Working with Archival Materials

Syllabus for workshop at CoLang 2016As more languages become dormant each year, there is a growing need to develop and disseminate research methods for working with archival documents. This workshop is aimed primarily toward beginning and intermediate participants who either are currently working with or intend to work with archival materials. The workshop will focus primarily on providing and developing skills to accomplish research and revitalization goals through the use of archival documents. Therefore, there will be hands on practice in class as well as regular assignments for participants. These assignments will allow students to begin working with these materials during the workshop itself, to discuss these methods with fellow participants, and to fix any potential pitfalls or obstacles during the initial stages of this process.2015 NSF/BCS 1500841: CoLang 2016: Institute on Collaborative Language Research – ALASKA Alaska Native Language Cente

Crowdsourcing Transcriptions of Archival Materials

Crowdsourcing is a method that has been effectively used to pool the knowledge and skills of large numbers of online volunteers for the creation of information resources utilized by historians, genealogists, and scientists. In recent years, archivists have begun to crowdsource the transcription of their handwritten records. Transcription of such records has traditionally been completed by professional transcribers who are skilled in reading multiple handwriting styles, knowledgeable about the creators and historical context of the records, and can interpret varying record formats and genres. However, increasingly limited resources of time and money have made traditional transcription more difficult to accomplish. This paper evaluates the crowdsourcing of transcriptions under three major archival principles: processing, accessibility, and outreach. Crowdsourcing is one processing solution to backlogs of archival records requiring transcription. There are both human and technical issues requiring resolution in the production of transcriptions by online volunteers. Transcription of records results in increased accessibility on multiple levels; transcribed records are: 1) more readable, 2) keyword searchable in databases. Crowdsourcing transcriptions results in greater awareness of the archives being transcribed in the public and among potential users. A final archival principle, preservation, is only briefly discussed due to the limited data available on how crowdsourcing transcriptions has affected the continued use of original records. The numerous crowdsourced transcription projects now underway in the field of archives will provide an experiential component to this paper’s analysis. Crowdsourced transcription projects to be examined include, among others, Transcribe Bentham, Ancestry.com’s World Archives Project, and the Papers of the War Department

Beyond Books 2: Cataloging Archival Materials

Academic libraries aren’t the only institutions that care for archival materials. These unique items can often be found in public libraries, historical societies, and other cultural heritage organizations, many of which may not have trained special collections catalogers on staff. In this workshop, participants will learn how to catalog archival materials, including manuscripts, photographs, and audiovisual materials, so they can be discovered in online catalogs and databases. Both item and collection-level cataloging will be discussed, and participants will learn when and how to apply relevant metadata standards like RDA and DACS. They will then practice cataloging with examples provided by the instructors

Management in the Portsmouth Block Mill, 1803-1812

The Portsmouth Block Mills’ operations are assessed using archival materials showing staff numbers, hours and work assignments, providing insight into scheduling and workload management, capacity availability and use, and overall facility organization and design. A review of production records reveals items made specifically to meet individual production requirements and those made for “stock” and later use, and the Mill’s internal lines ran in a relatively“lean” fashion

John Maynard Keynes, man or myth? The incident of the Spanish pesetas

John Maynard Keynes was and still is one of the world’s most famous economists. One of the most fascinating stories about Keynes appeared in his obituary in the 1946 Proceedings of the British Academy. The story stated that during World War I with minimal financial resources Keynes broke the Spanish-British foreign exchange market, a manipulation that is illegal today. This research investigates if the story is myth or truth. Archival materials suggest Keynes did manipulate this foreign exchange market in April of 1918 and he potentially earned £8 million on his trades.First author draf

Current Approaches to HR Strategies: Inside-Out vs. Outside-In

In an effort to determine the best practices with regard to Human Resource (HR) strategies, we conducted interviews with HR executives knowledgeable about their HR strategies from 20 companies, and gathered archival materials such as the HR strategy documents from 9 of the companies. We found that the content, process, and evaluation of the HR strategies can each be classified as focusing primarily on the HR function, the people of the firm, or the business. We provide some examples of ways that firms can move from an HR focused to a business-focused HR strategy

Providing Culturally Responsive and Ethical Access To Indigenous Collections

SAA’s Code of Ethics states, “Archivists promote the respectful use of culturally sensitive materials in their care by encouraging researchers to consult with communities of origin, recognizing that privacy has both legal and cultural dimensions.” For repositories with Native archival materials, it’s especially important to develop clear guidelines for handling material. Six archivists share how their repositories are shifting policies and practices to promote respectful use of Native archival materials

Going Digital: Presenting UT Campus History in the 21st Century

The Campus History site combines historical maps and materials from the UT Archives housed at the Dolph Briscoe Center for American History. This digitized, geo-temporal website explores the development of the UT campus through archival materials, such as photographs and personal letters. Since 2015, the project has moved from a basic Omeka platform to a customized site that enhances the functionality of the map exhibit. Besides serving as an example of a creative application of archival research, this project also identifies and provides insight into the challenges of communicating history in the 21st century.Histor

Japan on the way to unconditional surrender (6 August — 2 September 1945)

На основе анализа архивных материалов британской политической разведки в статье освещен завершающий этап войны на Тихом океане, приведший Японию, которая развязала эту войну, к безоговорочной капитуляции. Используемые в статье архивные материалы позволили внести существенный элемент новизны в изучение этой страницы истории Второй мировой войны.Based on the analysis of archival materials of the British political intelligence, the article illuminated the final stage of the Pacific War, which led Japan that unleashed this war to an unconditional surrender. Used article archival materials allowed to make a substantial element of novelty in the study of this page of history of the Second World War

Comparative Study of Ethics in Librarianship and the Bible

This paper is a comparative study that discusses ethical issues in librarianship and the Bible. Such issues include: Laws in librarianship vs. laws in the Bible; censorship in librarianship vs. censorship in the Bible; Bible teachings on access to information and access to information in librarianship; purification (i.e., book binding), conservation and preservation practices in the library and in the Bible; weeding of library collections and weeding practices in the Bible; privacy and confidentiality in the library and in the Bible; orderliness of the library collections and the Bible; consortium building of library collections and in the Bible; and consequences of human action in the library and in the Bible. These topics are carefully discussed in order to discover the differences and similarities between the library and biblical ethics. The paper concludes that there is correlation between some ethical issues in the Bible and that of librarianship. It is clear that some aspects of librarianship are rooted in the Bible