Scientific (Re)Discoveries: Hidden Collections at the American Museum of Natural History

By Haley Richardson, Archivists Round Table Reporter

Archival materials in the Frank Boas Photo Collection illustrate the stark differences in levels of archival processing found by archivists working on the Hidden Collections project. Photo by Lauren Dzura.

In February 2011, the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) Research Library staff embarked upon two grant-funded projects designed to inventory and assess library and archives collections from the museum's science divisions. As part of these ongoing projects, teams of student interns collect basic information on uncatalogued collections of photos, correspondence, monographs, drawings, slides, and other formats from all departments. At the end of each semester-long cataloging phase, this metadata is transformed into a Machine-Readable Cataloging (MARC) record using MarcEdit, added to the AMNH Research Library OPAC, or transformed in to an EAD-encoded archival finding aid, to be later fleshed out based on newly discovered connections and current research interests. Some of the metadata will also be included in the museum's contributions to the Field Book Registry, which is being developed and hosted by the Smithsonian Institution Archives. In further fulfillment of project goals, a risk assessment phase is planned for inclusion in a larger, museum-wide survey of collections.

As teams of students plow through the collections, they are also creating a magnificent account of their work through the Hidden Collections project blog. The posts, many of which include photos and links to outside sources, read like diary records of archival intrigue. An intern may become fascinated by a photo and compose an entry devoted solely to a long-forgotten photographer or revered subject, or perhaps the puzzle of inventorying mixed-media collections might inspire a post soliciting help from supervisors and other interns. The sense of discovery evident in each entry is enough to make any history or science buff a bit jealous and may infect even the most world-weary archivist with a renewed sense of purpose and excitement. Lovers of data collection and information organization will enjoy reading about the development of workflows for data conversion, especially when they include flowcharts. Squirrel lovers, too, will find something of interest here.

At an Archivists Round Table presentation in June, AMNH Archivist Barbara Mathé, along with Project Archivists Iris Lee and Rebecca Morgan, described the projects, specifically the planned methodology for metadata collection and repurposing, as well as future plans for creating complex authority records to facilitate the use of linked data. The linked data will aid in connecting records within the institution, as well as connecting distributed data sets across the web and far beyond the AMNH's walls.

Although the collected metadata is very basic at this stage, archivists Lee and Morgan have already noted the project's impact on museum staff. Long-term volunteers have gotten involved in the inventorying effort by processing collections, creating finding aids, and beginning the task of defining controlled authorities. Just having the archival materials out of storage seems to be inspiring staff members to research and use the long-forgotten items. “Keeping an open conversation with the reference librarians and other employees in the Library about the work that we are doing has been a useful exercise for discovering related material or simply finding out about resources we did not realize we had,” they said.

One project goal- the repurposing of collected data sets to create linked data within the institution- is certainly on many archivists' minds these days. Lee and Morgan underscore the importance of extensible mark up, saying they are constantly thinking about ways to include linked data in the project metadata and catalog records by utilizing library and archives standards such as EAD and EAC-CPF, controlled vocabularies, and Google Refine technologies. To date, they have successfully repurposed the spreadsheet data collected by interns into a risk assessment database.

Thank you to Barbara Mathé, Iris Lee, Rebecca Morgan, and Laurie Duke for their help with this blog post. The AMNH Research Library also would like to thank the Council on Library and Information Resources and the Institute for Museum and Library Services for their support.

Check out the project blog here: http://images.library.amnh.org/hiddencollections/

ART mourns the loss of our friend and colleague Michael Nash, Head of the Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives at New York University. His obituary was published in The New York Times on July 29, 2012:

Several structural changes have now come into effect with the revised by-laws which were approved by members in May. In accordance with revised by-laws, new board positions were created including Programming Director, Communications Director and Outreach and Advocacy Director.

2012 Election Results:

President (2012-2013)
Rachel Chatalbash

Rachel Chatalbash holds the position of Archivist at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. Previously, she held archives positions at the MIT Museum and Northeastern University. She received her M.S. in archives management from Simmons College and is currently a PhD candidate in art history at the CUNY Graduate Center. Rachel served on the Board of the Archivists Round Table of Metropolitan New York as President from 2010–2012, as Coordinator of the Communications and Outreach Committee from 2008–2010 and as Editor-in-Chief for ART’s Metropolitan Archivist from 2006 to 2010. During her time with ART, Rachel has been responsible for expanding the organization’s programs, including developing outreach programs for local communities and new ART-sponsored New York Archives Week events, increasing membership numbers and member services, and leading ART’s participation in significant advocacy campaigns.

Vice President (2012–2013)
President (2013–2014)
Pamela Cruz

Pamela Cruz is director of the National Historic Preservation Center for Girls Scouts of the USA. She has extensive global experience in assessment, organization, preservation and management of asset collections, and creating systems for tracking and storage. Prior to arrival at GSUSA in July 2008, Pamela was Vice President, Archival Services for Miramax Films, for eight years and Antiques Manager at Polo Ralph Lauren Corporation for 13 years. During her years at Miramax, she was responsible for the inception of the Miramax Archives Department, created archive databases, and handled taxonomy and nomenclature and systems for Miramax and Dimension Films and the personal archives of the co-chairmen of the company. She worked with film asset collections in Italy, France, Mexico, Romania, and in the U.S. and on various exhibits and special projects for museums and other venues. At Polo she managed the inventory of high-end antiques and decorative arts used for Polo stores, wholesale showrooms, advertising shoots, and special events. Pamela’s work with ART includes Programming Committee volunteer in 2011 and service on the Board as Vice President for the current 2011–2012 membership year where she was responsible for ART Monthly Meetings and Programming and facilitating the work of the Programming Committee, as well as supporting the Board on ART initiatives.

Education Committee, Director (2012–2013)
Tessa Fallon

Tessa Fallon is a Web Collection Curator at Columbia University Libraries. She is currently an ART member and in the past she has been a volunteer for the Programming and Outreach Committees. Tessa holds an MSLIS from the Palmer School of Library and Information Science and a certificate in Archives and Records Management.

Programming Committee, Director (2012–2013)
Nick Pavlik

Nick Pavlik graduated from the Queens College Graduate School of Library and Information Studies in December 2011 and is currently the archivist for the 92nd Street Y. Prior to that, Nick was a member of the project team for “Uncovering the Secrets of Brooklyn's Nineteenth-Century Past: Creation to Consolidation,” an archival survey project at the Brooklyn Historical Society. He has also interned as an archivist at the American Museum of Natural History and the New York Transit Museum.

Membership Committee, Director (2012–2014)
Anne Petrimoulx

Anne is the Assistant Archivist at Trinity Wall Street, a position she has held since 2008. She received her MSIS with concentrations in Archival Administration and Electronic Records from the University of Texas at Austin in 2008. While in school, Anne worked in the archives at the Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary and did volunteer work at the Harry Ransom Center. Anne has been a member and volunteer with ART since 2009, helping with the work of the Education Committee and the Outreach Committee, contributing the Metropolitan Archivist, and helping to coordinate the 2010 NYAC conference, as well as various ART workshops held at her institution.

Communications Committee, Director (2012–2014)
Ryan Anthony Donaldson

Ryan Anthony Donaldson, CA, is currently the Archivist with the Durst Organization, Inc., a fourth-generation family real estate firm in New York, New York. In 2007, Ryan earned an M.A. in History Museum Studies from the Cooperstown Graduate Program (CGP) in Cooperstown, New York, and served as CGP’s archivist. He has previously interned with the Archives and Special Collections department at the National Baseball Hall of Fame, Seymour B. Durst Old York Library and Reading Room, and Missouri Historical Society.

Outreach and Advocacy Committee, Director (2012–2014)
Janet Bunde

Janet Bunde currently serves as the Assistant University Archivist and Archivist of the John Brademas Congressional Papers at New York University. She received her M.A. in history with a certificate in archival administration from NYU in 2007. Her areas of professional interest and research include both advocacy and incorporating archival materials into educational instruction. For the past several years Janet has chaired ART’s Outreach Committee. In that capacity she has been fortunate to work with many ART members to plan two successful Archives Education Institutes, pairing local K–12 educators with archivists to connect archivists to new groups of users and teachers with materials they can use in the classroom.

Secretary (2012–2014)
Melissa Bowling

Melissa Bowling currently works as an Assistant Archivist in the Metropolitan Museum of Art Archives. In 2008, Melissa received her MLIS and certificates in Archives and Museum Libraries from Pratt Institute. She has previously worked for the American Civil Liberties Union Archives as Archives Assistant, interned in the Mount Sinai School of Medicine Archives, and volunteered in the Western Connecticut State University Archives. Melissa also served on the ART Bylaws Revision Committee 2011–2012.

Mitch Brodsky continues to serve as ART Treasurer.

ART thanks Heather Ball, Elizabeth Pope, and Catherine Carson Ricciardi for their contributions over the past two years as Membership and Nominating Committee Coordinator, Education Committee Coordinator, and Secretary.

Originally posted in the July/August 2012 edition of For The Record: News From The Archivists Round Table.

The ART Board invites you to check out the July/August 2012 edition of For The Record: News From The Archivists Round Table.

You can access For The Record within your browser here.

For The Record provides members with the latest news between meetings and will keep members informed in-between issues of Metropolitan Archivist, our semi-annual publication.

For future editions, we encourage you to subscribe if you have not done so already.

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You will have the option of receiving For The Record as HTML, text, or in mobile format.

Emma Curtis serves as Editor, and all content is compiled by the ART Communications Committee. Communications relating to For The Record can be directed to commchair@nycarchivists.org.

2012-2013 Board Elections

Please cast your vote for ART's new Board members at our June 19th meeting at the American Museum of Natural History Research Library from 6:30 pm to 7:15 pm. 

Please follow this link to view each candidate's bio and statement.

If you are unable to attend our meeting, you can vote by proxy via email. Please send an email to membership@nycarchivists.org by 5pm on June 18th, attaching the ballot sent to you by the ART Membership and Nominating Coordinator and including your full name. You must vote using the email address registered with your ART membership account.

Thank you to all, and good luck to our candidates!

Archives and Activism: Call for Participation

“The rebellion of the archivist against his normal role is not, as so many scholars fear, the politicizing of a neutral craft, but the humanizing of an inevitably political craft."
-- Howard Zinn "Secrecy, Archives, and the Public Interest," Vol. II, No. 2 (1977) of Midwestern Archivist.

The boundaries between "archivist" and "activist" have become increasingly porous, rendering ready distinctions between archivists (traditionally restricted to the preservation of records, maintaining accountability, and making critical information available to the communities they serve) and activists (who, with greater frequency, look to archives or adopt elements of archival practice as a means of documenting their struggles) virtually unsustainable. In the past year, archivists and citizen activists collaborated to document the Occupy Wall Street movement, and archivists committed to open government worked with the New York City Council to advocate for keeping the Municipal Archives as an independent city agency. While the apparent convergence of archival and activist worlds may appear a timely and relevant topic, these distinct communities often deliberate their roles separately with little dialogue.

The Archivists Round Table of Metropolitan New York and the New School Archives and Special Collections are sponsoring a symposium to bring together a diverse group of archivists, activists, students, and theorists with the aim of facilitating discussion of their respective concerns.  Among its proposed topics, the symposium will address potential roles that archivists may engage in as activists, as well as how archivists can assume a greater role in documenting and contributing toward social and political change.

Possible areas of interest include, but are not limited to, the following:

-Archivists documenting the work of activists and activist movements
-Activists confronting traditional archival practice
-Possible models for an emergent “activist archives”
-Methodologies for more comprehensively documenting activism
-Archivist and activist collaborations
-Community-led archives and repositories operating outside of the archival  establishment
-Archives as sites of knowledge (re)production and in(ter)vention
-Relational paradigms for mapping the interplay of power, justice, and archives
-Critical pedagogy in the reference encounter
-Interrogating preconceptions and misunderstandings that obscure common goals

Date: Friday, October 12, 2012

Location: Theresa Lang Community and Student Center, The New School

All individual presentations will be 20 minutes long (10 page paper).
Submissions must include a title, name of author and institutional affiliation (if applicable), abstract (250 words max), and indication of technological requirements.
Individual papers or entire panel proposals accepted.

Deadline for Proposals: Proposals should be emailed to admin@nycarchivists.org by August 1, 2012.

The ART Advocacy Committee is helping disseminate information about the formation of the United States Chapter of Archivists without Borders (AwB-US), whose stated mission is currently to “unite archival professionals through education, outreach, and advocacy to support human rights, underrepresented populations, and endangered archives both in the United States and in collaboration with international chapters.”

The AwB-US organizing working group has posted the first phase of their founding documents online, and call upon the archives community to review and comment upon these documents. The first phase of the proposal, including background information and mission statement, are open for comments until June 1.

A second phase of the proposal, consisting of a statement of financial organization, goals, and membership qualifications, will be made available for comments beginning on June 1, 2012.

Documents are available for review and comment on the AwB-US website: http://awbuschapter.wordpress.com.