Notes

My finding aid for the Richard M. Dorson Papers, 1940-1980 is up!

http://webapp1.dlib.indiana.edu/findingaids/view?doc.view=entire_text&docId=InU-Ar-VAB8852

Fun Fact about the Wells Library:

We have the largest library collection for folklore and ethnomusicology anywhere in the world!

For this reason, it was selected to be the first “collection of distinction” to be digitized as part of the Committee on Institutional Cooperation (CIC) agreement with Google. Under this agreement Google has digitized the entire Folklore Collection, which means that the contents of the entire collection will be searchable online by anyone. Only books in the public domain will be readable online, however.

For more about the folklore collection, visit our web page at http://www.libraries.iub.edu/index.php?pageId=329.

Details about the Collection of Distinction may be found here:http://www.libraries.iub.edu/index.php?pageId=8104

Grave Monuments

As I was arranging the haphazard folklore collections, I came across a very interesting collection. Pauline Montgomery donated her 1600 piece photo collection of Indiana grave monuments to the Folklore Department in 1983. This is a meticulously documented photograph collection of grave monuments across southern Indiana. The records she kept are quiet astounding. I know this collection will be something that genealogists will just love!

So as I was rehousing the photographs, I came across a most peculiar grave monument. It is a basic headstone, but just behind it is some sort of playhouse or dollhouse that stands as a monument to the deceased. I cannot make out the writing on the headstone so this could be for a child, but still an unusual sight to see in a graveyard. Ms. Montgomery even took a photograph of the inside of this house, which is fully furnished with curtains, tables, and dolls. Now, I'm no expert on grave monuments, but this is the first I've ever heard of constructing a fully furnished playhouse as a monument to the deceased. The interesting things you come across at the Archive!

Week 8 Wrap Up

Week 8 was spent working on finding aids for the folklore collection. I finished two finding aids and submitted both for review. The finding aids I completed were for the Folklore Student Association and the Folklore Administrative Records. I hope that both only require minor edits, but I will find out as soon as I receive feedback from Professor Bantin.

For next week, I hope to finish the remaining two finding aids for the folklore collection. The Smithsonian Festival of American Folklife 1987 record series and the Pauline Montgomery: Grave Monuments manuscript series will be my focus. I think both of these collections are quite interesting and hopefully researchers will agree.

I'm excited to learn what my next project will be!

Week 7 Wrap Up

So I finally got the folklore archives (at least the portions given to me) in a working order. At the end I have 3 new record series and 1 new manuscript series. Two boxes of student papers were also organized and inventoried. Homeless and/or lost files found homes and a sense of relevance. The tough part was discarding some materials. I know that they did not belong in the archive, but it is still difficult to toss items. I hope that making the decision to not keep materials gets easier as my internship progresses, because at the moment it still feels like a failure to not find a proper home for those items.

Next week I will be spending time creating finding aids for these 4 new series and awaiting my next assignment. I hope I get to answer some reference questions, as that is one of my favorite tasks. Here is a list of the new record series' created this week:

Folklore Student Association

Folklore Department Administrative Records

The Smithsonian Festival of American Folklife 1987

Pauline Montgomery: Grave Monuments (manuscript series)

Also, the Dorson collection was cataloged this week and the finding aid is being encoded in EAD. Hopefully the collection and finding aid will be available for research very soon.

Box of Audio Visual

I'm still sorting out various boxes of folklore materials. Today's task was to tackle the big box of audio visual materials. This box has more than 50 audio cassettes, 20 VHS tapes, and one Umatic tape (which I've only seen in text books).

For the most part these materials are pretty well described, but what is missing consistently are dates. I know that everyone does not approach research materials the way an archivist does, but as a researcher wouldn't you need to know when these recordings happened? It's one of those strange quandaries about how people conduct research. I would think that even if one intended only to use research for one paper or presentation, that dates would still be important. Alas, archivists do not rule the world and, per usual, we are left to piece together the picture with the surrounding context.

Tossing is Tough

I'm no advocate of Jenkinsonian methods and I know that archives cannot and should not keep everything. There is no conceivable way for an archive to keep everything even if they sought to do so. Nicholson Baker has an unrealistic mission for archives. See, all of this I know. All that aside though, it is really tough to toss things.

While going through the folklore archives I have accumulated a pile of materials that just don't belong in our archive for any conceivable reason. There is nothing unique about these materials and there is no recognizable tie to Indiana University or its faculty. Basically, these materials are just publications that a professor probably accumulated in their office. I really did try to find a home for these guys, but in the end they just need to be tossed. Discarding materials is so much harder in practice than in theory!

Homeless No More

Today I found homes for some lost files in the folklore collection. It really is a hodge-podge of faculty research, publications, and administrative files for the Folklore Department. The conundrum is how these files wandered so far from their homes to begin with. Well, no matter how it happened, I have started to reunite these files with their proper place. Everyday I'm getting a little bit closer to having the folklore collection in shipshape.

Week 4 Wrap Up

Week 4 was a hodge-podge type of week. I spent the beginning of the week still searching for the answer to one elusive reference question from last week. Unfortunately, I was unable to track down the answer. You can read my previous posts to see more about this question and the fun history of IU item that I also stumbled across.

I also made a few edits to the Dorson Collection finding aid. Professor Bantin only made a few suggestions as to edits, which made me feel good about the work I put into that finding aid. I also made some progress on the messy Folklore archives. I may have found homes for some the items that were just floating around.

I hope to really make some progress on the Folklore archives this coming week. Hopefully, I'll also get to answer some more interesting reference questions!

Week Three Wrap Up

So at the end of week three, I have started on collection #2 and tackled a slew of questions about Professor Henry Remak. Collection #2, the Folklore Archives, is still in a pretty messy state, but I think I'll make some real progress on it this week. I'm still hoping to do some EAD work on the Dorson collection finding aid. I'm excited to tackle the multimedia aspects of the Folklore collection this week!

Collection #2

So after completing the Dorson collection, though I am still hoping to do the EAD encoding for the finding aid, Professor Bantin has assigned me to sort out the rest of the folklore archives as my next collection. I have to say that this part of the collection is in pretty rough shape.














Piles of files, publications, slides, and photos have just been sitting without any real organization. It will be my task to sort this material and either place the material with an existing collection that it was separated from or create a new collection depending on the content.

The great thing about this collection is the amount of research I get to do to find the rightful place for these materials. I'm excited about the amount of photos, slides, and audio recordings found so far.


I'm really looking forward to working with this collection, especially the multi-media aspects. This collection will definitely sharpen my archival research and arranging skills.