Digging Up the Past: Archival Issues with Found Time Capsules at Illinois State University

During the demolition of an Illinois State University dormitory in the spring of 2016, workers discovered two time capsules. Tasked with their care, the university archivist looked for archival guidance on the safe handling of time capsules, best practices for working with their contents while balancing public demand for access. This case study examines the time capsule as an object of collective memory, how it fits into an institutional collection, the archivist’s work to document and recover materials in two recently discovered time capsules, and how to work with multiple institutional departments to make them accessible. It suggests best practices for time capsule discoveries and outreach

New Perspectives on Internship and Practicum Requirements in Archival Education

This conference panel discussed internship and practicum work in archival repositories. The presentation delivered by Anderson focused on training at institutional repositories and the program she developed for both ISU and regional students. As per the panel’s abstract: ”This session will generate new perspectives on the issue of internships and practicums with the intended goal of balancing the educational needs of students, the instructional requirements of archival educators, and the ethical concerns of institutions.

Digitization is in the Details: Using Data from Patron Research Patterns to Enhance Accessibility

Materials like yearbooks, catalogs, and university governance are highly requested items at a university archive. For Illinois State University, we decided to digitize these items to make them more accessible to our out-of-town alumni and researchers. Digitizing these materials was a huge accomplishment for the department and helped us achieve our goal of gaining a larger web presence with our patrons. But where do we go from here? All too often, archivists tend to think we know what our patrons want but in some cases, our digital efforts are rarely viewed online. What parameters can we follow in choosing materials for digitization that not only follow our desires but those of our patrons? This poster presentation will set the parameters for a research project set to take place during the Fall 2013 and Spring 2014 terms at the ISU University Archives. The Archives will gather use data from our online resources and requested physical materials to identify patterns in our patrons’ research behavior. The poster will address the problems specific to our institution and repository: obtaining institutional permissions needed to survey our patrons, overcoming technical hurdles to gather our online data, and addressing the challenges of being located off-campus. The poster will also look at the type of data we hope to gather including all of the evidentiary values patrons are collecting within the requested materials. This data can include detailed demographic information or academic activities specific to a department. With this data, we hope these values will show us a more granular research pattern among our patrons. We hope that the results will help guide us in our digitization decision-making and further enhance accessibility to our digital and physical materials for our patrons

Meet Me at the Library: The History of the School Librarianship Program at Illinois State University

Join University Archivist April Anderson-Zorn as she explores the history of the school librarianship program at Illinois State University. Attendees will learn how Redbirds became school librarians, how the program changed from a degree to a certificate, and how the university prepares school librarians today. Photographs of campus locations and documents from the era will highlight the training of Redbird school librarians and the critical role they play in the classroom

Do I Belong? Imposter Syndrome in Times of Crisis

While not a new phenomenon, impostor syndrome is still a relatively new topic among library professionals. Though prior studies for other professions exist, impostor syndrome in the library profession was not extensively researched until 2014. As the world fights the current global pandemic, new questions about impostor syndrome and work-from-home strategies arise. This article reviews the early history of impostor syndrome research, explores impostor syndrome research related to library professionals and work during an ongoing public health emergency, considers ways to combat the phenomenon, and suggests next steps

Unboxing Time Capsules: Managing and Using Time Capsules in Your Archive

In Spring 2016, a phone call arrived at the Rayfield Archives from the demolition site of an Illinois State University campus dormitory. Workers at the site had uncovered a time capsule and didn’t know where to send it. In the following months, the Rayfield Archives partnered with ISU units, including Marketing and Facilities, to promote the find and redirect a narrative of the sad loss of a dormitory to one of renewal and discovery. The work to triage the damaged capsule materials and make them immediately accessible was made all the more exciting by a second surprise time capsule discovery. Anderson-Zorn will discuss the steps taken to work with the materials from discovery to storage and how University partnerships have informed future historic-themed celebrations and discoveries

Not all wore helmets: Preserving the work of women in the \u27Great War\u27

Many stories told about the Great War are usually about the exploits of men. But what about the women who fought for justice and freedom? This article features three women who were once students of Illinois State Normal University: Ellen C. Babbit, Elizabeth Taylor Cleveland, and Ada Adcock. With original letters, photographs, and surveys sent by university librarian Angeline Vernon Milner, the war stories of three extraordinary women can are told to new generations

Digitize Your Yearbooks: Creating Digital Access While Considering Student Privacy and Other Legal Issues

Student yearbooks are distinctive cultural records. For the schools and universities that produced them, yearbooks promoted a shared sense of identity and experience among students and helped create enduring loyalty to the institutions long after the students graduated. For scholars and other users, yearbooks are unique primary sources that provide insight into past eras of local student life and culture. In regards to user engagement and preserving local histories, student yearbooks should be ideal candidates for digitization by libraries and archives. However, yearbooks are challenging digitization projects because they are likely to contain privacy-sensitive photographs and other information as well as potentially copyrighted content created by multiple parties. An understanding of state and federal privacy laws, such as FERPA, and the ethical obligations to preserve the privacy of individuals is essential to addressing multi-layered concerns for digital access. The authors offer guidance for yearbook digitization projects based on their investigation of these issues as part of an initiative to digitize their University and K-12 schools’ collections of yearbooks

Be Empowered! Take the \u27Scary\u27 out of Linked Data

The archives and library community has implemented linked data in recent years. Linked data empowers archivists to connect local data to a global audience using common identifiers and standards. However, due to the high level of institutional requirements that projects typically need with the high barrier of time and resources, many archivists have difficulty incorporating linked data practices into their daily descriptive work. The Dr. Jo Ann Rayfield Archives at Illinois State University’s Milner Library received the opportunity to digitize a segment of the expansive Ken-Way Studio Photograph Collection. The collection encompasses 120 linear feet and documents the history of Bloomington-Normal and the Central Illinois region. The Ken-Way Studio Digital Collection is a detailed photographic history of the development of national businesses in the Midwest. Many of the images in the digital collection feature the local and regional Central Illinois business community. Several companies held national significance, including Prairie Farms, Standard Oil, Admiral Corporation, and Nestle Beich. Because the collection was not physically processed, it allowed an opening to invest time to research and create original descriptive metadata, including linked data elements, to accompany individual images in the digital collection. To lower the barrier, Milner Library observed an incremental approach to contribute to the linked data environment and prepared descriptive metadata for future use/reuse