Volume 38 Issue 2, July 2012

The girls with the hoes [possibly Palmstrom sisters near Laurel, Montana], undated. MHS Photograph Archives, Catalog #PAc 82-23.12

ISSUE AT A GLANCE PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE FROM JANET HAUCK

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OREGON HISTORICAL SOCIETY CONVERTS MANUSCRIPTS CARD CATALOG

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MEMBER SPOTLIGHT ON MAX JOHNSON

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SUBMITTING YOUR SCHOLARSHIP TO THE JOURNAL OF WESTERN ARCHIVES

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REFLECTION ON CONFERENCE STRATEGIES FROM RACHEL SEALE

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TALES FROM THE DIGITAL FRONTIER BY SAM MEISTER, ET AL.

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RELFECTIONS ON NWA AND THE PROTOCOLS BY TERRY BAXTER

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INFORMATION ON NWDA EXPANDING ACCESS GRANT FROM NEH BY JODI ALLISON-BUNNELL

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NORTHWEST NEWS!

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EDITOR’S NOTE This spring we had a bumper crop of fabulous contributions and you’ll find that this issue is packed with news articles and updates!. In addition to teaching myself to use Microsoft Publisher for this issue, I also spent the long, wet, pseudo-spring in Oregon scanning past issues of Easy Access—all those John Bolcer passed to me at the annual meeting in April! Go to the Publications Committee page, click “Easy Access,” and you’ll find issues that date back to 1978. There are gaps in our archival record, so I’d be delighted if folks could contact me and we’ll fill them in. The Publications Committee has decided to explore “themes” for Easy Access, with this one focusing on the “State of NWA.” In the future, we will look at local issues and Archives Month activities (fall 2012) and member accomplishments (winter 2013). Be on the look-out for items that will make upcoming issues as grand as this one! Related to submissions, the dates for submission will be shifting to allow folks to send updates about all their Archives Month activities. The deadline for the next issue will be October 31, with issue publication in November. For those of you with big, little, or even medium plans for promotion should remember to contact Brian Brown at [email protected] for information about NWA outreach and Archives Month funding opportunities! Keep up the good work and send me your news of other noteworthy projects! Your fearless editor, Tiah Edmunson-Morton Publications Committee information can be found at http://northwestarchivistsinc.wildapricot.org/.publications. 2

PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE Dear NWA Colleagues. A big “thank you” to everyone who had a hand in making our annual meeting in Salem a successful and memorable event! Mary McRobinson and the Local Arrangements Committee provided us with excellent accommodations and activities, while Erin Passehl and the Program Committee arranged a slate of informative sessions. Everywhere I turned, I saw people interacting with one another in friendly and helpful ways. This is what keeps me coming back every year, and why I tell my archivist friends in other parts of the country that NWA is made up of the most collegial people I know! For me, a special feature of this year’s meeting was the Strategic Planning Session held by the NWA Board on Saturday afternoon. We met to discuss feedback from the survey that over a third of you answered (thanks for taking your time!) with regard to next steps for NWA. To re-cap: the Board identified six broad areas of purpose for the organization, and surveyed the membership regarding each area’s importance, points of success, and room for growth. Here are the areas of top priority for you: Continuing Education / Professional Development – 77% rated as very important Communications / Publications – 67% rated as very important Annual Meeting – 64% rated as very important Advocacy / Outreach – 40% rated as very important In response to your areas of priority, the Board has already begun to move. We are pleased to welcome Arlene Schmuland as Chair of the Professional Development and Education Committee. Also, we are happy that Tiah Edmunson-Morton will be continuing her good work as chair of the Publications Committee. With regard to the 2013 annual meeting, Tony Kurtz will oversee the Local Arrangements Committee, while Trevor Bond has offered to chair the Program Committee. Michael Paulus and Brian Brown will look more closely at issues of Advocacy and Outreach, as chairs of those respective committees. If you are tapped or would like to serve on one of NWA’s 10 committees, please contact your state rep. Finally, you’ll want to “save the date” for sometime in the spring of 2013, because plans are already afoot for a joint meeting with the Archives Association of British Columbia next spring in Vancouver, BC. It’s never too soon to start looking ahead! Janet Hauck, University Archivist at Whitworth University [email protected]

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OREGON HISTORICAL SOCIETY COMPLETES CONVERSION OF MANUSCRIPTS CARD CATALOG BY Geoff Wexler, Interim Library Director, OHS Any repository older than three or four decades must wrestle with the difficulties of legacy data. Printed guides, card catalogs, and a host of indexes in various formats are a challenge to efficient discovery of research materials. For the Oregon Historical Society, founded in 1898, legacy data abounds in a dizzying array of forms — from the hand-written Pioneer index to typed inventories for manuscript collections. But thanks to the efforts of a dedicated staff over the years, tremendous efforts have been made to convert this legacy data into standard electronic form; thus a substantial proportion of OHS’s holdings are now available worldwide in the library’s online catalog, in OCLC’s WorldCat, and in the Northwest Digital Archives database. Recently one major portion of OHS’s legacy data finally made its way into this electronic form: the manuscript card catalog. This manual catalog, which contained records for over 5000 manuscript collections of various sizes, was available only in the reading room of the Davies Family Research Library in downtown Portland. However, thanks to a generous grant from the National Historic Publications and Records Commission (a program of the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration), project cataloger Sara Stroman has diligently worked since the fall of 2010 to create MARC records from the printed cards. She has now completed the conversion of the entire catalog and with the help of Interim Library Director Geoff Wexler an additional 600 unprocessed accessions have found their way into the online system! These electronic records now appear in the library’s online catalog and in WorldCat. And now the final phase of the project has been completed. It involved the conversion of those MARC records into Encoded Archival Description (EAD) files, which have been uploaded to the NWDA. In this way, users can now search OHS collections represented by finding aids (as had been the case previously), but can also discover collections represented only by bibliographic records.

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MEMBER SPOTLIGHT: MAX JOHNSON Institution: Student at San Jose State University School of Library and Information Science, Archives Assistant at the City of Portland Archives and Records Center, Assistant at Oregon Health & Science University, Historical Collections & Archives When and how did you become an archivist or become interested in archives? I have always had an odd, regretful passion for organizing objects, papers, etc. I had mainly thought about how that fit in with Information Science from the point-of-view of the Libraries, but in the summer of 2010 I had the opportunity to meet with Diana Banning of the City of Portland Archives and was introduced to the details of an archivist’s daily work. After volunteering at PARC for several months, the direction I wanted to go was beginning to solidify and after several courses focused in archival theory and practice and some more on-the-ground experience processing and interacting with archivists, I was sure it was the direction in which I wanted to channel my energies. What do you like best about being an archivist? I’m thrilled when patrons find the documents and materials they are looking for quickly and easily. In general, I like the function of archives (the preservation and accessibility of materials of historic value) and really enjoy finding ways to make objects available to different types of user groups for a variety of projects. And the great part is that archives are just beginning! The digital world holds numerous opportunities for archivists to grow in new and unique ways and to provide solid access to information in dynamic and interesting ways. Being an archivist is exciting and cutting edge work. What made you join NWA? After being involved in the Portland Area Archivists during the Archives Crawl for the last two years it seemed like the next step would be to meet other professionals and students in the region and NWA ofoffered the best means for that. Many of my coworkers were going to the conference when I joined and it sounded exciting. What’s your favorite book or author? Tie between HP Lovecraft / William S. Burroughs / Vladimir Nabokov / Cormac McCarthy What are your hobbies or interests? My interests are in psychedelic black metal and ambient music, programming and science fiction books/films/everything. Hobbies include macro photography and astrophotography, hiking, and drawing. When explaining archives to someone who does not know what archives are, what is the one thing you hope that person takes away from the conversation? That at the core archivists deal with the daily business of preservation (both digital and physical) of objects and materials that are relevant to current and future generations. What we do is to find innovative and effective means of providing access to these preserved materials via a wide array of techniques and tools. Is there a question or observation that you would like to share with your fellow NWA members? As a student I have been constantly impressed by the wide variety of ways archival practice can be applied and excited by what the future holds in terms of new preservation challenges, strange formats and increasingly collaborative and extensive access portals.

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SUBMITTING YOUR SCHOLARSHIP TO THE JOURNAL OF WESTERN ARCHIVES BY J. Gordon Daines III Want to contribute your research and writing to the Journal of Western Archives? The submission process is simple. Go to the journal's website at http://digitalcommons.usu.edu/westernarchives/ and select “Submit Article” from the menu on the left hand of the screen. Read the instructions describing the submission process. Read and agree to the “Article Submission Agreement for Journal of Western Archives.” Enter the requested information and attach your article. Make sure you click the “Submit” button to complete the process. Once your article has been submitted the review process begins. To check the status of your submission, login using the “My Account” link at the bottom of the journal's homepage and look for its listing under “Submissions.”

Wondering about the editorial process? The editor is notified when you submit your article and she/he decides if it is a good fit for the journal. If it is, the article is assigned to the member of the editorial board who manages the peer-review process. The article is sent to two peer reviewers and they are given three weeks to submit their comments. The editorial board member reviews the feedback and makes a recommendation to the editor. The editor reviews the feedback from the peer reviewers and the editorial board member before deciding whether to publish with no changes, publish with changes, or reject the article. Once the decision is made you are notified via email. The vast majority of articles submitted to the Journal of Western Archives are published with changes, which allows you to make the appropriate changes and resubmit the article. The article is then copyedited and formatted and you are once again given the chance to see the re-formatted version. If you approve it, the article is published to the journal website.

Curious about publishing with other journals? Click the covers below to navigate to other journal sites and explore your options.

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LOOKING FOR A JOB? HELP AND GUIDANCE ARE A CLICK OR AN EMAIL AWAY! Step one? Get ready and get prepared. Check out Arlene Schmuland's That Elusive Archives Job blog at http://elusivearchives.blogspot.com/. Take advantage of continuing education opportunities and volunteer to keep up your skills while you job search. Get involved in professional associations (um … like NWA). Check out really local groups in your city or region like the Seattle Area Archivists or Portland Emerging Archivists. If you are a new archivist and aren't a member of SNAP, SAA's new Student and New Archivists Roundtable, join it. Check out the NWA and SAA mentorship programs. Get certified the Academy of Certified Archivists. Though there isn’t universal agreement on this, if you are interested in being a CA (and studying a lot!) some employers require certification and it looks good on a resume. Step two? Dig in and start looking, there are great resources available! Check out the NWA “Jobs in the Northwest” page http://northwestarchivistsinc.wildapricot.org/jobs Set up an RSS feed, regularly visit, or become a Facebook fan of Meredith Lowe's “Archives Gig” http:// archivesgig.livejournal.com/. It’s a top notch site for “careers, jobs, and internships in the world of Archives & Records Management.”

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EDITOR’S QUESTION: REFLECTION ON CONFERENCE STRATEGIES Tiah Edmunson-Morton asked Alaska archivist Rachel Seale “How did you approach the NWA annual meeting this year? Although NWA is one of the more affordable regional conferences, I still want to get the most out of the big trip from Alaska by attending presentations that are applicable to my work or aligned with my career goals. My previous approach to conferences has been to flit between presentations and try to get as much information as possible. I have also left sessions early when they were not what I expected. This year I wanted to get the most out of the Northwest Archivists annual meeting (for my institution and myself) so I decided to experiment with and plan out my conference strategy. While I wanted to make sure to attend sessions that would benefit my department, I decided I would best serve my institution by selecting sessions that were personally interesting since I was the one taking notes and they would be much better if I were engaged! I took notes during plenary sessions, meetings, poster sessions, and regular sessions, paying close attention to projects, resources, and interesting concepts I wanted to follow up on. I did not really process what I learned at the conference until I returned home and began typing up my notes the following week. While I admit that I did session hop once, I made sure to exit between presentations and enter during a speaker change. However, since I was going into a lightning round session, which lends itself to session hopping but is usually quite crowded if you get there late, I don’t think I disturbed the panelists or audience in either session. Though I’m sure I will continue to jump between sessions in the future, I was pleased with my decision to limit session hopping. I found I got more out of the sessions I did attend! I also found a new way to network and make contacts by emailing panelists of those sessions I was interested in seeing but missed in going to another session. Overall, I am happy to report that at this year’s meeting I had the opportunity to get to know more colleagues and learn a lot. I was pleased to meet some of the people I have e-mailed or those I worked with on last year’s NWA Annual Meeting Program Committee. I came home with some great resources and the energy and motivation to do more than just what is necessary to get the job done.

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TALES FROM THE DIGITAL FRONTIER: STORIES OF INSPIRATION, PROGRESS, AND/OR CANNIBALISM EDITED BY Sam Meister, Digital Archivist at the Mansfield Library at the University of MontanaMissoula. Contributions from Debbie Bahn, Brian Brown, Mary Jane Cedar Face, Jodie Foley, Kira B. Homo, Teresa Montgomery, Jenny Mundy, Mark O’English, Lindsay Prescott Zaborowski How are archivists and other cultural heritage workers in the Northwest responding to the challenges and opportunities associated with creating, collecting, managing, preserving, and providing access to digital materials? As the new Digital Archivist at the University of Montana, and new to Northwest, this was a question that I had been pondering since starting in my position back in August 2011. To me, the best, and perhaps most engaging way, to answer this question was to get as many archivists and cultural heritage workers from the region in a room together to speak as quickly as possible about their efforts and activities. Thankfully, the 2012 Joint Conference of the Northwest Archivists and Oregon Heritage Commission provided just this opportunity. What follows is an account of what transpired in Session 6. During a lightning talk session, individuals from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural heritage institutions tackled this question head on, showcasing a variety of creative approaches throughout the region. In two to five minute presentations, the speakers presented on the everyday work they are doing, projects they are involved in, or other matters related to digital collections, digital archives, digital preservation, and access mechanisms. Many presenters were new to this fast-paced format, and to their credit almost all made their key points before the buzzer rang out. Simultaneously, a live visualization of the connections between presentation topics took place that highlighted shared strategies, tools, collections, subjects, etc. The goal of this session and exercise was to spark discussion and potential collaboration by illustrating the relationships between individuals, projects, and institutions. While there were numerous links between the topics presented, a few key themes rose to the surface, highlighting particular connections among the stories shared with the crowd. You can read more about the presentations and our conclusions on pages 26 through 29

Image credit: “Bullet train@Maibara,” from Flickr user iwalk.jp. 9

NWA AND THE PROTOCOLS FOR NATIVE AMERICAN ARCHIVAL MATERIALS: FIVE YEAR REFLECTIONS BY Terry Baxter, Multnomah County Records Program “Reconciliation requires changes of heart and spirit, as well as social and economic change. It requires symbolic as well as practical action.” Malcolm Fraser “. . . it takes human connections to make positive changes happen.” Sven Haakanson, Jr., (Alutiiq/Sugpiaq) Archives don’t exist and archivists don’t practice in a vacuum. Our work is woven throughout our communities and how we choose to interact with our users, our colleagues, and our records reflects our values. If we believe that archivists should be activists, we have a responsibility to use archives to better the world around us. Northwest Archivists has completed a series of five presentations at our annual meetings that focus on the Protocols for Native American Archival Materials. Held at our meetings in Anchorage, Portland, Seattle, Helena, and Salem, this series of presentations was approved by the 2006 NWA board as a means of providing members with a deeper understanding of the Protocols and their implications for archivists. While an understanding of the mechanics of the Protocols and how they could be used by archives is useful, perhaps of greater import is the creation of the five-year conversation among professionals with varied views on this subject. This is a direct reflection of the heart of the Protocols, which calls for us to build relationships through mutual respect. One of the first things to note in conversations about the Protocols is that they are really conversations about power. Before the Protocols this power was unbalanced and nearly unilateral. Though archivists cared for Native American archival materials in their holdings, they made them accessible as they saw fit and described them based on our professional best practices. The intent was not malicious, but was seen as the rational application of nearly a century of accumulated archival theory. The group of nineteen Native American and non-Native American archivists, librarians, museum curators, historians, and anthropologists who gathered at Northern Arizona University Cline Library in Flagstaff, Arizona in 2006 wasn’t trying to destroy archival practice — but their intent was to develop protocols that presented a more equitable power dynamic in regards to archival records. At the core of this revised dynamic is the concept of sovereignty. While this complex concept cannot receive adequate treatment in this short article, it generally refers to the authority of indigenous tribes to govern themselves within certain restrictions. Sovereignty is about self-determination and equality.; its manifestation in the Protocols is about power sharing. Archivists who use the protocols commit to the possibility that their epistemology is not the only basis for developing ethical practices and that other knowledge systems have equivalent weight. Shared power requires people to communicate, to get to know and trust each other, to build relationships, and to compromise. If you read the Protocols, you quickly realize that this is their intent. They are less a guide to some sort of revised archives manual and more of, to borrow from Joy Harjo, a map to another world. In this world, power is traded for human connection. As Rand Jimerson has repeatedly pointed out, archives embody power. The Protocols show a means for using that power to effect profound change in the way two peoples, with a history of broken trust and wary relations, can build a respectful and meaningful rapport.

Want to know more about the Protocols? Contact Terry at [email protected]. 10

Background Documents for 2012 NWA Protocols session Native American Protocols: the original document created in 2006 as a set of “best professional practices for culturally responsive care and use of American Indian archival material held by non-tribal organizations.” NAGPRA: federal legislation passed in 1990 that “provides a process for museums and Federal agencies to return certain Native American cultural items (human remains, funerary objects, sacred objects, or objects of cultural patrimony) to lineal descendants, and culturally affiliated Indian tribes and Native Hawaiian organizations.” Traditional Cultural Expressions: ALA’s efforts to discuss issues related to tribal information and its use in libraries have centered on the TCE process. The committee’s final report discusses ambiguous conclusions. Association of Tribal Libraries, Archives, and Museums: National organization which sponsors an annual conference for Indian heritage professionals. UN Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples: there are a number of interpretive articles available about UNDRIP, but I like the 2012 article “What UNDRIP Can Mean for the Future,” by Lise Balk King, because it provides a model for how to get from here to there using the Universal Declaration of Human Rights as an example. “The Beauty of it All,”Cheryl Metoyer, 2004 Presentation to Oregon Collaborative Project. NWA Documents “The Protocols for Native American Archival Materials : Considerations and Concerns from the Perspective of a Non-Tribal Archivist,” John Bolcer in the January 2009 issue of Easy Access. This article is a published version of John’s presentation at the first NWA Protocols forum. Plateau People’s Web Portal: This project was presented at the 2010 NWA and SAA forums. It promotes a creative model for respectful digital curation by equals. The PPWP was awarded the Outstanding Project Award at the 2012 ATALM conference. SAA Documents Report: Task Force to Review Protocols for Native American Archival Material: This 2008 report described the work of the task force and its recommendations to SAA Council. The comments are especially useful in understanding the progression of thought surrounding the Protocols. Native American Protocols Working Group Final Report: this 2012 report discusses the three SAA forums as well as proposals for the future of the Protocols.

Poems Read at NWA Forums 2008 (Anchorage): “Repatriating Ourselves,” Eric Gansworth. 2009 (Portland): “Translation of Blood Quantum,” Elizabeth Woody 2010 (Seattle) “Protocol” Joy Harjo, A Map to the Next World (buy or check out) 2011 (Helena) “Rosette” Elizabeth Woody, Luminaries of the Humble (get thee to a library) 2012 (Salem) “Evolution,” Sherman Alexie. 11

EXPANDING ACCESS GRANT FROM NEH EXPOSES NORTHWEST COLLECTIONS, BUILDS PROGRAM CAPACITY BY Jodi Allison-Bunnell, Program Manager, Northwest Digital Archives, Orbis Cascade Alliance With the completion of a year-long grant project this month, participants in Northwest Digital Archives' Expanding Access Grant will have exposed almost 500 new collections in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and Montana through NWDA's database at http://nwda.orbiscascade.org/index.shtml. Six institutions hold the regionally and nationally significant collections represented by the finding aids: Montana State University, Western Oregon University, The Evergreen State College, Oregon Institute of Technology, Eastern Washington University, and Boise State University. The collections included in this project are not only important in their own right, but significantly complement the more than 15,000 collections already represented in the NWDA database. These finding aids offer access to collections that document public liberal arts colleges in Oregon and Washington; Idaho history, including public affairs, environmental issues, literary heritage; Montana history, including agriculture and ranching, architecture, Native Americans, trout and salmonids, Yellowstone National Park, and the Yellowstone ecosystem; women’s history in the region; Oregon’s Land the Lakes, including the timber industry, Native Americans, water use in the Klamath River watershed, and internment of Japanese Americans at the Tule Lake Relocation and Segregation Center during World War II; and the cultural diversity of Washington, including its significant Chicano/Hispanic population. In many ways, the separate collections at the participating institutions represent one massive interrelated collection that documents the political, cultural, and natural history of the Northwest region.

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NCPH CONFERENCE: “KNOWING YOUR PUBLIC(S)”: THE SIGNIFICANCE OF AUDIENCE IN PUBLIC HISTORY BY Heather Rivet, Public History MA at University of Western Ontario The National Council on Public History (NCPH) is a membership association dedicated to making the past useful in the present and to encouraging collaboration between historians and their publics. Our work begins in the belief that historical understanding is of essential value in society. Our members include museum professionals, historical consultants, archivists, cultural resource managers, curators, oral historians, policy advisors, professors and students with public history interests, and many others. The NCPH Annual Meeting each spring brings together several hundred members and non-members for workshops, sessions, tours, special presentations, and other events. In April 2013 the Annual meeting will take place at Delta Ottawa city Centre, in the heart of downtown Ottawa, Canada, with Canada's Parliament buildings, historic ByWard market, national museums and historic sites, river trails, the UNESCO World Heritage Site of the Rideau Canal, and numerous cafes and restaurants within easy walking distance. The program committee hopes to include panel, roundtable, workshop, working group, and individual paper proposals for the conference. As Canada's capital, Ottawa is the national centre of the museum, archival and heritage community, and its historical and cultural attractions draw 5 million national and international tourists annually. With so many diverse fields of Public History theory and practice represented, Ottawa is an ideal place to consider issues and ideas associated with the theme of "Knowing your Public(s) - The Significance of Audiences in Public History." See the NCPH website at www.ncph.org/cms/conferences/2013-annual-meeting/ for conference details. Be sure to peruse past NCPH programs for ideas about new sessions/event formats.

Learn more about Public History issues on the NCPH’s blog! “History@Work” is a digital publication project of the National Council on Public History. The blog was created in March 2012 to expand on the long-running listserv, H-Public, to serve as an online “commons” where people from a variety of areas of the public history field could share ideas and news, and to create a bridge to future digital and other publication efforts. Like the field itself, the blog is designed to blend scholarly, professional, and civic discourse arising from the practice of presenting history in public. Although defining public history in any conclusive way always proves elusive, the categories above aim to cover as wide a range of perspectives and venues as possible. Here is what you can expect to find in the various areas of the blog: Annual Conference

Consultants’ Corner

Exhibits & Projects

View from the New

In the Academy

International Perspectives

Social Issues

Environmental Issues NCPH

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NEWS FROM ALASKA ALASKA REP MEGAN FRIEDEL Summer has arrived in Alaska in all its glory, complete with mosquitoes, rain, 21 hours of daylight, and so much green as far as the eye can see. Taking advantage of all the daylight hours, Alaskan Northwest Archivist members have been hard at work! In Juneau, Sealaska Heritage Institute, a Native non-profit organization that collects materials concerning the Tlingit, Haida, and Tsimshian people of Southeast Alaska, has been working to better document its archival Tlingit language audio recordings collection. Sealaska holds approximately 600 Tlingit language recordings that date back as far as 1904, and with fluent speakers of Tlingit amounting to about only 200 people today, it is essential to document the contents of these recordings. Funds from a twoyear IMLS Enhancement Grant (in effect from 2011 to 2013) have allowed Sealaska to employ fluent speakers of Tlingit to review the recordings to improve collection metadata, document their contents, and flag recordings of value for language learners and teachers. Various outreach activities will engage the public and some recordings will be placed online. The grant not only seeks to improve content and metadata information about the collection for the general public, but specifically use archival recordings for language revival.

Charles was raised in Colorado and earned his BA in History and MA in Teaching from Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa. He relocated to Fairbanks three years ago in order to take advantage of UAF’s MA in Northern Studies program. Most recently, Charles worked at the Museum of the North in the Ethnology & History department prior to joining the Archives. Welcome, Charles! We hope to meet you at the Northwest Archivists conference next spring.

Also in Juneau, the Alaska Division of Libraries, Archives & Museums announced that Governor Sean Parnell and the Alaska State Legislature joined forces to raise another $49 million in project funding for the State of Alaska Library Archives Museum (SLAM) Project in downtown Juneau. This allows the project team to move forward with construction of the new building, which will provide 118,000 square feet to accommodate the statewide Division of Libraries Archives & Museums, currently located in three separate locations. The new facility will provide state-of-the-art protection for Alaska’s treasures, improve statewide outreach and education, and double the existing museum’s exhibition space. The plan is to complete the bid process by August and start construction in February 2013. The total project budget is set at $126.95M and total funding to date equals $81.45M. There is a remaining budget need of $45.5M.

APR staff members have also been busy on the publications front. William Schneider, Professor Emeritus and former Curator of Oral History, recently published On Time Delivery – The Dog Team Mail Carriers (UA Press), which is based on his research using oral history recordings to document the life of the dog team mail carriers before the advent of airplanes. Meanwhile, Karen Brewster, Research Associate in Oral History/Project Jukebox, published Boots, Bikes and Bombers – Adventures of Alaska Conservationist Ginny Hill Wood (UA Press). Through oral histories, this book documents the life history of Ginny Hill Wood, a pioneering Alaska conservationist and outdoorswoman who served as a Women’s Air Force Service Pilot (WASP) in World War II, co-founded Camp Denali (Alaska’s first wilderness ecotourism lodge), and helped start the Alaska Conservation Society.

Up in Fairbanks, the Alaska Polar Regions Collections & Archives at the University of Alaska Fairbanks has a lot of news to report. First off, they recently welcomed Charles Hilton as the new Assistant Archivist for Reference.

In April, APR received Stanton Patty’s personal papers, a substantial addition to their existing collection of Stanton Patty Family Papers. The personal papers of Stanton H. Patty includes subject files, photographic transparencies,

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books, magazines, publications, maps, posters, audiand related materials documenting Dr. Patty's career in journalism covering Alaskan issues, his travels, and his personal interest in and involvement with the state of Alaska and its history. APR also reports that the Cornelius Osgood papers (reported in last issue’s “News from Alaska”), documenting Osgood’s work with the northern Athabascan people, are finally processed! Also in Fairbanks, the Alaska Native Language Center Archives (ANLA) at the University of Alaska Fairbanks has begun a major transition, moving a significant portion of its collection to the first floor annex of UAF’s Rasmuson Library. The move will allow ANLA to have expanded storage, as well as a space for processing. So far, most of ANLA’s processed materials have been moved to the annex and are all available on their website for viewing and downloading.

July 28, 2012 was Ted Stevens Day in Alaska and also marks thirty-five years since the first oil reached Valdez, Alaska, through the Alaska Pipeline from the North Slope. The Ted Stevens Papers Project celebrated Ted Stevens Day 2012 on July 18 with a reception and gallery talk. The gallery talk, titled Pipeline Politics and People: Reflecting on 35 Years of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System, featured local historian Ross Coen, who discussed pipeline history and Senator Stevens' role in crafting pipeline legislation. Two long-time pipeline employees, also talked about their personal experiences working on the pipeline.

velop an online exhibit commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Alaska Earthquake of 1964, as well as a guide to archival resources throughout the state that relate to the earthquake. At the time, the 9.2-magnitude quake was the second largest earthquake ever recorded and devastated south-central Alaska, particularly the Anchorage area and communities in Prince William Sound. The exhibit will feature archival material from ASC’s collection, including historic photographs, recordings, and first-hand accounts document the earthquake and its aftermath. Last but not least, across town, the Bob and Evangeline Atwood Resource Center of the Anchorage Museum at Rasmuson Center welcomed two new people to its staff roster. Summer intern Jon Ebron recently came on board to create a subject guide to early Anchorage materials in the Museum’s archival collections in preparation for the city’s upcoming centennial. Ebron, a library assistant at Romig Middle School in Anchorage, will be pursuing his Master of Library Science degree at the University of Alabama in the fall. This annual William E. Davis Internship is made possible by the generous support of the Cook Inlet Historical Society. The Resource Center also welcomed Zane Treesh as its new Reference Specialist. Treesh received his B.A. in history from the University of Alaska Anchorage and his M.L.S. from Florida State University. He comes to the Resource Center from the Anchorage Public Library, where he was manager of the Chugiak-Eagle River branch. He brings a strong background in Alaska history and a love of mining and geology to the Resource Center staff. Welcome, Jon and Zach!

Image credits: “Summer in Fairbanks, Alaska,” UAF-196371-26, Alaska and Polar Regions Collections, Elmer E. Rasmuson Library, University of Alaska Fairbanks. “Looking west on 6th Ave. between K & L St., north side of Here in Anchorage, Archives & Special Collections at the 6th Ave.,” uaa-hmc-0809-04046405A, University of Alaska University of Alaska Anchorage just received a grant from Anchorage. Consortium Library. Archives & Special Collecthe Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) to de- tions. 15

NEWS FROM IDAHO

Highlights include scrapbooks from Senator Church's 1976 campaign for the presidency, Frank and Bethine Church's IDAHO REP GARTH REESE trip to Cuba (including several photos with Fidel Castro), candid pictures of Church with John F. Kennedy and Boise State University is Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, and photographs of Bethine proud to announce that Dr. with several presidential First Ladies. The exhibit cases in Cheryl Oestreicher was the Senator Church and Governor Andrus Rooms in Spenamed the new Head of Special Collections display new items, such as a pen President cial Collections and Archives Lyndon B. Johnson used to sign the Wilderness Act of in the Albertsons Library last 1964, a landmark piece of legislation which became a law spring, leading the effort to with the help of Senator Church’s floor sponsorship of the preserve the history of BSU bill. The pictures featured in this article are just a few of and the “Treasure Valley” those you’ll find in the “Bethine Church Collection.” These region of Southwest Idaho. and many more are available on the Albertsons Library Dr. Oestreicher started in Digital Collections website. You can also read more about May, which marked her the Church collection at library.boisestate.edu/bchurch. tenth year working in libraries and archives. Before coming to BSU, Oestricher lived in Atlanta and worked with Civil Rights collections. She also worked with collections pertaining to Chicago jazz and contemporary poetry at the University of Chicago, managed the University Archives at Drew University, and was the John Foster and Janet Avery Dulles Fellow at Princeton University. She received her Master of Library and Information Science from Dominican University and recently finished a Ph.D. in Modern History and Literature from Drew University. Learn more about Oestreicher on the BSU Library blog! New staff isn’t the only news coming out of BSU. “A Tribute to Bethine Church,” the spring 2012 exhibit in Special Collections, focused on recent additions to the collections of Frank and Bethine Church. Church, a United States senator from 1956-1980 who also ran for president in 1976, was a longtime resident of Idaho. His widow, Bethine, still lives in Boise.

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More great news from Boise State University — they’ve completed their NWDA grant project! Since the fall of 2011, BSU has added finding aids to the NWDA as part of a grant consortium funded by the NEH from July 2011 to June 2012. NWDA Project Archivist Linda Morton-Keithley and Kent Randell [pictured right] added manuscript collections finding aids as a part of the “Expanding Access in the Northwest Digital Archive Northwest Digital Archives” project. Being a part of NWDA has greatly increased access to the finding aids and collection and, in turn, increased the number of patrons accessing the collections. Some large manuscript collections, including the nearly 800 linear foot Frank Church Papers, only had an in-house database listing for all the contents of the collection and these have particularly benefitted from the entire finding aid being accessible to the public. There are currently 100 finding aids from Boise State in NWDA. Kent and Linda presented on the project in June"NEH Grant: Expanding Access in the Northwest Digital Archive."

BSU’s Special Collections and Archives has some great digital collections for you to check out! Photos, documents, maps, and other resources from Special Collections documenting the history, culture, and people of Idaho and the American West. Check back often for new collections. You can find them online at http://digital.boisestate.edu/cdm/.

Image credits: Bethine Church Collection, Boise State University Albertson’s Library Special Collections and Archives. “Boghra diversion dam,” MSS 205 AFG 023, Boise State University Special Collections. 17

NEWS FROM MONTANA MONTANA REP ELLIE LETTERMAN

However, not all preservation efforts are digital. The Mansfield Library’s Preservation Department “sustains the library’s mission to support and strengthen teaching, learning, and research, by preserving collections and the information they contain in usable and accessible formats.” You can read more about their department and see great pictures of their equipment!

Archives — keep them around! Sam Meister is dedicated to doing just that and is involved in a great web archives project at the University of Montana-Missoula. Collecting and preserving their records and publications documenting the University of Montana-Missoula is a target focus of collection development at the Maureen and Mike Mansfield Library Archives and Special Collections department. For some time now, UM-related published content has been produced for and made available directly online; Heading east to Helena, the Montana Historical Society however, as is often the case now, this digital form is the only version produced, which increases the risk that has been busy accessioning and processing! Becca Kohl, Photograph Archivist at MHS, says that the Montana Hisit will be lost due to its ephemeral nature . torical Society Photograph Archives worked with volunTo ensure important and valuable University content teers and staff of the Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden in does not disappear without a trace, Archives and Special Coral Gables, Florida. They worked to identify Blackfoot Collections is actively collecting and preserving web content with Archive-It, a web archiving service from the Internet Archive. Since December 2010, they have been capturing and building a web archives collection that now includes over 7 million documents. This new and everexpanding collection is a valuable addition to our existing university materials and contributes to efforts to document the people, activities, and impact of the University Indian photographs that had been collected by Dr. David of Montana over time. Fairchild in 1923. Because the MHS catalog is online, a Their web archives collection can be found at http:// volunteer from the Garden located images in Montana’s www.lib.umt.edu/asc/webarchives. collection that were similar to their own. FTBG staff determined that the images of agricultural activities from the area around Browning, Montana, were more relevant to the Society’s holdings than to those of the Botanic Garden and thirty-two black and white images on postcard mounts were donated. Grain production, raising sheep, swine and gardens, cultural activities, and a group portrait of Presidents of the Twelve Chapters are featured images in this collection. Ellie Letterman, Government Records Archivist at MHS, and Rachel Lilley are making significant progress on an NHPRC grant funded project at the Montana Historical Society. They are right on target to finish processing the 18

1500 linear feet of material by the end of summer 2013.

citizens about health and the environment, and the efforts put forth to maintain Montana’s gorgeous landscape – The first State Department Letterman and Lilley tackled, including the rivers, mountains and valley – and to ensure the Montana Department of Transportation, is now comthat Montana’s business and cultural heritage, such as its plete with roughly 330 + linear feet of processed material. livestock, agriculture, and mining, continued as healthfully From the late 1950s to the as possible. Lots of great superfund and sewage stuff, 1990s, MDT had its own too!” photo unit, which meant that photographers work- It’s summer — get out and see what Montana has to offer! ing for the unit document- Need some inspiration? Explore the Montana Memory ed construction and Project site! maintenance projects, road damage from floods, and even accident sites. The photographers also documented significant statewide events, resulting in nearly 30 linear feet of fabulous images, including celebrity and political visitors such as Arnold Schwarzenegger and George Bush. Lilley and Letterman have started work on collections from the Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) and the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) – totaling about 700+ linear feet pre-processing! These state documents reveal a wealth of cultural information specific to Montana, as well as the effects of larger social movements on Montana, such as the Environmental Movement of the late 1970s and 1980s. “It’s amazing the information provided in DNR documents. Many researches often think of state documents as simply an overabundance of administrative and bureaucratic paperwork, forms, and memorandum. While we can very well attest to the plethora of memos, once we weed down to the good stuff we find information which reveals the cultural, social, and environment development of Montana history,” said Letterman, who is currently processing roughly 200 linear feet of DNR materials. “The project files in the Conservation and Resource Development Division demonstrate the development of the environmental movement in Montana, concerns regarding conservation, a desire among Montana citizens to clean-up and maintain Montana’s waterways, drinking water, beautiful landscape, ranges, and agriculture. It’s amazing the growth in Image credit: “(Frank) Eino Heikkila and Melvin Madsen awareness of environmental hazards left by mining and some agricultural practices, the concerns among Montana fishing in Placid Creek,” (mtg0000403) Maureen and Mike Mansfield Library, The University of Montana-Missoula. 19

ary records, cds, certificates, constitutions, a DVD, flyers,

NEWS FROM OREGON

handbooks, meeting minutes, newsletters, newspaper

OREGON REP KARL MCCREARY

clippings, photographs, posters, publications, and survey

Summer brings strawberries, a tiny bit more sun, and lots

materials. These items primarily reflect the budgetary

of news about archival happenings in Oregon. Here are a

management of ISOSU and the organization of events/

few items to report…

programs by the various affiliate cultural associations under the ISOSU umbrella. The Research Vessel Deck Logs (RG 173, 1966-2007, 7.8 cubic feet) is made up of deck logs maintained for the OSU research vessels Wecoma, Paiute, and Sacajawea. These daily logs document a variety of information such as weather observations, distance traveled, crew members on watch, fuel consumed, fuel on hand, location, the researchers aboard, research objectives, tide levels, equipment status, radio calls sent, and accounts charged for the use of the vessel.

Starting really close to home, the Oregon State University Special Collections and Archives Research Center (SCARC) welcomed new History of Science Librarian Anne Bahde to our staff. Anne brings archival experience from the University of Chicago and San Diego State University. She also has a prior connection to the Pacific Northwest through graduate work at Central Washington University in English Literature with a concentration in Book History and Print Culture. Welcome aboard Anne. There is great grant work going on up the Valley at Western Oregon University Archives. WOU is one of four recipients of a LSTA implementation grant in the amount of $68,000 to cooperatively process the non-official and personal papers of Oregon governors. The Cooperative Governors’ Papers Project will include the papers of recent governors Barbara Roberts (Portland State University), SCARC also received several great collections last spring including the International Students of OSU Records and Research Vessel Deck Logs. The International Students of OSU Records (RG 247, 1970-2011, 1.3 cubic feet) consists of materials generated and collected by the International Students of OSU (ISOSU) office and is made up of budget-

Victor Atiyeh (Pacific University), and Robert W. Straub (Western Oregon University). The grant will provide funding to hire a travelling project archivist to physically process the papers of three gubernatorial personal collections using collaborative guidelines and standards. Katrina Windon will serve as the LSTA Project Archivist for a one

20

year term (June 2012-June 2013). Katrina joins the WOU

coffee shops, PEA hopes to forge collaborative ties with

staff from Texas, where she completed her MLIS with a

SAA's Student and New Archives Professional Roundtable

specialization in archives from UT at Austin.

(SNAP), Portland Area Archivists (PAA), the Northwest Archivists (NWA).

In May, WOU completed their participation in an NWDA grant funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities to work with a vendor to encode and post finding aids to the NWDA database. Although WOU has been a member of NWDA since 2007, this initiative is the first time they have contributed finding aids to NWDA. The first 15 finding aids are now available through NWDA and include Oregon Trail and pioneer family correspondence, history of the university since 1856, photographs and glass lantern slides, scrapbooks of migrant families living in the Willamette Valley and Oregon Normal School students, and three manuscript collections related to 20th century

They had their kick-off event in May at The Green Dragon, which featured a number of lightening talks by students and archivists who presented at the recent Northwest Archivists Conference in Salem. To find out more about PEA, visit their web site!

Oregon politics and environmental issues. Heading north for exhibit news, the Oregon Health Sciences University Historical Collections & Archives in Portland added amazing accounts of dedicated doctors in the 19th century wilderness that was the Pacific Northwest to the new online exhibit by the OHSU Historical Collections entitled “Stories of Frontier Settlement Doctors.” From the wilds of the 19th century to the wild of the 21st ... A cool group of archivists has formed in Portland! The Portland Emerging Archivists (PEA), which formed in May, wants to encourage interaction between students and new archivists in the field. With plans to organize regular

Image credits: “Woman with boxes of strawberries,” HC0603, OSU Special Collections and Archives Research Center. “Oregon Tokay grapes -- A. H. Hooper's first place, Medford, Oregon,” WilliamsG:GO tokay grapes, SCARC.

social gatherings at area community spaces, bars, and 21

NEWS FROM WASHINGTON WASHINGTON REP CANDACE LEIN-HAYES The University of Washington Libraries, Special Collections, was awarded a $200,000 Humanities Collections and Reference Resources grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Humanities Collections and Reference Resources grants allow institutions to preserve and provide access to collections essential to scholarship, education, and public programming in the humanities. The award to the UW Libraries was for the preservation, arrangement and description, digital reformatting, and selective web streaming of 448 films created by the Mountaineers Club. The 2-year project was submitted by Nicolette Bromberg, the Special Collections Visual Materials Curator, and she will continue work on the moving image collections currently supervised by Hannah Palin, a Film Archives Specialist. The Mountaineers is an outdoor recreation, education, and conservation group based in Seattle and the records document the natural environment of the Pacific Northwest. The collection includes the films of Bob and Ira Spring, Dwight Watson, and Charles and Marion Hessey, as well as a newsreel shot by Selznick Pictures cameraman Charles Perryman documenting a 1923 winter ascent of Mount Rainier. Highlights from the collection include Mountaineers’ trail trips and summer outings, a tour of the Paradise Ice Caves, mountain rescue films such as Mountains Don’t Care and This is Self Arrest. Also of note are performances by the Mountaineer Players at the Kitsap Forest Theater including Alice in Wonderland, Sleeping Beauty, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream. The earliest films in the collection date to the 1920s and extend through the early 1970s. The collections at the University of Washington Libraries’ Special Collections are a valuable resource for research on University of Washington, Pacific Northwest, Alaska, and Western Canada history, as well as architectural drawings, book arts, and photography. The Moving Image Collection housed in Special Collections on UW’s Seattle campus contains films created or collected in the Northwest covering a wide range of topics and genres. Home movies, industrial films, documentaries, and art films capture life in the Pacific Northwest and beyond from the earliest film shot in 1914 through videotape taken last year. Contact Nicolette Bromberg ([email protected]), Hannah Palin ([email protected]), or AC Petersen ([email protected]) for more information on the project or fabulous film collections. Additional information about the National Endowment for the Humanities and its grant programs is available at www.neh.gov or through Media Contact Paula Wasley ([email protected]). Image credits: “Climbing guide Fairman B. Lee with a party of hikers on Nisqually Glacier,1919,” MTN00419 & “Mountaineers, July 31 to August 21, 1920,” PH Coll 341, Album 28, both from UW Libraries Special Collections. 22

Across town at the Seattle City Archives, staff has been busy adding to their already robust online collections! Two new topics are available in the Seattle Municipal Archives “Digital Document Libraries”: City Councilman Sam Smith and Seattle's Open Government Laws. These DDLs are a resource for teachers and students of Washington State History, containing digital representations of a few primary source documents on selected topics. Although the geographic focus is Seattle, the topics reflect events at the state and national level. Samuel J. Smith enjoyed a rich 24-year career as the first AfricanAmerican member of the Seattle City Council. According to the Sam Smith DDL, “[b]oth in council chambers and among the public, Smith developed a reputation as an amiable and accessible politico. He consistently evinced a casual, to-the-point style when chairing Council meetmeetings, and kept up a robust correspondence with constituents on a wide range of subjects and concerns.” The Sam Smith site includes a brief biographical sketch, as well as documents covering his relationships with constituents, open housing and race issues, and the South African granite controversy. The Archives is grateful to volunteer Jonathan King for his work on this DDL. The image to the left (#5811-02 ) shows Smith speaking at the official opening of Bryant Playfield in May, 1978. A second DDL, created by Office of the City Clerk staff member Carol Shenk, addresses the history of legislation relating to transparency in government. “Seattle's ‘Sunshine Laws’ reflect increasing concern with ethics and openness in City government from the past century to the present.” These laws were enacted in response to growing interest in disclosure of campaign finance information, transparency in policymaking, and public access to agency records by the public and legislators . The image to the right (#56734) shows a City Council meeting in the City-County Building on March 3, 1958. Many new images from the Seattle City Light negatives were cataloged, scanned, and put online. Included are advertisements [see the 1968 billboard below: #78729] promoting home and commercial uses of electricity. Other new additions include image of the City Light floats in the Seafair Parade, employee events and workplace scenes, and utility and construction work for the 1962 World’s Fair such as the 1961 Space Needle construction photograph to the left (#165649).

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On the analog front, the National Archives at Seattle has been busy accessioning! Kathleen Crosman says that this year NARA staff will bring in more records than they have in many years. Two factors account for most of this surge. First, historically District Court Civil Case Files that did not go to trial were classified as “temporary” and not kept permanently. Now a sampling of these files will be kept – resulting in almost 3,000 cubic feet being transferred! Related to the court files, in the past records needed for ongoing agency business or ongoing litigation, but due to be transferred to the Archives or destroyed per records schedules, were held in Federal Records Centers (e.g. the Tobacco Industry Litigation hold). This was applied to records of many agencies, but now NARA has relaxed its rules to allow agencies to transfer inactive records to the Archives; as a result many permanent records with litigation holds are being transferred to the Archives )though the “holds” still apply and records will not be processed to the normal level).

marks by State Archivist Jerry Handfield [right in photo below] and Commissioner of Public Lands Peter Goldmark.

The Digital Archives (DA) in Cheney presented to the American Council of Young Political Leaders (ACYPL) from Japan in May. The tour was arranged by Pend Oreille County Auditor Marianne Nichols and Spokane County Auditor Vicki Dalton. The purpose of the ACYPL is to promote mutual understanding, respect, In addition to the District Court Civil Cases, NARA also and friendship and to cultivate long-lasting relationreceived records from the Bureau of Land Manageships among next-generation leaders. During the ment (RG 49), Forest Service (RG 95), Naval Districts tour introductions were made via interpreters, and and Shore Establishments (RG 181), Bonneville Power presentations were made highlighting various JapaAdministration (RG 305), and Environmental Protec- nese historical records. During lunch, there was also a tion Agency (RG 412). question and answer session between the DA staff Heading south, Benjamin Helle has a wealth of news and ACYPL. from the Washington State Archives! Sixty-one over- In May, the Digital Archives moved closer to its goal sized volumes that served as the primary index to all of securing the monthly transfer of all 39 County Austate lands ownership records maintained since ditors’ recording system transactions. Mason County Washington statehood in 1889 were transferred to and Skamania County became the 14th and 15th the WSA. The records are the official register of counties, respectively, to complete all the technical transactions on Department of Natural Resourcessteps necessary for the “self-service” transfer of recmanaged lands that now include over three million orded documents. Most county auditors began using acres. A digitization project by DNR staff was comelectronic recording systems in the mid-1990s. As an pleted earlier this year that allows staff to search an added bonus, many are in the process of scanning electronic database and pull a digital image instead of and indexing previous years’ recorded documents the forty-pound volumes. The original volumes were into their systems, allowing historic documents to be handed over to the Archives in a ceremony attended transferred to the Digital Archives using the same by staff of the DNR Title and Records Office with re- transfer methods as recent recordings. The most 24

heavily accessed records are marriage records, which date to the 1850s. Auditors’ recordings transferred to the Digital Archives are searchable online at www.digitalarchives.wa.gov. The centralization of records from Washington’s cities, counties, special districts, and state agencies is a great convenience to the public. Currently, there are over 35 million searchable records, audio recordings, photographs, and maps online. The Public Records Exemptions Accountability Committee (better known as the Sunshine Committee) is considering a suggestion from the Washington State Archives to improve access to public records exempt from disclosure after 75 years. Currently, confidential records at the Archives may be opened after 75 years with the agreement of the head of the agency that created the records through a process outlined in RCW 40.14.030(2). The Sunshine Committee is looking at ways to simplify the administration of this process and provide a more automatic mechanism for providing access to these public records once their need for confidentiality has ended.

distribution and retail sales of spirits were transferred to the private sector. As early as March 2012 state run liquor stores began closing down and sending their records to the Archives Records Center (RC) for storage. As of today staff has received 6,830 boxes of records from retail liquor stores statewide, and that number continues to increase. The average retention period on these records is approximately seven years. During the next few months, auditors of the Liquor Control Board will be recalling a vast majority of these boxes for audit purposes then returning them to the RC for safe storage.

The State Archives has the pleasure of providing records to notable Pacific Northwest authors. Seattle historian Lorraine McConaghy's new book New Land, North of the Columbia features several items from the Archives, including early trademarks, Century 21 photographs, political ephemera, and the 1889 telegram to Governor Elisha P. Ferry announcing that President Grover Cleveland had signed the proclamation declarMoving from ongoing reforms to records retention schedules for local government agencies, the Wash- ing Washington to be “a state in the union at five ington State Archives has instigated the biggest over- o’clock and twenty seven minutes this afternoon.” haul of state agency schedules in 40 years. All existing Shanna Stevenson of the Washington State Historical disposition authorities for each state agency are be- Society recently published Women's Votes, Women's Voices: The Campaign for Equal Rights In Washington, ing consolidated into single agency-wide records rea book detailing the struggle for women's suffrage. tention schedule that is both easier to understand and implement. Many agencies are using this oppor- Stevenson used local election results, Territorial Supreme Court case files, as well as Territorial and State tunity to simplify their schedule by eliminating hunLegislatures records. Pulitzer Prize winning author dreds of obsolete records series and to consolidate Richard Kluger penned The Bitter Waters of Medicine and update their schedules to match the agency’s Creek and used images of Territorial Governor Isaac business in the 21st century. Stevens, Territorial Capitol Building and other territoAfter 78 years of state control, on June 1, 2012, the rial records. 25

OREGON HISTORICAL SOCIETY COMPLETES CONVERSION OF MANUSCRIPTS CARD CATALOG FROM PAGE 6

proven track record of providing excellent access to materials, sustainable support for and by its membership, and a growing and evolving mission. The end results are expandThe vast improvement in access engendered by this proed access to the participants’ collections, skill building, and ject should come as no surprise, but individual stories revisions to descriptive practices and processing workshow the direct benefits of this work. For example, an acathat will continue this level of access to their collections in demic researcher in Japan was able to discover the existthe future. ence of OHS’s records of the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association – a collection vital to her research on Contact Jodi at [email protected] or (406) 829-6528. Chinese immigrants in Oregon. A family in Portland discovered the plans to their house in the west hills. A genealoTALES FROM THE DIGITAL FRONTIER: STORIES OF INSPIgist found an image of her grandfather in a panorama of Jones Lumber Company employees. And even experienced RATION, PROGRESS, CANNIBALISM FROM PAGE 9 OHS reference staffers – professionals who prided them- Collaborations: Growing and evolving selves on their deep knowledge of the collections – have Two Oregon-based projects were presented that demonmade important new discoveries thanks to the conversion. strate the challenges and rewards of collaboration among Of course, as the 21st century progresses, it is easy to be- multiple partners from different institution types. come jaded about the technological advances of 30 years Teresa Montgomery & Mary Jane Cedar Face from Southago. The conversion of card catalogs into MARC records, ern Oregon University (SOU) discussed their experiences which began in the 1970s (many years before the birth of working on a LSTA grant-funded project “Images & Educaour project cataloger) is a process that now seems as antition: A Southern Oregon perspective” to digitize historic quated as the card catalogs themselves. But for those inphotograph and artifact collections. Partner institutions stitutions that have been slow to tackle their backlogs of included the Southern Oregon Historical Society, the, Orelegacy data (for reasons good, bad and ugly), there is still gon Shakespeare Festival, SOU Special Collections & Uniimmense satisfaction in making this data available – at last versity Archives, and various SOU departments. The goal – to the world at large. of this collaborative endeavor was to create digital collecAnd some day we will get around to digitizing them! tions from Southern Oregon institutions to support curriculum and regional research. The seeds for this particular initiative were sewn during earlier individual collaboraEXPANDING ACCESS GRANT FROM NEH FROM PAGE 12 tions between partner institutions and the SOU Hannon The project has added three new members to the NWDA Library. These relationships are likely to have been a key program and provides additional support for three current foundation upon which a larger project combining multiple NWDA members who have been unable to participate fully institutions around a focused theme could be successful in the program. It has provided training in descriptive realized. Montgomery noted a number of lessons learned standards and EAD encoding and administration for new that could assist others in planning for such collaborative and long-term implementation of those standards at par- projects, including: ticipating institutions; additional descriptive support staff Expect the unexpected with partnerships for institutions that require it; administrative and technical Everything will take more time than you anticipate support for the project; and travel support for project participants to participate in the annual in-person meeting of Be flexible all NWDA members. Participants are now prepared to Have backup plans make information about all new collections they process Plan for academic calendar constraints available through the NWDA database without further grant support. They are fully involved in a program with a Each collection has unique metadata requirements 26

“Teamwork” and “Keep it simple” were Cedar Face’s mantra in explaining how they have been able to continue adding digital content to collections after budget and staff have been reduced due to the grant ending. SOU utilized existing staff strengths and student workers to do the actual digitization work, while the team for the LSTA grant continues to be involved in project planning, selection, and metadata creation. Additionally, hardware and software purchased with grant funds provide the technical foundation to move forward with new projects. Future content to be added includes materials celebrating SOU’ 140th anniversary, faculty and student scholarship, and image collections to support academic programs and regional research. Ongoing communication, both internal and external, was a key element discussed by Lindsay Prescott Zaborowski in her presentation on the Washington County Heritage Online (WCHO) project. WCHO is a LSTA grant-funded project run by the Washington County Museum and the Pacific University Library, and is digitizing and making accessible thousands of historic photographs from Washington County, Oregon. Similar to the SOU project narrative, WCHO involves collaboration among multiple partners from various institutions with differing levels of skills and expertise. To successfully navigate these variables, a strategy was developed to communicate with partners on a regular basis that included: Creating a metadata scheme utilizing standardized fields and controlled vocabularies Individual and group training sessions to instruct partners on digitization and metadata creation

releases and presentations at local conferences Harvestable metadata The dual strategy of internal and external engagement has paid off and the project is successfully moving forward. When resources don’t grow on trees A second set of presentations illustrated how two institutions successfully worked within the constraints of limited resources to plan and manage digitization projects, resulting in some unexpected positive outcomes. Jodie Foley, State Archivist of Montana, talked about the work that the Montana Historical Society (MHS) is doing to digitize their highly used collection of prison records. The impetus for digitization was based on multiple factors including preservation needs of master records, the potential for self-directed use for browsers and specialized users, size continuity of materials, and the opportunity to test the ability to accept, preserve, and provide access to other state electronic records. A set of established inhouse best practices guided the digitization work, allowing project planning to focus on metadata issues related to collection materials. Determining a useful metadata and file-naming structure to deal with particular content challenges (same surname-initial combinations, name aliases, and multiple convictions) required inventive approaches for project planning. Once solutions were determined, the project was able to proceed with volunteers performing the majority of the digitization work and MHS staff taking care of quality control, metadata, and uploading to CONTENTdm via the Montana Memory Project.

Over at Washington State University an ongoing project to digitize film and video materials has yielded some interestProject wiki resource for documentation and historical ing and unanticipated positive outcomes. Mark O’English, background information University Archivist, discussed how the original primary Finding and engaging an audience for the project also re- objective for the project was based on preservation conquired strategic thinking, which resulted in a plan that in- cerns and increased access, but in the process they have cludes the following elements: discovered that their digitized films are popular outreach tools, allowing them to connect to their patrons in new Development of audience profiles of potential users ways. Additionally, the ability and drive to do regular digitWebsite usability testing by representatives from each ization has resulted a new awareness of the unique and audience profile valuable materials in their collections. Monthly newsletter to maintain contact

Flyers to local schools; postcards to local cultural insti- O’English detailed the idiosyncrasies of working with film tutions; Facebook and Twitter accounts ; press and video materials, including the inaccuracy, or lack, of 27

existing descriptive information on original film and video containers. The digitization project allowed project staff to investigate and view these minimally described materials, which led to rich discoveries of previously hidden and amazing resources. O’English also offered a brief overview of how costs for hardware and software were kept low by scavenging needed equipment from various campus / media / library surplus areas; the only purchases were a video card and video editing software. For those that are concerned that the initial investment in equipment for moving image digitization may be insurmountable, the WSU case illustrates the benefits of a creative D.I.Y. approach. A mutually beneficial relationship between student workers and the Manuscript, Archives and Special Collections department allows staff to draw on the digital media skills of students; they also offer an internship for students from the Digital Technologies and Culture program. O’English said that “[s]tudents interested in film technology bring knowledge of current technologies with them to our benefit; we allow them to work with historic media formats and get experience in digital preservation and access issues.”

to city employees to effectively manage both paper and electronic records in one system, enriching the meaning and use of the records regardless of their format or position in a lifecycle. New administrative rules were established defining bureau responsibilities in regards to electronic records and recordkeeping. The system has gained popularity, with employees relying on it to conduct daily work. Currently, a key challenge is developing a sustainable funding model that will support a city-wide implementation of the records management system. A steering committee has been convened to assess and provide guidance for a funding model that will allocate resources for increased storage and licensing costs.

Nearby, at the Multnomah County Records Management and Archives, Jenny Mundy encountered similar needs for electronic records management. Mundy described how Multnomah County is “addressing how to manage electronic records through the entire records life cycle, from training users on best practices for managing the electronic content they use in their offices to planning on how to preserve digital archives for long-term access.” Under the He reported that the digitized films are a successful outrestriction of a limited budget, they patched together a reach tools as well. DVDs are used as giveaways to donors system using Windows file folders to store digital oband alumni, and film clips are often used in presentations jects, Cuadra STAR for Records Management for managing to local groups. Newly digitized videos are announced via a metadata, and Archon and YouTube for providing public Facebook page that, in one case, generated the interest of access. Combining multiple software tools into a single local news media who contacted MASC to do a news story system illustrates a potential functional alternative for inon the film. While outreach may have not been the origi- stitutions that do not currently have the resources for a nal driving factor, the WSU moving image digitization pro- unified records management software package. Mundy ject clearly illustrates the power of visual materials to en- noted that a future goal is to implement a single software gage and connect local communities to their heritage and solution for all records management functions, but this is to impart the importance and value of archives. contingent on a higher level of resources. Government: Not just big or small

Debbie Bahn, Electronic Records Archivist for the Washington State Archives, used the phrase “it takes a village” in a The challenges, and slightly different approaches, related broad sense to describe her organization’s strategy for to developing and implementing a records management digitizing and indexing over 35 million public records in solution in the context of government archives were higheight years. Records were centralized into searchable, artilighted by three speakers representing city, county, and ficial collections at www.digitalarchives.wa.gov. WSA’s state government entities. archivists, developers, network administrators, imaging Brian Brown, Business Systems Analyst for the City of Port- technicians, grants manager, student employees, and volland, described the process of implementing a records unteers work to scan and index records from its six management software solution to meet the needs of local branches. Members of the Genealogical Society of Utah government bureaus. Since 2007, commercial records scan records in the branches that are important to family management software has been utilized to provide a tool history. The Historic Records Project, a special program 28

under the Secretary of State’s office, coordinates over one hundred volunteer indexers from as far away as Australia. With the help of WSA’s records management consultants, government agencies can scan and index their records. Successfully managing all of these activities depends on careful planning and tools to coordinate the work, such as indexing spreadsheets with clear instructions and shared workflows. Digital objects indexed before being sent to the WSA are made immediately available online. Those that still require indexing are fed into the Web Indexing Portal, a remote indexing application developed by staff that allows volunteers to view digital objects and the indexing interface on their home computer screens. Bahn noted that evaluating “lessons learned” is resulting in improvements to the WSA’s digitization efforts. Some researchers found the artificial collections model limiting, so future enhancements will add provenance-based search capabilities. Additionally, projects that use volunteer labor should build extra time into staff workloads to ensure quality and consistency of project outputs. Testing new tools: Have courage Archivists at various types of institutions are in a continual process of developing and testing new tools to utilize in the management and preservation of born-digital materials. New tools, in the form of both hardware and software, from fields outside the archives and cultural heritage communities offer opportunities to meet existing challenges. Kira Homo, Electronic Records Archivist, presented the work Special Collections and University Archives at the University of Oregon is doing in experimenting with Archivematica software as a primary digital preservation system. The promise of a system that combines and automates many of the steps needed to ingest and prepare born-digital materials for transfer to a preservation server was quite alluring to a department with a small staff. The potential challenges associated with implementing an open source software solution were recognized, with an expectation that software bugs would likely be encountered, and significant effort would be needed to get the program up and running. An initial attempt to demonstrate the tool to staff and administration via a live USB version of the program was unsuccessful. A second at-

attempt to run the virtual appliance version was partially successful, but serious difficulties were found when atattempting to establish a reliable network connection, plus there were concerns about the software’s ability to handle the large amounts of data. Due to these failures, and the need for additional IT support, a decision was made to put off another attempt at implementation when a later beta version of the software is released. The increasing amount of born-digital materials in newly acquired collections is a common scenario for contemporary archivists. Sam Meister, Digital Archivist at the Mansfield Library at the University of Montana-Missoula, described the application of tools and methods from the digital forensics field to assist in dealing with born-digital materials that are increasingly arriving on electronic media within archival collections. Meister showed how archival concerns of maintaining the authenticity and reliability throughout the acquisition and accessioning process are the same for both analog and digital materials. The field of digital forensics offers new tools, in the form of hardware write-blockers and disk-imaging software, to implement in accessioning workflows to ensure data from various legacy media can be safely and securely captured without inadvertently changing or damaging the data. Packaging and transferring this captured data to secure storage is an important initial step in a workflow to ensure the long-term preservation and access to born-digital materials. The Mansfield Library is currently in the process of testing digital forensics tools to determine how and where they may be incorporated into accessioning workflows. How are archivists and cultural heritage workers responding to opportunities and challenges of the digital realm? As the projects highlighted above illustrate, individuals and institutions from around the Northwest are demonstrating talent and vision, a penchant for collaborative endeavors, a wherewithal to try new things, ways to learn and grow from failures, be successful with limited funds, the ability to lead, and the importance of recognizing the contribution of volunteer workers. Many of these projects and programs are ongoing, with plenty more lessons and strategies of success to be shared in the future. I for one am eagerly awaiting the next edition of new Tales from Digital Frontier—perhaps minus the cannibalism this time.

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VARIOUS & SUNDRY OTHER DETAILS

http://www.facebook.com/NWArchivists

NWA… WHO WE ARE, WHY ARE WE HERE? The Northwest Archivists, Inc. is a non-profit member-oriented professional regional association of professional archivists, users of archives, and others interested in the promotion and access of the evolving historical record of the Pacific Northwest. Its membership is open to all and institutions in Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, and Washington are well represented. We encourage public interest in and public support for archival facilities in public and private institutions. We are dedicated to sharing information about archival collections, issues, and methodologies to the profession and the public, offering a place for the discussion of the creation, preservation, and use of historical documents, but also for members to advocate the identification, collection, preservation, use, and appreciation of historical records and manuscripts in all forms and for all audiences. NWA exists to support and develop the education of those who collect, care for, and provide access to the documentary heritage of the Northwest and adjoining areas. Because we are committed advocates and supporters of historical materials, we promote access to records for present and future generations; cooperate with individuals and other organizations; develop, offer, and provide support to both archival education programs and our members through workshops, a mentoring program, and a welcoming community of colleagues.

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2012/2013 NWA OFFICERS President: Janet Hauck, Whitworth University: [email protected] Vice President: Josh Zimmerman, Catholic Archdiocese of Seattle: [email protected] Past President: Michael J. Paulus, Jr., Seattle Pacific University: [email protected] Secretary: Erin Passehl , Western Oregon University: [email protected] Treasurer: Mary McRobinson, Willamette University: [email protected] Alaska Representative: Megan Friedel, University of Alaska Anchorage: [email protected] Idaho Representative: Garth Reese, University of Idaho Library: [email protected] Montana Representative: Eleanor Letterman , Montana Historical Society: [email protected] Oregon Representative: Karl McCreary, Oregon State University: [email protected] Washington Representative: Candace Lein-Hayes, NARA- Pacific Alaska Region: [email protected] Membership Coordinator: Peter Asch, Oregon Jewish Museum: [email protected] Easy Access Editor: Tiah Edmunson-Morton, Oregon State University: [email protected]

The Easy Access Newsletter is published quarterly in February, May, August, and November. Copy Deadlines are January 15, April 15, July 15, and October 15. All submissions, letters, and advertisements for future issues, inquiries regarding the newsletter should be sent to Tiah Edmunson-Morton (editor) at [email protected] or [email protected]. http://northwestarchivistsinc.wildapricot.org ©2012 32