CCEPS – Page 29 – Out of the Box

October 3, 2014July 29, 2022 by chasew

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure!

I am happy to announce that I have begun processing a new, 14 box collection: the Nag Hammadi Codices Project (NHCP) files. That is basically a fancy way of saying that Special Collections has accessioned an amazing group of documents and images, most of which are related to the publication of the Nag Hammadi gnostic text library.

Although the topic and the records are fascinating, we were dismayed to find that before they arrived at their new home here, they had not been stored in the best of conditions….by which I mean they had been stored in a garage. And although garages are an amazing and wonderful thing, trust me when I say they aren’t an awesome place to put your precious records. Why? Because you will likely end up with mold, bugs, and water damage all over the lovely things you were trying to save!

Now, when I think of water damage, usually what pops into my head is crinkled up pages of paper (what you would encounter if you were to drop a book in the bathtub). Well, it turns out that in addition to wrinkling pages, water can also cause rust! And then you end up with things like this:

Yes: that, my friends, is the picture of what a rusting paperclip left on a stack of documents for years will leave you to remember it by! Needless to say, I spent a fair amount of time removing rusty paperclips and staples from this collection’s contents this week. There’s no way those rusty little suckers are heading into the archives if I can help it!

My time-consuming encounter with rust this week made me wonder about the chemistry of this interaction. So I looked it up. It turns out that – of course – paperclips are made of steel, and steel is derived from iron. Over time, as iron and oxygen meet and mingle, a chemical reaction takes place which transforms the iron into iron oxide. The common term for iron oxide is rust.

The good people who make paperclips know this, and so to try and prevent it, they coat paperclips in a layer of zinc. This works – until the zinc layer erodes due to humidity, water saturation, etc. (Many thanks to Shaun McGonagal over at eHow for this explanation! See http://www.ehow.com/facts_5730689_do-paper-clips-rust_.html for more information.)

Which brings us full circle to why you don’t store documents in a garage. Garages, generally speaking, are not weather-proofed…and that means water and/or humidity will hit all your paperclips…and then you will open up a box in 30 years and find this:

But all is not lost! Fortunately, Special Collections accessioned these documents in time to halt their disintegration…so they will be around for a long time, and many researchers will get to enjoy them. Still – I thought after learning all this it was worth using my weekly blog post to make a public service announcement about rust!

Happy storing (your documents somewhere other than a garage) :-).

October 3, 2014July 29, 2022 by phoebeh

First Week!

Hi Everyone,

I just finished my first week at CCEPS! This week, I started arranging a collection called the Kruska Japanese Internment Collection. To begin the week, I read and took thorough notes on the Processing Manual, but then I began working with this collection. This collection has a HUGE array of materials. Some of them are very interesting, like a sign from one of the Japanese Internment facilities, and a tea towel, and a scroll, which was hung in Manzamar Internment Camp. Some of the materials are not so interesting, like printed web pages used by the collector to do research.

I began my journey with this collection by surveying all of the materials. Much of the collection was already arranged and placed in folders; however, I went through all of the documents, artifacts, and materials to think of a way to arrange all of them in an order that made sense. This was difficult because there is a huge variety. At first, I proposed to arrange the collection into similar categories, like having the newspaper clippings with other newspaper clippings. I was trying to create the most logical order I could think of. I then photocopied newspaper clippings, some of which were completely falling apart, like those from 1906 and 1907 about the Exclusion Laws being created in California. Often, it is best to photocopy newspapers in order to preserve the information being presented. I also sized some folders to fit large documents that were not originally fully covered. I did this to help preserve these materials. I also labelled and dated all of the folders, which took a while because there are a bunch of folders, many with only a single item inside.

After looking over my processing proposal, Lisa came up with a great idea to arrange the collection in a series, like Newspapers and clippings, photographs, postal materials, printed matter, realia, and reserach materials. Having the collection organized this way will make it easier for a researcher to find what they are looking for. Today, I re- arranged the materials into this new order and soon I will put it all up on Archivist Toolkit!

Overall, it was been a fantastic first week! I was able to work with some interesting materials and think of creative ways to organize the collection. I’m very excited to continue!

September 26, 2014September 4, 2024 by chasew

Archivist Toolkit

Hello everyone! I am happy to report that my efforts to process Special Collections’ Dead Sea Scroll files are going very well. I accomplished a lot this week, especially in terms of creating records for this series in a program called Archivist Toolkit (AT).

AT is an open source data management tool. As the AT website explains, it was developed by the “University of California San Diego Libraries, the New York University Libraries and the Five Colleges, Inc. Libraries, and is generously funded by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation”

So you can get a sense of what using AT is like, I’ve included some screenshots here. The first thing I do when opening the program is go to the “Resources” section. There, I find the collection where the Dead Sea Scroll files “live;” in this case, that means I go to the James M. Robinson Collection.

A little historical background is useful here in understanding why we organize things this way. As you may know, Dr. Robinson is Professor Emeritus in Claremont Graduate University’s Department of Religion. With Dr. Robert Eisenman (Cal State Long Beach), he helped publish A Facsimile Edition of the Dead Sea Scrolls in 1991. The publication of this book, along with the Huntington Library’s decision to make thousands of photographic negatives of the Scrolls available to researchers, made these texts available to the entire scholarly community for the first time. Prior to these events, access to the Scrolls was controlled for decades by a small in-group of scholars who kept these ancient documents to themselves. The twists and turns of this story, as well as the involvement of Dr. Robinson and Dr. Eisenman in breaking this “scholarly monopoly,” make a fascinating tale. I highly recommend you explore their work – and maybe even read through Special Collection’s series of Dead Sea Scroll files when they’re ready! They contain all sorts of intriguing details about what Dr. Robinson and his colleagues had to go through in order to publish these texts.

All of this is to say: when Dr. Robinson retired, he graciously donated his personal papers – including the Dead Sea Scroll files – to Special Collections, so that the scholarly community could continue to be enriched by his work. This is why you’ll see that I go to the “James M. Robinson” collection in AT when I want to work on digitally organizing the Dead Sea Scroll series:

Once I’m inside the series, I organize it on the subseries and folder levels. I can also add notes to help researchers get a sense of what’s inside a particular file. For example, in “Subseries 1.1: Project papers for A Facsimile Edition of the Dead Sea Scrolls (1991), edited by Dr. Robert H. Eisenman and Dr. James M. Robinson,” I have a folder entitled, “News related to release of Dead Sea Scrolls.” And inside of that record, I have a further record – a note which explains that this file:

Contains both popular and serious news articles related to the publication of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Also includes information related to political conditions during the time period surrounding their release, and a copy of the Society for Biblical Literature’s ‘Statement on Access’ to ancient materials.

When I’m working to describe the collection on a folder level, the AT screen often looks something like this:

To sum up, AT is a great piece of archival technology, and I’m happy I’m getting the opportunity to learn how to use it – especially since it will make it so much easier for researchers to find what they need in the Dead Sea Scroll files once I’m done recording everything! If you’re interested in learning more about this program, or downloading a copy of AT for personal or institutional use, I encourage you to go to the AT website. And if that’s not enough to quench your archival curiosity, you can even follow AT on Twitter.

September 19, 2014February 1, 2025 by chasew

The Week of Fantastic Photocopying!

I’ve enjoyed another fascinating week here as a CCEPS Fellow! This week I finished arranging Honnold/Mudd Special Collections’ Dead Sea Scrolls files. During this process, I spent the majority of my time carefully going through each file and putting everything in chronological order.

After concluding this process, I attended to the necessity of photocopying all fragile documents on acid-free paper. After making these xeroxes, I discarded the original records – which were falling apart! This allowed me to rescue content without keeping a crumbling document in the collection – one which could very well end up illegible down the road, and perhaps even damage other documents as it decayed. To illustrate: I recently encountered a decrepit newspaper clipping which seemed intent on self-destruction – and had already stained the record next to it a nasty yellow! Fortunately, we had an unharmed duplicate of the stained document, so no long-term harm was done. However, this is a good example of what can happen when cheap paper products are allowed to sit for years on end, unpreserved.

Among the materials in this collection that necessitated photocopying were any periodicals printed on inexpensive paper (particularly newsprint), carbon paper, carbonless copy paper, and thermal paper. This last item was commonly used in earlier fax machine models. As it turns out, Dr. James M. Robinson – who donated the Dead Sea Scrolls collection to us – communicated extensively by fax. This meant there was a plethora of thermal paper to be dealt with over the last week! I’m so glad Special Collections received these documents when it did, because records printed on thermal paper can fade rapidly with time, handling, and exposure to light – and the ones in this collection were doing so. Thermal paper is a highly unstable medium.

In case you’re hankering for a look, here’s an image of the oh-so-hardy photocopier on which I made many dozens of xeroxes for this collection:

And here’s Special Collections’ well-stocked, acid-free paper bank – a corner I came to know well while I worked!

As I hope you’ve seen this week, the world of archival preservation and paper chemistry is really pretty fascinating. If you’re interested in reading more, I recommend you check out Michigan State University Libraries’ piece on de-acidification. Australia’s National Archives also have some clear and helpful guidelines on paper preservation as well.

September 12, 2014July 29, 2022 by chasew

In the Process of Processing

Hello! I am very happy to report that Week 2 of my CCEPS Fellowship has allowed me to make a solid contribution to processing Honnold/Mudd Special Collections’ Dead Sea Scroll Files!

I love “before and after” photos – they seem like a cathartic way to celebrate progress – so why don’t we have a look at how the collection has transformed over the last week? Here’s what it looked like when it was originally delivered to our library:

close-up, DSS original file box_blog ready.jpg

And here’s what it looks like after about 20 hours worth of work:

Even though it’s a lot more empty than last week, 20 hours seems like a lot of time to go through just half a file box, doesn’t it? Well, it is – but archivists do a lot more than just put papers in new file folders when they’re “processing” a collection! In fact, when an archivist processes a repository of papers, s/he needs to move deliberately and meticulously to make sure it’s arranged just right.

In the case of the Dead Sea Scroll papers, this means I’ve been spending a great deal of time organizing every file chronologically, flagging items which will require special preservation attention and/or may need to be refiled for the sake of researcher access, and taking careful notes as to details which might be helpful to include in the finding aid which I’ll eventually create.

For example, every time I see a paperclip in the collection, I need to stop and remove that sucker – it will eventually damage the papers it’s holding together (and we don’t want that to happen!).

“Just say no to paperclips!”

For the purposes of preservation, archivists instead group papers together in cute little folders they make out of acid-free, white paper:

“When it comes to choosing between paperclips and acid-free folders, there’s no choice!

In closing, I’ll leave you with a shot of the papers I’ve finished arranging thus far. It will be very exciting when they’re all processed and researchers can use them!

September 5, 2014July 29, 2022 by chasew

The Dead Sea Scroll Files Rise Again!

Hello! This is my first week on the job as a CCEPS Fellow, and I couldn’t be more excited about my new project: archiving the Dead Sea Files held by Honnold/Mudd Library’s Special Collections! Although this endeavor is “small” by archival standards – only 1 linear foot – it’s a foot which has high historic value for researchers interested in the story of how scholars sought to bring the Scrolls back to life.

For your viewing pleasure, here’s a shot of the Files’ current “tomb.” This is how they looked when they originally were given to Special Collections, by a special Deed of Gift from Dr. James and Mrs. Anne Robinson:

exterior shot, DSS original file box_blog ready.jpg Upon receiving the box, my first task was to survey its contents. This is important, because it helps an archivist get a sense of how the series should be arranged. As can be seen from the below picture, the contents of a collection may not arrive in an order that’s conducive to helping researchers easily figure out which of the files might be useful to their project.

The second purpose of the survey is to aid the archivist in understanding what the preservation issues in a given collection might be. On that note, the following picture shows a professional archivist toolkit. Believe me, it can get a lot more complicated than this little kit might suggest to try and preserve photos, records, and assorted ephemera for future generations….but this at least gets us off to a good start! The most serious issues I’ve encountered thus far with these records are fragile materials (such as aging carbon paper), and documents which have been seriously bent due to improper storage practices. However, Special Collections will be working hard to restore these materials so that they can be easily used by researchers.

archivist toolkit_blog ready.jpg I look forward to writing more next week, and will keep you all posted as to our progress in processing this amazing collection. In the meantime, please let me know if you have any questions about our work here. I’ll do my best to answer them!

July 24, 2014September 4, 2024 by jadef

Home Stretch

Hello!

Time grows short and my summer CCEPS projects edge closer to completion. It has been a very productive and satisfying week working with the Finkle maps and blueprints — pieces from all states but California have been organized into folders and their data entered into Archivists’ Toolkit. Now I am slowly distributing the giant California pile into smaller piles around the room. I have been trying to stick to my inventory categories in deciding where to place the items, but in many cases I have seen new patterns emerge in the papers themselves that have led me to rename an existing inventory entry or regroup items according to different criteria as I go.

To accommodate my many California piles I have had to take advantage of every available surface, and have also improvised several new flat areas using the office chairs-

I also started wearing a dust mask after getting a headache and sore throat the first day of moving.

This is a neat item from the King’s River project in central California – a list of lumber for a bridge over the river, with a date stamp of August 10, 1906 –

July 17, 2014October 21, 2024 by jadef

Ditches, Gulches, Rip Rap and Slickens

Hello!

This week I finally have some end results that I can share – the Padua Hills Theatre Collection is now uploaded to the CCDL’s City of Claremont History Collection page! You can search for ‘Mexican Players’ or ‘Padua Hills’ and the playbills and fliers will come up along with a few postcards and photographs. Please visit and explore. It was difficult choosing which pieces to digitize, but I think I have a good selection that represents the large span of time, and you can see the lettering and design element changes corresponding to larger cultural design shifts over the decades.

After uploading the Padua Hills material, I returned to the 24 folders of Finkle papers, and began sorting material according to state (with moving help from the Special Collections staff – thanks, Ayat, Tanya, and Lisa!). Now I have the CCEPS room tables covered with piles of maps and blueprints, with California’s pile being the highest by far. I’ll look forward to continuing with this next week, when I will have to come up with a more comprehensive and detailed plan to refine the collection sorting even further. It will be very satisfying and wonderful to get these into a workable order!

I have been taking more photos as I sort through the piles this time – many of the blueprints are striking as works of industrial engineering art, although (to me) incomprehensible as work plans. And some of the maps are just stunning. I’m including my favorites below, as well as my favorite place name – Get There Ditch, in Boulder County, Colorado.

The “Zone of Hydraulicked Slickens” is a close second. You’ve got to keep the Rip Rap under control, after all. This paper has some water damage but still somewhat readable.

Beautiful colors for Gore Canyon, Colorado:

Snoqualmie River and Falls area in Washington:

July 11, 2014June 17, 2024 by jadef

Quick Stepping

Hello! This week feels like it went by very fast, probably because I fit a lot of different steps of the archival process into just a few days. The Padua Hills Theatre Collection is now well on its way to digitized completion!

The first accomplishment of the week was creating a finding aid in Archivists’ Toolkit, which was even more gratifying when I got to see a copy printed out for proofreading. I also got started with scanning, beginning with some of the photos and postcards featuring images of the theater and the Mexican Players and then moving on to the advertisement fliers. Then we went over metadata entry for items as they will be cataloged in the City of Claremont History Collection at the Claremont Colleges Digital Library. I took a lot of notes on what information to put where, and with the help of a few templates I was able to get a majority of the fliers and their metadata uploaded on Thursday. Next week I will get finish with the fliers and also get the playbills and newsletters scanned and uploaded.

Many of the steps will have to be revisited when I finally have a completed folder count and numbering system in place, and then I will add the final numbers into each record on both Archivists’ Toolkit and the metadata fields in the digitized records. I have been hesitant to move forward with the numbering part until we know exactly how many additional newsletters from Carpe Diem we will end up with. There are 23 total that could be coming in, which could be divided into several folders depending on the years represented. It will just be easier to wait for the items to be in hand than to build around them, but it is very unsatisfying to leave information out of all the cataloging entries knowing that I will have to go back through every one later! Especially since I only have about three weeks left to work, and a lot of Finkle maps to move around!

July 3, 2014July 29, 2022 by jadef

Moving and Removing

Hello! I had a very productive week on the Finkle Papers and the Padua Hills collection, with a few good surprises to make it even sweeter. While the Finkle Papers project only moved ahead on the planning side of things, I was able to begin physically re-housing the Padua Hills material into new folders and removing the many duplicate copies of some of the playbills. The former arrangement had placed items in folders organized by theatrical season, so that even if a folder contained only two fliers from July 1949, the folder – and the fliers – were labeled “1948-49,” which became confusing when the fliers did not have printed years on them. I rearranged the item by the year the production actually took place so each piece will be easier to find. It was very satisfying to make real changes with results I could see!

I also had my first in-depth encounter with Archivists’ Toolkit, and hope I will be able to keep my children and siblings straight when I get into it for real with my big plans.

And now for some nice surprises!
A bookseller at Carpe Diem in Walnut has some copies of Padua Hills News Notes she said she would be willing to exchange for some of the extra Padua Hills materials we will be weeding out, and it sounds like they will be a nice addition to the collection with some missing years represented.

Additionally, there was another file here in Special Collections containing many more items relating to Padua Hills, including clippings, printed brochures, and several more advertisement fliers including one from 1938 – the earliest in the collection – and two larger lobby card-sized items. Lisa Crane helped me come up with an additional series to my completed arrangement that could accommodate the added material, and I was able to complete re-housing the entire contents of the box with the exception of the News Notes, which will wait until we see what comes in from the bookseller.

I was also glad to find in the file a copy of a very good 1995 article by historian Matt Garcia about the Mexican Players, which has proved very enlightening and helpful in writing the biographical/historical context for the finding aid –“‘Just Put on That Padua Hills Smile”: The Mexican Players and the Padua Hills Theatre, 1931-1974″. California History 74 (3): 244-261. I recommend it to anyone interested in the theatre and local history.

Unfortunately, I still have not come across any clues about the identity of the person who created the collection, but I suppose something could still turn up.

Next week I will continue working on the description for the collection to be added to the finding aids for both collections, and will also get back into Archivists’ Toolkit to practice navigating and updating the pages for Finkle. Until then, a happy Fourth of July holiday to all.