Preservation and the Future in the Northwest: A Conversation with Archivists and Librarians

The theme for this current issue of PNLA Quarterly is Preservation and the Future. This article ad-dresses that topic in the form of a conversation with professionals in archives and libraries in Idaho and Washington that have a stake in the preservation, access, and future of library collections and historical materials in the Northwest. These perspectives offer points-of-view from an academic library, county historical society, and university special collections

Assessing the Strategic Credibility of Special Collections

Presented at 2012 AAAS Pacific Division Meeting - Library Symposium.In this time of often precarious funding at many colleges and universities, any case that can be made to illustrate how a department strategically fits into the overall university mission is not only worth merit, but an essential survival technique. This “strategic credibility” within the university is a vital form of currency in determining institution-wide resources prioritization, collaboration opportunities between organizational units, and overall direction of departments. This presentation provides a case study of academic special collections in the Northwest and examines the methods these departments use to demonstrate value to the university. This presentation considers how well do special collections align their efforts toward a university’s strategic goals or mission, as well as what efforts they undertake to maintain credibility within the larger institutional context. Outcomes of this presentation include a potential methodology for all library departments to assess their “strategic credibility” and suggestions on how to communicate this value to the library and within the university as a whole.Keywords: special collections, website, academic libraries, mission statements, strategic credibility, archive

Assessing the Strategic Credibility of Special Collections and Archives

Poster presented at 2012 ACRL Oregon/Washington joint conference held at Menucha.This time of often precarious funding at many colleges and universities, any case that can be made to illustrate how a department strategically fits into the overall university mission is not only worth merit, but an essential survival technique. This “strategic credibility” within the university is a vital form of currency in determining institution-wide resources prioritization, collaboration opportunities between organizational units, and overall direction of departments. This poster provides a case study of academic special collections in the Northwest and examines the methods these departments use to demonstrate value to the university. This poster considers how well do special collections align their efforts toward a university’s strategic goals or mission, as well as what efforts they undertake to maintain credibility within the larger institutional context. Outcomes of this poster include a potential methodology for all library departments to assess their “strategic credibility” and suggestions on how to communicate this value to the library and within the university as a whole.Keywords: special collections, archives, strategic credibilit

History in the Making: Outreach and Collaboration between Special Collections and Makerspaces

Makerspaces present unique possibilities for creative partnerships within libraries, including the opportunity for interdisciplinary use of emerging technologies with archival objects and primary sources. One example of this type of interdisciplinary collaboration is the fabrication of cultural heritage replicas via 3D scanning and printing of historical university objects in academic libraries. Two departments in the University of Idaho Library, Special Collections and Archives (SPEC) and the Making, Innovating, and Learning Laboratory (MILL), partnered on such a project as a way to broaden maker competencies across library departments, leverage interdisciplinary connections between emerging technologies and historic archives, and create innovative outreach opportunities. Since many academic libraries house both special collections and makerspaces, this article outlines a path towards creative collaboration while creating an in-library maker community of practice and suggests opportunities for outreach and engagement that are widely applicable to library professionals

Match That Photo! Embracing Analog Methods to Enhance Digital Collections

When creating digital collections, different methods and workflows may be considered depending on the size, amount of metadata, and who will be staffing parts of the digitization process. Feeling overwhelmed with 500+ photographs with minimal metadata, I employed an analog tactic: playing a card matching game with printed photographs. Through matching, metadata was enhanced and locations identified more efficiently than staring at a computer screen. The collection was recently published online and has received local and statewide attention, in part due to its enhanced metadata and researched storyline. This poster will present alternative ways to employ visual literacy tactics to provide a creative, fun way to involve students and staff in creating and enhancing large digital collections

Connecting Historical and Digital Frontiers: Enhancing Access to the Latah County Oral History Collection Utilizing OHMS (Oral History Metadata Synchronizer) and Isotope

The University of Idaho Library received a donation of oral histories in 1987 that were conducted and collected by a local county historical society in the 1970s. The audio cassettes and transcriptions were digitized in 2013 and 2014, producing one of the largest digital collections of oral histories - over 300 interviews and over 569 hours - in the Pacific Northwest. To provide enhanced access to the collection, the Digital Initiatives Department employed an open-source plug-in called the Oral History Metadata Synchronizer (OHMS) - an XML and PHP driven system that was created at the Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History at the University of Kentucky Libraries - to deliver the audio MP3 files together with their  indexes and transcripts. OHMS synchronizes the transcribed text with timestamps in the audio and provides a viewer that connects search results of a transcript to the corresponding moment in the audio file. This article will discuss how we created the infrastructure by importing existing metadata, customized the interface and visual presentation by creating additional levels of access using complex XML files, enhanced descriptions using the Getty Art and Architecture Thesaurus for keywords and subjects, and tagged locations discussed in the interviews that were later connected to Google Maps via latitude and longitude coordinates. We will also discuss the implementation of and philosophy behind our use of the layout library Isotope as the primary point of access to the collection. The Latah County Oral History Collection is one of the first successful digital collections created using the OHMS system outside of the University of Kentucky

Session A: Immersed in Primary Sources: Crafting Student Engagement

While archivists have many teaching tools available in their proverbial toolboxes for introducing students to primary sources, internships provide unique opportunities for immersive, hands-on interactive learning. Internships have the advantage of being adaptable, allowing for input from the incumbent and a chance to craft the experience in a way that is most meaningful to the individual. Internships often provide more face time with a professional archivist, which lends itself to dialogue that is beneficial to the “student” and the “teacher.” From podcasts to card games to exhibits each panelist will offer a case study of an internship or learning experience they’ve hosted and discuss specific learning outcomes for the intern and how the experience has shaped their approach to teaching with primary sources materials