Internship, week of 4/23

Hit the ground running on my final week of internship. I arranged the three boxes of Gest's talks and lectures and the additional four boxes of manuscripts in chronological order. Gest was astoundingly prolific (over 300 publications in a career of over 60 years!), so it was no easy task. For all the good recordkeeping he did, there were points where he obviously stuffed a pile of papers in a folder and counted on the archives to be able to sort it out.

There's still a bit of work to be done. All the actual sorting and arrangement of the boxes is pretty well taken care of, but there's the EAD entry and MARC record and other finishing touches. I've volunteered to come in during the summer and take care of those. I can always use the experience, and I really want to be able to say that I completed the processing, not that I reached a certain point and abandoned it for someone else to pick up. Doing something 75% of the way just doesn't carry that same sense of accomplishment.

Phil tells me that Gest died within the past week (looks like maybe the 24th?). I wish I could have met him; he sounds like an amazing guy and I'm glad I had the chance to learn about him. At the same time, I probably never would have known about him if I hadn't handled this collection, and Gest did a good deal of work tracing the serendipity of scientific discoveries--the right person in the right place at the right time learning something that changed their understanding of the world. This same "serendipitous" discovery and learning process is one of the reasons I love archival work so much, so I like to think Gest would be amused at my "discovery" of him.

Internship, week of 4/16

Made some good headway on processing this week. There's a few series that Phil is not having me work with at this time, so I just needed to pull out anything relevant to other series and make sure that the remainder was properly taken care of. I've been putting some of it off toward the end after the series I was directly handling were taken care of, and this was that time. At this point there are just a few series to arrange in the proper order and I should be pretty well finished.

Internship, week of 4/9

Due to having some wisdom teeth removed on Monday, I missed my internship hours on Monday and Tuesday. However, I think the time off was good for me, as I really feel I tackled my duties with a new enthusiasm. Everything is coming together nicely for these last few weeks and I'll work some extra shifts to make up for my lost time.

The Archives dept received a very old camera recently. I'm not entirely clear on its age or origin, but I found it stunning to look at. Its really in fantastic condition, and the ability to see every angle, to reach out and touch this little piece of history... words really can't describe how much I love that. Nothing else really compares. Even in a museum you can't get this hands-on. I love how there's always something new (relatively speaking) to learn in the archives.

Internship, week of 4/2

When making the processing plan, I had assumed that much of Gest's class lectures were in the proper order, arranged by class and session. This was unfortunately not the case, as I ended up sifting through the lectures for four different classes that had all become jumbled together. Several classes had multiple folders for some sessions, making it even more difficult. In the end there was a lot of referencing the few syllabi and schedules that I could find, and even then I did a bit of educated guessing. My apologies to Gest and any future researchers who might find some of these records to still be out of order.

Article Abstracts, pt.3

Virtually all of my articles relate to privacy issues in archives, as that is a major research interest of mine. A concern in archives for some time has been "third-party" donations--correspondence and other documents that were in the possession of the donating party, but not originated by them. As technology advances, archives go online, and collections are frequently made available while the subjects are still living, the debate has become even more heated and pressing.

Gaudette, Marybeth. "Playing Fair with the Right to Privacy." Archival Issues. 28.1 (2003-2004):
21-34. Print.
Gaudette does not take prisoners in her examination and condemnation of current archival privacy standards. She finds the state of things unbearably inadequate, making the point that no two archivists will always come to the same conclusions, and current codes of ethics do little more than tell the archivist to use their best judgement. She desires a universal, legally-enforceable standard that completely removes personal (situational) judgment. Taking to task those who have written articles championing the archivist's right and ability to make informed situational judgments, she sees only (unwitting) abuses of power in many examples. While perhaps a bit too unyielding in her presentation, the overall message Gaudette sends is simply that a complete lack of regulations is not a defensible standard to operate by.

Hodson, Sara S. "In Secret Kept, in Silence Sealed: Privacy in the Papers of Authors and Celebrities." American Archivist. 67.2 (Fall/Winter 2004): 194-211. Print. Retrieved from JSTOR.
A return to Hodson brings this article which addresses the collections of living people of public interest. There is significant chance that these materials will contain potentially embarrassing information not just about the subject, but the people they have interacted with. The subject may not be aware the information is there, not realize that others might find it sensitive, or simply may not understand that the material might become public while they are still living. At the same time, modern society is conditioned to expect the revelation of every intimate detail about those in the public eye. There are no easy answers to dealing with situations of this nature, although Hodson valiantly attempts to address the problem and provide some suggested operating guidelines.

Benedict, Karen. "Archival Ethics." Managing Archives and Archival Institutions. Ed. James Gregory Bradsher. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1988. 174-184. Print.
Tracing the development of various codes of ethics that archival organizations follow and clarifies the reasons they must exist. The archivist walks a precarious and undefined path between the privacy concerns of the donors and patrons, and the desires of those the archive serves to have unfettered access to as much information as possible. While most codes leave a great deal of room for the archivist to make decisions regarding privacy, the overarching concern is to prevent any malicious harm and minimize potential problems.

Internship, week of 3/26

One of Gest's major contributions was the discovery of "a new family of photosynthetic green bacteria (Heliobacteriaceae, which includes Heliobacterium gestii)"... that's right, one of them was even named after him. There's an entire box of documents related to this discovery and I think it's relevant to keep them together. Gest had already given them headings based on groupings that seem pretty logical and I'm not entirely certain how they should be arranged otherwise, so I preserved the original order and headings wherever possible. I considered a few other options and decided this was the most reasonable course, but I worry a little bit that this is actually an excuse for playing it safe. I'll get some advice from Phil on that.

Internship, week of 3/19

In 1987 Gest published a book called The World of Microbes, which was basically a microbiology primer for the layman who doesn't know a bacteria from a virus. I suppose if he'd written it a few years later it could have been a "for Dummies" book. This book was translated in to several other languages, including French and Japanese. After 9/11 when fear of anthrax and other forms of (badly-reported) bio-terrorism were all over the news, Gest attempted to interest certain departments of the government in buying backstock or printing a new edition.

I'm not sure if anyone took him up on it. Since it seems to bookend a fairly large file on The World of Microbes, I'm guessing sadly not.

Internship, week of 3/12

Spring break. I didn't work any internship hours this week.

Internship, week of 3/5

Received approval on the processing plan and got to work. Almost immediately hit a snag as I realized that a box I thought was largely in order was actually very miscellaneous. With a man like Gest who often did several papers and lectures on the results of (to my scientifically-untrained eye) very similar research, it can be daunting to sort an entire box of mixed papers!

Internship, week of 2/27

Put the finishing touches on my processing plan and sent it to Phil. I'm not incredibly familiar with these so I probably went overboard. Better to do too much than too little. With luck I'll begin the physical processing next week.

Article Abstracts, pt.2

Virtually all of my articles relate to privacy issues in archives, as that is a major research interest of mine. A concern in archives for some time has been "third-party" donations--correspondence and other documents that were in the possession of the donating party, but not originated by them. As technology advances, archives go online, and collections are frequently made available while the subjects are still living, the debate has become even more heated and pressing.

Dickson, Maggie. "Due Diligence, Futile Effort: Copyright and the Digitization of the Thomas E.

Watson Papers." American Archivist. 73. (Fall/Winter 2010): 626-636. Print.

In the arguments for tighter archival regulation, it is easy to overlook that most advocates have not put their suggestions into practice. Dickson attempts to change that, using a distillation of the suggestions of several advocates. She tries out this method on a relatively small collection with just over 8400 documents. After nine months and $8,000 of man-hours, permissions are only received on four letters. Her conclusion is that no archive can operate under many of the suggested revisions and regulations. She follows this with a summary of copyright law that explains why archives would have so much difficulty. At the same time, she is not pleased with the current operating status of archives and calls for a third option.

Schwarz, Judith. "The Archivst's Balancing Act: Helping Researchers while Protecting

Individual Privacy." Journal of American History. 79.1 (June 1992): 179-189. Print. Retrieved from JSTOR.

The archivist’s “right to judgment” is heavily championed by Schwarz through a series of examples, often drawn from her own career. Tracing a thread through public and private archives and covering over a decade of personal experience, she takes a firm stand for the need of archivists have the freedom to make decisions regarding privacy without the oversight of restrictive regulations and legal concerns.

Greene, Mark. "Moderation in Everything, Access in Nothing?: Opinions about Access
Restrictions on Private Papers." Archival Issues. 18.1 (1993): 31-41. Print.
Mark Greene is one of the most well-known voices in archival science. In this article he examines privacy issues as they exist (or to more accurately state his conclusions, as they are said to exist) in archives. He muses about whether it is even possible to implement proposed rules and regulations in a modern archive. Although supportive of an archivist having the power to make decisions and even go with their gut when necessary, he is careful to observe the need for policies and guidelines. While heavily supporting the idea that the donor is the best authority, Greene also advocates making them aware of all the actions that will or might be taken with their collection--he half-jokingly advocates a Miranda card for archivists.

Internship, week of 2/20

More or less finished the processing plan. Just a few more boxes to get through. I'm not sure what will be done with certain things in this collection, like overhead transparencies, slides, and so on. I suspect that the Auxiliary Library Facility allows for a bit of slack when processing them--they won't deteriorate in the strict climate control, so there's no real need to make the usual backups and/or replacements.

There's also a few computer discs and cassette tapes that unfortunately I don't think anyone is in a hurry to transfer to another format. I always find it sad that more time, effort, and money can't be spent on updating media in archives and libraries. I feel like there's a lot of history we're forgetting and never going to recover.

Internship, week of 2/13

Wow, there's a solid four boxes of correspondence alone, dating all the way back to the 40s when Gest was a grad student and working with the brightest minds of the time on the Manhatten Project. Amazing stuff.

Also amusing was some correspondence with the Oxford English Dictionary. One of Gest's major areas of work is photosynthesis, and he took issue with their definition. He sent them a packet to prove his credentials and a suggested new definition. They wrote back that they were revising the whole OED, and being so large it takes a few years. They definitely wanted his input, but at the moment were somewhere around J and would get back to him.

Roughly a year later Gest wrote them a follow-up that amounted to "...well? What's taking you so long?"

Internship, week of 2/6

Worked a little bit on the processing plan, but also accompanied Phil to the IU Press. He's accessioning essentially their entire archive--hundreds if not thousands of manuscripts and publications over multiple decades, with all the corresponding contracts and paperwork, on top of any/all of the usual office paperwork.

For a place that kept such records, they didn't really do a great job of it. There's a giant room in the basement with file cabinets sort of willy-nilly, brimming with papers. Boxes are stacked on top of the cabinets, and several pallets on the floor have more stacks of boxes. There's no great order involved here--they emptied desk drawers into boxes (or filing cabinet drawers) and stuffed them where they had room.

It was overwhelming to see, but very interesting to work with. I suspect I'll see a good deal of this in my career.

Internship, week of 1/30

Began sifting through the Gest boxes. The first few accessions are rather large, cover huge swaths of his career, and are divided by subject and in some cases a vague sense of order. The latter few are much more mixed as he began to add from the papers he hadn't given previously. A few boxes seem to be little more than random papers. When possible, Gest outlined what he was providing to the archive at that time, but there's still a lot to sort through.

Article Abstracts, pt.1

Virtually all of my articles relate to privacy issues in archives, as that is a major research interest of mine. A concern in archives for some time has been "third-party" donations--correspondence and other documents that were in the possession of the donating party, but not originated by them. As technology advances, archives go online, and collections are frequently made available while the subjects are still living, the debate has become even more heated and pressing.

Hodson, Sara S. "Private Lives: Confidentiality in Manuscripts Collections." Rare Books and

Manuscript Librarianship. 6. (1991): 108-118. Print.

Hodson examines the issue of “third-party donors” in a direct manner, asserting that the “primary” donor is still the best resource for gathering information about a collection. She raises certain concerns, such as collections acquired and accessioned with “inappropriate restrictions” attached (a given example is “no Jews”) which are later quietly lifted, and whether instituting restrictive rules of use would allow for those to ever change. Hodson advocates for a case-by-case treatment of archival collections simply because each one is in fact a special case, but also champions caution and restraint. The fear that archivists should have, Hodson argues, is far more ethical than legal, yet those in favor of more restrictive archival policies concentrate almost entirely on the legal aspects.

Kirby, M.D. "Access to Information and Privacy: The Ten Information Commandments."

Archivaria. 23 (Winter 1986-87): 4-15. Print.

Kirby looks at privacy in the face of growing information technology and the need to regulate. He lays down a set of “commandments”. One of the chief problems he sees is that of “old laws, new world”, which lies at the heart of every internet piracy debate and proposed legislation. He puts forward the need for “informed observers” who have no stake in the outcome, yet understand the concepts involved and can act and react accordingly--again, the lack of informed policymakers is at the root of many (non-)resolutions. While the article is a bit dated, having been written in 1986, many of the concerns that Kirby addresses are still valid now, some even more in light of SOPA and similar proposals. Kirby’s language is also frank and direct--an updated set of commandments in this style would be easily accessible to the layman and useful in explaining the issues facing information technologies, both public and private.

MacNeil, Heather. "Defining the Limits of Freedom of Inquiry: The Ethics of Disclosing

Personal Information held in Government Archives." Archivaria. 32 (Summer 1991): 138-144. Print.

MacNeil sets out to define a utilitarian approach to the moral use of personal information. The common guidelines in archives is to be cautious while still providing as much material as possible, supplemented with a liberal take-down policy. MacNeil argues that this approach is a cost-benefit model with no tangible benefit or cost. She argues instead for a “rights-based analysis” that is rooted in Kantian philosophy. Under this proposal, personal consent or confirmed public domain is the only tenable course of action--because of the Kantian input, anything that is not personal consent contributes to an overall loss of privacy that is not to be tolerated by an ethical people. MacNeil acknowledges that this would actively hamstring efforts to make archives available to patrons, or even archive a great deal of material in the first place, but she asserts that this is merely the price of a more ethical society.

Internship, week of 1/23

Read through the papers on Howard Gest. Wow, this is quite the guy. Looks like he started his career in 1942 working on the Manhattan Project! From there he's spent over 60 years teaching, researching, writing, and... everything, it seems. The man literally wrote a book about his collaborations with "notable" scientists. That's not a book of the collaborations, but about them. There's just that many.

Gest started donating his work to the archives in 2005. There are 6-7 separate accessions over as many years, totaling about 32 boxes. My job is going to be to go through these, survey the contents, then condense them into a cohesive whole.

I'm also working the desk on Tuesdays from 1-3. I'm basically just keeping an eye on the reading room, as I route every call and walk-in to the archivist on duty.

Internship, week of 1/16

Still doing some grunt work, but I'm also still enjoying it. It's good to get back into the swing of things. Phil says he'll have me working on the collection of Howard Gest, a microbiologist and professor emeritus. I'm not familiar with him, but I have a sheaf of documents on him that I need to look through and Phil will have me start looking through the boxes next week.

Internship, week of 1/9

First week of internship in the Archives dept. Phil has to get things set up in the midst of getting his classes off the ground, so I'm mainly doing a few "cleanup" tasks this week. Various filing and shifting collections. It's not exactly elbow-deep, but it's nice to be working with this sort of material again.