Published by rwatstein September 27th, 2008
in archives and censorship.
While researching my book on the history of presidential libraries, I discovered a shocking but perhaps not surprising situation: the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is improperly withholding its own records. Theoretically a non-partisan as well as non-political agency, NARA is at the center of some of the most controversial issues of our time, including government secrecy, executive privilege, and timely access to presidential records. Rather than abide by legislative requirements and professional standards, NARA has chosen to avoid accessioning and processing many (if not most) of its own records dating back more than forty years. Worse, officials have blocked access to the records, perhaps due to concerns over possible criticism of the agency.
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Published by rwatstein July 26th, 2008
in libraries and archives.
I envy young academics embarking on their careers in 2008. Only older generations, enshrouded in what will look to posterity like the second dark age of Western Civilization, can appreciate the luminosity of the new dawn into which those young scholars are sailing. What we are witnessing this year is the beginning of the greatest act of recovered memory in the history of our species. The next decade will be the age of the unimaginably vast archive. More particularly, the dynamic and usable archive. The archive, that is, which hurls its contents at you, rather than requiring laborious spadework.
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Published by rwatstein July 19th, 2008
in archives and newspapers.
Readex is partnering with the Center for Research Libraries to create the World Newspaper Archive, which it describes as “the world’s largest, fully searchable digital archive of international newspapers.” The project initially will offer 35 titles covering 19th and early 20th century Latin American newspapers.
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Published by rwatstein June 29th, 2008
in digital, OCLC and archives.
This 14-page document is a user guide for collection administrators using OCLC’s Digital Archive. It provides instructions for using each of the Digital Archive features to manage your content. The three primary functions of the Digital Archive are covered in this Guide:Ingestion. The process of moving your content into the Archive. Reporting. Getting feedback from the system in order to manage your content. Dissemination. The process of getting copies of your content out of the Archive.
Read the Digital Archive Getting Started Guide here
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Published by rwatstein June 21st, 2008
in digital, archives and preservation.
In September 2005, library directors from 17 universities and colleges met to discuss the current state of electronic journal preservation and endorsed a statement calling for ‘Urgent Action’ to preserve scholarly e-journals. Over two years later in January 2008, Portico and Ithaka invited 1,371 library directors of four-year colleges and universities in the US to respond to a survey examining current perspectives on the preservation of e-journals. Both parties have now released the results of the Digital Preservation Survey of US library directors. The survey finds widespread agreement that the potential loss of e-journals is unacceptable, and a significant majority of library directors believe their own institution has a responsibility to take action to prevent intolerable loss of scholarly records.
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Read the full report here
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Published by rwatstein June 1st, 2008
in web sites and archives.
Since 1988, the National Trust for Historic Preservation has used its list of America’s 11 Most Endangered Historic Places as a powerful alarm to raise awareness of the serious threats facing the nation’s greatest treasures.” Site features a FAQ and an archive listing places by threat, year listed, state, and other factors. Entries provide descriptions and update on endangered status for places such as California’s state parks and the Michigan Avenue Streetwall in Chicago.
America’s Eleven Most Endangered Archives website
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Published by rwatstein June 1st, 2008
in research, archives and reference.
Until recently, if you were a historian and you wanted to write a fresh account of, say, the Battle of Leyte Gulf in World War II, research was a pretty straightforward business. You would pack your bags and head to the National Archives, and spend months looking for something new in the official combat reports. Today, however, you might first do something very different: Get online and pull up any of the unofficial websites of the ships that participated in the battle - the USS Pennsylvania, for example, or the USS Washington. Lovingly maintained by former crew members and their descendants, these sites are sprawling, loosely organized repositories of photographs, personal recollections, transcribed log books, and miniature biographies of virtually every person who served on board the ship. Some of these sites even include contact information for surviving crew members and their relatives - perfect for tracking down new diaries, photographs, and letters.
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Published by rwatstein March 23rd, 2008
in archives and collections.
The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation has awarded the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR) $4.27 million to conduct “a national competition” to identify and catalog hidden special collections and archives. CLIR officials said they will issue a request for proposals by early June, with the first round of winners to be announced in fall 2008. CLIR expects to distribute about $4 million in the first cycle. The awards will go to institutions holding collections of “high scholarly value that are difficult or impossible to locate through finding aids.”
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Published by rwatstein March 23rd, 2008
in archives, economics and publishing.
As magazines and newspapers hunt for the new thing they need to be to thrive in the internet era, some find that part of the answer lies in the old thing they used to be. Publications are rediscovering their archives, like a person learning that a hand-me-down coffee table is a valuable antique. For magazines and newspapers with long histories, especially, old material can be reborn on the Web as an inexpensive way to attract readers, advertisers, and money.
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Published by rwatstein March 16th, 2008
in archives, Canada and cataloging.
Library and Archives Canada (LAC) collects and preserves Canada’s documentary heritage, and makes it accessible to all Canadians. This heritage includes publications, archival records, sound and audiovisual materials, photographs, artworks, and electronic documents such as websites. As part of its mandate, LAC works closely with other archives and libraries to acquire and share these materials as widely as possible. LAC is committed to making as much of its collection as possible available online. LAC has determined that genealogical records are a priority.
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Published by rwatstein February 9th, 2008
in archives.
Virginia Tech librarians are working to archive artifacts documenting the outpouring of grief and support in the aftermath of the tragic April, 16, 2007, shootings that left 32 people on campus dead. Working with consultants from the Library of Congress (LC), librarians and university staff have collected over 87,000 items expressing condolence, including 33,000 paper cranes received in one lot, said Tamara Kennelly, a university archivist and librarian who is leading the project.
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Published by rwatstein February 5th, 2008
in archives.
An archivist at the New York State Library (NYSL) has been arrested and charged with stealing rare historical documents and selling them online. According to various news reports, Daniel Lorello, a 30-year employee at the library confessed to prosecutors that he smuggled “hundreds” of rare documents from the library’s collections and sold them on eBay. Lorello now faces several felony counts, including grand larceny. In his confession, Lorello told prosecutors he stole hundreds of documents and used the money to pay bills, including those for renovations to his house and his daughter’s credit card. At a news conference, Attorney General Andrew Cuomo said his office was working to ensure recovery of other items stolen and sold by Lorello.
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Published by rwatstein January 26th, 2008
in digital and archives.
In what could evolve into another legal hurdle for libraries the digital age, a Cornell alum has sued the university over a decades-old article now available in the university library’s digital collections—and searchable on Internet. According to the Cornell Daily Sun, Kevin Vanginderen, a Cornell graduate and now a lawyer in California, filed a $1 million lawsuit against the University in San Diego County Superior Court in October, 2007, claiming libel, and raising potentially thorny questions about the resurgence of old information in the new world of digital archiving.
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Published by rwatstein January 12th, 2008
in archives and Library of Congress.
A University of Iowa Web site developed as a resource for journalists covering the 2008 presidential election will be preserved by the U.S. Library of Congress. The library is capturing weekly digitized snapshots of the site — www.uiowa.edu/election — for a collection of online records of the 2008 election. The Library of Congress is developing Web archives as part of the historical record of the country’s national elections, capturing digital information that could otherwise be lost. The library’s previous election Web archives are available at www.loc.gov/webcapture.
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Published by rwatstein January 12th, 2008
in digital and archives.
Scientific journal Nature has announced that the archive of the first 80 years (1869-1949) of the journal is currently available online at www.nature.com/nature/archive. Many of the historic moments in modern science can now be explored online. A special web feature, The History of the Journal Nature, featuring timelines, video interviews and profiles of editors, has been developed to celebrate the launch of the 1869-1949 archive.
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Published by rwatstein December 22nd, 2007
in archives.
Non-profit electronic archiving service provider Portico has announced that its archive of scholarly e-journals now contains over 3.6 million articles. Portico was launched in 2005 in response to the now urgent need to develop robust means to preserve scholarly e-journals, and to ensure their future access. Currently, over 7,200 journal titles from 46 publishers have been entrusted to Portico.
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Published by rwatstein December 22nd, 2007
in archives.
Alice Walker, Pulitzer Prize winner and internationally known Georgia-born novelist and poet, will place her archive with Emory University, Provost Earl Lewis announced December 18. “The archive contains journals that she has been keeping since she was 14 or 15 years old,” said American Studies Professor Rudolph Byrd, who also is a friend and colleague of Walker’s. “There also are drafts of many of her early works of fiction, as well as the back and forth between Alice and the editors for each book.”
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Published by rwatstein December 9th, 2007
in archives and mapping.
The only surviving copy of the 500-year-old map that first used the name America goes on permanent display this month at the Library of Congress, but even as it prepares for its debut, the 1507 Waldseemuller map remains a puzzle for researchers. Why did the mapmaker name the territory America and then change his mind later? How was he able to draw South America so accurately? Why did he put a huge ocean west of America years before European explorers discovered the Pacific? “That’s the kind of conundrum, the question, that is still out there,” said John Hebert, chief of the geography and map division of the Library of Congress.
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Published by rwatstein December 1st, 2007
in digital, archives and preservation.
Storing and curating authentic academic literature and making it accessible for the long term has been a time-honored task of national libraries. By guarding existing knowledge and facilitating its use to produce new insights, national and university libraries have formed an integral part of the research environment, complementing the roles of other stakeholders such as researchers, publishers and funders. However, recently the digital revolution has modified fundamentally the way that research results are circulated, reviewed, accessed and preserved. Hitherto established models of market dynamics and stewardship need to be rethought and part of the responsibilities of national libraries redefined. This document examines key determinants of the sustainable digital preservation of scholarly records, with specific reference to developing a robust approach to the archiving of such records at the Koninklijke Bibliotheek in The Netherlands.
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Published by rwatstein December 1st, 2007
in digital, archives and mapping.
It the mid-18th century, teams of men spread out across Vermont to map the tractless wilderness. Measuring with long chains and other primitive equipment, they climbed mountains, forded rivers and slogged through swamps, dividing Vermont up into 251 towns and then dividing the towns into lots. Two and a half centuries later, those maps and their lotting plans remain valuable frames of reference for 21st century real estate deals. But many have disappeared or been hidden away in dusty vaults in town clerk’s offices from Massachusetts to Quebec. Now, the Vermont State Archives is using modern digital technology to give people access to those old maps from their offices or homes, putting them online to help lawyers, surveyors, landowners and historians to analyze ancient roads, boundary lines and titles.
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Published by rwatstein December 1st, 2007
in archives and Canada.
Library and Archives Canada launched the LAC Government of Canada Web Archive on November 20. The Library and Archives of Canada Act received Royal Assent on April 22, 2004, allowing the LAC to collect and preserve a representative sample of Canadian websites. To meet its new mandate, LAC began to harvest the web domain of the Federal Government of Canada starting in December 2005….
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Canada Web Archive website
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Published by rwatstein November 20th, 2007
in archives and comics.
The comic book industry made a long-delayed step into cyberspace recently when Marvel Comics unveilsed the industry’s first online archive of more than 2,500 back issues, including the first appearances of Spider-Man, the X-Men and the Incredible Hulk. Marvel Digital Comics Unlimited will offer the archive in a high-resolution format on computer screens for consumers at $59.88 a year, or at a monthly rate of $9.99, at marvel.com.
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Published by rwatstein September 22nd, 2007
in archives.
The lack of permanence of web links (sometimes known as link rot) is a general phenomenon across the web, but it is a particularly problem in the case of published scientific research. On the one hand, the coherence of the published scientific record depends on being able to refer back to the articles including the online material that they refer to. But on the other hand, the character of scientific research projects (which tend to be funded for a few years at a time) and of scientific careers (which tend to involved frequent shifts between institutions) mean that scientific web pages become inaccessible with worrying regularity. In this electronic age, it is not realistic to expect authors to refrain entirely from mentioning web pages in their articles, ephemeral as they may be. So, since late 2005, BioMed Central has been working in partnership with the WebCite initiative, based at the Centre for Global eHealth Innovation at Toronto General Hospital, to preserve archival copies of all web pages linked to from BioMed Central articles.
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Published by rwatstein September 15th, 2007
in digital and archives.
A tiny company is out to digitize the world, one historical document and photograph after another. And in so doing, Footnote Inc. hopes to accomplish a couple of things - bring easy Internet access to millions of documents and tap a bunch of niche populations willing to pay for that access. In January, Footnote Inc. signed a deal with the National Archives and Records Administration, the small agency that cares for billions of documents generated by the federal government since its inception. Footnote agreed to produce digital copies for the National Archives for free in exchange for allowing it to make the images available for a charge on its Web site.
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Published by rwatstein September 15th, 2007
in digital and archives.
NASA and Internet Archive of San Francisco are partnering to scan, archive and manage the agency’s vast collection of photographs, historic film and video. The imagery will be available through the Internet and free to the public, historians, scholars, students, and researchers.
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