Cynthia Lovett: Week 7 @ The HistoryMakers

On Monday, after receiving evaluation corrections, I completed several finding aids.  For the remainder week, I worked with IMLS fellow, Amanda Carter, on processing special collections.  We processed the papers for An Evening With Richard Parsons and An Evening With Colin Powell.  It is interesting how much can be learned about what it takes to create these events by examining and organizing these papers.

In our archival seminar, we discussed library science information theories such as Brenda Dervin’s Sensemaking, Elfreda Chatman’s Information Poverty, and Mark Granovetter’s Theory of Weak Ties.  Professor Salvatore asked us to think about how these theories can relate to information seekers within the context of archives.

In Dr. Christopher Reed’s African American history seminar, we talked about artists of the Harlem Renaissance, the Chicago Renaissance, Jazz and Bebop, and the WPA.

We also had a session with Yale University Professor, Jaqueline Goldsby, who gave us a presentation on the Mapping the Stacks project.  Goldsby emphasized that the challenges we face are an opportunity, because many of the problems being solved for African American archives will become pioneering methods for all archives.

Special Collections: Alex Champion's Hard 7

The Society of American Archivists conference, which titillates a part of my brain devoted to professional development, is just a few weeks away however I felt the familiar sensation weeks earlier than usual. The regular archival processing of the “The HistoryMakers Presents an Evening With…” special collections—a term I’ve yet to make peace with—was the cause this excitement, albeit indirectly. The entire processing project was harmed by the absence of Executive Director Julieanna Richardson and Digital Archivist Dan Johnson. The collections were very well filed, perhaps even too well, and the IMLS fellows compiled, refilled, and labeled folders according an enumerative code based on existing filing practices. This code emphasizes subject or content first and format second but the exceptions to these rules often seem arbitrary; The Fundraising series for example has significant granularity for the Sponsors subseries and covers Fundraising-Sponsors… Acceptances, Declines, Comp Tickets, Thank-Yous, and other pertinent sub-series

Chaitra and Skyla debate the virtues of placement

Problems arise between these neatly identified units because said records were maintained in subject files then stapled; frequently thank-yous for one sponsor are attached their acceptance acceptance letters or printed e-mails. Another problem is that acceptance letters frequently do not exist and sponsorship mailings must be verified against the program book. One intriguing Fundraising category is the newly enlarged Sponsor, Trade subseries; this category was originally created by Dan Johnson to differentiate big game corporate sponsorship that comped airfare, limousine service, or food and drink totaling in the thousands of dollars from the smaller fish to donated sandwiches for the volunteers. The former received a plug in the program book, naturally. It was a logical separation that is reflected in the original order. From Boston, Via iPhone, Julieanna lumped the latter into the former and, through a series of conversational e-mails, decided the folders will receive item level arrangement to separate all sponsors by donor category. We must now examine all sponsor donations at the item level and separate them based on dollar amount of donation. We have a half dozen other often contradictory instructions pertaining to item level processing. What can you expect when the first person you would consult is taking a well deserved vacation and the other works remotely from Boston as she attends a non-profit management workshop? The entire special collections project is still in its toddlerhood and was not prepared for the brunt of six recent MLS graduates to discuss the merits of every placement.  It would be unfair to complain about the sonorous Mississippi accent of my peer Amanda and the quietly pleasant tone of Cynthia but their conversations on the merits of one arrangement or another is like a conversation on a bus or a cellphone call in a restaurant. I occasionally tune it out but it’s always on the back of my mind. An entire week of such debate deadened my receptors. I needed stimulus. 

Our Wednesday meeting with Jacqui Goldsby awoke me from my processing delirium and carried me over until Friday. Although not an archivist by profession, Professor Goldsby discussed her eight year experience creating and administering the Mapping the Stacks project, which  sought to expose underdescribed manuscripts and corporate records concerning black Chicago. Funded by a Andrew W. Mellon Foundation grant, the project focused black cultural contributions of black Chicagoans from the 1930s to 1970s. Over those years, Goldsby and a team of University of Chicago Ph.D. candidates received archival training and processed and electronically encoded finding aids for over 30 archival collections on their project’s database Website; “Uncovering the Chicago Archives” or “UnCap” allows researchers to browse collection finding aids by institution or keyword search. Normally such a site would be just another research project that is created and then immediately neglected but UnCap is sustained by the University of Chicago and even gained another participating repository.

Dr. Goldsby, in her awesome glory

The passion Dr. Goldsby has for black Chicago’s history is evident. Every unique experience at the Du Sable Museum, the Vivian Harsh Collection, the Chicago Defender, and the South Side Community Art Center challenged her in new and exciting ways. The Du Sable, being a museum, did not have significant control over its manuscripts and The Chicago Defender wished to use its collection of images for licensing. The Du Sable allowed her free reign in their chaotic records but the Defender archive posed different problems. Contrary to what you might expect from an academic, Goldsby approved of their for profit goals on principle; she simply did not want her project’s mission to be undermined and obfuscated by exclusionary behavior. She repeatedly claimed, almost in frustration, that there had to be a for profit model for black archives to sustain themselves.  

 I was very impressed by her fair criticism and commentary on the project’s development. She frequently highlighted managerial topics pertaining to the administration of the project. She emphasized the importance of transparency and recognition of self interest; as an arts historian, MTS was Goldsby’s labor of love that relied on support from persons with less enthusiasm than she. The participating institutions and repositories were eager to have people make sense of their records and the Ph.D. students themselves often used the project simply to find research topics.

Dr. Goldsby from a different perspective

Goldsby’s acceptance of these frank admissions and was startling to say the least. Throughout our four hour session she emphasized the importance of the The HistoryMakers IMLS fellowship in training, mentoring, and placing talented archivists interested in black collections; she was like our Julieanna Richardson in archivist form. She recoiled at the memories of poorly described, deteriorating, but culturally valuable materials in a manner I’ve only seen archives students perform. She took their poor condition almost as a personal affront! Like Julieanna Richardson, Professor Goldsby did not need to be an archivist to understand the tragedy of this destruction-by-negligence.    

 It was a very exciting session that carried me over throughout the week. It gave me high hopes of completing a project that I could present to SAA 2013. My initial feelers do not bode well for the outcome but I will keep trying until all options and cajoling are exhausted.

Ardra Whitney: Week 7 @ The HistoryMakers

I had a little fun this morning at the Rock ‘n’ Roll Marathon Series. I cheered on runners as they made their way south on Martin Luther King Drive, east on 31st Street, and then north onto Fort Dearborn Drive – through McCormick Place. I took some great photos and even did a little running myself-- for like point sixty seconds. I also got to listen to some classic rock from a cover band performing along the marathon course at Burnham Harbor Drive. (Did I mention that I was a sucker for Journey?) All in all, it was definitely a nice way to start the day.

On Monday, July 16^th, fellows met with Dr. Cecilia Salvatore for her weekly archives seminar. This week’s seminar dealt with methods and approaches for providing references services.  We discussed the assigned readings, as well as theories of information behavior and cultural models information behavior. We also talked about library information studies, archival intelligence, information encountering, communities of practice, and copyright law. The concept "community of practice" was of particular interest to me because it provides a useful approach/perspective for improving the performance of reference services to the public. According to Etienne Wenger, communities of practice enable practitioners to take collective responsibility for managing the knowledge these communities need. Moreover, communities among practitioners create a direct link between learning and performance, because the same people that participate in communities of practice also participate in teams, business units, etc. Hence, by studying the information needs of communities of practice, practitioners or more to the point, information professionals can address the tacit and dynamic aspects of knowledge creation and sharing, i.e., the social structures that enable them to learn with and from each other. They can also focus on the more explicit aspects—such as developing strategically managed information systems that have the power to store and disseminate critical knowledge, and create connections among people across organizational and geographic boundaries (Wenger, 2006).

On Tuesday at Dr. Christopher Reed’s African American history lecture, we discussed African Americans and the 1920s-1940s. He described how the efforts of Marcus Garvey and W.E.B. DuBois help to raise African American interest in Africa. In addition, Dr. Reed talked about the failure of the government to serve the needs Americans during the Great Depression and the many black protests —both organized and ad hoc— which resulted in response. He pointed out that the rise of unionism among blacks during the 1930s and 1940s helped them to begin forming a national middle-class in the post-World War II era. We also learned that the Black Chicago Renaissance evolved as a successor to the Harlem Renaissance and that the creative spirit of both served a dual function: one, reflecting black culture expressively for the purpose of entertainment and two, promoting a better quality of life for all African Americans.

This week I completed processing my first collection for The HistoryMakers’ Special Collections Processing Project: “An Evening with B.B. King”. Next up is “An Evening with Quincy Jones”. The fellows and I have all been asking Mr. Johnson; production assistant, Bradley Morgan, and executive director, Julieanna Richardson; a ton of questions about the various categories and sub-categories for arranging and describing our assigned collections. Their feedback regarding the various documents and records related to the organization’s annual fundraising event “An Evening With…” has been a great help to all of us in terms of accurately processing the materials. Ms. Richardson explained that once the collections are processed, they will be scanned for digital use and access. On Wednesday, July 18^th, fellows listened to a call between Mr. Morgan and Mike Szerlong at Vanguard Archives to learn how to help identify document scanning companies for the digitization of materials from the Special Collections Processing Project. After listening to Mr. Szerlong speak about the document scanning services that Vanguard Archives offers, we discussed how files within the collections should be organized and described in order to facilitate efficient scanning and indexing processes.

Fellows also attended a special archives lecture on Wednesday, led by Jacqueline Goldsby, Professor of English and African American Studies at Yale University. I very much enjoyed her discussion of the Mapping the Stacks (MTS) project, which she organized while working as a professor in the University of Chicago’s Department of English. The project illustrated the importance of not only recognizing the value of archives devoted to African American history and culture, but also the importance of getting the funding required to adequately preserve these collections and make them fully accessible to the public. Funding for MTS was provided by the University of Chicago's Center for the Study of Race, Politics & Culture, Division of the Humanities, Commonwealth Edison, and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.The project brought together faculty and Ph.D students proficient in African American Studies to survey and process primary source materials (i.e., books, films, photographs, newspapers, magazines, manuscript archives, recorded oral histories, and other ephemera) housed in Chicago-area institutions and community-based organizations. These institutions and organizations included: the Chicago Public Library, Carter G. Woodson RegionalLibrary, Vivian G. Harsh Research Collection of Afro-American History and Literature, the DuSable Museum of African American History, the Chicago Defender newspaper, and the South Side Community Art Center. Once collections were identified, surveyed and processed using field-approved archival management methods, MTS staff produced and disseminated finding aids to allow public access to these processed collections via print and the Web.

On Friday, I corresponded with Georgette Mayo, Processing Archivist at Avery Research Center regarding images and edits for the PowerPoint presentation accompanying my upcoming host institution conference call.  I also watched Avery Normal Institute alumna, Lucille Whipper’s oral history interview conducted by The HistoryMakers and asked Mr. Johnson to edit a clip from the interview, so that I could include it in my presentation. My host institution conference call with Ms. Mayo and Aaron Spelbring, Manager of Archival Services at Avery Research Center is scheduled for Tuesday, July 24^th and I am looking forward to it!

Reference: Wenger, Etienne.  “Communities of Practice: A Brief Introduction.” Communities of Practice. http://www.ewenger.com/theory/.


Ardra Whitney
IMLS Fellow
Avery Research Center for African American History and Culture