Archives in Anywhere, USA

“Most things are shelved with special circumstances.”
“I don’t know why it’s done that way, it just is.”
“Someone decided that many years ago and we just continue to do it.”
“Our researchers get confused about why it’s like that, but it just is.”
“Sorry about the dust.”
“I don’t know what the letter stands for, but that basically means those maps are smaller than these maps.”
“Some of the items are in here, and some are in there, and you will just learn which is which over time.”
“We need more of that information for our statistics.”
“Here are some binders that someone worked on for a long time, but they don’t get used very much anymore.”
“Some of our items are in the catalog and some aren’t; it just depends and you’ll learn.”

WPR!

For UW-Madison, we have to do a practicum that will give us 120 hours of nice, practical experience hooray! I very happily was placed at WPR. I mayyy have mentioned that I am totally obsessed with podcasts and my first talk-radio-on-my-ipod experiences came from NPR, and especially KQED. I also happily woke up every morning to the sound of KQED in my ears (Derek will probably tell you otherwise about that “happy” to be awake part). I love talk radio a lot more than music, so listening to WPR here hasn’t been as thrilling for me, though I do like the calming classical music. I think it’s also that KQED was like a friend in my home — I’d have it on when waking up, getting ready, when I’d come home to make dinner, etc. And I miss my friend.

Today I got to meet my future supervisor (whom I will call A.) and got to see the archives. It was MUCH different than I expected — the archives are literally on lots of shelves with a sign taped up reading “archives” in a huge recording room. There is an enormous piano in the middle of the room and lots of recording equipment. The archivist told me that her position at all is very new, so we’re really starting from scratch here. That makes me so excited! I like being a part of something, and I love when you can be there at the beginning to see it grow.

There’s a lot to do, so I might even be starting this summer. The rest of this year are going to be crazy, but I hope .. crazy fun.

My main project will be to do a very large scale inventory of what we have. There’s a lot of reel-to-reel tapes and cassette tapes, as well as some really old recording equipment that I’ve never even heard of in my life. Also, fun fact: the first voice to come over the radio was in 1917 I believe she said right here in University of Wisconsin. Before that, it had been Morse code. I had no idea!

Since we’re also coming up on a 100th anniversary for radio, I might get to be involved with preparing for that celebration. There’s talks of maybe something like a digital collection or exhibits.

Lastly, A. was happy to hear me say that I think radio is really coming back in fashion and that there could a lot of interest in the amazing stuff we might have. And who knows what we have? The tapes have mostly been in people’s offices over time and only recently got stashed here. We have other tapes archived in three different places around campus. There could be a wealth of things unknown. (one of the sound technicians wants to do a pledge drive using tape from the 1970s, which I think is hilarious)

I’m extremely excited about this and a little bit in awe that my area seems to be audio — something just a few years ago I never would have imagined. And a year ago, I would’ve thought it impossible to ever set foot in a public radio broadcasting center. And now I’ll be WORKING there! yaes! (maybe WYNC to meet the Radiolab guys is next??)

On a broader scale note, today President Barack Obama admitted that he once thought one way, but allowed his thoughts to evolve, and changed his mind: he believes that gays should have the right to marry. I love that we have a president who is eloquent, intelligent, and can admit that minds can change with huffing & hawing.

puzzles and pieces coming together

I am BRIMMING and BEAMING with good news right now. This is almost a problem because a few hours of today were meant to deal with the ending bits of my appraisal paper, but now of course all I want to focus on is celebrating!

I’ve been feeling “off” lately, with stomach aches and headaches, so I took a break from my paper to lay down for 20 minutes. In that 20 minutes, I got a call: the position I just interviewed for this morning in the Archives Research Room of WHS? It’s mine! I’ll be working part-time with one or two other student workers. It’s going to be so great! I love public services, and reference, and orienting patrons to the archives to make them feel welcome and cared for, so with this news I was already in a celebratory mood.

I called my dad at work, but he was busy. Pouting, I checked my email. And there was an offer to be a TA for a class next fall. Ohmygoodness!!!! I couldn’t wait for my dad, so I called my mom, because what else do you do after jumping around with happiness? (by the way, my dad finally got back to me — and my parents are pleased as peaches, just like Derek and I!) In the matter of an hour, life just changed for the better.

Needless to say, now this paper needs to be finished and submitted PRONTO so we can go celebrate! Oh, if only this stomach ache would go away. More ginger tea.

 

(oh, and, I’ll be volunteering at Circus World and I got my practicum placement at … drumroll … Wisconsin Public Radio. And what have I been saying my dream job would be? Being the archivist of NPR.)

Teaching a seminar!

I was recently given the fantastic opportunity to teach a seminar on archival basics to a small community in southern Wisconsin. I’m extremely excited about it! For this historical society, I want to help the community members understand that old doesn’t equal scarce and that things like provenance matters — where was that picture taken and who is in it and what does it tell us? The following is the description I just sent off to the community members. Do you have any helpful tips? What would you put into an archival basics course (copyright issues, acid-free boxes, software, etc)?

• June 16th: Back to Basics in the Archives by Dana Gerber
  Are you interested in your community’s history? Do you want to know how to better collect and save the items that are meaningful for you? This Back to Basics workshop is aimed towards people interested in documenting their community’s past with practical knowledge about good archival practices. It will be facilitated by Dana Gerber, a current graduate student at University of Wisconsin, Madison, specializing in the Archives track. By the end of the session, you should know about what constitutes an archive, collection policies, a deed of gift, the idea provenance, the need for good metadata, finding aids, marketing and more. You will have a better idea of what is worth saving and how to do it well!

not my first conference, but my best!

I’m not going to try too terribly hard to be eloquent about a conference after an early morning, a long car ride across a few states, and a huge Indian dinner to top it all off. I need time to stretch my legs and digest (my food) the whole experience.

I can say that I think it is absolutely worth it to attend conferences, even if they sound like stuffy events where people in suits go to suck up, be insincere, and lose snippets of their own dignity. Well, that’s what I thought through most of high school at least. It can be either difficult or downright suffocating to imagine one’s self having to grow up just to slave away (in a suit) in an environment where one completely does not belong.

But the Midwest Archives Conference was fun. I met new people without feeling like I was being disgraceful to myself — it was for the joy of meeting them, knowing what their program or their work was like, learning what they were looking into now and how I’ve never even thought of that. It wasn’t to schmooze for a job at a place I don’t belong. Friends in the program and I have spoken about how we’re not naturally competitive or cut-throat, and worry that a competitive field with few jobs would bend our ideas of ourselves so we could get that job. I felt completely myself the entire weekend — sometimes unsure, sometimes regretful that my resume didn’t look like hers!, but never like I had to conform or be rejected. I could be myself, but just a little more “on.” And that’s a profession I can believe in.

10 of us from UW-Madison went and we felt like powerhouses. 10 is a pretty big number. We were a hit in the Vendor Room because we sold crafts that we lovingly made by hand. The proceeds are helping us to cover costs and then establish a fund to help us attend more conferences, and maybe set up a scholarship for future archives students. Exciting! We also all had our perhaps small, but great personal achievements. And on the fun car ride home, we chatted about putting together our very own panel. Double exciting!

And the group that went, my classmates, I got to know better than I would have had we just said hello to each other in class (or disagreed about a postmodern outlook on archives etc etc). Friday was especially fantastic. I was around truly amazing individuals who are going to help be a part of the future of archives. We all have our places we want to be and I hope that the non-competitive atmosphere of mutual respect and support continues. (this is why I never wanted to try out pre-med in undergrad …)

My throat hurts from talking so much and my jaw from smiling/laughing so much. And most of all, oh boy am I tired, so thank you MAC, and goodnight.

Leslie, pleased with what she sees

Sarah and Nathan checking out the amazing view from Cygnus 27

Laura and Audra, excited but a little tired :)

Dana and Leslie before a session!

New Friends Checking Out Karaoke

The MAC Reception

Dana sitting in Ford’s Cabinet Room (Grand Rapids, Michigan)

Prairie, Nathan, and Laura

MAC Celebrates 40 Years: An Ice Sculpture

Sarah and Eric at the SAA-SC Table

Kate Theimer of ArchivesNext.com

Nathan and Prairie fully enjoying the MAC Reception

Alex, Prairie and Leslie at the MAC Reception

Audra at the MAC Reception

Student Poster Session with Alex, Jen, and Rick

“No matter where you go, everyone’s connected.”

Well, readers, my good friend Jordan is now back at home (and what an ordeal it was to get him on the plane in time!), the weather is COMPLETELY INSANE, and I’m finally sitting in my office to do some work after a big brunch that I feel I will never recover from. (I made Derek and I eggs, hash browns, and “breakfast links” from Tofurky. We also had a magnificent mug of freshly brewed French press coffee. We felt so American) Saint Patrick’s Day did not actually keep me from doing most of my work yesterday … it was a spider. I am acutely allergic to spider bites, which is terrible, but sometimes it’s a great excuse for me not to even try to like them. I went on a  bug spray frenzy around 7pm which then completely suffocated me out of my own apartment, so I ended up wandering aimlessly around the rowdy Madison streets until I thought my apartment would be aired out.

Even better though: the second installment of the Sound of the Archives podcast came out yesterday. We did an entire show focused on Irish collections. Please have a looksy and listensy here! Editing sound is quite fun, but I can’t wait until I can spend more time truly editing: adding music, sounds, cutting out noise better, etc.

Something else I’ve been busy with lately is getting quite interested in digital legacies postmortem. (I did a big paper on the graves of the victims of the Srebrenica massacre being archives, so I am sure my professor thinks I am obsessed with death and graves …)

A PostSecret card from 3/18/2012: "I look up random teen 'in memorial' groups on facebook because it comforts me to know that other people are mourning a friend too."

Sound of the Archives

Guess what I’m excited about tonight?

PODCASTS!

Ever since the Bancroft Library moved into their new building and I was often placed in the cold, lonely stacks to work by myself, I have listened to them. I first bought a refurbished iPod to combat the loneliness and creepiness (you try being in an aisle of cartons in a room off to the side with no windows because it’s underground and it’s cold and anyone could turn off the lights at any moment and who knows what’s in that exhaust fan??), but after two days or so I was so sick of my music I knew it was a mistake to buy the iPod at all. And then my super cool Dad asked, “Have you heard of This American Life?” The rest is history?

I first listened to the TAL collection, Stories of Hope and Fear, and loved it; I’ve been hooked since then. I went on to discover short stories from the New Yorker, The Moth, Stuff You Missed in History Class, Stuff Mom Never Told You, random “Learn Spanish!” or “Learn Russian!” podcasts, and more that I have since forgotten because I stopped listening to a long time ago. My current favourites are Marketplace, Planet Money, This American Life, 99% Invisible, Radiolab (which has beat out TAL as my #1), Third Coast International Audio Festival (re:Sound), Snap Judgment, and StoryCorps.

I always look forward to listening to them. I pretty much hate being interrupted on my way to or from class because it is prime listening time for me. I just think they are so full of life, and so interesting, and I have come to realize that the true reason I am so deeply invested and in love with archives is the stories they tell. Podcasts tell stories, just in sound instead of through letters or papers. Archives like oral histories, for the most part. Why have these two things not come together?

Well, that doesn’t have to be asked anymore, because with lots of support from my professor and great input from friends, it’s finally happened: I recorded a podcast session tonight!

I was nervous all day and made sure our “recording studio” (my study) was perfectly set up with my fairly cheap microphone and its very own stand — our laundry basket. I set up three chairs around said laundry basket, plugged in the microphone, downloaded Audacity (which was recommended to me by my longtime friend, Jorge over at the Experience Points podcast, who also used to work with me at the Bancroft Library during the golden years! Thank you Jorge for the help!), played with that, tried to go over my notes but found myself too frazzled, and then brought out the wine bottles. Laura and Prairie came over and confessed they were pretty nervous too! We knew it was just going to be the three of us but still, everything we say … recorded? This is new.

I purposefully want this podcast to be about archives, but in an informal, accessible sort of way. It’s not only meant to be a sort of marketing to the public but I do want anyone in the public to find it interesting too. I also want people in the field to find it interesting, obviously. The three of us are getting more of a post-modern, theory based education in archives now, so we might be ruffling some feathers, but I hope if we do, it’s in a constructive way. I see us interviewing archivists all over the country about their collections and telling funny little anecdotes. I see us talking to folks working with indigenous peoples about how to archive non-textual formats. I see us having a good time, but at the same time being a spokes-place for human rights and social justice in the archives.

We recorded for nearly 40 minutes. There’s only a little editing for me to do. I’ve learned how to “cut” already! Derek wrote us a song for it which I will be posting on our Facebook page soon, so I will also have to get a good recording of that and learn to edit the two together. We also want to have a logo contest for the website and for the Facebook page (please contact me if interested!). And, I need to work on the website. There’s a lot to do, but I’m excited for it. It’s already nearly 1am and I’ve been editing for a while when I should’ve been working on an outline for a paper. (Don’t tell, will you?)

So with that, I invite you to keep watch over us, and go Like us over at the Sound of the Archives Facebook page. We’ll keep you updated! I hope you are as enthusiastic as I am. :)

Sound of the Archives, first recording !

add another social network to your radar

I know, more social networks: ugh. This means another workshop to attend about the art of _____ing. Much like Twitter catered to our desires for information but in small-bits-won’t-you,-i-have-a-lot-of-other-things-to-read, Pinterest is a site that fully upholds the wish of the human eye for pretty things. In a nutshell, it’s a virtual bulletin board for you, but people have taken to browsing it like they might browse their Facebook friends pages when they’re bored or distracted. It also already has the giants — the folks with huge amounts of followers, waiting anxiously for the next pretty picture they will pin up.

When I first started using Pinterest, I wanted to suggest to my SAA Student Chapter that we try to incorporate the site somehow. At all of our archival jobs, we find the neatest things — couldn’t we share that? Couldn’t we find a way to share a quick image and get people to see the wonderful things involved in these papers? But there’s copyright, working with institutions most of us are only working for less than 10 hours a week, digitization & scanning, the metadata, so much involved. I let the idea drop — it wouldn’t work for us, not now.

But I’ve been very happy to see in just the last few days that Pinterest is really picking up with museums and other repositories! I really think there is a wealth of possibility here. There is the problem that if you put the identifying information relating to your institution underneath the image, someone else can easily change it. However, when you “repin” a picture, the link to the picture is automatically still traced. Ideally, you can pin a fantastically surreal image of some little girl of the 1840s that everyone will be taken with, and will repin over 400 times — but the link will always go back to your website.

I leave you with four posts I recently read about this new tool:

• ArchivesInfo: Pinterest for Cultural Heritage
• burnsscotland: Pinterest
• Museum Diary: Museums and Pinterest, an Introduction
• Best of 3: Pinterest and Museums

Inferiority Complex (hack library school)

I’m finally getting to my emails and blogs after a few weeks away, so I’m quite late on picking this up, but I just read a blog post over at Hack Library School about the “inferiority complex.” It can be a good reminder to back off from the dread of job-finding as our minds drift to the future during a long winter break rather than on the immediate stress of classes. One of the commenters, Nora, made a particularly good point: our inferiority complex is probably extremely heightened due the job market. What would we be like if it was 2004 and the world was ever-growing? It’s not that the work is terribly difficult, it’s that getting the work can be terribly difficult. And loans are scary.

I have pretty much (75%?) decided to not re-work the paper I wrote for my archives class on graves in Srebrenica for publication submission to a student journal, due this January 15th. If it was in February or March, maybe, but there are still many things I want to research and weave into my paper. There aren’t many days left until January 15th. If I love this topic, and I want to do right by it, I think I just need to spend more time on it. Part of getting away from an inferiority complex is getting away from the idea of the race — that I have to do it NOW, or FIRST. Everyone is on different timelines (as Facebook will show us soon).

Take your time. Take your tea, and your vacation, and it will all work out.

the cliche: curling up, cold weather, hot beverage, good book

Today’s been a dreary day for most of Madison. It feels somehow sticky outside, but then there’s this harsh wind. I’m still not wearing anything over my thin tights, so I can build up more resistance to the cold. My classmates go between saying it’s cold/the weather is terrible and “This is nothing yet.” So far I’m imagining it like my time in Berlin in winter — which was colder than Zagreb or Prague, I think? — when my friends, Alyssa and Heather, and I would run into cafes for hot chocolate, sprint out to see the Berlin Wall, go back inside for more hot beverage, check out a Christmas market, run back inside, and so on. I was so full of chocolate and good bread.

The cold weather coming and the gross skies today were already enough to make me want to stay inside, but what’s way worse is: a good book. Unfortunately, I did have to go outside. I spent a few hours at work and then headed over to the student radio station, where I’m volunteering!, to digitize my first records. Sadly I couldn’t do it today because the manager was talking with someone, but in the end it was okay … because I got to read. Derek and I met at the grocery store to buy dinner for tonight, and I had to wait for him for a while, but it was okay … because I got to read.

When you are reading a good book that completely sucks you in, life mostly becomes about stealing moments away to sink in even more. It is an addictive escape. Perhaps this is why I usually surround myself so much around non-fiction, news, and podcasts — though, I also don’t think I have the same patience for digging into a good fiction book like some of my English-major friends. And how strange that must sound, to my librarian friends!

Something else I have picked up on in grad school and in the library world (mostly through blogs) is a certain tension between libraries and archives. I get the feeling that librarians like to view themselves superior because they are less stodgy, can change more, and give things away for free (but with the agreement that it will be returned). And then archivists can see themselves as superior because they live in this house of sacred, old items, know how to handle a book so as not to ruin it, and uphold a tradition. I personally think this is all pure bull — but there aren’t many people in the program, or in the world, who read a lot of post-modern archival theory and practice. I also think it’s something quite unexpected and rather silly, because if there wasn’t tension, collaboration makes SO MUCH MORE SENSE.

If I love a good book, why didn’t I choose to pursue something like public libraries? Academic libraries? It’s always there as an idea, and thankfully the MLIS degree with added archive classes prepare me for both tracks. I especially would love to do outreach, instruction, and reference. But the work is changing, and we don’t stick to one thing. I can do all of that in an archive, too. Archives have always been much more romantic to me in a certain way. I get such a rush looking at letters than at a book. There’s reading the secret memos of an organization and then there’s reading about the memos in an organization in a book. The archive is both an end-point and an origin — end-point for the materials used but an origin for the historian or writer — and there’s such a wealth of possibility in it.

Even so, I am going to curl up with that good book right now, and ignore archival theory for a little while longer. (and definitely ignore a discussion paper due tomorrow, which is low on my priorities to making a list of things to buy for Thanksgiving dinner!)