Chapter 3: Identifying Uses and Users of Archives

Here is the breakdown for chapter three of Providing Reference Services for Archives and Manuscripts by Mary Jo Pugh.

Uses of Archives

• Primary Uses of Records
• Secondary Uses of Records

- Informational Value

- Evidential Value

- Intrinsic Value

Understanding the users of archives

First, let's address some of the vocabulary presented.

The primary value of records is the value of a record created for its original purpose, such fiscal accountability

Secondary value is the value of a record beyond its original purpose. There are three types of secondary value; informational, evidential, and intrinsic.

Informational value describes the value of the information that records contain about people, events, objects, and places.

Evidential value refers to the value of the evidence that records provide about their creators and their activities.

Intrinsic value describes the value that records have as artifacts, tangible to links to our past and heritage.

Understanding the User

Staff Members of an Organization

Corporate or organizational archives are preserved so that the institution can understand its history and have sources of current and past policies. Archives help solve problems and prevent problems from becoming reoccurring events. These archives document infrastructure, legal issues, marketing, public relations, development, administration, and institutional memory.

Staff members of an institution using an archive usually require extensive reference help and are usually seeking an answer to a specific question or solution to a specific problem. It is critical that a reference archivist be aware of the contents of these collections and understand how to gain access to these records.

Scholars

Though it assumed that scholars are the largest population of users in archives, they actually make up a small percentage of the total user population.

To assist scholars reference archivists need to undersand that nature of scholarly inquiry, research methodologies, and the use of archives in all disciplines. Reference archivists should understand that scholars come to an archive to usually survey a large body of materials. Scholars also often enter an archive seeking an individual item or collection that might be cited in another scholarly work, so it is important the archivists understand how to retrieve these sources from the information cited.

Students

Not all academic research is conducted by experienced scholars. Students make up a large population of users, especially at university and manuscript archives. Students are an important population of user for archives. It is crucial for reference archivists to communicate the value of archives to these young scholars. The more people an archive can reach, the more important archives will be seen in our society.

A reference archivist must also be prepared to handle a variety student inquiries. Students working on a graduate dissertation or an undergraduate paper will approach the reference archivist for assistance. Patience is key in dealing with students who might not have a developed research strategy. Explaining the sources of archival materials to students might also be necessary to those inexperienced with archival research.

Genealogists

Genealogy is a very popular hobby in America and as a result, has increased the use of archives. Genealogists are seeking information about family members. Reference archivists will have an excellent opportunity to educated genealogists about archives. Again, it is important to deploy patience when dealing with this user who might not be experienced in researching archival materials. It is important to archivists to become familiar with resources that genealogists are likely to use, as those will be commonly requested. Perhaps an archive should microfilm a heavily used collection or allow some materials to be housed in the reading rooms due to frequent use.

While it is important to understand the different types of users that an archive might experience, it must always be remembered that all of these users are information seekers.

It is vital for archivists to understand the collections they house and the resources available for information retrieval. Not all information needed is in the form of a physical document. Perhaps the archive has an extensive web posting of Executive Board minutes. A user might not need the original document to obtain the information they are seeking. Finding aids can also confirm whether the information needed is even contained with the archive itself.

Overall, a reference archivist must be prepared to handle queries from experienced and unexperienced users. A thorough knowledge of the holdings and retrieval resources is needed to best serve the user populations. It is important to be aware of resources that have a high usage rate for certain user populations. It should never be forgotten that an archive exists to serve these information seekers.

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.

Snow in Bloomington

Everyone seemed to be panicking about the snow, but in the end we only got about 3 inches. Those 3 inches still made everything look beautiful though.

Providing Reference Services for Archives & Manuscripts by Mary Jo Pugh: Chapters 1 & 2

Chapter 1: Looking Forward, Looking Backward

The digital revolution has drastically altered the way reference services are performed. It use to be that researchers could only browse holdings via card catalogs and access to holdings had to happen in person at the physical archive. The digital revolution changed everything.

Personal computers are now ubiquitous. This has created a huge increase of possible materials of all varieties. The rapid growth of the web has created a connectivity never possible before.

So what does this mean for archives? For one, it means better access. Finding aids can now be posted online allowing a user to search holdings before traveling to the physical archive. The Internet has made it possible for a user to search multiple archives' holding without traveling outside of their living room. A user can email questions or chat to an archivist to find the answer to their research questions. And more frequently, entire collections are being posted online allowing for complete access without entering the archive itself.

How does this change reference? It means that more researchers are expecting that materials or at the very least finding aids be posted online. Reference staff will have to use services such as email, chat, collaborative tools, and video interfaces with users. It also means that issues such as copyright are becoming more complex and more public than ever before. For the first time archives will have to consider things like design interfaces and usability of databases.

This rest of this book Mary Jo Pugh will address specific issues and areas of reference in archives.

Chapter 2: Reference Services in Archives

So what exactly are archives? Archives are defined as all records, personal and organizational, of continuing usefulness created by activities of the person or organization, kept so information can be resued by others. Let's breakdown this definition.

A document refers to artifacts which we delegate the task of speaking for us. A document reveals information about a purpose or activity and each kind of document is specialized to communicate a certain kind of job.

A record is a document created or kept in the event of a practical activity. Records provide evidence of the actions performed.

Personal Records are the personal documents of an individual or family. These records are kept because they will be of use and interest to others.

Organizational Records are records created by an organization through the course of conducting business. These records show evidence of activities performed by the organization and are kept for legal, internal, or research purposes.

So now that the term archive is defined, why do we keep archives? Archives are kept because records continue to provide evidence of actions completed. Usually they are kept for administrative use, public accountability and research. Basically records become archives when they have continuing use or purpose. This needs to be noted because not every records is an archive or will become an archive.

History of Archives

Until the French Revolution archives were only used by their administrators, so only government officials had access to government archives. During the French Revolution the public recognized the value of government archives. The new French government declared that its archives were the property of the people, who are the source of sovereignty in a democratic society. Therefore the records of the government must be accessible to the public. Other western nations also adopted this concept of public access to public records.

Modern manuscripts trace their history to medieval monasteries and universities . Before the invention of the printing press usually only one or a few copies of a document or book existed. This tradition of collecting personal papers and the papers of those individuals important to society carried on the twenty-first century.

Reference Services in Archives Provide:

• Information about the repository
• Information about holdings
• Information about records creators
• Educating users about the holding and access to the holdings
• Referrals to other repositories or resources
• Information about laws and ethics regarding the use of information
• Instruction in using records
• Education about the research process
• Physcial access to holdings
• Copies, permissions, and loans from holdings

The rest of this book will focus on the above points and provide advice and information about each area of reference work.

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!

What You Find Digging Around

So while I was trying to answer this increasingly frustrating reference question, I did stumble upon something very interesting.

In the 1960s renowned poet Alan Ginsberg came to Indiana University. He gave a lecture and read a poem. Those who know of Ginsberg's work know that he was famous for pushing convention aside and directly commenting on the state of society. Well, apparently most people at IU did not know this. Ginsberg created a tremendous stir.

I found literally dozen of articles proclaiming that IU had allowed "obscenity" on campus. The papers called Ginsberg "unwashed" and that he had embarrassed the great institution of IU.

They even started a committee to look into this situation to deem if officials had knowingly exposed IU students to "obscenity".

It is surely a sign of the times, but still a very interesting part of IU history that I might have missed were it not for that tough reference question.

Side note: I have to say that as an English major that focused on the Beats, I am profoundly jealous that I couldn't see Ginsberg speak.

Elusive Answer

I started week 4 still chasing the elusive answer to a reference question I was sent last week. The question, when did the Comparative Literature Program become the Comparative Literature Department, seemed easy enough, but I was wrong. Dina helped me recall about 8 boxes from the ALF in the quest for the answer. She also introduced me to the Board of Trustees Minutes card catalog.

It is increasingly rare these days to run into an actually card catalog. I admit that I haven't used one since I was probably in middle school. Using the card catalog gave me a new appreciation for the process of creating a card catalog. Talk about an exercise in precision and patience bordering on the edge of madness.

Sadly, after all the searching through the boxes and the card catalog, I could not find a definitive answer to the question posed. I really enjoy the process the answering a reference question and find it frustrating when I cannot deliver. Hopefully, I will have better luck with the next question!