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.