More than 300 entries found in the 2005
Glossary are in various stages of updates
and many more terms now have citations
showing their usage by archivists.
Do you have a new word for DWG to
consider? Or do you have updates on a
term already in the 2005 Glossary? Please
consider submitting suggestions to DWG
using the online form at archivists.org
/dictionary/suggest-a-term.
Were thrilled that our professional
colleagues have taken up the call and are
exploring the archival lexicon in new ways.
For instance, take the term muniment, which
was the Word of the Week for January
19, 2016. A subscriber had come across
muniment while reading. Not familiar
with the term, she looked it up in the 2005
Glossary and then sent us the citation from
the book she was reading. We updated the
definition and notes based on this citation
as well as a few others. Although chiefly
used in the U.K. and Indiaand not the
most common of wordsit is a legal term
Another question we are frequently asked
is, Who is the intended audience for the
dictionary? At this time, the Dictionary
of Archives Terminology is geared toward
an American audience. However, national
borders are porous when it comes to the
archives profession, and there are many
terms that have come to the U.S. from other
archival traditions and
are then used as
is or are
modified.
DWG will
address
these
variations
when such
terms are
presented.
As a volunteer-led
effort, the Dictionary
will unlikely ever address archives
terminology from all over the world. Even
so, the Dictionary can aid understanding
and an exchange of ideas and information
among international archivists.
Please keep the questions and feedback
coming! The Dictionary Working Group
would love to hear from you. Contact us
at dictionary@archivists.org.

12 A R C H I VA L O U T L O OK July/August 2016
W eve all seen
them. They
enter our facilities
with their family
group sheets, digitalal
cameras, laptops,
thumb drives, and
high expectations of
finding those long
lost ancestors. Whoo
am I talking about??
Genealogists, of
course!
Genealogy research
is the second most
h
Genealogists
popular hobby in
the United States. With
television shows likeke Who Do
You Think You Are?, Genealogy
Roadshow, and Findingding Your Roots
fevering the pitch, researching family
them in the door
time high.
history is at an all-time
However, popular genealogy
websites, such as www.ancestry.com
rch.org, have lulled
and www.familysearch.org,
hobby genealogists into thinking that
all genealogy and historical records
are online and there is no need to
contact or visit an archives. Archivists
know that perception cant be further from facilitys name, address, phone number,
the truth. We have records that have been
on shelves for years, yet to be microfilmed
or digitized, but that could be of use to
researchers. So how do archivists educate
genealogists about the need to visit archival genealogists can determine what may be
collections in person? By thinking outside
the Hollinger box!
As an archivist for the past six years and a
genealogist for twenty-six years, I hope to
share some insights on the genealogists
approach to researching in archives and how for a county archives, university archives, or A Captive Audience
archivists can serve this distinct set of users other local archives, list contact information
by bringing them into our repositories.
Reaching Out to Genealogy
Websites
You may have a great facility, fantastic
staff, and interesting records, but have you
conveyed that information to the genealogy
world? Many genealogists dont know what
repositories are out there nor how to contact or County Coordinator to add your
them. Why not make it easy for them?
One of the best ways to do this is to get
contact information for your facility on
well-known genealogy websites where
July/August 2016
. . . how to get
Melissa
M liss B Barker,
k A Archivist
chi ist ffor HHouston
ust n C County
unt
(Tennessee), Archives and Genealogist
genealogists will find it. Include your
email address and the days and hours of
operation. Its also helpful to share a brief
list of the types of records, time period,
or special collections in your holdings so
relevant to them.
The first website I would suggest is
FamilySearch Wiki (https://familysearch.org
/wiki/en/Main_Page). For a state archives,
list contact information on the state page;
on the county page. FamilySearch Wiki
also has Adopt-A-Page for libraries and
archives. There is no fee for this, and
FamilySearch will display your logo with
a link back to your website.
USGenWeb Project (http://www.usgenweb
.org/) is another frequented website for
genealogists, also organized by county and
state. Contact the sites State Coordinator
information to the page.
A third website is Cyndis List (http://www
.cyndislist.com/), which, for more than
fifteen years, has served as a starting point
for genealogy
researchers. Send
your contact
information and
website to the sites
administrator to be
included.
Show and Tell
Social media
platforms are
a great way to
show and tell
records collections that
are not online.
When I became the archivist for
Houston County, Tennessee, in 2011,
I had my work cut out for me. Houston
County had never had an archives,
and none of our records had ever been
touched, aside from a brief project on
minute books done by the Tennessee
State Library and Archives in the
1970s. I was starting from scratch.
When I began to unearth some
wonderful records, the genealogist in
me wanted to share them with everyone.
I started a Facebook group for the archives
and began posting a Today in the Archives
series, which featured a photograph,
document, or artifact from the archives
each day. The series was a hit, and over the
past four years, I have been able to share
some of our unique county records with the
genealogy community, which has in turn
drawn genealogists to visit the facility. The
Facebook group now has 438 members, and
continues to grow.
Getting genealogists to the facility is your
biggest obstaclebut once you get them
there, you will have a captive audience.
To encourage these visitors, consider
holding open houses, genealogy tours,
and genealogy classes tailored around
your collections.
I have been holding a free genealogy class
once a month at my local library. I teach
on the genealogy research process and use
records from our county archive to show
students what is in the facility and what is
Continued on page 22 >>
A R C H I VA L O U T L O OK 13
 FROM THE ARCHIVIST OF THE UNITED STATES
David S. Ferriero
National Archives and Records Administration
david.ferriero@nara.gov
Moving On: NARAs Role in a
Presidential Transition
A fter the pomp and ceremony of
Inauguration Day, a new president
arrives at a White House that is ready
to support a new administration. This
readiness is made possible by months of
preparation and coordination among people
from across the federal government.
The National Archives and Records
Administration (NARA) is proud to play
a critical role in the transition from one
presidential administration to another.
Since the enactment of the Presidential
Records Act of 1978, which first applied to
the Reagan administration, legal custody
of the presidents records are automatically
transferred to NARA at noon on the last
day of the administration. Right now were
in the midst of planning a massive move,
and because of the experience and expertise
of our staff, well be ready on January
20, 2017, when we take legal custody of
President Barack Obamas records.
When a president has served two full terms,
as President Obama has, we have time
to plan. The decision to build the future
Obama Library in Chicago was made in
2015, and this year a temporary storage
site was chosen in the Chicago area. Our
staff in Washington, D.C., has been hard
at work for months, packing artifacts and
preparing records for shipment to the
Midwest. By January 20, we will have
transferred hundreds of millions of textual,
electronic, and audiovisual records, and tens
of thousands of presidential gifts.
The transfer of electronic records is one of
the most complex and challenging parts of a
14 A R C H I VA L O U T L O OK
presidential transition since the volume and
variety of records generated or received by
presidential administrations has increased
files of the National Security Council as
well as files documenting domestic issues,
audiovisual files, and the First Ladys files.
exponentially. These electronic records
will be transferred to NARAs Electronic A significant portion of the presidential
Records Archives, which allows processing material is already in NARAs care. During a
of electronic records for eventual release presidents administration, NARA provides
through the National Archives Catalog. the White House with courtesy storage for
artifacts and records that
NARA has do not need to be physically
been involved By January 20, we stored in the White House
in moving
will have transferred compound. Courtesy storage,
presidential offered to presidents and
hundreds of millions of vice presidents, means
material since
1939. In that textual, electronic, and that records are in NARAs
year, Franklin
Delano Roosevelt
audiovisual records, and physical possession until
legal custody transfers to
donated his tens of thousands of the Archivist of the United
presidential presidential gifts. States. The incumbent
papers and president and vice president
other historical maintain legal custody over records and
materials as well as land on his Hyde Park
artifacts during their terms.
estate for the first Presidential Library. There
are now 13 Presidential Libraries, for all The future Obama Library, like its
presidents since Herbert Hoover. predecessor Presidential Libraries, will
preserve the records of the events of
Moving the records and artifacts of a
the past eight yearsthe highs and the
presidential administration takes careful
lowsand the evolution of policies that
planning and cooperation. We work with the
affected the nation and the world. The first
White House Counsels Office, the White
Presidential Librarythe FDR Library
House Office of Records Management,
opened 75 years ago on the principle that
the National Security Council, the White
presidential papers are an important part
House Gifts Office, and the Office of the
of the national heritage and should be
Vice President to receive approval and to
coordinate what records and artifacts can be accessible to the public. Each library since
moved when. then has operated on the same basis,
and the National Archives and Records
The collections being moved document Administration ensures that presidential
presidential decision-making and policy records in the future will be similarly
formation. The records include classified preserved and available.
July/August 2016
Aeon is not another
front end system. Really.
Service. Security. Statistics.

Since Atlas introduced Aeon in 2008 it has been widely accepted

in the archives and special collections communities. But there
still seems to be some confusion over what Aeon isand isnt.
Other systems are about
description and discovery.
But Aeon is about fulfillment.
Some systems help you catalog and make
objects discoverable within your institution
or on the web. Others manage the creation
of the repositories in which objects can be
digitally stored, searched, and found.

Aeon makes the pieces

work together for you
and your researchers. ILS Digital Assets
Aeon unites these systems to help meet the challenges Management
of delivering better service to researchers, improving
collection security, and gathering meaningful statistics
to support the assessment needs of todays institutions.
Linked Data
Aeon focuses on workflow of special collections and
archivesallowing requesting from your ILS or finding aids,
tracking reading room interactions including check-out and
re-shelving of materials, and handling digitization requests.

To see how Aeon fits the pieces together, sign up for See us at ARCHIVES*RECORDS 2016
a free web demo at www.atlas-sys.com/web-demo/. BOOTH #513
Or, email Renee Chastain at rchastain@atlas-sys.com.

We play nice with others. www.atlas-sys.com


FICTION THROUGH AN ARCHIVAL LENS
The World Revealed
I may have too many books, but do I have too few ideas? Its only
my second column about archives and fiction and I find myself
talking about the same book I talked about in the first one! But
this time Ive gone past the book review and read the book, Aislinn
Hunters The World Before Us. And at the risk of repeating myself, I
thought the story itself worth examining. So, here goes . . .
On reading The World Before Us, I couldnt
help thinking about how archivists are
affected (burdened?) by the stories in their Is it fair to say that
collections or by the people who wrote
or are otherwise recorded in them. If the
archivists are haunted
records present a mystery, is the archivist by the lives they encounter 1877. The records of the Whitmore Hospital
compelled to find the answer? Is it fair to say
that archivists are haunted by the lives they
through their work?
encounter through their work?
Jane Standen, the archivist at the center of Hunters story, certainly
is. Literally. She has ghosts observing and trailing her. They need her
to know their stories, to understand what really happened, because
they themselves do not.
Its safe to say that Jane has faced some challenges. At 34,
she is coming to the end of her first professional position
the museum she works at will soon be closing (funding cuts
that one rings true), its items being auctioned off or otherwise
deaccessioned. While she is unaware of the ghosts around her,
ORAL
HISTORY
TRANSCRIPTION
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Oral history interviews transcribed
by a former archivist with over 25
years of experience in the business.
Confidentiality and quality are assured.
We pay careful attention to the details.
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Telephones: 516/921-1623 OR 516/567-7212
Email: rhauser9@aol.com
16 A R C H I VA L O U T L O OK
Caryn Radick
Digital Archivist, Special Collections
and University Archives, Rutgers University
she is haunted by her past. When she was fifteen, she was
watching a girl named Lily who disappeared during a trip to
Yorkshire. Almost twenty years later, faced with the impending
loss of her job and the prospect of seeing Lilys father at a museum
gala, Jane does something Id call regrettable: she runs away, back
to where Lily disappeared.
Upon her arrival, she tries to solve another
puzzle from her pastin studying asylum
records while getting her archives and
records management degree, Jane learned
of another disappearance in the same area in
for Convalescent Lunatics in Yorkshire
describe the disappearance of a young
woman, referred to only as the girl N.
N was one of three people who escaped the asylum one day, walking
to a local estate where she vanished. The other two were found and
returned, but N seems to have left no trace.
The identities of the ghosts are murky at first, but they are clearly
invested in Janes research of Whitmore. Unaware of these
companions, and with the constant memory of Lily, Jane becomes
obsessed with finding N and embarks on a path of deception (well,
she tells some pretty big fibs to more than one person) to access
the records she needs. The thrill of the chase element to Janes
search should be familiar to any archivist who has gotten a little
too involved with a subject or a collection, not to mention the it
shouldnt be there, but there it is territoriality towards her subject.
One of the best parts was in the acknowledgments, where Hunter
explains that the escape of the three inmates from Whitmore was
based on a real incident. Where in the book the inmates receive the
hospitality of a local gentleman/botanist/explorer, in real life the
surprised host was poet Alfred, Lord Tennyson. His letter to the
asylum about the incident, held at Indiana Universitys Lilly Library,
served as an inspiration for The World Before Us. Is anyone out there
keeping a list of items in archives that inspired books or movies? I
think we should start. (I also think SAA should have an award for
fiction based on archival research, but one thing at a time, right?)
I made some remarks in the previous column about how Janes
sexual spree with a 19-year-old was referred to as out of character
for an archivist in a book review by Penelope Lively in The New
York Times. As far as this hook-up goes, I kept waiting to see if
perhaps Janes thoughts would include sentiments to the effect
of Im an archivist, so no flings for me! thinking that might have
prompted Livelys remark, but no. Janes just human, with needs
and obsessions. Fittingly, these qualities make her a thorough
researcher, which is exactly why the ghosts need her.
Do you know of any authors who use or are inspired by archives in their
books? Tell Caryn Radick at cradick@rulmail.rutgers.edu.
July/August 2016
 KUDOS
Scott Cline Kaye Lanning Minchew
Scott Cline, SAA Fellow and city archivist at Seattle Municipal
Archives since its founding in 1985, retires in August. In 2012,
Cline led the merger of archives and records management and was
appointed director of the newly created Seattle Archives and Records
Management Program. Cline is a two-time winner of SAAs Fellows
Ernst Posner Award for The American Archivist articles related to
archival philosophy and personal values that archivists bring to their
work. He served on the SAA Council (20092012) and was president
of the Academy of Certified Archivists (20042005). Cline previously
worked at the Western Reserve Historical Society and the City of
Portland (OR) archives.
SAA Fellow Kaye Lanning Minchew, CA, and John H. Slate,
CA, co-authored Managing Local Government Archives, published
in July by Rowman & Littlefield. The book, which includes a
foreword by former SAA president H. G. Jones, is designed to
appeal to trained archivists as well as to those without formal
training in charge of archives programs. Minchew, who retired from
the Troup County, GA, Archives in 2015 after 32 years as director, is
also the author of A President in Our Midst: Franklin Delano Roosevelt
in Georgia (University of Georgia Press, 2016).
Alexandra Orchard, technical and metadata archivist at the
Walter P. Reuther Library of Labor and Urban Affairs at Wayne State
University, will begin a two-year term as the Archival Issues editor
18 A R C H I VA L O U T L O OK
Alexandra Orchard John H. Slate
and chair of the Midwest Archives Conference editorial board.
Orchard has served as the coordinator of The American Archivist
Reviews Portal since the fall of 2012.
John H. Slate, CA, Dallas Municipal Archives, received the
2016 Distinguished Service Award from the Society of Southwest
Archivists (SSA) at its annual meeting. A past president of SSA,
John served on its executive board and chaired or participated on
numerous SSA committees and initiatives. The award is presented
to a member who has made significant contributions to SAA and
the wider archival profession.
IN MEMORIAM
Dr. Christine Dagmar de Catanzaro, 67, passed away on
April 15, 2016. De Catanzaro graduated from Trinity College in
Toronto with a bachelors degree in history; she earned several
music degrees culminating in a doctorate in musicology from
the University of North Carolina. A member of SAA for eleven
years, De Catanzaro was an access archivist at the Georgia
Institute of Technology, Library and Learning Excellence in
Atlanta, Georgia.
July/August 2016
 KUDOS
Heather Soyka Mattie Taormina
Heather Soyka has been awarded a postdoctoral fellowship at
the University of New Mexico to work on the National Science
Foundation-funded DataONE project, which is focused on
preserving and providing access to ecological and environmental
research data from around the world. As part of the DataONE
project, her work centers on creating, evaluating, and expanding
educational resources for research data creation, access,
management, and use. She completed her PhD at the University
of Pittsburgh School of Information Sciences and holds a masters
degree in archives and records management from the School of
Library and Information Science at Simmons College.
Mattie Taormina, director of Sutro Library in San Francisco, has
been awarded a 2016 Primary Source Award for Research from the
International Center for Research Libraries. The award promotes
awareness and use of primary historical evidence in research and
teaching. Taormina and fellow editors Anne Bahde and Heather
Smedberg were honored for their book Using Primary Sources:
Hands-On Instructional Exercises, which helps K12 and college
educators to expand their repertoire of active learning techniques
with original primary sources.
July/August 2016
Bruce Turner Peter Wosh
Bruce Turner has retired from the University of Louisiana at
Lafayette (previously the University of Southwestern Louisiana),
where he served as head of special collections and then assistant
dean for special collections. Previously, Turner was head of special
collections at SUNY-Oswego from 1977 to 1983. Over the years he
has been active in SAA, the Society of Southwest Archivists, and the
Louisiana Archives and Manuscripts Association.
Peter J. Wosh retires as director of the Archives and Public
History program at New York University (NYU) in August. Wosh
created the master of arts program in Archives and Public History
and implemented the Digital History Across the Curriculum
project, which was funded by the National Historical Publications
and Records Commission, at NYU. Previously, he was the director
of Archives and Library Services at the American Bible Society
(19841994) and university archivist at Seton Hall University
(19781984). He has published widely in both the archives and
religious history fields, most recently authoring Waldo Gifford Leland
and the Origins of the American Archival Profession (SAA, 2011). A
Fellow of SAA and winner of the 2000 Fellows Ernst Posner Award
for outstanding essay in The American Archivist, he currently serves
as editor of SAAs forthcoming Archival Fundamentals Series III.
A R C H I VA L O U T L O OK 19
 SOMEONE YOU SHOULD KNOW
Steven Booth
Steven D. Booth has worked for the
U.S. National Archives since 2009 as an
archivist with the Presidential Materials
Division, Office of General Counsel,
and now the Barack Obama Presidential
Library. He previously held positions
at Boston Universitys Howard Gotlieb
Archival Research Center and JPMorgan
and Chase, providing access to the papers
of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. In 2015,
Booth co-founded Archivists of Metro
D.C., a collective of allied professionals
who help local community organizations
create self-sustaining archival programs.
An active member of SAA, he has served
as co-chair of the Archivists and Archives
of Color Roundtable, the Harold T. Pinkett
Minority Student Award Subcommittee,
and most recently the Awards Committee,
where he was named emeritus co-chair
for his outstanding leadership and service
throughout the 20132015 awards cycle.
Booth is a 2008 ALA Spectrum Scholar and
a member of the 2015 Archives Leadership
Institute cohort. He squeezed in a bit of
time to talk with SAA about community
building, fashion in the stacks, and his
dream collection.
SAA: What rst drew you to the
archives?
SB: I was drawn to archives while
studying music at Morehouse College.
As a participant of the Mellon Librarian
Recruitment Program, I had the opportunity
to intern at the Atlanta University Center
Robert W. Woodruff Library where I learned
about librarianship career opportunities.
Through the program I met archivists Karen
Jefferson, Andrea Jackson, and Meredith
Evans. Their work documenting and
preserving the history of Historically Black
Colleges and Universities resonated with
my affinity for research and organization.
Together, they encouraged me to pursue an
archival career and attend Simmons College.
SAA: What projects are you working on?
SB: As one of the inaugural archivists
hired for the Obama Library, I am currently
assisting with the eventual transition
of textual, electronic, and audio/visual
records from the White House to Chicago,
which will take place at the end of the
Administration. During my time at the
20 A R C H I VA L O U T L O OK
Steven Booth, serving on the Awards Committee at the 2015 Annual Meeting in Cleveland.
National Archives Ive worked with a
variety of presidential and vice presidential
records, but never at an actual library.
Having this opportunity is a dream come
true. Being able to return to my hometown
and contribute to the community I grew
up in, both personally and professionally,
has always been a goal of mine. And Im
excited to be a part of a team that will play
a significant role in establishing the library
of the nations forty-fourth and first African
American president.
SAA: What sparked your Culture
Keepers Tumblr project?
SB: Culture Keepers is a passion project
I started back in 2014 to document Black
archivists and honor their contributions
to the profession. The impetus for this
project began while doing research at the
University of WisconsinMilwaukee about
the establishment of SAAs Archivists and
Archives of Color Roundtable (AACR). I was
fascinated to learn about how archivists
Diana Lachatanere, Carol Rudisell, Paula
Williams, and many others mobilized and
fought to make AACR possible during a
time when there was barely any minority
representation within the organization.
Its a piece of archival history thats not
discussed, and it should be. And although I
havent posted anything new since last year,
Culture Keepers is still in existence and will
re-emerge very soon.
SAA: What current trends in the
archival profession are you most
excited about?
SB: Im most excited about the community
building thats taking place in the profession.
Archivists across the country are stepping
outside the confines of traditional
organizational associations to create new life
and meaning to their work. Within the last
few years, weve seen groups like Itinerant
Archivists, Los Angeles Archivists Collective,
Project ARCC (Archivists Responding to
Climate Change) and Archivists of Metro
D.C. organized. As a profession, they
collectively represent the myriad social
causes that our work affects and illustrate
how multidimensional we are as archivists.
Its inspiring to see us empower, serve,
educate, and advocate for communities
in which we live and are a part of through
archival means.
SAA: What makes for a well-dressed
archivist?
SB: Being a well-dressed archivist is
subjective. The type of institution,
organizational culture, and specialization
influences what an archivist wears. You
want to show your personality and style,
while also trying to be comfortable and
functional. Its a tightrope, especially for
those of us who work in stack areas that are
cold and dusty. Im a huge supporter of the
capsule wardrobe and have worked to create
a minimalist style with interchangeable
basic and modish pieces that can be worn
regularly. Im often inspired by some of my
favorite style geniuses in the profession: Meg
Tuomala, Geof Huth, Derek Mosley, Tamar
Evangelista-Dougherty, and Kelly Kietur.
SAA: What collection would be your
dream collection to care for as an
archivist?
SB: If I had the opportunity to care for a
dream collection, it would be Oprahs. Her
work as a media mogul, talk show host,
actress, producer, and philanthropist has
touched and influenced many peoples lives.
Can you imagine the volume of materials
shes accumulated over the years? The
significance of her collection is invaluable.
There would have to be a customized storage
facility separate from the actual archives and
museum to house her materials. If Beyonc
has her own archivist, Oprah should too!
July/August 2016
Raising Mobile Devices from with university departments who could Halloween, we amped up the mass appeal
the Dead amplify our message, including University of #UndeadTech and piqued the interest
continued from page 3 Relations and the Alumni Association. of media outlets. When planning a
We also contacted groups on campus crowdsourcing campaign, dont be afraid to
the branding of #UndeadTech, created a who may be receptive to the message broaden its message: #UndeadTech appealed
schedule for the two weeks in October that of #UndeadTech, such as student-led to a wide audience because of the timing
the campaign would technology groups with Halloween and the current pop culture
be live, and composed at the McCormick appeal of zombies. Clever or appealing
School of Engineering branding can give a crowdsourcing campaign
promotional content, A crowdsourcing a life of its own.
including daily social and environmental
media posts. These
campaign would not and sustainability
steps were invaluable only help us build a organizations. Raising the Prole of Archives
to the success of the collection of electronic Networking with a
variety of university
campaign, especially As #UndeadTech taught us, crowdsourcing
after it blew up. peripherals for future departments and groups can be a valuable strategy for an archives,
Having social media use but would also raise on campus brought not only for reaching a goal like acquiring
content already
awareness of our digital #UndeadTech to a much
wider audience than the
equipment for obsolete technology, but
also for engaging your community and the
written and ready to
post was crucial to archiving program. libraries alone. public in your archival mission. Without
keep #UndeadTech #UndeadTech, we would not have been able
alive when trying Make it cute. Finally, to copy any content from mobile devices in
to respond to the the cuteness factor our collections for Northwestern University
hundreds of inquiries that flooded in. of #UndeadTech Libraries digital archives. More importantly,
was undeniable in its popularity. As we #UndeadTech raised awareness of our
Use the power of networking. By discovered, tying a crowdsourcing campaign digital archiving program and prompted our
involving others in the library and across into a current event or trend can give it a community and potential donors to think
our university campus, we were able to lot more reach. By using a zombie theme of digital devices as sources for archival
boost our campaign significantly. Our (perfectly captured in the logo from materials. With the resources of the crowd,
colleagues in the libraries marketing and Bossman Graphics) and intentionally even archival content from decade-old flip
communications unit helped us connect planning the campaign to coincide with phones can come back to life!

July/August 2016 A R C H I VA L O U T L O OK 21
Linked Data in the Archives
continued from page 6
semantic web forms a giant constellation
of data that has the potential to provide
unprecedented context for archives in the
digital world.
For my colleagues and I at CMOA, Linked
Data meant we could represent digitally
the intellectual relationships between
items in the Department of Film and Video
Archive and the people, events, and artwork
involved in the history that the archive
embodies.
Collaborate Outside Your
Comfort Zone and Use Existing
Resources
By January 2015, we had begun building the
infrastructure that would help us achieve
the newly expanded scope of our project at
CMOA. Two resources became absolutely
crucial components of our project plan
and workflow.
First, we were fortunate
to partner with a
developer who already Archivists need to be
had experience working
with the encoding thinking more broadly prior to this point was
methods used in about what Linked Data processing and
Linked Data. We began
working together very
means and could mean description, and was
early in the project for the profession.
and were able to plan
based on our combined
technical requirements. We also devised
an efficient workflow. As I processed and
digitized the archive, I uploaded images
and metadata directly into the collections
management system. At the same time,
our developer worked on restructuring
it into Linked Data for the website. This
partnership is ultimately what made the
project possible.
Second, to create and store the metadata
for the project, we used KE Softwares
Electronic Museum system, or EMu, which
CMOA was already using to catalog its art
collection. Underneath the EMu software
is a relational database that allows users to
create various types of records, including
catalog (object) records, event records,
and party (people/organization) records.
22 A R C H I VA L O U T L O OK
Users relate these to one another with
specified fields. As the project archivist,
I found that using this system made the
process of creating links in the metadata
relatively straightforward because the types
of relationships were already built into the
software.
We had a few additional factors working
in our favor as well. We had no existing
infrastructure in place for the archives
that we had to work around and we had
no data to migrate from legacy systems.
We had the opportunity to build the entire
infrastructure from the ground up. As we
charged forward, our developer and our
collections management system remained
our greatest assets.
Think Big but Scale
Expectations
Once spring arrived, the project was in
full swing. The workflow was set and the
infrastructure was in place. Now we had
to finish the work, checking off every item
on our lengthy to-do list. There was no
precedent for this type
of project in the CMOA
archives. All work
focused on minimal
usually done by interns
and volunteers.
One of the most
challenging items on our list was simply
metadata creation. We cataloged items in
the archive using Archives Utility in EMu,
which allows for compatibility with two
archival standards: the General International
Standard for Archival Description or
ISAD(G), and Encoded Archival Description
(EAD). We used these standards to generate
the finding aid, but in order to create the
necessary semantic links between the
archive and people, events, and artwork,
we had to devise local specifications for our
item-level metadata. Furthermore, these
specifications had to be extremely thorough,
much more labor-intensive than is realistic
for most archivists to apply on a broad scale.
A single item could have upwards of 15 lines
of metadata associated with it. In order
to scale expectations for the amount of
metadata we could produce with our limited
staff and volunteers, we prioritized series
within the archive and then selected specific
items within those series.
A New Way to Experience
Collections
In early 2016, we completed the project and
launched the website. We discovered that
Linked Data is labor intensive to build, but
offers users an exciting and unprecedented
way to experience collections online.
Perhaps Linked Data still feels just over the
horizon for many institutions. It may not
be practical to implement using current
technical resources and standards. However,
archivists need to be thinking more broadly
about what Linked Data means and could
mean for the profession. It has enormous
potential to help us express digitally the
context of our collections, which after all,
is what makes archives so engaging.
If you are currently using or have plans to use
Linked Data in your archives, I hope these
lessons learned at Carnegie Museum of Art
make your projects a little less daunting.
Genealogists: How to Get
Them in the Door
continued from page 13
available to them in the facility. The class
has brought many of the students to the
archives to do further research. Success!
Genealogists are continually looking for new
research techniques to help them find more
information about their relatives and are
very open to new ideas. All it takes is getting
them in the door!
Genealogists as an Asset
Genealogists are a great group of people.
They are enthusiastic researchers,
investigators, and sleuthsthey love
digging up their dead people. By making it
easier for them to find relevant repositories
and encouraging them to visit the archives in
person, we can provide positive experiences
for genealogiststhen they will return
again and again!
July/August 2016
Intrepid Archivists
continued from page 5
Some of the most remarkable finds are
unfortunately not recoverable: sailor art.
Sailors would often personalize their generic
berthing and work spaces by painting on
the ships walls, called bulkheads. Subjects
ranged from landscapes to their work
on board and was created with whatever
materials sailors could find. Artwork in
public exhibit spaces is protected under
Plexiglas. However, artwork in other areas
of the ship is so massive, both in dimension
and weight, that it can never be moved. The
best that the collections staff can do is take
as many photographs as possible. As the
museum grows, we hope to restore more
spaces, but even so, preserving this artwork
is difficult.
One of our favorite finds happened while
performing maintenance in the ships
library. Our fabrication team moved one of
the bookshelves and discovered the wrapper
of a Baby Ruth chocolate bar, an empty pack
of Camel cigarettes, and a half-consumed
bottle of sacramental wine. The chaplains
office was located right outside the library,
so one can imagine how those items ended
The Second Citys Second Wind
continued from page 9
Evidence of The Second Citys use of the
archives is apparent: Polaroids of early cast
members such as Steve Carell and Amy
Sedaris, blown up to portrait size, adorn the
walls of classrooms. The new 1959 Kitchen
& Bar near the theater
features custom wallpaper
made from prints of
early Second City scripts,
ticket stubs, playbills, and
newspaper reviews. And
the wooden sign which
once hung above the doors
of the original Second City
now sits high above the
stairwell, greeting those
who enter.
Preserved and Prepared
In August of 2015, a thin metal door was
all that stood between staff offices and a
July/August 2016
up stashed behind the bookcase. These
objects were recently featured in our
exhibit Objects in Conversation.
Gaining a Fuller Picture
There are still a few stray spaces in need
of documentation, but by and large the
ship has been thoroughly photographed.
With all of this documentation, staff
are inevitably backlogged in entering
information, but the collections team
is steadily chipping away at the task. To
date, we have cataloged 420 spaces, half
of which are entered into TMS. We are
also arranging and describing objects and
papers removed from the ship. TMSs
functionality allows for linking records in
its Objects module to the spaces cataloged
in the Sites module, preserving the context
of where material was found. As records are
processed, we are addressing preservation
concerns for records found in dirty, rusty
and moldy areas.
Now that we have a fairly complete picture
of the current state of the ship, staff will
be able to track future changes. Most
excitingly, the museum recently received
a grant from the New York City Regional
sudden fire that raged through The Second
Citys administrative building. The fire
originated in the kitchen of a neighboring
restaurant, and while the theater complex
was relatively undamaged, The Second City
offices were destroyed. Fortunately, years
of cast photos, scene props, and other
historical memorabilia were safe in climate-
controlled off-site storage. Pagnozzi had
taken no chances with
Chicagos aged buildings
and history of disastrous
fires. The Second Citys
history had dodged a
major catastrophe.
As The Second City
underwent repairs,
Pagnozzi began to get
calls from small, local
theaters. They saw what
happened here, he said, and they dont want
it to happen to them. Pagnozzi was happy to
share his recipe for disaster preparedness in
the hope that it might save other vulnerable,
hidden pieces of Chicago history, pieces that
Above: Archivist Katherine Meyers recovers typewriter
instructions for working with carbon copy paper in the
Marines Storeroom.Photograph courtesy of the Intrepid
Sea, Air, & Space Museum.
Economic Development Council to create
three-dimensional scans of the entire ship.
This project will be invaluable in making the
ship accessible and in developing innovative
educational programming.
The ship documentation project has been
incredibly rewarding for all involved.
Wed love to hear from other institutions
embarking on similar projects in surprising
spaces. Contact Ann Stegina at astegina
@Intrepidmuseum.org.
may not have been fortunate enough to have
come under the care of an archivist.
A Legacy of Laughs
Like the winds of the city of Chicago,
history can change in an instant: the spark
of an idea with the power to inspire millions
can ignite in a flash, and the spark of a flame
can demolish all records of the past without
warning. For the time being, the history of
The Second City is safe under the watchful
eye of an archivist, and it will be available to
future audiences. The institution that has
kept the city laughing is still holding up its
end of the deal: a click of Pagnozzis mouse,
and John Belushi flickers onto the screen,
running down a long-gone Chicago alley,
pursued by a six-foot tall gorilla who suffers
from the misfortune of slipping on its own
banana peels.
The best humor withstands the test of time,
and thanks to The Second Citys archives,
we can be sure that this theory is true.
A R C H I VA L O U T L O OK 23
 FROM THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
Nancy P. Beaumont
nbeaumont@archivists.org
Summering
S ummer at SAA HQ is pretty short, given that its taken up with
preparations for the Annual Meeting, followed quickly by various
fall deadlines and events. No complaints here. We love being busy!
The SAA Foundations first annual Day of Giving on June 20 (the
summer solstice) brought in more than $12,700, of which $10,586
was directed to renewing the Mosaic Scholarship Fundenough
to fund two scholarships! Ninety donors, 35 of them brand-new
contributors, set aside a few minutes on that longest day of the year
to make a difference. Thank you!
What a Difference
a Day Made!
DAY of giving
June 20
$12,726
Building up the Mosaic Scholarship Fund is a high priority for the
Foundation Board this year, and thats why the scholarship will
be the focus of a second event, a Coffee and Pancakes break
hosted by the Foundation in the Joint Annual Meeting Expo Hall
on Friday, August 5, from 8:30 to 9:30 am. Whats especially fun
about this event is that the Hilton Atlanta chef has agreed to use
Rosa Parkss recipe for Featherlite Peanut Butter Pancakesa recipe
that was rediscovered when Mrs. Parkss papers, cataloged by the
Library of Congress, came to the attention of media outlets and
food bloggers everywhere. Another great example of a primary
source capturing imaginations!
* * *
For many, summer is a time to relax, renew, and get the creative
juices flowing. Before September rolls around, we hope youll start
planning to participate in the third annual #AskAnArchivist Day,
scheduled this year for October 3. (Well return to October 1 as soon
as the calendar allows.) We encourage archivists around the country
to take to Twitter on that day to answer questions tweeted with the
hashtag #AskAnArchivist. Its a great opportunity to:
t Break down the barriers that make archivists seem
inaccessible.
t Talk directly to the publicvia Twitterabout what you do,
why its important and, of course, the interesting records with
which you work.
24 A R C H I VA L O U T L O OK
t Join with archivists around the country and the world to
make an impact on the publics understanding of archives.
t Interact with users, supporters, and prospective supporters
about the value of archives.
t Hear directly from the public about what theyre most
interested in learning about from archives and archivists.
See http://www2.archivists.org/initiatives/askanarchivist-day for
lots of ideas and tips. And if you dont yet have a Twitter account,
create one!
This collaborative activity has proven to be a great kick-off to
American Archives Month in October, a campaign that SAA has
championed since 2006. No matter what your budget is, you can
enhance public awareness of your collections.
We provide lots of evergreen ideas and tips for celebrating American
Archives Month at http://www2.archivists.org/initiatives/american
-archives-month-the-power-of-collaboration, including an event
planning guide, tips for creating and maintaining good media
relations and for media interviews, a dozen ideas for reaching out
to your community, and sample press releases and proclamations.
Watch the Committee on Public Awarenesss ArchivesAWARE! blog
for ideas, too: https://archivesaware.archivists.org/2016/01/.
* * *
For those who will be attending ARCHIVES*RECORDS 2016 in
Atlanta, we look forward to seeing you there. Keep an eye on
http://www2.archivists.org/am2016 for updates. And for those who
have better things to do (congratulations, Chela and Mark!), well
see you on the other side.
A note that the SAA Council proposes revisions to the SAA
constitution and bylaws to address two matters: filling of Council
vacancies and timing of member referendums. The proposed
amendments will be discussed at the Annual Membership
Meeting in Atlanta (on Saturday, August 6, from 11:45 am to
1:00 pm, at the Hilton Atlanta, Salon D) and will be voted on in a
member referendum in November 2016. Read the briefing paper
here: http://www2.archivists.org/news/2016/council-proposes
-constitutionbylaws-amendments.
As always, if you have ideas or suggestions for us, please contact me
at nbeaumont@archivists.org or 866-722-7858, ext. 12.
P.S. The SAA office will be closed on August 8 and 9. Beach time!
July/August 2016
17 North State Street, Suite 1425
Chicago, IL 60602-3315 USA

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