America's pyramids: Presidents and their libraries

Review of the purpose, history, and debates about the presidential library system, with a recommendation to end the system

Training of Data Services Professionals: Past, Present, And Future

published or submitted for publicatio

Revisiting the archival finding aid

Archivists have been creating finding aids for generations, and in the last three decades they have done this work via a succession of standardized formats. However, like many other disciplines, they have carried out such work in violation of systems analysis. Although purporting to have the users of finding aids systems first and foremost in their mind, archivists have carried out their descriptive work apart from and with little knowledge of how researchers find and use archival sources. In this article, questions are raised about the utility of archival finding aids and how they will stand the test of time. Indeed, archivists, purportedly concerned with considering how records function and will be used over time, ought to apply the same kind of analysis and thinking to their finding aids. In this article, we explore three ways archival finding aids might be examined by outsiders, namely, those concerned with museum exhibitions, design experts, and accountability advocates. Doing this should assist archivists to reevaluate their next wave of experimentation with descriptive standards and the construction of finding aids. Archivists should expand the notion of what we are representing in archival representation. © 2007 by The Haworth Press

\u3cem\u3eLegacy of Courage: Calgary’s Own 137th Battalion\u3c/em\u3e by Fred Bagley and Dr. H.D. Duncan [Review]

Review of Fred Bagley & Dr. Harvey Daniel Duncan, A Legacy of Courage: Calgary\u27s Own 137th Overseas Battalion, CEF. Calgary: Pulp Street Books, 1994

The New Knowledge Environment: Quality Initiatives in Health Sciences Libraries

published or submitted for publicatio

The Politics of Being an Archival Donor: Defining the Affective Relationship Between Archival Donors and Archivists

Traditional archival praxis oftentimes depicts the archival donor as an observer and recipient of services or benefits. One that can either comply with the rules and expectations set forth by the archivist and archival institution when donating their materials or walk away from the process and opportunity. Despite the historic role of donor contributions in the form of archival donations, donors and their needs remain overlooked in much of the archival literature. Instead, current archival paradigms tend to focus more on the archival materials more so than the people behind them. But what if donors and archivists could reimagine their relationship and the ethical obligations associated with this bond? This article applies Michelle Caswell and Marika Cifor’s archival theory of radical empathy combined with the theoretical framework of political consciousness as set forth by Black feminism. Using these frameworks, the research study uses a mixed method approach that includes a literature review of relationships in the archival field and a qualitative conventional content analysis of collected interview data from the donor case study of living music artist donors. As archivists seek to improve collection development and acquisition practices more attention must be placed on the care, affirmation, and wellbeing of the archival donor. Through collaboration with donors, archivists can strengthen archival practices by centering people and not just the things. By combining an ethics of care which introduces “a web of mutual affective responsibility” alongside the construction of a donor political consciousness, this article shows how donor participation contributes and strengthen archival practices that center people and not just things. The article and findings offer a distinct pathway to better understand the challenges, limitations, and possibilities of donor relationships and the benefits of donors recognizing the importance of active participation and understanding of their role in the archival process. Pre-print first published online 02/26/202

Preparing Undergraduate Students for Compliance Work?

Anecdotal stories by professionals working in the heritage management industry, specifically Cultural Resource Management (CRM), describe feeling unprepared for the work upon graduating with an undergraduate anthropology degree. Likewise, recent graduates complain that they are unqualified for posted CRM jobs even though many hope to enter the field upon graduation. This anecdotal information raises questions about whether undergraduate academic training adequately prepares students for compliance archaeology. Although anecdotes suggest the academy could do a better job at preparing undergraduate students for compliance work, few resources exist to evaluate these claims. To further complicate the issue, some academics rightly question whether undergraduate education should focus on training students to enter the industry at the expense of a more holistic education. They also question who should be responsible for training students to enter the industry. This article explores these complicated issues and presents initial results from a recent pilot survey conducted in Colorado that was designed to examine undergraduate student preparation for compliance work. Using these preliminary results, we evaluate perceived gaps in training and offer possibilities for addressing these gaps that range from partnerships between CRM and academia to curriculum reform where appropriate

Digital convergence and the information profession in cultural heritage organizations: Reconciling internal and external demands

Nearly twenty years ago, W. Boyd Rayward became one of the first academics to examine how electronic information and the functional integration of libraries, archives, and museums has affected, and will affect, the information profession. In doing so, he laid the groundwork for an entire research agenda on the topic of digital convergence, where the increased use of, and reliance on, digital resources in libraries, archives, and museums has increasingly blurred the traditional distinctions between these institutions. This paper explores how Rayward’s early work in this area influenced the development of this topic over time, focusing on how information professionals in cultural heritage organizations can and should reconcile their internal perceptions of identity with the external expectations of their users, particularly those who do not or cannot clearly distinguish between different institutions or the information resources they manage. In a world where the traditional assumptions we take for granted about information organization and access in libraries, archives, and museums are simply not shared by our users, the future of the information profession depends on the ability of cultural heritage information professionals to transcend the traditional boundaries between libraries, archives, and museums to meet information needs in the digital age.published or submitted for publicationOpe

Digital Preservation, Archival Science and Methodological Foundations for Digital Libraries

Digital libraries, whether commercial, public or personal, lie at the heart of the information society. Yet, research into their long‐term viability and the meaningful accessibility of their contents remains in its infancy. In general, as we have pointed out elsewhere, ‘after more than twenty years of research in digital curation and preservation the actual theories, methods and technologies that can either foster or ensure digital longevity remain startlingly limited.’ Research led by DigitalPreservationEurope (DPE) and the Digital Preservation Cluster of DELOS has allowed us to refine the key research challenges – theoretical, methodological and technological – that need attention by researchers in digital libraries during the coming five to ten years, if we are to ensure that the materials held in our emerging digital libraries are to remain sustainable, authentic, accessible and understandable over time. Building on this work and taking the theoretical framework of archival science as bedrock, this paper investigates digital preservation and its foundational role if digital libraries are to have long‐term viability at the centre of the global information society.