A Very Confused Desktop

Notice anything funny about this pic? Are Fedora and Windows living together on a Desktop in harmony? Nah. Just a funny looking VNC connection.

Just in time for Christmas…

The long anticipated Archivists’ Toolkit has just been released. This open source project offers several useful tools to archivists. Below is a list of key features:

Key Features:

* Integrated support for managing archival materials from acquisition through processing:
o Recording repository information
o Tracking sources / donors
o Recording accessions
o Basic authority control for names and topical subjects
o Describing archival resources and digital objects
o Managing location information
* Customizable interface:
o Modify field labels
o Establish default values for fields and notes where boilerplate text is used
o Customize searchable fields and record browse lists
* Ingest of legacy data in multiple formats: EAD 2002, MARC XML, and tab delimited accession data
* Rapid data entry interface for creating container lists quickly
* Management of user accounts, with a range of permission levels to control access to data
* Tracking of database records, including username and date of record creation and most recent edit
* Generation of over 30 different administrative and descriptive reports, such as acquisition statistics, accession records, shelf lists, subject guides, etc.
* Export EAD 2002, MARC XML, METS, MODS, and Dublin Core
* Support for desktop or networked, single- or multi-repository installations

I really can’t wait to try to install this project when I get back to the office. Those interested in the project may also find the Archon Project of interest.

Parting Shot

While reading Frank Bole’s Selecting and Appraising Archives and Manuscripts recently, I found a funny quote. Unfortunately, I had the book on ILL and returned it yesterday, so I can’t quote it exactly. Boles was writing about archivists communicating with other institutions to ensure that different archives do not needlessly duplicate each other. He quoted someone who asked facetiously, “How many copies of the moon shot do we need anyway?”

Apparently, more than we now have.

Somehow, NASA lost the moon shot video.

Misplaced Memory

This weekend, I watched the NFL Hall of Fame Game. I finally set in my mind that, God willing, I am going to Canton, OH, at some point, to see the Pro Football Hall of Fame. I love looking at displays that were designed to memorialize history, and I frequently design and write displays for my job. I am a pro-display, pro-public-history, pro-persistence-of-memory kind of guy.

However, sometimes displays do not belong in the location that people choose for them. Take, for example, the newly revealed Paul Hornung display in Louisville. The bronze statue, pictured below, looks great. The display has great information about the Louisville native, NFL MVP, and Heisman trophy winner. There’s only one problem. It’s outside of a baseball stadium!

For some reason, the Louisville powers decided to place the statue outside of Louisville Slugger Field, home of the Louisville Bats. Maybe alot of thought didn’t go into the action. Maybe they didn’t care. Maybe still-angry University of Kentucky fans managed to have the statue put there to thumb there nose at the boy who chose to go college in South Bend rather than Lexington.

Let me put this in context. Imagine going to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and finding a statue of Secretariat outside the gates.

I don’t know why it is there. I’m not even bothering to research it. It’s not worth it. The thing should have been placed on a downtown street or something. And because it wasn’t, visitors to Louisville who attend a game will always wonder, “Why in the world is there a statue of a football player outside of a baseball stadium?” And they will go home thinking, “Do people in Kentucky only understand and respect basketball and horse racing.”

All Over but the Waiting

Well, I took the exam this morning. I am not sure how I did. It’s the type of exam where there are multiple answers that could be correct. Sometimes, you feel like the questions are something like…

1. What principle dictates that records of different origins be kept separate to preserve their context?

A. Provenance
B. Respect des fonds
C. Anthropic
D. Your old high school

You know how those questions are. There are two answers that seem like they just are not right, and then there are two that seem nearly synonymous. (Just to clarify, this is NOT a question from the test, and the first two terms above (ie. principle of provenance and respect des fonds) ARE synonymous. )

Which brings me to why I think the ACA asks you to bring three pencils to the test when every other standardized test you take in your lifetime only requires two. Simply put, you will have broken the first two in frustration within the first thirty questions, and you will use the third to lobotomize yourself before the exam ends. Only those who are able to leave with full mental capacity survive to be certified.

I’m only kidding. Actually, I am glad I took the exam. It let me see where I had holes in my knowledge, and it reminded me of areas that I do have a pretty good handle on. I am not sure how I did, and I won’t know for six weeks, but I am OK with that. Either way, I won’t be terribly surprised. I think I knew a good many of the answers, but I know there were many I did not know.

I will sleep well tonight because I know I did the best I could. If I didn’t pass, I won’t see it as failure. I’ll just get it right next year. If I did pass, I won’t stop studying and learning, because this is the vocation to which God has led me.

Thanks for all who passed along words of encouragement while I prepared for this exam.

Why WordPress Rocks!

WordPress rocks because they gave me a pencil.  Just look at my new header.

Here while back, I used WordPress’s feedback feature to request custom headers for this theme (Think of my blog as a ‘67 Chevelle.) I thought, what self respecting archivist would have a pen rathen than a pencil at the top of his blog. Well, today, Andy from WordPress told me that they had adjusted my theme. He even provided me with a sample picture of a pencil to get me up and running.

Thank you Andy, and thank you WordPress. Hooray, WordPress!

Catharsis

One week from tomorrow I will be taking the ACA exam. I am extremely nervous. I can honestly say that I have studied for this test harder than any other that I have ever taken. They only offer it once a year so I decided to forgo a mission trip with my church to St. Thomas in order to try to take the test. I really wanted to go, but I feel like I have to take the test.

I am fearful right now. I really would like to pass the exam, but I realize that I am essentially a self-trained archivist. I have been to some workshops on archives, and I worked under an archivist who was trained primarily as a historian, but I have no formal training in the field. I have a good bit of on the job training. I have read widely about the field, and I continue to do so, but I am not certain that this will be enough.

I realize that there are constant discussions concerning professionalism and the value of certification in the field. Certification, in my mind, does not necessarily qualify me to be an archivist. The process of preparing for this exam has indeed helped better equip me in the field, but that does not mean that it qualifies me. Likewise, I do not believe that being certified would make me a better archivist. To pass the test would be a point of pride for me. It is a goal for which I have worked very hard. It would say that I at least have attained a fairly decent working knowledge of the field. It would tangibly signify that I understand many of the things that my employer expects me to understand.

Why am I writing this? Perhaps because this blog came about through my desire to prepare for the exam. So, perhaps it’s appropriate that my fear and loathing be expressed here, right beside my book reviews, study notes, and thoughts on archivy.

You should know about Diigo!

To those of you who read this blog on a regular basis, I want to apologize for posting infrequently lately. I have had a couple other projects that I have been working on, plus my Church had vacation Bible school last week. You don’t get much done during VBS week.

I just wanted to take the time to inform you about a new social bookmarking service. For those of you who already have one, you’re probably groaning, “Not another one!” I know. I know. I have been using Del.icio.us for…well…forever. I can’t remember life before Del.icio.us. In fact, I have no intentions on ceasing from using Del.icio.us. (With Diigo and its toolbar, I don’t have to, but more on that in another post.)

For those of you who don’t have a social bookmarking service…well…you need one. Social bookmarking is a way to keep track of all of the websites that you visit. It allows you to describe the page using several one word “tags.” For example, if you visited the page for “Talladega Nights,” you might tag it as “movie,” “Will_Ferrell,” “stupid,” and “NASCAR.” This may seem like a useless service until you cannot find that page with the thing that you needed for your job and now you’re gonna get fired cause you can’t produce what you said you could. Or perhaps you can’t find that online add for that ring for your wife that you saw that would save you $1000 so now you can’t get a new johnboat because you don’t have the extra $$$$ you would have saved. Trust me. You need one. There are several out there.

Diigo is different, though. The service is only in beta testing at this point, so you have to actually request an invitation to participate. Diigo not only lets you save a bookmark to the page, but it also allows you to highlight content. It lets you add virtual sticky notes to the page. This really is the ideal tool for research and blogs. You can access your thoughts about a certain web page from anywhere in the world, right on the web page. How many times have you wished that blogs and webpages worked like books. You wish that you could add marginalia. You wish that the marginalia could be either public or private. It’s all possible with Diigo.

Don’t just take my word for it. Go try out Diigo’s playground for yourself. If you don’t think the service is the coolest thing since Cocoa Pebbles (it’s like cereal, only chocolaty), then walk away from your keyboard, go get in your 1973 Ford Maverick, throw in your favorite Captain and Tenille 8-track, and …well… you get the picture.

I have just started using Diigo in the past few days, so I will have more to say about it later. However, I do think that this is one of the best social bookmarking sites that I have used. Long live Diigo!

Basic?

You call this basic?

Odd Jobs

As I said in my first post on this blog, I work both as a systems librarian and an archivist. The combination sometimes makes for strange weeks, but both duties are enjoyable and rewarding in different ways. This seems particularly evident to me as I reflect on the last week of work.

Last week, I had one of the most enjoyable days of my fledgling career. In one day, I helped a patron identify exactly which 1589 Geneva Bible he had inherited; I worked with another exceptionally rare Bible; I held the first book that ever entered our library; I helped one of our patrons find a much needed resource that he had been unable to find; and I aided a researcher in using a set of Baptist associational minutes which turned out to have a heretofore unreferenced circular letter by the second president of the Southern Baptist Convention. That was a great day!

Yesterday, I had a different kind of day. I sent another librarian several HTML files that would enable her to do something her library director wanted on their website. I changed out a SCSI card. I replaced the computer that was wired to our microfilm scanner. I installed the software that went along with said scanner. I worked with another systems librarian to help identify why our MetaLib and SFX server wasn’t working. I made a really, really long Ethernet cable.

It’s odd. Four years ago I would not have seen myself doing either of these things for a career. Now, I work in two disparate fields in the same job, and I seem to enjoy both in different ways for different reasons. As an archivist, I work one on one with people, pointing them to the resources they need. It’s very rewarding in tangible ways. Patrons generally love you if you are an archivist. I even occasionally get thanked in the front-matter of books.

As a systems librarian, I get the feeling of accomplishment as I make things work using my own ingenuity. No one ever taught me how to change a SCSI card. No one told me how to install software. And probably, no patron is ever going to thank me for what I do with systems (aside from other staff.) And that’s ok. I don’t do my job for thanks. Thanks is nice, but I do what I do for three reasons.

First, God has placed me where I am to do what I do for his glory. When I point researchers to the right resources, God is glorified. When I change a SCSI card so researchers can use microfilm, God is glorified. Second, I do what I do because I like doing it. I enjoy meeting the needs of researchers. I enjoy working with computers and computer systems. Third, I do what I do because I get paid. What can I say? I like to eat!

Despite the fact that these duties are disparate, they do share one commonality. Without someone doing them, no one would get to the resources they need. When our system is running, patrons can find what they need. When I create finding aids, I help patrons find what they need. And maybe that’s the tie that binds the odd jobs I enjoy.