RAO Hot Topics Blog Series: Michiana Memory

By: Alison Stankrauff, Indiana University South Bend, RAO Steering Committee Member

In May 2014, Indiana University South Bend Archivist and Associate Librarian, Alison Stankrauff collaborated with Joe Sipocz, Manager of Local & Family History Services at the St. Joseph County Public Library, and George Garner, Tours and Collections Coordinator of the IU South Bend Civil Rights Heritage Center. They worked together and were awarded a 2014 Indiana Memory Digitization Grant for their project proposal entitled St. Joseph County African American History Collection. 

As part of this project, the website Michiana Memories (http://michianamemory.sjcpl.org/cdm/landingpage/collection/p16827coll4) was created.  

The two institutions, Indiana University South Bend and the St. Joseph County Public Library have paired the rich content from their African American historical collections together to make a resource that tells a more representative story of the South Bend, Indiana area. This is an area that has been under-documented in general – as a smaller blue collar “rust belt” Midwestern city. In particular the area’s marginalized communities have not had their voices heard; this project remedies that.

Some of the items available on the website include photographs from the Dr. Bernard Streets Collection, which includes photos from the 1880s until 1999; a nearly complete run of The Reformer; a South Bend African American newspaper printed 1967 to 1971; and historical documents and studies on race and housing in South Bend. A more detailed list of items included in the website is available here: https://www.iusb.edu/library/blog/?p=1050 .

“Digitally scanned, cataloged, and presented together online, our combined archives document the history more completely than each of our institutions could do on our own,” said Sipocz. Stankrauff concurs. “Institutions partnering really help make history more representative and rich. This partnership helps to make that happen." 

The Michiana Memories collection will also be included in the Indiana Memory (https://digital.library.in.gov/) and Digital Public Library of America collections (http://dp.la/).

The project had a big public kick-off event the evening of February 3^rd at the Civil Rights Heritage Center on South Bend’s west side. Attendees had a chance to use the website and enjoy community and academic presenters such as Ball State University’s Dr. Nicole Etcheson (http://cms.bsu.edu/academics/collegesanddepartments/history/facultyandstaff/faculty/etchesonnicole) speaking on Southern Indiana’s soldiers of color during the Civil War.

This event was also tied into the South Bend 150th anniversary celebration (http://www.sb150.com/) – the city’s year-long birthday party, which is full of community events through all of 2015.

Stankrauff, who is active in local history and a member of the Civil Rights Heritage Center (https://www.iusb.edu/civil-rights/) faculty advisory committee, is excited by the impact this collection will have on the community. “This project helps to tell the full story of Michiana,” she notes. “It adds the voices and stories of local African Americans and activists to show the amazing and important history we all share.” The project began in January 2014, when Sipocz contacted Stankrauff and Garner about applying for the grant. The fact that the three organizations were working together and combining their resources and skills was an important part of the grant's success.

“African American and civil rights history get lost all too often,” said Garner. “To have a state of the art website that allows easy access to this history for Michiana’s schools, for its universities, and for researchers across the United States is a huge accomplishment. When we honor the history of all our communities, we prove that South Bend is a city that honors its diversity.”

RAO Hot Topics Blog Series: Using Assessment to Build Outcome-Based Information Literacy Sessions

RAO Hot Topics Blog Series

Using Assessment to Build Outcome-Based Information Literacy Sessions

Greg Kocken, University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, SAA RAO Communications Liaison

I still remember my first experience getting in front of a group of undergraduate students tasked with helping them develop archival information literacy skills.  In all honesty, I likely walked away from that session learning more than those students.  Delivering my first information literacy sessions, I relied heavily (admittedly, too heavily) on utilizing PowerPoint.  This is how I was taught to teach information literacy, but I soon realized that this approach was not effective at connecting with students.  My only evidence, however, was anecdotal.  It quickly became apparent that I needed a stronger assessment strategy. Nearly four years ago, I began utilizing modified versions of two surveys distributed through the Archival Metrics Project, the Teaching Support survey and Researcher Questionnaire.[1]  I developed one survey to distribute to the instructors I worked with and another for the students who attended instructional sessions I delivered. Although my responses from students were generally very positive, once I discontinued my use of PowerPoint, I observed a noticeable increase in the overall positive responses from students.

These surveys were simply a preliminary step towards developing outcome-based information literacy sessions.  An effective assessment strategy is constantly evolving.  In addition to these surveys, I now conduct post-session meetings with instructors, develop and review assignments designed to gauge comprehension of archival information literacy skills, and participate in a peer evaluation process.  This holistic approach to assessment allows me to constantly improve the information literacy sessions I deliver. 

 

This assessment strategy has greatly improved my performance as an instructor, and allows me to make stronger connections with students.  Over the years, like other archivists who deliver information literacy sessions, I learned several things through an evolving assessment strategy.  First, a one-size-fits-all strategy does not work in archives.  When your goal is connecting with students across various disciplines, you must treat every information literacy session differently; there is no script.  Second, active learning opportunities are popular and effective.  When students have an opportunity to explore, engage and discuss archival materials they are more likely to retain information.  Third, exploring resource discovery tools is a necessary evil.  Instructors have repeatedly told me they want more hands-on experiences and less time discussing the nature of a finding aid.  In comparison to reading a 19th century pioneer’s letter, who wants to talk about the finding aid?  If, however, the goal is to help students not only understand the content but also the context of archives, then discussions of resource discovery tools is necessary.  Finally, I learned that the foundation for outcome-based information literacy sessions is a strong assessment strategy.

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[1] Learn more about the archival metrics project online at http://archivalmetrics.org/.

Join the RAO Section Leadership Team!

The 2015 Nominations and Elections Committee for SAA’s  Reference Access and Outreach Section is accepting nominations for candidates to run for Steering Committee membership (2 positions) and Vice-Chair/Chair-Elect. Nominees must be current members of the Society of American Archivists and the Reference Access and Outreach Section to be considered by the committee.

Steering Committee members serve a two-year term, with the appointment beginning at the annual meeting.  The Vice Chair/Chair-Elect position is a three-year service commitment, with the elected person serving for one year as Vice Chair, succeeding automatically to the office of Chair for the following year, and concluding service with a third year on the Steering Committee as the Past Chair.

To nominate yourself or others for Steering Committee or Vice Chair/Chair-Elect, please visit http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/63JF3JC.

The deadline for submitting nominations is 12 p.m., March 1, 2015. The committee will review all nominations to select a fabulous slate of candidates for the 2015 election. If you have questions about the nomination process or about serving as a leader for RAO, please contact members of the 2015 RAO Nominations and Elections Committee for additional information.

Thanks,

2015 RAO Nominations and Elections Committee

Erin Lawrimore (elawrimore32@gmail.com)

Alison Stankrauff (astankra@iusb.edu)

Mary Manning (mmmanning@uh.edu)

RAO Hot Topics Blog Series: Reaching Out to Undergrads at UNCG

RAO Hot Topics Blog Series:

Reaching Out to Undergrads at UNCG

Erin Lawrimore, University of North Carolina-Greensboro, SAA RAO Steering Committee Member

Current SAA President Kathleen Roe kicked off her "Year of Living Dangerously with Archives" initiative at the 2014 annual meeting in Washington, D.C., by strongly encouraging all archivists to take bold actions in promoting the significance of archives and archivists to society. She stated that "if we are going to get beyond the point where archives and archival records are used in modest amounts, for a modest number of purposes by a modest range of users, then we also have to raise awareness of their value and importance."[1]

At the University of North Carolina at Greensboro's Special Collections and University Archives, we've taken Kathleen's challenge to heart. While we do have projects that are aimed at increasing awareness of our resources to University faculty, staff, and administrators, we're purposefully trying to increase awareness among our student body population (particularly undergraduates). While we certainly aren't the first archives to do any of these outreach activities, we are in all likelihood the first (and probably only) who will reach our student population. Some examples of our activities aimed at raising awareness among the undergraduate population include:

·         Pop Up Archives.  Like popular "pop up" restaurants, our "pop up" archives exhibits are well focused in terms of content and strategically planned in terms of location. We want to be where the foot traffic is. The university center, the student recreation center, and even the sidewalk outside of the library building are great locations for engaging students. Each exhibit is tailored for the location (history of athletics at the student recreation center), is up for only 90 minutes or so (timed to coincide with lunch or a change in classes to increase foot traffic), and is small enough to fit on a card table (making planning and transportation simpler).

·         Campus Tours for First-Year Classes. While many first-year students might not make use of the archives as a research resource, many are quite interested in learning about the history of the place that will betheir home for the next four years. To engage these students, we work with instructors teaching the University's Foundations for Learning (FFL) courses, which are required of all incoming students, to schedulea historic walking tour of campus during one of their class sessions. During the tour, we provide the standard facts about the University's history - but the piece that most students love most is that we also incorporate our three campus ghost stories into the general tour. In Fall 2014, we conducted tours for 18 FFL courses (approximately 250 students).

In addition to these types of targeted activities, we're taking an approach of "archives everywhere." We want our records and knowledge of our department's work to be spread across campus. We are using exhibit cases and bulletin boards in the library as well as in the university center to display reproductions of selections from our holdings. Our social media accounts are followed and retweeted/reblogged by the main University accounts as well as other accounts that reach large numbers of students (Admissions, Student Government Association, student newspaper, etc.). Our digital signage in the library building includes frequent references to University Archives and our current exhibits. And our promotional postcards, which include a historic photograph as well as links to our social media and digital collections, are available at all of the library's service points.

These approaches don't require a significant change to the work we've done in the past, but they do extend our reach far beyond the small percentage of students who physically come into the archives for a class. While we may have some students who graduate and remember only the "awesome ghost story the lady from the library told me," we've made an impression and, for many more, hopefully sown a seed of awareness for archives and the work of archivists.

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[1] Kathleen Roe, "The Year of Living Dangerously with Archives" (speech, Washington, D.C., August 16, 2014), Society of American Archivists Annual Meeting, http://www2.archivists.org/history/leaders/kathleen-roe/incoming-presidential-remarks-the-year-of-living-dangerously-for-archives. For more information on the "Year of Living Dangerously with Archives" initiative, see http://www2.archivists.org/living-dangerously.

RAO Hot Topics Blog Series:

What's the Risk? Helping users understand real-life archives-and-copyright concerns

Matt Herbison, Drexel University College of Medicine, SAA RAO Steering Committee Member

As archivists, how can we truly help users address copyright considerations when they are using material from our collections?  Most of us have Title 17 warnings (aka, "photocopy signs") prominently displayed in reading rooms, on research/request forms, our websites, etc.  While this might be the most common mention of copyright that our users see, this is more for covering ourselves than for the benefit of users -- and its language generates more questions than answers.

The most effective moment to educate users is when they come to us with specific questions about specific items in our collections, at other repositories, found online, etc.  These are the teachable moments when copyright stops being abstract and starts being applied, with real ramifications.  Effective education for users comes from a combination of (1) helping them understand the specifics of their situation and (2) discussing tools that can help them carry out the work themselves.  Understanding the application of pertinent tools is a precept of many educational situations, certainly not just copyright issues.  There are some great tools out there that work well during conversations with users (see some below).

When it comes to real users' real copyright concerns, we can help users understand that copyright is about the law, but applying copyright is about gauging risk and deciding what a particular user might want to do based on that risk.  For items that are obviously still in copyright, unauthorized use of such items without permission is clearly illegal, so most -- but not all -- people perceive this as "high risk" and don't do it.  For items in the public domain, copyright is (by definition) "no risk" -- yet it's strangely common for publishers who should know better to ask unnecessary permission for public domain items.  In these two "easy" cases, the focus on risk is usually comprehensible even for users who haven't had to worry about copyright before.  But what about those messy orphan works that make up such a large part of so many archival collections?  Now for the gray-area discussion...

Orphan Works: For archives and users, this is a huge area of hard-to-determine risk -- items of uncertain copyright status or where rights owners are unknown or hard to locate.  If it takes you more than three minutes to figure out which Hirtle/Cornell Copyright Table category something falls into, there's a decent chance that it's an orphan work and will require further research simply to try to identify the copyright status or holder.  What can a user do to minimize the risk for use of orphan works?  I recommend the SAA: Orphan Works, Statement of Best Practices -- check it out.  One recommendation is to document one's diligent searches in order to show a good-faith effort that a copyright holder was identified (or not) and contacted (or the hunt failed).

As archivists, two big motivations we try to balance are (1) advocating for easy and wide use and (2) respecting the rights of copyright owners.  For orphan works, this balance is indeterminate and shifts shakily depending on the user and their level of risk-aversion.  How worthwhile is it for a user to spend unsuccessful hours trying to find a copyright holder who wouldn't give a rat-rump that they're using something?  I feel completely morally bankrupt saying this -- damn you Catholic upbringing -- but with copyright, I don't think it's worth "doing the right thing by someone" when that someone in all likelihood couldn't care less.  Is it defensible that I feel I'm trying to do right by the user rather than by an unknown, non-existent, or disinterested copyright holder?

So while working with users, I recommend best practices for orphan works.  But I don't presume that more than a handful of users will follow these guidelines even to the "minimum search" level.  With this in mind, I do my best to try to advise users, case by case, based on my professional experience and opinion.

What is our responsibility as archivists in these situations?  I often find myself talking with users, saying something like, "Understand that the burden is on you as the end-user to either verify the image's public domain status or take on the risk in using the image -- the risk that it is still under copyright and the owner will come after you for using it without permission.  I can recommend these tools to help you identify and gauge the risk.  My own gut feeling is that the risk of using the image is [low,high,etc]."  Am I opening myself up to liability just by sharing my gut feeling?  I am to some degree, so in a sense I'm also implicitly staking my job on my professional opinion.  I haven't always done this, but after too many cases where I felt like I was not truly helping a user, I started doing it a couple years ago.  Since then, I've received a number of comments thanking me, for example, for "making my work that much easier."  I could be pessimistic and say that this user was thanking me for giving her license to infringe, but I don't think that's what she meant.

Note: This discussion ignores big issues like fair use, copyfraud, contractual agreements with users, unenforceable click-through licenses, best orphan works practices for repositories (not users), and several others.

KEY RESOURCES

Copyright Term and the Public Domain in the United States
Peter Hirtle, Cornell University Library
http://copyright.cornell.edu/resources/publicdomain.cfm
{100% indispensable in my day-to-day work}

Copyright and Fair Use Tools
Stanford University Libraries
http://fairuse.stanford.edu/charts-and-tools/

SAA Orphan Works: Statement of Best Practices
www2.archivists.org/search/google/orphan%20works

Book: Complete copyright : an everyday guide for librarians, Carrie Russell, 2005

http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/54929688

{As copyright guru Peter Hirtle says, "the single best overview of the copyright policy issues facing libraries and archives today."  Granted, "today" was 2005, but I've continually found it to be the comprehensive resource with the most clarity.}

RAO Hot Topics Blog Series: Effective Press Releases and Media Relations

RAO Hot Topics Blog Series:

Effective Press Releases and Media Relations

Erin Lawrimore, University of North Carolina-Greensboro, SAA RAO Steering Committee Member

A key to gaining media attention for your archival work is effective media relations. Inviting local reporters who cover education, cultural heritage, or history-related topics for a meet-up or tour of the archives is a great way to establish a relationship. With a relationship in place, press releases will carry a bit more clout.

Even with an established relationship, however, you need to make sure that your press release is a good one. Here are a few tips for ensuring your press release will catch the attention of a busy journalist:

·         Be sure that what you have to say is really newsworthy and impactful. Don’t flood reporters’ inboxes with notes about every event, activity, or acquisition.

·         Keep your release short and factual. Aim for 500 words or less (definitely keep it to one page!), and include links to your website for additional information.

·         Focus on your opening sentence - your sales pitch. It needs to contain all of your critical information (who, what, when, where), and it needs to convince the busy reporter to read on.

·         Don’t forget to include contact information (name, email, and telephone number)!

 Think about reporters’ deadlines and schedules before emailing a press release. For instance, many print and television reporters will appreciate releases early in the morning as opposed to the afternoon. Print magazine journalists typically plan out feature stories months in advance of publication. Be sure to send your press release at the optimal time for the particular media and event.

Finally, if a reporter does report on your event or activity, follow up with a “thank you.” Let him know how the event went or what the lasting impact of the activity has been. This will give the reporter a sense of how you fit in to the greater community – your impact and influence. Also, this can be an incentive to report again when the next big story pops up!

RAO Hot Topics Blog Series Special:

Happy Electronic Records Day!

Rachael Dreyer, SAA RAO Vice-Chair

 

RAO wishes you a very happy Electronic Records Day!  This year, October 10^th marks the third year that this “holiday” has been observed; it emerged as a way to raise awareness of the critical role that electronic records occupy in daily life, as well as for archival professionals. 

As RAO archivists, you’re well aware of electronic records’ importance, we know.  In addition to pondering how you’ll provide access to the digital media among your collection—something that contributes to many sleepless nights!—your mind instantly tunes into those stories in the news about electronic records’ failings or successes; your brain lights up with pleasure when your doctor or dentist pulls up your electronic health record; and you’re happiest when discussing the finer (stickier?) points of born-digital preservation with your colleagues.  Congratulations, you’re already celebrating electronic records on a daily basis!

What are some other ways to further embrace the digital revolution in the archives profession?  Please share your strategies, methods, techniques, and even questions you are exploring in the comments section—we’d love to hear how and what you are doing to promote and preserve electronic records as archival materials at your institutions!