STA 2009 preview...

On Wednesday, the Society of Tennessee Archivists annual meeting begins here in Nashville at the Nashville Public Library with a pre-conference workshop entitled "Web 2.0: What is it and How Does it Affect Us?" There is also another pre-conference workshop dedicated to "Collections Care and Management 101: Connecting to Collections."

Thursday's session schedule also looks promising with workshops on utilizing Twitter to its fullest potential, "Archiving the Web," "Free Software Applications Used in Archives," and a keynote address by Tennessee Secretary of State Tre Hargett, followed by a tour of Historic Downtown Presbyterian Church, a session on "Copyright in a Web 2.0 World," and the annual awards banquet.

Friday's schedule includes a great roundable discussion with a Q&A session, the business meeting, elections, and door prizes for attendees.

Posts to the Posterity Project may be a bit spotty during this week as I will be away from my computer for much of the conference sessions (Yes, believe it or not, I do not own a laptop computer. I'm really hoping Santa Claus thinks I've been nice this year, HINT, HINT.). As time permits I plan to publish photos, summaries of sessions, and general insights into what should be an informative and exciting event. I am also really looking forward to reconnecting with some old friends and colleagues that I have not seen in a while. Behind the scenes, I'm involved with some exciting things going on at the Tennessee State Library and Archives that I plan to share with my readers in the coming days. I hope you'll take a few moments during the week to follow the STA Conference here on the Posterity Project and on my Twitter page. It should be a great meeting.


RELATED LINK:

• Society of Tennessee Archivists newsletter features Archives 2.0 - The Posterity Project

Jeanne Sugg announces her retirement from TSLA...

News I've held off publishing on the Posterity Project until it became public... Tennessee State Librarian & Archivist Jeanne Sugg is retiring. Here's the scoop from Tenn-Share...

Tenn-Share regrets that our State Librarian and Archivist, Jeanne C. Sugg, has announced her retirement effective in January 2010.

Ms. Sugg has been an advocate for Tennessee libraries and, especially, the Tennessee Electronic Library since coming to the office in 2005. Her career has spanned more than 40 years and, in addition to 25 years at the Tennessee State Library, included service at Trevecca College, Nashville Public Library, and expatriate community libraries in Saudi Arabia.

We wish her well!

I wish her well too. Ms. Sugg has been very kind to me in my career and has been a strong friend and advocate for Tennessee's public records for many years. While I'm happy for her in reaching this milestone, I am also sad for the loss of a great public servant. Jeanne Sugg and her predecessor, Dr. Edwin Gleaves, set a very high standard of leadership at TSLA. Tennessee Secretary of State Tre Hargett certainly has some pretty big shoes to fill in his next appointment to this key position in state government.


RELATED LINKS:

• Tennessee's State Librarian and Archivist reappointed - The Posterity Project

• Jeanne Sugg Receives TLA Honorary Membership Award - Tenn-Share

Ferriero confirmed as 10th AUS...

Following up on news posted on this blog back in July, the National Archives reports that David S. Ferriero has been officially confirmed by the U.S. Senate to become the 10th Archivist of the United States...

Today, the United States Senate voted to confirm David Ferriero as the 10th Archivist of the United States. Mr. Ferriero was the Andrew W. Mellon Director of the New York Public Libraries and is a leader in the field of library science. Mr. Ferriero, who was nominated by President Obama on July 28, 2009, will succeed Professor Allen Weinstein who resigned as Archivist in December 2008 for health reasons. Deputy Archivist Adrienne Thomas is serving as the Acting Archivist until Mr. Ferriero assumes his duties.

Click here to read more from the NARA news release.


RELATED LINK:

• Meet the new AUS - The Posterity Project

A virtual tour of the Nashville Public Library Digital Collection

It's been a few posts since my last visit on the virtual tour of Tennessee's digital collections, so I thought I would end the work week with a brief visit to The Nashville Public Library's Digital Collection.

The Nashville Public Library's Digital Collection includes scenes from Music City's past, including photographs, maps, aerial views, oral history interviews, and pamphlets covering six areas of interest:

• Capital City
• Architecture
• Military History
• Civil Rights
• Performing Arts
• Business

The NPL's Digital Collection is a one-of-a-kind resource for anyone interested in Nashville's historic past. Click here to view the collection.

On a somewhat related note, the NPL is hosting the Society of Tennessee Archivists' 2009 Annual Meeting on November 11-13. The theme of this year's meeting is "Archives 2.0: Reinventing the Archives for the Virtual Generation." I'm really looking forward to this conference and hope to share some of the highlights of the meeting next week here on the Posterity Project. Stay tuned!


RELATED LINK:

• A "Virtual Tour" of Tennessee's Digital Collections - The Posterity Project

IMLS features Volunteer Voices

In a November 2009 update on its web site, the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) profiled "Volunteer Voices", a digital museum of nearly 11,000 documents and images related to Tennessee history now used in classrooms throughout the state. Librarians have used a three-year, $928,000 grant from the IMLS and a similar amount from 10 partner libraries, historical societies, and museums in the state to create Volunteer Voices. According to the article...

"A key goal was to create a central Internet site where teachers and students could explore the primary sources that bring Tennessee’s history to life," said Ken Middleton, a user services librarian at Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro and one of the co-principal investigators leading the project. In all, 95 institutions, from the sprawling University of Tennessee in Knoxville and the Tennessee State Library and Archives in Nashville to small libraries in rural parts of the state, contributed collections of documents, photos, letters, musical scores, and other items...

Click here to read more from the IMLS profile, and click here to learn more about Volunteer Voices.


RELATED LINKS:

• Volunteer Voices

• The Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS)

TSLA honored by state Supreme Court...

WSMV.com reports that the Tennessee Supreme Court Historical Society recently honored the Tennessee State Library and Archives for its work to preserve, archive and catalog historic records of Tennessee Supreme Court cases going back to 1794. According to the article...

The library and archives were commended for their ongoing work on a Tennessee Supreme Court record preservation project.

This involves preserving, archiving and cataloging historical records of Tennessee Supreme Court cases going back to 1796.

Those records were stored in the upper floors of the Capitol before eventually being moved across the street to the State Library and Archives.

Since the project began in January 2008, a 20-person staff has cleaned, refiled and entered into a computer database some 9,700 Supreme Court records.

Mike Catalano, Clerk of the Appellate Courts, has also written a nice article on the project on page 7 of the Tennessee Supreme Court Historical Society's Fall 2009 newsletter, CHRONICLE. Although the Federal Grant funds that enabled the State Library and Archives to begin this project ceased, State Library and Archives staff made the decision to continue the project with existing staff [Hat tip to @gencarter for providing a link to this article]...

Each staff member of a staff of 20 persons dedicates about 4 hours per week to the project, which is the equivalent of having 2 full-time employees assigned to the project. Since the project began in January 2008, at least 9,672 Supreme Court records have been cleaned, refoldered and entered into the computer database. Between May of 2009, when staff began dedicating their time to the project, and the TSCHS’s Board meeting in August, 1,763 Supreme Court Records have been completed.

Congratulations to TSLA for a job well done!


RELATED LINKS:

• Tennessee Supreme Court Historical Society

• Supreme Court Record Preservation Project Update - CHRONICLE: The Newsletter of the Tennessee Supreme Court Historical Society Fall 2008 (p. 12)

• Tennessee State Library & Archives

Some links for your Halloween candy bag...

Here are a few links to Tennessee-related news items that I found over the past week that may be of interest to readers of the Posterity Project. Think of this as a mini "Weekly Roundup" of selected links from my Twitter page. Plus, no cavities or sugar rush to worry about! Enjoy...

• Nine Tennessee Archivists were recognized by Tennessee Secretary of State Tre Hargett for completing Certified Archive Manager Training - via press release by the Tennessee Department of State (Hat tip to @gencarter for first posting a link to this on her Twitter page)
  

• The Howard J. Baker Jr. Center for Public Policy's Modern Political Archives at the University of Tennessee hosted several exhibits on global issues, organized crime and public participation earlier this month to celebrate American Archives Month. The Tennessee Journalist has a full report.

• After a 30-year career in history and genealogy, 71-year-old Robert Taylor retired on Friday. Taylor worked in the genealogy department of the Jackson-Madison County Library for the past 15 years. His passion for history began as a teenager when he was inspired to learn more about his family. The Jackson Sun has the rest of the story (Thanks to @kevindmccann for providing a link to this article).

• The Nashville Scene's Betsy Phillips goes to the Tennessee State Library and Archives "In Search of Granny 'Rat's Tavern."

• The Tennessee State Library and Archives is hosting a workshop, "Volunteer Banners: Tennessee’s Civil War Flags and Flag Makers" on Saturday, December 5 from 9:30 am to 10:30 am.

• A mystery censor is giving librarians at the Maury County Library reason to cuss. Newschannel5.com and The Daily Herald have the full report.

• Public libraries in Chattanooga and Knoxville cope with a down economy and cuts to their budgets.

There are even more links available on my Twitter page, so follow me there to find more "links to our past."

PAHR needs your help!

Yesterday, Kate Theimer over at the ArchivesNext blog sent out a call to action on an important bill currently being considered in Congress, PAHR: Preserving the American Historical Record.

I've blogged about PAHR many times here on the Posterity Project, but this particular post is perhaps the most urgent, because without more sponsors, PAHR stands to lose momentum and die in committee before it even reaches the House floor for a vote.

Kate quotes Kathleen Roe, Director of Archives and Records Management Operations for the New York State Archives and one of the guiding forces behind PAHR, who says PAHR needs at least 50 sponsors for the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform to be willing to take it up on their agenda as a serious piece of legislation. The bill currently has 42 sponsors, among them Tennessee's own Bart Gordon.

Unfortunately, Rep. Gordon is the only legislator from the state of Tennessee to sign his name to PAHR as a cosponsor. This is shameful in my estimation, particularly at a time when state archives are struggling financially, and PAHR would provide $951,373 in funding for archives in the Volunteer state.

It's time to contact your own Representative in Congress and urge them to sign on as a cosponsor to PAHR. Here are the contacts of those Representatives here in Tennessee who need to hear from you...

• Rep. Phil Roe (R) - Tennessee 1st District
• Rep. Jimmy Duncan (R) - Tennessee 2nd District
• Rep. Zach Wamp (R) - Tennessee 3rd District
• Rep. Lincoln Davis (D) - Tennessee 4th District
  
• Rep. Jim Cooper (D) - Tennessee 5th District
• Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R) - Tennessee 7th District
• Rep. John S. Tanner (D) - Tennessee 8th District
• Rep. Steve Cohen (D) - Tennessee 9th District

RELATED LINKS:

• PAHR: Preserving the American Historical Record - Society of American Archivists

• H.R. 2256: Preserving the American Historical Record - GovTrack.us

• "PAHR" tagged posts - The Posterity Project

Rutherford County Archives to digitize unique photo collection

In my morning browse of the local news, I found this gem from the Murfreesboro Post that I thought I would share with my blog readers. The article describes a one-of-a-kind collection of photographs documenting the history of Murfreesboro and Rutherford County, from 1929-1994, recently donated to the Rutherford County Archives...

Over the years Shacklett’s Photography has become a repository for images of Rutherford County, which are part of the “collective memory of the community,” Tom Christy said.

From the Civil War to today, photographs from almost every public and personal event have found their way into the basement of the Murfreesboro studio.

“It’s our responsibility to share them,” Tom said.

Shacklett’s Photography is sharing by donating thousands of images from local history to the Rutherford County Archives.

“While we’ve been the curators and been the ones to carry them into the future, … they are part of the community’s history and the collective memory of the community,” Tom said.

County archivist John Lodl expects to have the photos from this collection indexed in the next six months, and will digitize them shortly thereafter beginning with the oldest and most historically important.

Click here to read more from the Murfreesboro Post article.


RELATED LINKS:

• Shacklett’s exhibit to offer ‘Vision of the Past’ - Murfreesboro Post

• Studio donating historic photos - The Daily News Journal

• MTSU Public History's Photos - "Visions of the Past: Through the Lens of Shacklett's Photography - MTSU Public History Facebook page

Archives Month in the Southeast

October is American Archives Month. To celebrate, many states are observing Archives Month through a variety of events. The Council of State Archivists (CoSA) maintains a handy state-by-state list of planned activities. Here are some highlights from the CoSA list of several events held in my neck of the woods here in the Southeast:

• In my home state of Tennessee the Society of Tennessee Archivists Executive Committee agreed to begin celebrating Archives Month beginning this October 2009 with the theme “Archives 2.0: Reinventing Archives for the Virtual Generation”. For the last nine years archivists in Tennessee have celebrated Tennessee Archives Week each fall with events such as open houses, exhibits, tours, workshops, etc. The change means that we archivists now have a longer period of time for us to demonstrate and celebrate “who we are and what we do.”
  

• Alabama - The Alabama Department of Archives and History (ADAH) held events on October 14-17. Highlights of the activities included a Basics of Archives Workshop; an ArchiTreats presentation, The Civil Rights Movement in Alabama by Odessa Woolfolk; a discussion and book signing with author Hasan Kwame Jeffries; and a special Saturday opening on Archives Day, October 17, with museum tours and research opportunities. All events were held at the Alabama Department of Archives and History.

• Mississippi - Archives and repositories across Mississippi will host various events and activities in promotion of Archives Month. The theme for 2009, “I have so much to tell you…,” allows archives to showcase their multifaceted collections that represent an historical and ever evolving state. Organizations are participating in a variety of ways from hosting exhibits to conducting tours.

• Georgia - Georgia is celebrating Georgia Archives Month with the theme, "Quench Your Thirst for History." The purpose of Archives Month is to celebrate the value of Georgia's historical records, publicize the many ways historical records enrich our lives, and recognize those who maintain our communities' historical records.
  

• North Carolina - The fifth annual Archives Week in North Carolina will take place October 19-25, 2009. This year's theme is "Celebrating the North Carolina Record." Events include a Home Movie Day at the North Carolina State Archives, an exhibit entitled, "Extraordinary People in Ordinary Documents and Treasures of the State Archives," and several presentations by the staff from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill and the State Archives on a variety of topics. The Society of North Carolina Archivists (SNCA) sponsors the week and will serve as an information clearinghouse for events occurring during the week.
  

• South Carolina - The South Carolina State Historical Records Advisory Board is sponsoring Archives Month in 2009 with the theme “Visions of Yesterday, Memories for Tomorrow.” This year Archives month will recognize the photographic and visual riches in our more than one hundred repositories, from historical societies, museums, and local governments to public libraries and colleges and universities.
  

• Kentucky - The Kentucky Department of Libraries and Archives is celebrating Archvies Month 2009 with the theme “In Commemoration of Kentucky’s Abraham Lincoln.” Events include several Lunch and Learns, a SAA Web 2.0 Web seminar and workshops, a documentary, featuring several archivists, researchers, and historians, highlighting the importance of primary source materials, meetings, symposiums, and workshops of the Kentucky Council on Archives, Kentucky Historical Society and the Kentucky Genealogical Society.
  

• Virginia - The theme for Archives Month in Virginia is "To Choose Our Better History." Events include a month-long exhibit, a Virginia History and Archives Fair on October 27, a book signing by American cultural historian Bruce Chadwick, behind-the-scenes tours of the Library of Virginia and Museum of the Confederacy on October 29, and exhibits honoring Old Dominion University. (Hat tip to the George Mason University Libraries Special Collections & Archives vault217 blog for a link to Virginia Archives Month activities.)
  

RELATED LINKS:

• Archives Month Web Pages, Blogs, and Wikis - Society of American Archivists

• Directory of American Archives Month and Archives Week Activities - CoSA

• Society of Tennessee Archivists newsletter features Archives 2.0 - The Posterity Project

A virtual tour of the Great Smoky Mountains...

Today's stop on my virtual tour of Tennessee's digital archives takes us not very far from our last stop on the tour, the Calvin McClung Collection. Today, I explore the Great Smoky Mountains through the Thompson Brothers Digital Photograph Collection.

The Thompson Brothers Digital Photograph Collection is an online collection of breathtaking images of the Great Smoky Mountains. The collection is part of a partnership between the UT Libraries Digital Library Initiatives department and the Great Smoky Mountains Regional Project. It features two photograph albums with a single image collection to follow. According to the Web site:

Robin and Jim Thompson were prominent Knoxville-based photographers from the 1920s to the 1940s. Their photos of the Smoky Mountains were used in reports to the federal government encouraging the establishment of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Many of the photos were taken by Jim Thompson, an avid hiker and founding member of the Smoky Mountains Hiking Club.

The Thompson Brothers Digital Photograph Collection began as a project between the UT Libraries and the Calvin McClung Collection of the Knox County Public Library to convert the McClung Thompson photograph collection and a UT Special Collections album into digital images.

The project expanded when curators from Harvard University and Colorado College offered to loan two more Thompson photo albums to UT to be converted to digital images. The albums contain unique images of the Smoky Mountains that were not available in the McClung and UT Collections.

These black-and-white images depict the grand nature of the Great Smoky Mountains and a bit of Appalachian culture as well. From scenic views from some of the area's most beautiful spots to images documenting cabins and plant life, the Thompson Brothers Digital Photograph Collection provides a one-of-a-kind look into the lens of a great photographer's work and his vision of one of the Southeast's most unique natural treasures.

Click here to browse this amazing collection.


RELATED LINKS:

• University of Tennessee Digital Library Initiatives (DLI)

• University of Tennessee Great Smoky Mountains Regional Project

• Great Smoky Mountains 75th Anniversary Web site

A new building for TSLA or just wishful thinking?

Last night I ran across a story recently published in the Clarksville Leaf-Chronicle announcing a meeting of the Montgomery County Historical Society on October 19 on the Austin Peay State University campus. Former Tennessee Secretary of State, Riley Darnell, will be a guest speaker at this event. What I found most interesting about this article, however, was the following passage (bold emphasis mine)...

With a sleek, new facility in the offing, what will your state library and archives be able to do for you?...

...The current Library and Archives building opened in 1953 and is located across the street from the Tennessee State Capitol in Nashville. Because of the heavy influx of traffic in that area, parking has been a perennial problem. The move to the new space should alleviate issues related to parking.

The new structure for TSLA will be located adjacent to Nashville's Bicentennial Mall. In addition to providing enhanced opportunities for the collection and preservation of books and records, the facility has been designed to feature state of the art equipment that will assist library and archive patrons with their research needs.

The Tennessee State Library and Archives has needed a new facility for some time, but has had to place plans for a move to Bicentennial Mall on hold as the economy continues to take its toll on the state budget. However, by the way this article is worded the Leaf-Chronicle would have us believe that construction on a new TSLA facility is imminent. I really hope that this is true, but everything I'm hearing and reading about the state's budget is leading me to conclude that TSLA will not break ground on a new facility anytime soon.

Frankly, I think a new building for TSLA is long overdue. If Tennesseans value their documentary heritage then as citizens I think we must support the work the folks at the Tennessee State Library and Archives are doing on our behalf to preserve and protect our state's public records. You can do your part by contacting your state Senator or Representative, and ask them to make a new building for the Tennessee State Library and Archives a budget priority in the next fiscal year.


RELATED LINKS:

• TSLA's new home - The Posterity Project

• Archives reflect our Tennessee values - The Posterity Project

Follow the National Preservation Conference in Nashville

Over the weekend I found some interesting Web 2.0 links to the National Preservation Conference, which is being held this year here in Nashville beginning Tuesday, October 13 and continuing through Saturday, October 17.

For those who want to follow along, you can visit the Virtual Attendee web site where you will find links to some of the events and sessions at the conference. Several members of the PreservationNation staff will be blogging, webcasting, participating in chat sessions, uploading images to Flickr, posting on Facebook and tweeting their experiences. You can follow the action on Twitter by searching the hash tag #PresConf.

Click here to begin your experience as a 'Virtual Attendee' of the 2009 National Preservation Conference in Nashville.


RELATED LINKS:

• Take advantage of history festival - Tennessean

• National Preservation Conference 2009 Schedule at a Glance - National Trust for Historic Preservation

• Archive for the 'national preservation conference' Category - PreservationNation blog

• Vintage Roadside

Scaling the paywall...

A recent press release by Ancestry.com announced "an expansion to their relationship with the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) that enables the company to digitize NARA record collections at a new Ancestry.com facility in the Washington, D.C., area. The new facility will help bring millions of new NARA documents online for the first time."

Sounds great, right? Well, there is a catch... "Once NARA records are digitized, Ancestry.com posts them online for its subscribers (emphasis mine). Additionally, NARA archive visitors will have access to the digitized files on-site through Ancestry.com." NARA has a similar arrangement with Footnote.com, which has digitized NARA collections devoted to such subjects as African-American history and the Holocaust, among many others.

My first gut reaction to this news is somewhat mixed. Why should the public be required to subscribe to Ancestry.com or Footnote.com to view documents that already belong to them in the first place? I will concede that corporate partnerships which allow private companies to scan and digitize millions of public documents and photographs held at the National Archives have some merit. These arrangements allow for more material to be placed online than would otherwise be possible. These companies also add intellectual value to the collections by making them searchable and provide context to the researcher through detailed descriptions not immediately apparent from the original document or photograph. But as an American citizen with a shared interest in and ownership of NARA's collections, should I really have to scale a private company pay wall to access a public document? I know I'm not the first person to raise this question, and I realize that there are financial and practical reasons for NARA to have these corporate partnerships, but the idealist in me just doesn't like it.

In the process of educating myself about the whole public/private access issue I read with interest Kate Theimer's post on the subject at her ArchivesNext blog. I also read commentary on Tom Scheinfeldt's blog, Found History, and reaction from Footnote.com co-founder Chris Willis. This is an interesting and complex topic that really should get more attention beyond the communities of archivists, genealogists and historians (and dare I say history buffs?) who have an active and passionate interest in NARA's collections.

So is my gut reaction off the mark? I'd like to learn more, so if you have links to further reading or have an opinion on the subject please share them with me in the comments.


UPDATE (10-16-2009): Kate Theimer has posted another great analysis of this issue on her ArchivesNext blog that is worth reading.


RELATED LINKS:

• U.S. Content Update: Ancestry now digitizing onsite at NARA - Ancestry.com

• Privatizing Holocaust History? - Found History

• NARA latest digitization agreement: One archivist's perspective - ArchivesNext

• The NARA/TGN contract as a bad precedent and Yet another digitization contract limits free access to public records - Free Government Information (FGI)

• Good Terms - Improving Commercial-Noncommercial Partnerships for Mass Digitization - D-Lib Magazine

A virtual tour of the Calvin M. McClung Digital Collection

Today's stop on my virtual tour of Tennessee's digital archives lands me in Knoxville, where the Knox County Public Library's Calvin M. McClung Digital Collection resides.

This online archive of images from the Calvin M. McClung Historical Collection includes images from:

• The Thompson Photograph Collection - Jim Thompson was one of Knoxville's pioneer commercial and professional photographers. He captured a rich visual legacy of East Tennessee from 1907 to 1960. This growing digital collection will eventually contain 10,000 images covering the years from the early 1920s to mid-1930s.

• The Knox County Two Centuries Photograph Collection - During the celebration of Knox County's two hundredth birthday in 1991, local citizens contributed hundreds of photographs that documented the people, places, businesses, churches, and historic events of Knox County from the early days of photography in 1840s to the 1970s.

• Women's Suffrage - Women from East Tennessee played a critical role in the women's suffrage movement -- especially Lizzie Crozier French, Mrs. Hugh L. White and Abby Crawford Milton. The Harry T. Burn Papers relating to his decisive vote in favor of woman suffrage in the Tennessee House of Representatives in 1919 is a key component of the new collection.

According to their web site, grants from the state of Tennessee, Knox County and a host of other generous donors have allowed the Knox County Public Library System to share this amazing collection of photographs and other special materials from the Calvin M. McClung Historical Collection.

In addition to the digital collection, the Calvin M. McClung Historical Collection is the local history and genealogy department of the Knox County Public Library System. The McClung Collection is one of the foremost collections of East Tennessee history and one of the premier research libraries in the region, including approximately 120 linear feet of genealogical manuscript collections that have been processed for research use by the public, more than 13,000 rolls of microfilm and subscriptions to web-based genealogical databases, and many significant holdings of East Tennessee county records, among other genealogical treasures.

For anyone researching East Tennessee history, the Calvin M. McClung Digital Collection is a must-see. Click here to find out more about this important archive.


RELATED LINKS:

• East Tennessee Historical Society

• Knox County Public Library

• Knox County Archives