Poster Session III: Poster Abstracts

Untold Stories: Using Local Histories, Newspapers, and Maps to Reveal Environmental Shift (Diane Dias De Fazio, University of Iowa)

In the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy in 2012, resources at The New York Public Library gained new relevance, as journalists and residents attempted to understand the effects of the storm on Manhattan and the surrounding region. Using tools like the Map Warper (which had recently launched), researchers could overlay historical maps across the contemporary street grid and track flooding in ways not previously thought possible; reviewing anthologies like I. N. Phelps Stokes’ The Iconography of Manhattan Island 1498-1909… (1915-1928), with its account of daily life from the fifteenth century onward, provided chilling insights into how prior meteorological calamities had affected the “island at the center of the world”.

Building from the RBMS18 Plenaries on Environment and Materiality, specifically Matthew Mulcahy’s studies of natural disasters in the Colonial period and Marisa J. Fuentes’ examination of the lives of women who were enslaved, as documented in the accounts of white settlers, this poster will examine how digital and physical collections in the Library’s Local History and Maps Divisions add to environmental studies scholarship. Implicit in genealogy collections via documentation of record loss due to natural disasters, and family histories, which provide accounts of crop devastation, floods, and more, the firsthand documentation of climate change found in these items represents an under-utilized primary source.

In addition to material collections in the Irma and Paul Milstein Division of United States History, Local History and Genealogy, researchers have access to oral histories and historical newspapers, including, through databases, access to eighteenth- and nineteenth-century American periodicals long-considered “lost” by historians. This poster will highlight examples of these collections, as well as photographs and post cards (which may document vistas and locations no longer in existence), and make parallels to similar collections in other libraries.

Preserving the History of the Heartland: The Race to Archive Iowa’s Historic Barns Against Climate Change (Jenna Silver, University of Iowa)

Dotted along the Iowa countryside, buried in the hills, or towering in a flat field are the historic barns of Iowa. These once large, magnificent structures served Iowa’s agricultural industry and were a sign of success and power. Now, these barns are at risk of crumbling and eventually being forgotten. Climate change has been a major factor in the uptick of barn destruction in the Midwest. An increase of severity and frequency of storms and massive flooding has resulted in many century old barns being destroyed. The loss of these buildings is not just a physical loss but cultural as well. Without these structures, there is a portion of social, historical, and agricultural history missing from the Midwest narrative. Unfortunately, for many Iowa communities it is not financially feasible to physically restore the structure. However, efforts could be made to archive these barns through developing a digital collection of metadata, photographs, and 3D renderings. This project is geared towards helping archivists and communities document as many of these structures and their histories as possible before they can be claimed by climate change.

Discovering Hidden Connections via SNAC Visualizations: Climate Thinkers and Their Cohorts, Expected and Unexpected (Jerry Simmons [not in attendance], Dina Herbert [not in attendance], and Elizabeth Wilkinson, University of Virginia)

As an innovative aggregator of authority data, and archival and special library description access, SNAC (Social Networks and Archival Context) leverages EAC-CPF (Encoded Archival Context for Corporate Bodies, Persons and Families) to describe creator and subject entities and link them to their cultural heritage record. SNAC then becomes a one-search solution to resolve the historic challenge of archival diaspora, in other words, the globally dispersed archival record of any particular creator entity. Starting with the Environmental Protection Agency SNAC record, the poster will highlight expected and unexpected connections among entities within archival collections. The poster will feature SNAC’s “connection graph” function to illustrate relationships by varying degrees, and then contextualize the relationship, both with standardized terminology and curated narrative notes. Researchers can use SNAC to explore the relationships between entities and discover new and uncharted documentation of climate and other meteorological themes among scientists, artists, and political figures.

Scaling Up Special Collections: Student-curated Exhibits with Large Classes (Juli McLoone and Kristine Greive [not in attendance], University of Michigan)

As College and University Special Collections become more invested and more successful in campus outreach, they often face an increasing demand for instruction services. At the University of Michigan, one form this has taken is faculty requests to provide instruction to large classes, and another is supporting projects other than the traditional research paper, such as exhibit curation. While we would hesitate to call this a problem, meeting these demands can certainly be a challenge, especially when they are combined in the same course. Since Winter 2017, the presenters have supported student-curated online exhibits by three classes of more than 50 students, and a fourth such exhibit is planned for Winter 2019. Repeated iterations and variations on this project have helped us develop tried and true principles for successful student-curated exhibits with large classes. This poster will feature diagrams of classroom layouts and staffing patterns for safely engaging in hands-on activities with large groups, examples of in-class exercises (such as writing accessible exhibit labels), project timelines, tips on assignment design, screenshots of exhibits, and key takeaways for those wishing to implement similar projects at their home institutions. We will also be prepared to talk with attendees about the benefits of welcoming and supporting student-curated exhibits by large classes, and how these projects provide opportunities to gain skills in primary source literacy, drawing connections to the core ideas and learning objectives in the ACRL-RBMS and SAA Primary Source Literacy Guidelines.

Mapping Manuscript Migrations – Using Linked Data to Connect Pre-modern Manuscripts Datasets (Emma Cawlfield, Schoenberg Institute for Manuscript Studies, University of Pennsylvania)

The Mapping Manuscript Migrations project harnesses the power of linked data to unite disparate datasets relating to the description and provenance of pre-modern manuscripts. The field of manuscript studies is critical to understanding the world’s shared cultural heritage, and studying changes in manuscript ownership further elucidates the transfer of knowledge and values over time. Many institutions store and produce data about manuscripts, but these isolated datasets create difficulties for any researcher wishing to perform broader analyses across multiple collections. Since 2017, the Mapping Manuscript Migrations project has utilized linked data to develop a unified data model and interface for querying across four important sources for manuscript data: the Schoenberg Database of Manuscripts, the Bodleian Library at the University of Oxford, and the Bibale and Medium databases at the Institut de recherche et d’histoire des texts (IRHT) in Paris. Partner institutions include the University of Pennsylvania Libraries, the Oxford e-Research Centre, the Bodleian Libraries, the IRHT, and the Semantic Computing Research Group in Helsinki. This poster will explain the conceptual framework behind the Mapping Manuscript Migrations project, incorporating broader discussions about linked data, pre-modern manuscript research, and international collaborative projects. Mapping Manuscript Migrations is funded by the Trans-Atlantic Platform under Round 4 of the Digging into Data Challenge, with generous support from the Institute of Museum and Library Services.

Short-Term Staffing Solutions in Special Collections (Keith Phelan Gorman and Kathelene McCarty Smith, University of North Carolina — Greensboro)

Despite the lingering effects of budget cuts and austerity, special collection librarians and archivists must continue to demonstrate their value to users and stakeholders through improved access to collections, new services and programming, and the employment of social media. As these services are often required of a small group of full-time staff, librarians and archivists must rely on the inclusion of temporary personnel into their workforce.

Building a supplemental staff necessitates creative and effective strategies for recruitment, management, and sustainability. Depending on the special collections library, this short-term staff can include interns, student workers, grant-funded staff, paid temporary employees, or volunteers. These temporary workers may be drawn from library science students, part-time librarians, or skilled individuals outside of the library field. By employing a range of experienced short-term staff, special collections libraries can not only meet basic processing needs, but also undertake more creative initiatives. Yet, these additional workers can often put a strain on an already overextended special collections staff, creating supervisory challenges that may threaten sustainability. Thus, it is critical to prepare full-time staff to manage and mentor this supplemental workforce, while maintaining unit cohesion and morale.

This poster will present effective and innovative ways to provide temporary staff to special collections and offer a practical guide for recruitment, training, management, and retention of short-term personnel.

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