R A O   N E W S                                 Issue 8, Summer 2002
  Newsletter of the Reference, Access, and Outreach Section of The Society of American Archivists

FROM THE CHAIR REFERENCE IN THE ARCHIVES MEMBER NEWS OUTREACH WEBSITE REVIEW   ELECTIONS OFFICERS

FROM THE CHAIR by Anne Salter

I have enjoyed being the chair of the RAO section this year. I look forward to meeting you all at the SAA meeting in Birmingham. Remember, our session will take place at 8 a.m. on the 23rd of August. The agenda is very ambitious and I hope you will enjoy the speakers. I encourage all of you to consider running for office in RAO, especially chair. It is a great way to get more involved in SAA and it is also an excellent means of getting to know more of our fellow archivists. I would like to say a special thanks to this year’s officers and the newsletter editor for the outstanding work they have accomplished. You will have a chance to meet them and elect new officers at the annual meeting. (see ELECTIONS for a list of those who are running for office).

REFERENCE IN THE ARCHIVES  by Ellen Swain

Denise Anthony, a doctoral student at the University of Michigan School of Information, provides an overview of the interesting research she is conducting on archival knowledge.  If you would like to learn more about her study, she can be contacted at: denisea@umich.edu

Exploring the Tacit Knowledge Underlying Archivists’ Search Skills

Human beings afford both a sensitive and a precarious way of storing, maintaining and transferring knowledge in organizations. People perceive, sense, assimilate, and integrate subtle nuances and patterns of information that are not readily captured by other mediums such as technology, structures, standard procedures or routines. Consequently, a large quantity of the knowledge necessary to effectively operate and administer organizations such as archives and special collections resides in employees’ heads. 

Relying on the knowledge of individuals is problematic, however. Over time, knowledge depreciates and decays. A person’s memory fades, becomes confused or disappears entirely. The individuals who possess the requisite knowledge are not always accessible, either. People get sick, retire or relocate to another job and take their knowledge with them. Because reliability of reference services and effective access to collections is important for archives and special collections repositories, it becomes necessary, therefore, to capture the knowledge in the heads of these individuals and make it available to others in more stable, albeit less sensitive, mediums.

But what constitutes the knowledge of a reference archivist? The ability to effectively search and locate information resources within an archive is an acquired, highly specialized, domain-dependent skill supported by extensive knowledge derived from education, training and experience. As archivists continue to be both cognitively and physically engaged in working with collection materials and the people who create and use them, their knowledge is transformed; they develop a gestalt, a deep and holistic understanding of the repository and its materials and they become experts. As described in cognitive psychology, education, and sociological research, the knowledge of experts is vast, complex and multi-layered. Formal, declarative knowledge, i.e., knowledge about things (e.g., characteristics of materials in an archival collection), is only one aspect of an expert’s total knowledge. Over time, procedural knowledge (e.g., how to develop a search strategy) as well as informal, impressionistic and self-regulatory knowledge within a domain become integrated with and incorporated into a person’s knowledge of facts. These latter ‘types’ of knowledge contribute significantly to a person’s expertise yet they are often invisible, tacit and difficult to explicate. The expert may not be even consciously aware of them.

For my dissertation research, I am exploring the different aspects and elements of reference archivists’ knowledge in order to have a greater understanding of what constitutes the content, characteristics, and organization of the knowledge an archivist uses to effectively search and provide access to archival collections. Through the use of specific interviewing techniques, I hope to uncover this tacit knowledge and make it visible. When it is visible, it can be described and articulated and, as such, can be used in training and education programs designed to facilitate the transfer of this knowledge to other archivists. An understanding of this knowledge also has the potential to inform access systems for archive users. 

Denise Anthony
Doctoral candidate
The University of Michigan School of Information

MEMBER NEWS by Ginny Kilander

Member News is your opportunity to tell us about yourself, your job, and your interests.  Is your facility about to open a great exhibit?  Did you just acquire a collection you would like to publicize?  Have you just changed jobs or careers?  Submit your entry to this column and share your Member News!  Please submit your brief biographical statements, announcements, press releases and other news to the Member News editor for inclusion in the next issue. Thanks for your contributions!

Northwest Digital Archives Funded by NEH

The National Endowment for the Humanities has awarded $350,000 for establishment of the Northwest Digital Archives (NWDA).  The two-year project (to begin on July 1, 2002) will provide enhanced access to archival and manuscript materials in Idaho, Montana, Oregon, and Washington through a union database of Encoded Archival Description (EAD) finding aids.  The database will provide consistent and integrated access to 2,200 finding aids for regionally significant primary source materials in the Northwest.  This major step forward for archives in this region will provide access to primary materials and foster cooperation among archival and manuscript repositories. 

Oregon State University is the lead institution on the project; OSU will receive the award from the Endowment and sub-contract with the participating institutions for their portions of the award.   More than half of the total award (approximately $185,000) will be dispersed to participating institutions in the region to purchase software and hire staff for conversion and review of finding aids.  The remainder will be used for the encoding of approximately 12,000 pages by a data conversion vendor, hardware and software for the database, training, travel, and dissemination.  Participating institutions are Washington State University, Pullman (which will host the database and provide the technical infrastructure); University of Washington, Seattle; Washington State Archives, Olympia;  Seattle Municipal Archives; Center for Pacific Northwest Studies (Western Washington University, Bellingham); Pacific Lutheran University, Tacoma, WA; Whitworth College, Spokane, WA; Oregon Historical Society, Portland; University of Oregon, Eugene; University of Idaho, Boise; Montana Historical Society, Helena; and University of Montana, Missoula. 

The Northwest Digital Archives will be a decentralized project with the bulk of the project work performed at the individual participating institutions.  However, the NWDA will develop project-specific best practice guidelines for the content and encoding of finding aids and will ensure that submitted finding aids meet those guidelines. 

This project will establish the necessary infrastructure for participating institutions to continue to submit EAD finding aids to the NWDA finding aids database as a standard operating activity after the two-year project is completed and for the NWDA to be expanded to include other repositories of primary resources in the four-state region. 

During the first six months, project directors and staff at the participating institutions will identify finding aids for contribution to the database, work together to develop best practices for description and encoding, and develop procedures, where appropriate, for the conversion of finding aids in existing databases to EAD.  

Larry Landis is the Consortium Director and Elizabeth Nielsen is the Consortium Manager.  Questions about the NWDA can be directed to either Larry (larry.landis@orst.edu; 541-737-0540) or Elizabeth (Elizabeth.Nielsen@orst.edu; 541-737-0543).   A preliminary project website is available at http://nwda.wsulibs.wsu.edu.


OUTREACH by Coralina Daly

 

Fire!: The University of Iowa Special Collections Department Responds

On November 20, 2001, an accidental fire during restoration work destroyed the dome of the Old Capitol, the University of Iowa's most widely recognized and beloved symbol. 'Old Cap,' as it is also known, served as the state's first capitol building, from statehood in 1846 until 1857, when the capitol was moved to Des Moines. That year it was deeded to the university, a fledgling institution with an enrollment of 124. For nearly 150 years ‘Old Cap’ has served at various times as the law school, administrative center, and, in its early years, even as a fire station. The University of Iowa Archives was scheduled to open a three-month exhibit on another subject in the campus's main library just a few weeks after the fire, but it was agreed that the original topic could be postponed until later in the year to allow for a special exhibit: "Old Cap: Remembrance and Renewal."

With only five weeks to prepare, archives staff reviewed numerous building files, photographs, blueprints, ephemera, and objects for possible display. We also researched various sources of information in preparing text for the captions and contacted selected individuals -- including the recently retired director of the Iowa Memorial Union -- for possible items to loan. The result was an exhibit that avoided the traditional timeline, instead looking at Old Cap from different perspectives: as a place to protest, a place to celebrate, a place to cry. The exhibit also featured Old Cap's pervasive image through the years -- on phone directory covers, course catalogues, stationery, buttons, china, silverware, and student-produced 'zines. A 1950s-era ice cream mold allowed archives staff to make an inviting Old Capitol-shaped "butterscotch" display with clay!

In light of the intensity of emotion surrounding the fire, archives staff worked closely with the University Libraries' director of public relations and University News Service staff to ensure local and state coverage of this celebratory exhibit. The archivist granted several interviews to local media, including television and radio, and response from visitors was very positive. The exhibit was also used as a tie-in with other related activities on campus, including the Old Capitol Museum and fund-raising efforts by the University of Iowa Foundation.

Though the physical exhibit was removed in late March, an online version is under development and should be released in the summer of 2002 at http://www.lib.uiowa.edu/archives/oldcapitol. In addition, it will link to related Web sites, including a daily progress report of Old Cap's restoration maintained by the campus facilities department. The replacement dome, by the way, designed as closely to the original as possible, is expected to be completed in 2003, with the remaining interior work to follow.

David McCartney, University Archivist, University of Iowa Special Collections Department

WEBSITE REVIEW by Jessica Lacher-Feldman

Lester S. Levy Collection of Sheet Music  
Johns Hopkins University Special Collections 
  http://levysheetmusic.mse.jhu.edu/

 Working with teaching faculty on special projects, including exhibits and outreach activities is one of the great pleasures of my position as Public and Outreach Services Coordinator at the W.S. Hoole Special Collections Library at the University of Alabama.

 One ongoing relationship I have developed is with a musicology professor at the University of Alabama.  We did an exhibition together on WWI era American Patriotic sheet music covers for in the Fall of 2001, which I am currently developing into an online exhibition.  We are currently in the planning stages for our next exhibition, and simultaneously he is beginning work on his next book, which will be on American sheet music.

Sheet music is an incredible reflection of life and culture in America.  A precursor to recorded music, sheet music was a conduit for entertainment in 19th and early 20th century America.   It played a critical role in lives of millions of Americans, providing inspiration, diversion, entertainment, and nostalgia. 

One of the greatest online resources for American sheet music is the Lester S. Levy Collection of Sheet Music at the Milton S. Eisenhower Library of the Johns Hopkins University.  This rich collection contains over 29,000 pieces of music and focuses on popular American music spanning the period 1780 to 1960. All pieces of the collection are indexed on this site and a search will retrieve a catalog description of the pieces. An image sheet music cover and of each page of music will also be retrieved if the music was published before 1923 and is in the public domain.

The music is browsable by thirty-eight topical categories, and is also fully searchable.  Topics include transportation, schools, maritime, costume, fraternal orders, and juvenile topics.   Digital surrogates of each entire item within the public domain is available as a thumbnail, and can be expanded to a full-screen image.  Bibliographic information is also included with each item.

This site is not only a valuable resource for researchers, and for those who need or want exposure to sheet music with the convenience of using digital surrogates.  It also assists in providing intellectual access to the sheet music collections held within other collections, as with the work that I am doing within my own repository. 

calendar by Jim Cross

August 19-25, 2002 " Society of American Archivists Annual Meeting" in  Birmingham, Alabama at the Sheraton Hotel. 

Contact: Society of American Archivists, 600 S. Federal, Suite 504, Chicago IL 60605 phone: 312-922-0140, fax: 312-922-1452, info@archivists.org, http://www.archivists.org

ELECTIONS
2002-2003 Candidates 

Chair 
        Ellen Swain - Archivist for Student Life and Culture, University Archives, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Steering Committee 

       Mary Foley - Archives/Records Management Supervisor, American Bible Society

      Jessica Lacher-Feldman - Public and Outreach Services Coordinator, The W.S. Hoole Special 
         Collections Library, The University of Alabama  

      Coralina Daly - Collections Archivist, Iowa State University 

      Jim Cross - Manuscript Archivist, Clemson University Libraries 

      Susan McElrath - Archivist, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution 

OFFICERS  

RAO Committee RAO Newsletter  
Chair:  Anne Salter - Georgia Institute of Technology
Anne.salter@library.gatech.edu		 Editor: Sharon A. Pullen - Suffolk County, New York sharon.pullen@co.suffolk.ny.us  
Vice Chair:  Kathy Burger Johnson - University of  Louisville
Kjohnson@louisville.edu   		Reference: Ellen Swain - University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign  eswain@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu  
Steering Committee:
Susan McElrath - Smithsonian Institution
Mcelrath.susan@mhn.si.edu   		Outreach: Coralina Daly - Iowa State University cdaly@iastate.edu
John LeGloahec - International Monetary Fund 
jlegloahec@imf.org		 Member news: Ginny Kilander - University of Wyoming Papyrus@uwyo.edu  
Jacqueline Reid - Duke University
j.reid@duke.edu		 Calendar: Jim Cross - Clemson University jcros@Clemson.edu 
Website Administrator: Coralina Daly - Iowa State University cdaly@iastate.edu Special Projects: Mimi Dionne - State of Michigan dionnem@state.mi.us

Contributing to RAO News:  Please submit your brief biographical statements, announcements, and other news by November 15, 2002 for inclusion in the next issue.   To make a submission contact either the editor or the feature writers. (see above for contact info)  Please submit all materials in Times Roman font, size 11.  Submit in a Microsoft Word file.  Do not underline, italicize, or highlight text.