The Big Project -- SAA Archivists to the Rescue!

Since We Last Met...

I've been a bit busy. Back in November 2017, I sketched out the skeleton of a plan that I originally called Lone Arrangers to the Rescue! The title later became SAA Archivists to the Rescue Pilot Project, and the project itself became The Big Project (see Geof Huth and Karen Trivette's excellent series of podcasts, An Archivist's Tale, Episode 13, for more on that name: https://www.spreaker.com/user/archiviststale/episode-11-the-big-project-debra-schiff). More on that project in this post.

During the Spring 2018 semester, I also took on a very interesting, part-time contract job at the College of Staten Island, processing the records of the Interstate Environmental Commission (IEC). It's a fairly large collection, which started at approximately 200 record cartons and is now approximately 150 cartons and document cases (smaller containers that folks typically think of as archival boxes). The collection required (and still needs) a significant amount of trimming, which is an enormously satisfying task. Some might think that archivists save everything. That is not the case. There are portions of collections that don't fall into the collecting policy of an organization, so they are deaccessioned (often donated to other organizations that do collect those materials due to geographical location or subject matter). In this case, we did a lot of disposal.

Before you panic, approximately 90% of the information in those materials was duplicated or available elsewhere. Importantly, I worked with the donor on the decision making, checking and re-checking that the scientific results we were removing were not of any use to researchers (she is a scientist and the Executive Director of IEC). In some cases, there were graphs and charts that were unlabled, undated, and could not be connected to any other materials. In others, the information had been examined, summarized, and contextualized by the creators of the materials, elsewhere in the collection. Finally, there were bays of shelves of published materials that were not in the collecting area of the College. In that instance, the donor contacted many other people who might have an interest in the materials, but there were few takers. We often find that if materials can be obtained elsewhere (other state archives, for example), and there is not enough space, they are not kept.

When I wrapped up my contract, the processing portion of the job still had yet to be completed. I left the remaining portion to be processed by a college assistant whom I taught the basics of preservation and processing. I've been asked to return to complete the project next year, which means whatever processing remains, plus the arrangement, and description. I am especially looking forward to describing this important collection that documents the array of water and air testing of the areas feeding the waters in New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut.

The Big Project

This coming week, I'll be talking about it as the incoming Chair of the SAA Lone Arrangers Section (LAS), as well as a very brief presenter at the SAA Reference, Access, and Outreach Section. I put together a talk that can bring everyone up to speed, and have already emailed a version of it to the Lone Arrangers earlier this month. I called it "the great American novel of an email." Here is the version I'm going to present on Wednesday (LAS):

So, what is this project? This is the summary I’ve been using to talk about it:

The SAA Archivists to the Rescue! Project strives to bring local, very-low- and no-cost, basic archival training workshops to non-professional archivists and cultural heritage professionals and volunteers who cannot afford typical professional development courses and/or the transportation costs required to travel outside of their areas for similar workshops. By bringing these hands-on, in-person workshops to individuals with little or no archival background or skills, we will help to preserve and make accessible the collective knowledge and archival record of the participating communities, increase the awareness of the profession and the SAA, and promote a more inclusive profession. An additional benefit to those seeking to recertify as Certified Archivists comes in the form of an opportunity to lead half and full-day workshops in the field.

With the guidance of an Advisory Board outfitted with SAA Fellows and one particularly noteworthy librarian, volunteer members of the SAA Lone Arrangers; Reference, Access and Outreach; and Issues and Advocacy Sections have developed a pilot program comprising a series of workshops covering the essentials of preservation, archival processing, arrangement, description, digital archives, and identifying and caring for photographs. We are partnering with local cultural heritage organizations, public libraries, and the Center for the Conservation of Art and Historic Artifacts (CCAHA) to roll out the pilot to religious archives and small historical organizations in New Jersey.

The desired outcome of the pilot portion of this project is a group of standardized and vetted workshops, handouts, and other supporting materials that can be easily downloadable by Lone Arrangers, other SAA members, and other professional archivists who wish to deliver the same kinds of workshops to their local communities. The intent is to create workshop materials that can be customized to fit local organizational needs. They will be available for download from the SAA Lone Arrangers microsite, and we will work to have other areas on the SAA web site link to the page holding the workshops.

Professional archivists from around the country submitted materials for consideration in our project – we received great presentations from so many people that it was difficult to choose the most useful and practical materials for our workshops. For this, we also had help from Dyani Feige of the CCAHA, on the preservation materials. In the end, we unanimously selected materials from the following individuals:

1. Me (Archival Preservation for Beginners)
2. Steve Duckworth (Archival Processing and Arrangement for Beginners and Archival Description for Beginners)
3. Elizabeth Skene (Archival Digitization for Beginners).

As a bonus, workshop attendees will receive a special Photograph Preservation and Identification for Beginners workshop by the ever-awesome Gary Saretzky.

We also developed a set of measures of success – specifically, Ashley and Michelle developed interview questions for participants and feedback forms for pre- and post- workshops for both participants and workshop presenters. During the workshop breaks and other opportune times, presenters will take short video interviews of our participants to provide yet another way of communicating the value of the workshops, as well as ways we could improve them.

Six months after the workshops, we'll also follow up with our participant cohorts to see how they're doing and using what they know. We use Google tools like Sheets, Docs, Forms, and Drive, as well as Survey Monkey to keep all our work transparent and easily edited and shared by the team. And, I have to say that it has been an overwhelmingly lively and collegial experience working with this fine group of archivists and librarians who have volunteered a great deal of time to this effort.

Because the project is in the pilot stage, we limited the locations of the workshops to N.J. because that's where I live and could line up sites, presenters, and attendees. There are 5 locations (two sites for Trenton, though, due to air conditioning issues at the Trenton Free Public Library, but they'll be fixed by the later workshops at that site). Each city will have all 5 workshops presented. For the pilot, we're not charging participants any fees.

SAA's Nancy Beaumont asked University Projects to co-sponsor the workshops in the form of donated archival supplies for the participants at each site, and Trenton and Plainfield have already received their materials! These items will truly enhance the hands-on experience because the participants each will bring 1 box of materials to work with during the workshop series. The locations selected and their timings are:

1. New Jersey State Library, Trenton, NJ (Aug.-Sept.)
2. Plainfield Public Library, Plainfield, NJ (co-sponsored with the Historical Society of Plainfield) (Aug. – Sept.)
3. Atlantic City Free Public Library, Atlantic City, NJ (Sept.)
4. Chester Library, Chester, NJ (Chester Library also providing all the pencils for the workshops.) (Oct.)
5. Dana Library, Rutgers Newark, NJ (Nov.)

The following people will be presenting the workshops):
1. Me
2. Gary Saretzky
3. Tara Maharjan
4. Heather Perez
5. Ashley Levine
6. Annamarie Klose-Hrubes
7. Alexandra (Alex) Plante
8. Russ Gasero
9. Annie Tummino
10. Paul Martinez

I developed the Train the Trainers workshop, which was held at Chester Library on Aug. 10. The trainers received a very full packet (which also will be distributed with the workshops at the end of the pilot, via the Lone Arrangers microsite). The packet has everything they'll need to present their workshops. At the Train the Trainers workshop, they had the opportunity to give significant feedback on the workshop themselves. It was fun and there were snacks. They said they found it to be very useful, and some of the presenters contributed additional handout materials to further clarify information and to provide templates for work such as description.

As part of the Communications plan, I began the outreach to prospective attendees in late July and continued through early August. I received recommendations from all over the state and did some of my own research to locate potential attendees. As of last week, we have 9 of the maximum 10 seats filled for Plainfield (we declared it filled), 9 for Trenton (we declared it filled), 6 for Atlantic City, 10 for Chester, and 7 for Newark.

Before leaving for SAA, I communicated with all of the attendees of Plainfield and Trenton because those workshops begin on Monday, as well as the presenters of those workshops, and the site contacts. There are a lot of moving pieces on this project, to be sure, but I’m working to ensure as much clear communication as possible. Examples of the emails also have been added to the Google Drive folder on the topic.

Most of the attendees are representing small historical societies, but we also have a handful of religious archives, public libraries, and museums. Notably, the Morris County Park Commission is sending a group to Chester (different people will be taking the different workshops). Other than that group, nearly all of the attendees have agreed to attend the full series of 5 workshops at the site where they signed up.

Notably, I’ve had to turn away 8 individuals because they already had paid archives professionals. or they only wanted to take one of the workshops. Because we have such a limited number of spaces, I couldn’t keep another organization willing to take the whole slate from signing up in favor of someone who wanted just the one workshop. There also were people who were very interested, but the schedule didn’t work for them. In all of the cases of turnaways, I pointed them to alternatives and web-based information that could help them to get off the ground, namely Steven’s LibGuides, which we used for our Processing and Arrangement, and Description Workshops.

I put together packets for workshop presenters and participants, based on forms developed by Ashley and Michele, as well as some general and site-specific instructions. These are sent to the participants at least two weeks in advance. There also is a good amount of communication via email with the sites and the presenters three weeks out from the workshops regarding logistics.

Last, but certainly not least, as a fundraiser for the project, I've been selling Archivist pins designed by the Los Angeles Archivists Collective. All of the profits go to paying transportation costs for workshop presenters (some will be traveling quite a distance to present for free). I'll be selling them at a table at Registration for $15 each at SAA. No, they're not available for sale online (yet – hopefully, at some point).

They look like this:
 
Whenever I wear mine, I feel like a superhero.

Thoughts on the Practice of Description

As an archivist and local history librarian, one of the primary elements of my work is the description of collections and individual items. Sometimes, this description ends up in a finding aid such as this one on the Combe Fill South Landfill Records (http://chesterlib.com/local-history-room/finding-aids/combe-fill-south-landfill-records-finding-aid/). The purpose of that work is to make it easier for researchers to find and use the collection. It also provides a much deeper level of documentation of the collection that previously hadn't existed.

Beyond the finding aids, I also create a fair number of exhibits each year, both online and in cases within the Chester Library. Each of the items featured in the exhibits requires some description, but the more exhibits I create, the more time I spend describing the items. For my latest online exhibit, I kept a friend of mine in mind as a potential visitor. He uses a screen reader to experience web sites, as well as digital documents (think Word files), because he's blind.

Last week, I talked with another librarian about these types of motivations and decision-making efforts when it comes to description. I was reminded of attending the ARLIS annual meeting in Boston a few years ago. In one of the sessions, the speakers touched on the nature of description as applied to artworks. Her talk was in the context of describing paintings and other works to patrons with varied abilities, such as my friend Ken. 

Thinking about how to make a meaningful experience for anyone who might use a screen reader drove my process. Here is an example from the Memories of Chester, Herman Rademacher Series exhibit, "West Main Street and Morris Chamberlain" (http://chesterlib.com/local-history-room/online-exhibits/memories-of-chester-west-main-street-and-morris-chamberlain/):

The postcard, copyrighted in 1915 by local printer George E. Conover, shows leafy trees lining the right side of the dirt road. On the left side of the image are businesses, a gas station, and a garage. There is an early Model T parked in front of the striped gas pump tower. A man stands in the doorway of the second building on the right (the Masonic Lodge). The Lodge is a two-and-a-half story building with a painted shield hung between two windows on the second floor. The garage is a single-story building with a flat façade.

It's been a few months since I released the exhibit, and without the pressure of a deadline, I can see areas where I could have been more descriptive. For example, I would describe the façade as a brick one in the block, Art Deco style. Here's a link to the high-quality, larger image of the postcard: https://librarychesternj.files.wordpress.com/2015/01/westmainstreet_front.jpg.

This week, I've been teaching a volunteer and Friend of the Library how to describe another set of postcards given anonymously to the library. These came fully captioned and annotated on their versos, but they still required more description. For the first postcard, I told her what I was seeing, and I brought out a large magnifying glass so that we could read a hanging sign in the card. (It reads "heste House," due to weather damage, but it should read "Chester House," because that's what the subject of the image is).

We talked about the fact that the trees had no leaves, which indicated winter (confirmed by the snow on the dirt road), and the possible time of the day based on the shadows. She understood right away why we were embarking on this project, and did a great first pass. This particular volunteer completed all the transcription work on the Herman Rademacher oral history videos, and enjoys her work in Local History. Because she was so familiar with that project, she was able to transfer what she learned onto her current project.

In my very compact schedules at Chester Library and the Plainfield Historical Society, it's a challenge to spend as much time thinking about projects as I'd like to do. Fortunately, I have a handful of smart and capable volunteers (who sometimes end up with the fun projects I'd like to do myself) doing great work and, through training, taking a some of that thinking off my plate.

Just as an aside, recently I've become President of the New Jersey Library Association's History & Preservation Section. That also puts demands on my time, but I'm happy to do what I can to help move our profession forward. For example, with great help from Jacqueline Haun, the Archivist at the Bunn Library, our next meeting on July 27 will be held with the Princeton Preservation Group at The Lawrenceville School. Importantly, in addition to our meeting, we booked a hands-on photo preservation workshop with Peter Mustardo of The Better Image. I also arranged a catered lunch for those interested in staying for it. It will be a day of filling our minds and bodies with very good things.

Spring MARAC/NEA 2015 in Boston

Prior to the joint Mid-Atlantic Regional Archives Conference/New England Archivists events this past week, my excitement and anticipation had been building steadily. I’d signed up for a workshop on the Thursday, as I usually do because MARAC workshops tend to be worth more than the price of admission, and this one promised to be fun and educational. I had printed out the online program and circled the sessions I intended to attend (we had been warned early on to get to sessions early because 500 people had registered and there might be some difficulty finding a seat; by the end, we numbered 700, mostly local NEAers). I also wanted to try to meet some of the NEA folks because, well, I’m friendly that way – like most of the MARAC people I know. Lastly, I was looking forward to visiting with colleagues and friends I only see at MARAC meetings.

The Workshop: Copyright Fundamentals for Archivists and Librarians Led by Peter Hirtle

Peter, whom you’ll remember from this blog post: http://hereandthere123.blogspot.com/2011/08/interview-with-peter-hirtle-senior.html or perhaps this one: http://hereandthere123.blogspot.com/2012/01/peter-hirtle-weighs-in-on-sopa.html, has physically moved from Cornell University Library to the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard Law School, where he is a Research Fellow. He continues to use his Cornell email and serves as Senior Policy Advisor to the Cornell University Library on intellectual property rights issues.

I had heard great feedback about his workshop from other MARAC members, so this time I took it. Even though the title focuses on fundamentals, the course also dealt with risk assessment; “copyfraud” (the notion that institutions are asserting rights that they simply do not have; e.g., a work is in the public domain and a museum states on its web site that a copy photo has “All Rights Reserved.”); reproduction of copyrighted works; and key for cultural heritage institutions, fair use. During the day-long course, I participated in group exercises with my table neighbor, the very bright and fun Caitlin Goodman (link to her twitter: https://twitter.com/caitlinest) from the Free Public Library of Philadelphia. Peter’s instruction was useful and fun, and the day flew by.

Friday Plenary and Concurrent Sessions

The Friday Plenary session featured Danna Bell, Past-President of the Society of American Archivists (SAA) and Educational Resource Specialist at the Library of Congress. She spoke about professional development for archivists, and where improvement was needed in educational offerings. I wished that she had recognized the people who deliver consistently good workshops at MARAC, but maybe she was preoccupied about her talk.

The first session I attended was S2. Lessons Learned: Legal Aspects and Ethical Principles of Oral History, with speakers Christine Anne George of the University at Buffalo, SUNY, and Cara Howe of SUNY Upstate Medical University (formerly of the Pan Am Flight 103 Archives at Syracuse). Christine spoke about her recent research on the Belfast Project at Boston College (she is not affiliated with BC), and mainly focused on the legal quagmire. The New Yorker magazine recently published an article that gives the history and the ethical issues connected with the oral history project (http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/03/16/where-the-bodies-are-buried). 

Cara, whom I’d seen speak before, talked about the extensive oral history project for the Pan Am Flight 103/Lockerbie air disaster. I’m especially interested in her work, not just because it’s inherently interesting, but because she and her team invested a great deal of time documenting what they did and adhering to best practices.

The afternoon session was S11. Nurturing Nature, and it was where I presented for the first time at a professional conference. I had answered the call for speakers specifically because it was a “lightning” session, and we each would have about 6 minutes to present on our topics. Because Chester Library is the designated local repository for the EPA’s records on the Combe Fill South Landfill, I wrote that I could speak on the records for a local superfund site. Greta Suiter from MIT, the session moderator, was pleased, so I joined the 9 other speakers on the slate. 

Each of the speakers had great presentations, but I’ll just spotlight a handful here. One of my favorites was Sean Fisher’s (Mass. Dept. of Conservation and Recreation). He has an enormous job locating Mass. Parks materials stored in attics, crawlspaces, and essentially anywhere people could put stuff all over the state of Massachusetts. Miles Crowley also from MIT, spoke about pollution in the Charles River. Both Katie Hall and Sarah Denison represented the Delaware Public Archives. Katie focused on mosquito controls (and was hilarious). Sarah took a novel approach to her presentation on the storm of 1962 by running color films of the storm damage on a loop while she talked about the records (it was very effective). Liz Banks from the National Park Service, Northeast Region hit on a number of areas, but mainly focused on Yellowstone, especially Thomas Moran’s diary and paintings and the wolf research (some of which John and I had the pleasure of seeing when we took the Yellowstone archive tour). Rachel Donahue from the National Agricultural Library’s presentation was lots of fun, and spotlighted plant specimens. 

NJ/NY Caucus Meeting

This meeting was the first time I’d experienced a combined New Jersey and New York Caucuses meeting. It was led by Laura Poll of the Monmouth County Historical Association (more from her later) and Michael Martin of the New York State Archives. The meeting was an opportunity to hear what kinds of things are going on in each of the caucuses, although it was a bit of a shy group. It also could have been that it was at the end of the first day of the conference. Usually at MARAC meetings, the caucuses meet in the morning. I almost forgot to introduce myself as the incoming President of the New Jersey Library Association’s History & Preservation Section, but I squeezed it in and mentioned that I’ll be working with Laura on getting together some more H&P/NJ Caucus/Princeton Preservation Group meetings, since there’s so much of an overlap.

Saturday’s Events

On Saturday, I started the morning by attending the MARAC business meeting and enjoying the tasty breakfast buffet. The NEA folks also had a buffet and their business meeting in a different location at the venue. At our meeting, I learned that MARAC now has a Café Press site (http://www.cafepress.com/marac). Outgoing Chair John LeGloahec from the National Archives and Records Administration also mentioned that changes to the Bylaws were in the making and he recommended that we attend a lunch session on the topic. There will be more discussion at the next MARAC in West Virginia, but I won’t be attending that one because I plan to attend the SAA annual meeting in August in Cleveland (and there’s only so much budget to go around).

The second plenary of the meeting followed the business meetings. It featured Sands Fish of MIT, who talked about networks in data and his project, Media Cloud. 

The first session of the day I attended was S15. Provenance vs. Artificial Collections: To Restore or Not to Restore? It was the most controversial session I experienced at the meeting. The speakers were Molly Stothert-Mauer of the Perkins School for the Blind, Laura Poll (see the Caucus meeting earlier), Linda Hocking of the Litchfield Historical Society, and Lindsay Turley of the Museum of the City of New York. The speakers talked about the individual experiences with dispersed, intermingled, and artificial collections, and more importantly, the justifications for the choices they made. I think all of the choices were valid, although I think in some cases I might make more use of subject/genre/etc. terms in finding aids to keep created collections together.  But keeping the researcher the top priority regardless of the arrangement choice is the bottom line. 

Another aspect worth considering is the idea of connecting previous indexes and cataloging efforts to the new arrangement. Laura pointed out that an archivist could create more of an issue if he/she didn’t invest the time to make clear the ties between the old and new. It also seems even more important to document all of those decisions and methods so that those who come afterward aren’t lost in the tangle of archival threads.

The last session of the day for me was S21. Physical vs. Digital and the User Experience. The moderator was Susie Bock of the University of Southern Maine and the speakers were Jane Metters LaBarbara of West Virginia University, Samuel Smallidge of Converse, and Anastasia S. Weigle of the University of Maine. Each speaker had a different perspective on the topic to be sure, but Samuel’s argument for practical uses of digital media for internal use at Converse in order to produce a new product (based on one from the 1970s) was pretty persuasive. I didn’t expect to learn about Chuck Taylor sneakers when I came to Boston for MARAC, but now I have a better understanding of some of the structural changes in them over time. By using digitized images of sneakers, he was able to help designers and marketers put together a custom sneaker for consumers in time for a big anniversary at the company.

The Conference Venue and Where I Stayed

There was a bit of construction in the Boston Park Plaza during the meeting. Because Boston had spent much of the winter under more snow than was reasonable, the work that was targeted to have been completed long before our arrival was still underway. In fact, the construction workers were laying carpet in some of the conference areas on the first day. It was inconvenient to be sure, but nothing we archivists/librarians couldn’t handle. 

I didn’t stay at the conference hotel, although I’d originally booked there. When it came closer to the event, my buddy John Beekman, Assistant Manager of the New Jersey Room at Jersey City Free Public Library, mentioned on the MARAC Facebook page that he’d checked TripAdvisor.com to see if the construction had been finished. After I saw his post, I read the comments from recent visitors, and changed hotels to Hotel 140 (http://www.hotel140.com/). They were very accommodating and helpful. The hotel is located a few blocks away from the Boston Park Plaza, which wasn’t a big deal except that on the first two days, it was cold and very windy. However, the room was clean, the bed was comfortable, and no fragrances were used on the linens (key for those of us who are sensitive to heavy, synthetic fragrances often used in detergents). 

Dining at Davio’s

Last, but never least (this was originally a food blog, you know), something about the restaurant I frequented. My pal Jane Ingold, a Reference Librarian at Penn State Erie, The Behrend College, and I made plans to have lunch together during the Thursday break during both of our workshops. We dined at a lovely Italian restaurant that caters to GF people like me, called Davio’s (http://davios.com/bos/menus/gluten-free-lunch) located across the street from the Boston Park Plaza.  The food was very tasty and the service was attentive, albeit a bit slow. However, when I returned for lunch again the following day with another friend, Jacqueline Haun, Archives Librarian at The Lawrenceville School, I mentioned I was pressed for time (because I had a short presentation to make at 1:30 p.m.). The waitstaff made sure to get us out the door by the time specified, and we were grateful. In case you were wondering, I enjoyed the chopped salad (sans bacon) and the GF tomato pizza (on both days, they were that good, and I had leftovers for my little hotel fridge).  

Wrapping Up

As always, I enjoyed the MARAC meeting, made some new friends, and learned a lot more than I expected. The best advice I can give to new archivists and librarians is to join your local/regional professional society and get involved. Next is the NJLA meeting in April, complete with a full day of History & Preservation Section sessions for attendees to enjoy. Can’t wait!

The Service Side of Being an Archivist and Local History Librarian

Some may characterize library service as being available at the reference desk for appointments, phone calls, email and web requests, and "walk-ins." However, library service is all-encompassing, from the moment a patron enters or contacts a library until (s)he leaves/disconnects. Libraries are places that people trust for their ability to provide answers whether via the reference desk, a book or database, a special collection, or any number of resources, especially the library workers. It is for that reason that I take an holistic approach to library service.

At both of my employing libraries, I regularly work with some terrific volunteers. In Chester, one is a Friend of the library who shares great photos of her husky dog and clips newspaper articles for Local History. She had attended one of my "Caring for Your Family's Treasures" workshops and asked if I might help her with some specific preservation questions concerning some old photos and a Bible. I readily agreed because

1. She asked for my help, and that's what I do...HELP.
2. Preservation isn't work for me, it's fun.
3. I was excited to see what she would bring to my office.
4. The request entailed shopping for archival supplies, and those web sites are my kind of candy stores.

Later, the Friend brought to my office a huge family Bible, cabinet cards, and larger mounted photos all dating from the mid-1800s to the early 1900s. The Bible clearly had some binding issues and had been used (as many are) to hold genealogy documents, which had become acidic and fragile. Some of the photos were in better shape than others, however all were notable not only for the sentimental value to the volunteer, but for the subjects' expressions, costumes, and poses. After we measured them, I placed the photos into suitable folders until she could put them into polyester sleeves.

She also asked me to help her select supplies and house the Bible because it was so large. The illustrated family Bible would require a custom sling to help place it inside (and remove it from) the box she would purchase. Typically, a special collections department would purchase a custom drop-front box for such an item, but these types of custom boxes can be cost-prohibitive for many people (such as our volunteer). In her case, I let her know that I would be happy to create a way of working with a box already available in dimensions suitable to her needs.

I guided her to items that she would need for this project. She navigated the University Products site easily and placed her order within an hour of her first showing me the photos. We were able to stay within her budget and begin her early preservation work.

The Friend was very grateful, and her gratitude was contagious. Not two days after our shopping session, she brought to my office the president of another local organization who needed help preserving the group's 20+ scrapbooks. As ever, I was happy to help.

Tour of Westchester County Archives and Record Center

Introduction
Tucked into the pretty little Village of Elmsford, N.Y., not far from the Hudson River and historic Sleepy Hollow, is the very large records building that houses the Westchester County Archives and Records Center. Shown above is the sizable reading room that the Archives shares with the Westchester County Historical Society. The archives holds the official history of the county dating back to the beginning of its recordkeeping in 1683. The collections include photographs, maps and atlases, architectural drawings, naturalization records, court book minutes, marriage records, supreme court records, land records, licenses and permits, voter enrollments, incorporations, World War I military naturalization petitions, state census records, the Department of Public Works’ records, some of Rye Playland’s early records, and much more.

The Archives’ Reading Room Manager is the very knowledgeable and easy-going Jackie Graziano. We met while attending the remarkable “Exploring Maps: History, Fabrication and Preservation” conference at the Center for Conservation of Art and Historic Artifacts in Philadelphia last November, and became fast friends. Recently, Jackie treated me to a tour of the archives and showed me some of its most valued and most used items. I was impressed by the depth of the collections and by the quality of recordkeeping at the site.

Note: Due to state law, I was unable to photograph the interior of the vaults. However, Jackie kindly pulled select items from the collections for me to photograph and share with you.

About the Archivist
Jackie is shown above holding The Guide to Genealogical Research for Westchester County, New York, (2003) compiled by Marjorie C.H. Renino, previously the Director of the Archive’s volunteers. It contains information on local cemeteries, churches, and town clerks, among other useful facts. She referred to it twice during my visit to answer questions I raised, so it was easy to see why she called it the “Bible” of the Reading Room.

For nearly five years, Jackie has been working at the Westchester County Archives, answering all the incoming research questions. She also scans fragile records for preservation -- currently the early incorporation records of religious societies and large, historic maps from the Department of Public Works. Most of those maps are concerned with land acquisitions of parklands, and contain valuable information for surveyors. Her favorite collections are the maps and atlases. “Most are beautifully drawn and tell a particular story about a part of the county at a particular point in time, and they provide context and scope to other types of records. When someone comes in to research a family, I usually take them to the 1858 map of the county on the wall in the Reading Room and ask them to show me where the family lived. The location sometimes helps me determine which series of records will be of use to them,” says Jackie.

She also likes the early Parks Department Annual Reports from the 1920s. She says, “They tell a large part of the story of how 20th century Westchester developed, why the county looks the way it does now, why certain populations migrated to certain areas, and why areas developed the way they did.”

When I asked her why she became an archivist, she replied, “I have a passion for the written word (one of the pillars of our culture) and its history, how it shapes and is shaped by the culture. I want to be part of the tradition of the sharing of the written word and its preservation, and I like playing with old books.” It should come as no surprise that Jackie was an English literature/history major in college. She received her MLS from Queens College, with a certificate in Archives and Records Management. She recommends the Queens program highly, and suggests that folks interested in the field should volunteer and learn from established archivists. Previously, she served as a librarian in local libraries in Dobbs Ferry, Peekskill, and Montrose, New York. The part of her job she enjoys the most is learning “something new every day.”

About the Archives
Since 1985, the Westchester County Archives has collected non-active records from county departments, if they are determined to have historical value. Personal papers are not collected, unless they originate with a prominent county employee and pertain to their work for the county. The vaults mainly contain the county’s official archives, however, some space is dedicated to the collections of the Westchester County Historical Society.

While I can’t show you photos from within the vaults on site, I can tell you that the collections are vast. More than 6,000 cubic feet of records, 60,000 photographs, and approximately 75,000 maps are preserved onsite. In my work at Plainfield Public Library, I’ve seen what 14,000 sets of architectural drawings (stored in boxes) look like, but seeing row upon row of archivally tubed and labeled maps along the length of two stories of the Westchester County Archive was impressive, to say the least.

Ten full-time staffers and three archivists care for the records housed on site, and they are supported by 30 volunteers per week. The Archives are used by genealogists, journalists, county employees, local historians, teachers, students, surveyors, and individuals researching their land. Typically, 9-10 visitors come per week. “We [also] have one student with a summer project who is researching relations between the African-American and Irish populations in Westchester in the 19th century,” says Jackie.

Notably, the archives are funded through the county’s IT department budget. The county archives are preserving information, so why shouldn’t they be funded under the Information Technology line? Further, the amount of digitization that takes place at the county is quite large, therefore having IT support at that level is more seamless than you might see elsewhere. But when it comes to complex conservation and preservation efforts, the Westchester County Archives sends their materials up to the Northeast Document Conservation Center in Andover, Mass.

About the Collections
The most popular collections in the Westchester County Archives are the naturalizations, marriages, and surrogates (wills and estate files). Jackie says, “People get very excited over the naturalization records, because they link generations, and the records after 1906 provide a good amount of information on the person.” Below is an example of bound naturalization papers from 1865-1885.

Modern naturalization papers include more information and include Declarations of Intention. An example from 1922 is shown below.

Jackie mentioned that marriage records in the county are based locally and issued by the town clerks’ offices. In 1908, the state mandated that counties would receive a copy of marriage records, but not birth and death records. The law was repealed in 1926, but Westchester County kept collecting them until 1935. Because these records also include parents’ names, marriage records are used very frequently in genealogy. Shown below are some of the Archives’ most famous marriage records, Norman Rockwell’s first marriage license (1916) and Lou Gehrig’s marriage license (1933), respectively. Both are kept in a safe location that I am not permitted to reveal here.

Wills, estate inventories, and other land records also are of great importance to genealogists. These documents provide evidence of their ancestors’ lives in a location, and often name other family members. Sometimes, they reveal more about a family, such as slave ownership. One example Jackie showed me was a facsimile of Edward Pell’s estate inventory from 1787. Pell was a descendant of Thomas Pell, for whom Pelham, N.Y. is named. The photo below shows that the inventory includes two young slaves.

Another will in the collection was written by Washington Irving at his Sunnyside estate in 1858. Jackie said that Irving was “the Ben Franklin of his time.” Most people think of Irving only as the folksy author of short stories such as “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” and “Rip Van Winkle,” however, he was a true cosmopolitan, who served as ambassador to Spain and negotiated trade deals between England and the United States. Irving’s will is shown below.

The oldest records in the collection are within A Booke of Recordes for the County of Westchester, spanning 1683-1688. The Westchester County Clerk’s Office was created in 1683, and the earliest records kept by the office are now within bound volumes (also called “libers”) lettered A to Z, as you can see in the photo below.

Jackie said that she doesn’t pull the book out often because it has been microfilmed and a transcription is available to the public. (This book is an example of records the county keeps in a fireproof safe within the vault.) The fragile leaves have been conserved by the Northeast Document Conservation Center. Most of the records in the books are deeds, but this volume also includes three marriages and a divorce. Additionally, the county has a separate series for wills beginning after the Revolutionary War. Speaking of the War, researchers can find land sale abstracts of property confiscated from loyalists after the war within the Commissioners of Forfeiture. Jackie has scanned the book, and the index to these early records is available digitally on the Archives’ web site. The volume shown below dates from 1783-1785.

The Westchester County Archives also holds the some of the records of the County Poor House, otherwise known as the Alms House. It operated from 1830 to the 1940s. The County has its records up to 1908, and the N.Y. State Archives has them for other counties' Alms Houses. What makes these materials so interesting is that they tell a much more detailed story about an individual down on his/her luck than you might find elsewhere. For example, in the photo below (from the 1875-1880 Alms House book), you can see how long the “inmate” stayed in the Alms House, where his/her parents were born, if they practiced temperance (or not), why he/she was an inmate (destitution or disease), and much more.

In some cases, the stories are quite tragic. Inmates leave, then return multiple times due to alcoholism or mental disorders, or injuries that prevent them from working. If you are interested in seeing some of these, but are unable to visit Westchester County Archives, you can find a selection of records from N.Y. State Archives on Ancestry.com.

There are many, many more records and record types at the Westchester County Archives than the sample I’ve shared with you here. I encourage you to visit the web site (http://archives.westchestergov.com/), explore the collections, and visit Jackie and her colleagues. The Archives is open to the public on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Contact Information
Jackie Graziano
Westchester County Archives
2199 Saw Mill River Road
Elmsford, NY 10523
Tel: (914) 231-1500
Fax: (914) 231-1510
http://archives.westchestergov.com/contact-us

Documenting an Artist's Work

Recently, I had the great pleasure and honor of interviewing a living artist, Karen Guancione. The purpose of my time with Karen was to document her work currently on display at Rutgers University's Alexander Library and ask her about her experience as an artist. Earlier on this blog, I featured Michael Joseph, the curator of the exhibit (and Rare Books Librarian) talking about Karen's work. However, having the artist herself describe in detail the nature of her works in the context of her life opens up an entirely different window into the art on display.

I'd like to share with you these enlightening, revelatory, and amusing videos I recorded last month. The playlist is available on YouTube at the following link: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLB889D867E48C3884&feature=plcp. Photos of the individual works will be forthcoming.

Writing a Finding Aid for a Superfund Site's Records

Introduction
Recently, I completed processing the Combe Fill South Landfill Records collection, and wrote the accompanying finding aid for the Chester Library. During the processing, I was dismayed, disgusted, and frightened, at turns, as I examined hundreds of pages of air, soil, and water quality test results. The more I researched the background and current status of this Morris County, N.J. landfill, the more important it became to increase awareness about it. I also realized that in writing the finding aid for the collection, especially the History, Scope and Content, and Series Descriptions sections, would be one of the biggest challenges I had experienced at Chester Library.

Background
When I became the first Local History Librarian at Chester Library last September, I made a very cursory inventory of the library's archival materials, most of which resided on the shelves and in the filing cabinets of the Library Director's office. Later, other materials surfaced in places other than her office, such as this terrific collection of World War II newsletters (the link to PDFs of the newsletters is in the Technical Access section of the finding aid). Of the collections in the Director's office, one standout was a row of 8 white, vinyl binders named "Combe Fill South." I asked the Director about them, and she told me that there was a Superfund site in town, and that was its name. I made a mental note to get to these materials sooner rather than later.

Processing
A few months ago, my schedule opened up enough to begin work on the Combe Fill South Landfill Records collection. I removed all the binders and related materials from the Director's office to the Local History Office, and began processing the collection. I started with an overall preservation assessment, which led to my finding approximately 100 maps folded into the pages of the binders. The maps required unfolding, flattening, and rolling for storage into tubes. Most of the maps were numbered according to the overall page numbering system of the binders, so it was easy to keep them in order of appearance. However, the deeper I delved into the binders, the more the maps changed. They varied in size and type, so in order to best preserve them, I kept to the page numbering scheme after preserving them by size and type.

I didn't want to roll items of different sizes together if possible because the variance in size would affect the maps later, if they were kept rolled long term. It would be great if the Local History Department had a large enough budget and space for map cases to keep these items flat, but like many small archives, it doesn't. Another challenge arose from all the tears and creases in the maps because they had been stored in such a way that they extended the boundaries of the binders, consequently coming in contact with shelving, other materials, etc. While it is time-consuming to unfold all the creases and flatten the documents with weights, it is worth the effort because over time, creases and folds become tears, and tears can end in loss.

Even without all those binders to explain the detailed assay results that accompanied them, the maps themselves are fascinating. Processing the maps allowed me to look at each one for an extended period of time while I recorded all the details visible, such as the locations of testing wells, the latitude and longitude of the site, the nearby rivers and streams affected by the contaminated materials (or leachate -- a new word I learned during this work), and much more. Some of the maps showed water, soil, and air-quality test results at the testing locations. Others were aerial views of the site, showing the locations of homeowners' wells in relation to the landfill.

After I had finished working on the maps, I moved on to the binders. Most of the remaining records were correspondence, remedial investigation plans, and ecological test results. These were easily processed, since they were in order, and only needed to be removed from their binders, foldered, labeled, and boxed before I began the description part of the process.

The Finding Aid
I enjoy writing finding aids. For me, the process is a cross between writing an article and a research paper. First, there is the heavy lifting of all the research and formatting required. Then there's the challenge of spotlighting the nuggets that will be important to researchers. When I write those, I feel as if I call on all of the different writing jobs I've had -- newspaper reporting, technical writing, feature articles, press releases, and instruction -- to tell the story of a given collection and why it might be important to various types of researchers. In some cases, it might be enough to simply let researchers know a collection exists. Here, however, it is necessary to put the collection in context and call out key materials that, for one example, would be useful to someone examining how local health departments handle test results that reveal significant water, soil, and air-quality contaminants.

When I write finding aids, I follow a standard called DACS (Describing Archives: A Content Standard -- not imaginatively named, I know, but it gets to the point). DACS is especially handy because it is structured in such a way that once an archivist/librarian decides the level of description he/she wants, he/she can easily create a DACS finding aid template.

For example, because I work at a small library with small collections, I can afford to create detailed finding aids, and DACS has all the categories a detailed finding aid could need. On the other hand, if I worked for an organization that used, say the "More Product, Less Process," method, I could apply the DACS minimal requirements for finding aids. DACS also includes MARC coding for adding a finding aid to a catalog, and some EAD coding. Early on at Chester Library, I created a finding aid template with the DACS categories that would more than adequately describe a collection for a researcher. I figured that I wouldn't be there forever, and the least I could do for the next archivist/librarian was to make his/her life a bit easier by providing such a template.

After sorting through all my notes from the processing part of the work, I researched Combe Fill South's history, and dug into all of the related materials available on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and N.J. Department of  Environmental Protection (DEP) web sites. Immediately, I learned  that outside of the EPA, Chester Library is the only designated public repository for these records. I knew from the records at the library that the DEP had been involved in the cleanup activities from 1984-2009, but the EPA later took over the efforts which are still ongoing. However, the government sites had different details and perspective on the changeover than those in the library's records.

Probably the biggest challenge in writing the finding aid for the Combe Fill South Landfill Records was an internal one. I asked myself a lot of questions -- How do I tell the story of this local Superfund site without editorializing? How much do I talk about the work not yet done since the 1980s?

Mostly, I thought about what would be important to researchers, and that didn't include my opinion. I described the collection's contents, leaning heavily on the DACS guidebook for direction. I also searched for collections at other institutions that were similar -- government records held in local repositories. That tack proved to be helpful and re-focused my efforts.

Postscript
The Combe Fill South Landfill Records collection was my first foray into processing government records. Like many of my new experiences as an archivist, I'm happy to document this work here so that others new to the profession might benefit by my lessons learned.

If you'd like to see the finding aid for yourself and learn more about this Morris County Superfund site, please visit the finding aid online at Chester Library.

Spring 2012 Mid-Atlantic Archives Conference

Perhaps it was the setting (Cape May, gorgeous weather). Maybe it was the wonderful Local Arrangements folks who were very proud and knowledgeable of their local history. Or, it could have been the program and the workshops. The winning combination of all of the above likely made the Spring MARAC (April 12-14) a success as an entertaining and educational conference.

Dating 19^th Century Portrait Photographs Workshop

One of my favorite parts of the conference was Gary Saretsky’s Dating 19^th Century Portrait Photographs workshop on Thursday April 12. During his presentation, I felt as if I were absorbing a semester’s worth of knowledge in an afternoon. In addition to giving workshops, Gary is the Monmouth County Archivist, and Coordinator of the Public History Internship Program for the Rutgers University-New Brunswick History Department. He also is a fine photographer himself, with a recent exhibit of blues performers at the Plainfield Public Library.

Gary’s workshop took its participants through the history of early photographic portraiture from the earliest Daguerreotypes in 1839 through cabinet cards in the late 1800s-early 1900s. We learned the distinctive elements that help date Daguerreortypes, ambrotypes, tintypes (also known as melainotypes and ferrotypes), cartes-de-visites, and cabinet cards. Gary also provided us with resources for determining the dates of costumes in photographs.

He brought many examples of cabinet cards and earlier photographs, and invited us to try to identify them, using what we had learned. I just wanted to buy a micrometer and attempt to identify the cabinet cards (by thickness and other means) within the Plainfield Public Library’s Local History collections. Overall, it was an inspiring, informative workshop that was well worth the price of admission. If I were an archives professor, I’d book Gary as a guest lecturer every semester.

Conference Sessions

In the sessions I attended, I noticed a pattern with some of the speakers – they were the users of archives and special collections, rather than “us.” I was glad to hear how these professionals tied the importance of archival collections to their work because they are our patrons and researchers. They teach us how to best help them. Most also expressed their intense gratitude for the work archivists and librarians do to make materials accessible in person and especially online.

For example, the plenary speaker was historic preservation consultant Joan Berkley, who spoke about the archival resources, especially primary sources, she used to uncover the structural details of an historic house museum. Importantly, she named all the repositories she used, and explained how she used the archival materials in her work. Another session I attended, on preserving and promoting New Jersey’s historic structures, also featured three speakers who use archives and libraries to preserve historic properties, the Doo Wop resort architecture of the Wildwoods, and lighthouses in the state.

Additionally, the final session of the conference featured the author of Boardwalk Empire, Nelson Johnson, and a writer from the HBO series of the same name, Edward McGinty. These two gentlemen talked about the value of archives and libraries from two very different directions, but each made clear cases for the use of primary sources whether digitized or not. The other two speakers of that session, Heather Pérez and Shannon O’Neill of the Atlantic City Free Public Library, talked at length about how the show has changed the way they do their work and deliver their services to patrons.

In the sessions featuring archivists as speakers, there were many standouts, including one focused on the Brooklyn Historical Society's efforts to attract and educate students. It was inspiring to see how dedicated the BHS is to its young student and undergraduate patrons. The society has created a host of programs reaching from K-12 through undergraduates. One example is the Young Curators program, which allows 4^th and 5^th graders to construct their own meaning of history in a new and visual way. They do this by completing a 12-week residency program wherein they create exhibit panels using the BHS’ archives to encourage further research, and spotlight historical events and people. BHS' programs might be a bit ambitious (and expensive) for the libraries where I work, but the depth and breadth of their offerings are certainly well worth the funding the staff has been able to secure for them.

Public Displays: Using Your Collection and Archives to Tell Your Story was a session featuring three diverse views on displays. First, a young researcher (Rachael Rohrbaugh of Chatham University) talked about the results from her study on the lack of exhibits education in MLIS/MLS programs. Next, a couple from the Cape May County Historical Society (Bruce and Pary Lion Tell) showed us very economical and practical ways to set up and display facsimiles of historic documents in exhibit cases. Finally, an archivist I had seen at a previous MARAC, when she worked at the Andy Warhol Museum (Amy Lucadamo, now of Wilson College), provided a variety of methods to showcase collections. In particular, she focused on an innovative timeline she created for alumni visitors – it connected images and icons of shared history with individual histories of alumni. She also showed ways to spotlight objects and records in nifty ways, such as magnifying text (a museum display technique).

Finally, one of the most riveting speakers was neither an archivist, nor historian. He was our host, Curtis Bradshaw, owner of Congress Hall. Curtis is the grandson of Carl McIntire, a fiery fundamentalist Presbyterian minister whose mammoth collection of papers and audio records was recently processed by the Princeton Theological Seminary (primarily by MARAC Program Commitee Co-chair Bob Golon). In the session Rescuing and Making Available a Controversial Collection: The Carl McIntire Papers at Princeton Theological Seminary, Kenneth Woodrow Henke, of PTS, provided a lively history of McIntire. He also told us how the collection came to PTS, then introduced Curtis, who shared his personal impressions of his grandfather. Curtis told many stories of how his grandfather worked. For example, he would watch his grandfather at the microphone, delivering his radio sermons. He also directed groups of female volunteers to keep newspaper clippings files (now at PTS) in order to save a record of his 20^th century reformation of the Presbyterian church. A charismatic speaker, Curtis kept his audience amused, and gave us a peek into the famed minister’s life.

As always, MARAC exceeded my expectations and left me with more knowledge and skills to take back to the libraries where I work. To see the complete program, visit MARAC (downloads a PDF). http://data.memberclicks.com/site/marac/Marac-2012-SpringProgram-4.pdf

Brief Tour of the Morristown & Morris Township Library

Last week, the New Jersey Library Association's History and Preservation Section met at the fully renovated Morristown & Morris Township Library. Because my parents are locals, I was familiar with the library prior to the May 3, 2010 explosion that damaged the historic 1917 and 1930 wings of the building. The Newsletter of the North Jersey History & Genealogy Center of the Morristown & Morris Township Library does an excellent job of documenting the experience of the librarians/archivists that day, as well as the steps taken along the way to protect and preserve the archival materials in that part of the library. If you start at the March 2010 issue and read through the seven subsequent issues, you will see how these professionals persevered and continued their good work even though they were displaced and the vast majority of their materials were stored off site.

I was very excited to see the kinds of changes that had taken place throughout the library. It was updated in many ways, but yet, remained true to the style of the building, right down to the door knobs specially made to mimic the windows (see the photo below, my apologies for the strange angle).

From Morristown and Morris Township Library

Our host for the tour, Chad Leinaweaver, is the Assistant Library Director. He is pretty new to the library, and wasn't there when the explosion happened. In the photo below, Chad is taking our group through the Preservation Lab, in the basement (not far from the meeting room, where we began our journey). The conservator is an outside contractor who uses this lovely space to work on a variety of projects. 

From Morristown and Morris Township Library

As we walked through the building, Chad said that the biggest blessing after no one being hurt was that the library had taken out extensive insurance on the building, its holdings, and, most importantly, for code upgrades. The code upgrades made up a huge chunk of the overall cost, he said. Because the 1917 wing had been built in a "fireproof" way, it had to undergo extensive asbestos abatement. Materials had to be thrown out, unfortunately.

The photo below shows the new ceiling that had to be built in the "Friends" of the Library room, which took most of the damage. Chad told us that this room, in the 1930s wing, had its doors blown nearly off their hinges by the explosion -- the steel doors curled back on their hinges like tops of sardine cans. We all were enormously grateful that the fire alarm had gone off in advance, and everyone had emptied the building beforehand.

From Morristown and Morris Township Library

All of the water pipes are new, as are some of the gas pipes. All the the shelving had to be replaced. The Friends lost all of their book sale materials. The explosion caused massive flooding to the basement, including special collections. The archives room itself, miraculously, was safe, but emptied of all collections because although the materials were stored high enough up on the shelves not to be directly affected, there was water that would likely be standing while the major clean-up occurred.

Behind the far wall, the library added a Sprinkler Room. One of the major code upgrades was the installation of an updated sprinkler system. The library also added a gas detection system.

Upstairs, in the Reference area, there were many changes. Below is a photo of the stacks area of Reference.

From Morristown and Morris Township Library

If you search Google Images for Morristown & Morris Township Library explosion, you will find "before" photos of the room above, as well as those taken during the clean-up efforts. It had been tightly arranged with many stacks. During the renovation, the staff decided to open up the room more, so that patrons could enjoy its natural beauty, while still finding the materials they needed. Additionally, the renovation gave the librarians the opportunity to weed out some of the previously unused materials they had intended to do, but hadn't yet had the time.

From the perspective of the above photo, looking to one's right shows the other end of Reference, as well as a footbridge above the first floor. In the photo below, Chad shows a few H&P section members some of the changes to the room. He mentioned that some of the weeded items from the area were replaced with digital materials.

From Morristown and Morris Township Library

I'm sorry that I was unable to take good photographs of the beautiful stained glass in the building. However, I hope that you will visit the Morristown and Morris Township Library to see it for yourself. During the restoration process upstairs, the librarians researched the original colors of the stained glass in the Reference rooms and were able to bring them to life in a vibrant and attractive way.

About midway through Reference is the entry to the 1930s wing of the building. It is home to the South Street or main entrance to the building, beautiful wood carvings and stained glass, and the original firescreen for the fireplace (see the photos below). For more information on the architecture of the building, visit the library's site here.

From Morristown and Morris Township Library

From Morristown and Morris Township Library

At what seemed like the end of the tour, I asked Chad if we could see Special Collections, since that's our area of expertise. He said, "Sure!" and shared the remainder of the tour with Mary McMahon, outgoing President of the H&P section.

In the photo below, behold the beauty that is the North Jersey History & Genealogy Center and Special Collections reading room of the library. The far walls, which you cannot see in this photo, are lined with encapsulated, antique wall maps.

From Morristown and Morris Township Library

Now for my favorite part -- behind the scenes, inside special collections and the archives. Directly inside the offices, right before the processing area, was a vertical file cabinet I had not seen before in an archive (photo below). 

From Morristown and Morris Township Library

You sometimes see these in doctors' offices or in hospitals, but not often in special collections. Because these are only working files, and not archival files, it's not controversial. However, this system is not recommended for irreplaceable items due to the possibility of materials being caught in the machine as it cycles through shelves of folders.

On our way to the collections, we walked through the processing area, where a few in-process collections were stored (see photo below).

From Morristown and Morris Township Library

I didn't take many photos within the archives room because the library just got their collections back from storage, and were sorting out spacing and labeling. However, we did get into the vault and art bins, which held some treasures. Someday, I will go back, and Mary will show me some of the treasures in the collections. But for now, a final photo of their John De Pol collections (see photo below).

From Morristown and Morris Township Library

The take-home message for me during our April 4 tour of the Morristown and Morris Township Library was that sometimes, great destruction can lead to great improvements. That, and make sure to have very good insurance, especially for code upgrades.

For more information, visit the library here.