Coffee House Reflection: Earleen Glaser

Thank you for bringing awareness to the value of resourcefulness librarian’s and experts provided. Technology is complex. Thankfully, Marian’s librarians are not only present in Fond Du Lac, but extend support services through the phone as well as email. I have formally, taken advantage in prior research guidance with high quality research journals from external databases that I had never known prior. The librarian provided a wide range of extended resources, personal knowledge with database searches, and printed journal sources (not available online), but mailed to me personally within 2 days was unbelievable. I completely agree with, Liberians are able to save time that is extremely valuable to all of us, nor should a librarian

Many do not know that the IMA houses two different libraries. The Stout Reference Library and the Horticultural Society Library provide numerous resources for their visitors, which mainly consist of students, IMA Staff, docents, collectors, researchers and even members of the community. The Stout Reference Library “focuses on the encyclopedia collection of the Indianapolis Museum of Art, while also providing general information about art and art history of all periods.” (Stout Reference Library, 2017) The Horticultural Society Library “houses more than 2,000 volumes, including general reference books and books on landscaping, specific plant families and horticulture.” (Horticultural Society Library, 2017) I mention the libraries because this semester, I am technically considered a library and archives intern at the IMA. My mentor however is the archivist, Samantha Norling. She has done impressive work at the IMA in such a short time. She jump-started the Archives online portal, which consists of thousands of digitized items from the archives. The IMA received a “generous grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH)” (Documenting Modern Living, 2017), that allowed for 17,000 items from the Miller House and Garden archival collection to be digitized.

Marilynne K. Roach is a resident of Watertown, Massachusetts. She went on to graduate with a BFA from MCA (Massachusetts College of Art) but she uniquely gives credit to the public library systems for the rest of her education. This is very interesting to me because she says that libraries are what she owes to her education to. Because of all the books she reads she later turns out to be a great book writer herself. The library system really did impact Marilynne’s life drastically. But besides illustrating other writers work in history she also has written and illustrated many books of her own, this including “Six Women of Salem”.

“Working in the Archives: Practical Research Methods for Rhetoric and Composition” is a comprehensive guide for aspiring scholars to navigate research. In chapter --, Lyenee Lewis Gaillet addresses the need to instruct students how to use the research archives and recognize the philosophical assumptions that lie in the worldview of the researcher. Gaillet gives precautions concerning the interpretation of facts, which provoked reflections of my experience processessing artifacts. I took an internship opportunity in a small for-profit museum in Midway, Georgia, a rural town haunted with deep colonial and Civil War history. My primary task was to transcribe unprocessed documents from the museum’s archives.

[Biographies of endowments come from Ohio University Libraries’ website. This exhibition will be featured in the (two) fourth floor cases. Visual description: The first shelf will be feature the intro panel with the gift of Rufus Putnam and tombstone label and image of Putnam. It is important to note now – for lack of repetition – that all tombstone labels will accompany an image of the giver. Next will feature the Alden collection and the Spencer collection selections on the opposite side. The next case will feature the Stevens’ endowment, Memior of Zerah Colburn. Images of Lynn Johnson will take up the next two shelves, and Farfel will take up the last three shelves.]

In addition to performing general administrative duties relating to the day-to-day operation of the archives unit the Archives Assistant assists with reference requests; accessions, arranges, describes, and processes archival collections; and assists with other initiatives designated by the University Archivist, including research, planning, and outreach activities. This archival position, like the other two listed, is deeply rooted in caring about records from their creation to disposition. A digital repository would be a welcomed addition to the scope of the archives function.

Archives can be made up of letters, records, paintings, photos, artifacts, and others for preservation to understand what occurred during a period in history or the perspective of a person’s life. Many of these archives can be found in museums and libraries around the world for researchers or historians to obtain information about events that occurred in the past. Although, there are still hidden documents that have yet to be discovered. When researchers or historian begin their journey of going through these documents, they will soon realize the difficulties of finding a never-ending answer to their objective. Arlette Farge created the novel, “Allure of the Archives,” to provide a perspective of a female researcher searching through archives

“Most current digital repositories ... do not have specific mandates for long term preservation, nor do they have the necessary long-term budgets. Instead, they are mandated to support access and re-use in the near-term future. Long term preservation may be one of their aims, or at least hopes and wishes, but it is not (yet) a responsibility” (Digital Curation Centre and DigitalPreservationEurope, 2007, p. 2). The New York Academy of Medicine created digital surrogates for several items in their collection, hosted online by CONTENTdm. They now can be considered a digital repository. As they are a relatively small organization, and somewhat new to managing digital collections, much of their current focus for their digital collection is to support “access and re-use in the near-term future.” They have not yet been able to consider their plans for the long-term preservation of their digital collection.

The archive I am visiting for this term project is the Local History & Archives of the Hamilton Public Library located on the third floor of the Central Branch at 55 York Boulevard in Hamilton, Ontario. Since 1914, Hamilton Public Library has been collecting and preserving Hamilton 's history. The Local History & Archives collection consists of material such as letters, photographs, manuscripts, diaries and other original records created by Hamilton and area citizens. There are records of local businesses and organizations, family papers, government records of the City of Hamilton and the County of Wentworth, military records, theatrical collections, music collections, ephemera, etc. This archive visit took place on November 16th 2016.

During the first week, I became acquitted with the JMABC policies and procedures as well as getting a rough idea of the collection as a whole. My first task was to help finish up the new subject thesaurus JMABC was developing for their AtoM website. This involved removing certain terms that were deemed irrelevant by the archivist and adding in terms specific to our collection, such as Jewish holidays and life events. I then inputted these terms into the AtoM website, which can be viewed here. Please note that the subject thesaurus is an on-going project and has been further developed by other archives assistants.

I am the Information Literacy/Reference/Distance Education Librarian at the Ford Motor Company Library. It is my pleasure to write this recommendation letter on behalf of Johnny Defroe for the position of Tuskegee University Ambassador. I met Johnny in August 2014, when his English class came to the Library for an Information Literacy class. I was immediately impressed with his passion and excitement for the class.

A tight library budget has led to a very lean employment model at the Newtown Public Library. There is very little overlap in coverage on the reference desk. The two part-time reference librarians at this library also work in other area libraries. Because these employees are only part time and work in other libraries, it is difficult for them to spend a vast amount of time memorizing reference procedures. Additionally, this lack of time makes it difficult to keep up with changes in various technology. The head of the Reference Department would like to arrange a departmental “reference refresher” course for reference librarians. The purpose of these meetings would be to share and communicate information; communication that would be

It is no secret Vincent Van Gogh loves bright colors, many of his paintings portray his world with lots of bright blues, yellows, and greens. One of his most colorful and undoubtedly gorgeous paintings is Café Terrace at Night. This is the first painting Van Gogh did with a nocturnal background and yet there is no darkness in the back, but instead the sky is filled with light blues and yellows; in many of the artist’s paintings, even in the day, the sky is filled with bright colors and swirls, Van Gogh says, "I often think that the night is more alive and more richly colored than the day." The painting was done in 1888, two years before the artist committed suicide, and can be found at Kröller-Müller Museum

I selected the Loafe Cafe at UBC to study while doing this write up. From previous encounters, I have noticed it to be a very rich and intriguing cafe to become an observer of. There were many compelling observations I made which caused me to realize the amount of connections this course has to everyday life as a student and member of society. In this day and age, our interactions, daily vernacular, and social presence have all been affected and in some ways shaped by media.

The author of the above mentioned article is Ruth Sara Connell, an Associate Professor of Library Services and Electronic Librarian at Christopher Center Library Services of Valparaiso University, Indiana, USA. Up to date, she has published 11 journal articles and one printed book (Valparaiso University, 2015).