Family Photos Classification

I just have to get this out there: I LOVE classification systems. I’ve always loved organization, and good classification systems are like the epitome of perfected organization.

When posed with the scanning and organization of a large photo collection, I was determined to come up with a numerical classification scheme, somehow based on the family tree. Friends who I told who didn’t have any background in library/information science were totally dumbfounded that I intended to give each photo a unique number that would MAKE SENSE. Friends who were information scientists were also amazed that I would take on such a task, with such high expectations of myself.

It took a couple weeks to develop, but it finally came to me, suddenly.

I figured out how to organize them based on who is in the picture. Since pictures with members of the same nuclear family are most common, I set the nuclear family as the primary arrangement. I created a family tree, and gave each nuclear family a 3-digit number (starting with 001 and increasing semi-arbitrarily). Within each family, I lettered the family members, starting with the father and mother. Thus, every person has a 4-character number. You may realize that as people get married/re-married, etc, they would have more than one individual number. I created the standard that each individual goes by the default of their first (child) number, but the other numbers are indexed, so they can be retrieved according to any of their numbers. That is the numerical scheme for photos of an individual. If there is more than one person from the same nuclear family in the photo, I replaced the letters (a/b/c/d..) with the letters W (parents), X (parents and kids), Y (kids), or Z (parents/kids/grandkids/great grandkids). Thus, each photo is labeled 001d, 060W, etc. Then, once the photos are sorted, I weeded out duplicates, keeping the best copy of each image. Then, as I scanned, I added a 3-digit number to the end, so they each were uniquely matched with their digital counterpart. Final numbers were: 001d_013, 060W_046, etc.

For photos that did not nicely match the nuclear family scheme, I created “families” (999, 998, etc) that described more obscure relationships, or non-family members. All of the photos are scanned as high-resolution TIFFs, with thumbnail JPG versions, and are fully indexed and described in an Excel spreadsheet, so with full text-searching capabilities, everything is retrievable digitally, as well as physically. The photos are saved digitally on my internal hard drive, and backed up on my external hard drive. Once photos are scanned, they are stored in archival storage boxes (naturally in the same order as the numerical scheme). The format (small print/large print/slide/negative) is specified in the description in Picasa so that physical retrievability is possible.

Photo albums were also scanned as a part of the project. I used the basic numerical structure, with an additional field inserted that identified the album. For example, 001e_1950a_p001 would be 001e's first scrapbook from 1950, page 1.

What is Archiving?

What is an archivist? What is archiving? I get these questions all the time. It's what happens when you have a passion for something obscure. Sometimes I respond with fun answers like, "I organize old stuff" or "I work in the basement of a museum." The truth is, the job of an archivist is very complex, and it depends what type of archive you work in, what type of job you might focus on. I have talked to many different archivists at many different archives, who have all given different answers to the question. The first archivist I interviewed (at The Museum of Flight) told me she "managed 2-dimensional artifacts." Generally, archiving refers only to pictorial, text, and media, reserving the term "collections management" for the care of an entire museum collection encompassing both archival materials and objects.

When I interviewed an archivist at the National Archives in DC, she explained that they divided their staff by processing, preservation, and reference. She herself had started in processing, found that to be boring, and then moved into reference, where she felt more at home as a strong extrovert passionate about history.

Through my own work and experiences, as well as these and other informational interviews, I have come up with my own perception of how the field of archiving is divided. Each time I interview a new intern, I explain this to them, in order to help chose a project that they will like the most.

Accessioning is the first step in the archival process. Accession records tell the custodial history (who previously owned the material), and a brief description of what is coming into the repository. Accessioning is the step where the items receive their identification number, called their accession number. In the numerical system we use at NHS, also common in other museum archives, this number consists of three parts. The first part is the year in which it is accessioned. Hopefully this is the same year it came into the repository, but unfortunately this is not always the case due to extreme backlog or previous lack of record.

The next step in the archival process is called "processing." This is where the most work, by far, occurs, and also the point at which the accession number is actually attached to the material. This work varies substantially depending on the type of material being dealt with.

Archival processing, which generally refers to text documents, often just consists of inventorying. NHS receives a very wide variety of types of collections, so it is difficult to give a simple description of what archival processing usually entails. At the end of processing, an archival collection should be neatly housed in archival folders, which are placed in a logical order in one or more archival boxes, all of which are properly labeled. In most cases, the collection will require some sort of written inventory (usually a list of folder titles/numbers). Each collection will require a different amount of re-foldering and/or re-organization. Provenance is the idea that a collection should be kept in its original order. This is only sometimes applicable at NHS; many collections come to us with no existing order, in which cases we must establish a logical order for the collection.

Photographs are the most complicated by far. They cannot be represented by simply a name; all require a fully descriptive title. A picture says a thousand words, right? So how does one manage them? First of all, every image must be given a number so that it can be kept track of. Second, every photo must be put in a proper sleeve to protect it from fingers, as well as from the surrounding air. The photos should be arranged in the most logical order, like archival collections, and housed in folders and/or boxes. An inventory must be made, and ideally, all images will also be scanned.

I think of media as falling somewhere between object and archive. A video has a proper title and creator, but generally requires little more work than housing and inventory. Collections with mixed forms of media can be hard to properly house (cassettes, VHS tapes, DVDs and CDs often come in collections together). Usually, the whole collection will be arranged in the most logical order (usually chronologically or alphabetically), given sequential accession numbers in that order, then separated by format for proper housing.

Collections processing is generally the simplest, because objects usually come in small donations. The object(s) must be described, and then housed with acid-free paper, or whatever packaging is appropriate, labeled, and placed in the collections room. However, some collections can be quite large. For example, an intern is currently working on processing a collection containing 1000's of pins. Each pin needs to be labeled with its individual accession number, housed in an archival box, and then a complete inventory of the entire collection must be made. We also are slowly making it standard procedure to photograph objects in the collection in order to have a visual record of the object.

The line between processing and preservation can be a fine one, but there are distinct enough differences so that it deserves its own category. At NHS, we don't do a substantial amount of preservation work. For example, my campaigning for a freezer is a sort of preservation effort, but the work done to prepare the negatives to go into the freezer would all be considered processing. Generally, I like to think of preservation as anything that requires much scientific knowledge or skill, beyond putting photos in sleeves or objects in paper.

Reference is the applicable side of archiving. Archives are organized for the purpose of helping researchers find the information they are looking for, and archivists are there to help. Reference generally works in two ways: researchers come in and do their research with you assisting and supervising, or they ask you to find something for them. Since we don't have a "reference archivist," NHS runs its archives on an appointment-only basis. When a researcher comes in, I pull the materials they are interested in, which usually end up being folder-level, often from the subject files, but sometimes from other collections. A few times a week, we get research requests either by phone or email. Sometimes a researcher is looking for a specific fact, other times they are looking for generic "information." The latter is much harder, because they often don't want to sift through a collection themselves, so I have to, for example, pick out exactly what pages they might be interested in and scan them.

The archival process is fairly simple in concept, but in reality, it is very multi-faceted and always interesting!

NHS Archiving Blurbs

Here are two bits I've written about my work at NHS for the CEL.

Project (150 words):
I am the archivist at the Northfield Historical Society, which involves: accessioning, processing, conservation and reference. I also recruit, interview and supervise the interns working in the archives and collections. When research requests come in, usually by phone or email, I find the information they are looking for, and I also assist researchers who come in to use the reference room. This semester, I have written procedure manuals covering all regular archival procedures as well as introductory materials for new volunteers and interns.

Impact on NHS (150 words):
In my two years working for NHS, I have made a substantial impact on their archives. I came in just as their previous archives volunteer had to leave suddenly for health reasons. Over the time I have worked there, I have taken on more projects and responsibilities, going beyond the day-to-day managing of the archives, to working both backward and forward: eliminating the backlog of work, as well as creating a systematic means of continuing to manage the archive after I leave. I have made efforts in recruiting more interns at St. Olaf in hopes that they will help to continue the smooth management of the archives.

Impact on self (150 words):
My work at NHS has had a tremendous effect on my professional development. I came into NHS two years ago, knowing I wanted to be an archivist, but not knowing exactly what the job of an archivist consisted of. I since have taken over the full management of an entire archive. I mostly paved my own way, slowly learning how to answer my own questions and work more and more independently. Since I started at NHS, I have volunteered in other archives around the country, but none of these experiences has been any more fun, rewarding, or meaningful than my internship at NHS.





My name is Alicia Reuter, and I am a senior German major with concentrations in linguistics and management studies, but I am an archivist. I have always loved museums, but after my sophomore year, I realized archiving was where my passion truly lies.

I began working at the Northfield Historical Society at the beginning of my Junior year, and absolutely loved it! At Olaf, many of us get trapped in the little bubble on the top of the hill, and during my first two years, I felt kind of suffocated. But then I discovered life off-campus, at NHS. I started with working on a scanning project 4-6 hours a week. It was refreshing to get off-campus a few hours every week. After I finished that project, I gradually started working more, doing anything and everything in the archive. NHS began to feel even more like home than Olaf! The people there are nice, and it is a fun and academic environment. The experiences I have gained and the skills I have acquired at NHS have prepared me very well for my future career as an archivist. This semester, I arranged my schedule so that I can spend all my time during the day working there, through internships and independent studies. The experiences I've had at NHS are unforgettable, and will be a springboard for the rest of my life.

Feel free to contact me (reutera@stolaf.edu) to find out more about how you too can get involved!

Home

Today, I ran to the museum to quickly grab the metadata files so I could work on them later. I told the receptionist I just needed to grab the digital files so I could "do my work from home." It felt very weird to say. NHS feels more like a home to me than a work, and my "home," aka school, feels much more like work.

NHS Internship Reflection (from Independent Study/Internship January 2009)

After my last day of work for interim, I sat at Hogan Brothers, looking across Division at the First National Bank – the Scriver Building. NHS has become my home, of sorts. Chicago puts it best “You should know, everywhere I go, always on my mind, in my heart, in my soul. You’re the meaning in my life, you’re in inspiration.” It may sound crazy, but I literally love museums, the passion, the learning, the artifacts, the history, the people. No matter what aspect of museum work it is, it still holds an intense flavor of passion for learning, unlike any school environment. When I returned to The Museum of Flight over Christmas break, I wandered around, excited as could be. My coworker sighed to my mom, “you can take the girl out of the museum, but you can’t take the museum out of the girl.”

In working at NHS, I learned so much about Northfield, without ever intending to. I learned the history of the Scriver Building and the James Gang, of course, but I also learned about countless other aspects of Northfield history through pictures. Before September, I hardly knew the way from St. Olaf to downtown to Carleton. I don’t think I even knew the 4th Street Bridge existed. There is a sense of fulfillment I have gotten from working here. I know the area now; I know where I go to school. I couldn’t say I knew that before.

Although the knowledge of history is what is most easily shown to others; I can give random facts about Northfield history and amuse or impress others with it; it is not what has been the most meaningful outcome for me. I have learned about archiving. I learned what it really is. I knew before that I wanted to work with cataloging and inventorying, but I never knew exactly what it would be like. I have learned about accessioning, metadata, Chenhall’s, scanning, Past Perfect, Content DM…most of those words would have meant almost nothing to me mere months ago.

It has been (and continues to be) an amazingly unmatched experience to work my way through the archives. My first assignment after Dale Ness (simple scanning and data entry of 495 photos) was to “pick out pictures of education in Northfield.” I went through the cabinet, not knowing at all what I was looking for, or what the heck this whole project was. Jeff (archivist at St. Olaf) had told me that NHS was doing something new, this online collaborative project. More than that though, it was all a mystery. We didn’t really know what we were doing at the beginning. I inventoried and scanned…approximately. The NHS metadata sheet, honestly, was a mess, especially compared to NPL and RCHS, simply because I didn’t know what I was doing. I figured it out as I went along, and finally was able to finish scanning and inventorying RCHS’ contribution of a couple hundred images in two days. I have learned about what happens in archives, how complicated it really is, and how the computer database systems really aren’t perfect yet, so the ins and outs of the whole process really must be learned. I have begun to really keep an eye out for new ideas in archiving that I could bring to NHS.

As was often said in my Arts Management class last semester, you always learn as you go. On-the-job training is the only kind of training you really get in the arts world. That is indeed true, and nothing I could have ever learned in any other situation could have equaled what I have learned in the past five months, especially January.

It has also been an amazing experience just being around the Historical Society! When I was in MWF 10-12, I got the opportunity to meat Joan a few times before she left, and I also met Mrs. Ripley. However, in working mostly full days for a month, I have gotten to meet/know researchers (Sue), archivists (Sue), Gloria at the front desk, the accountant, and many others. I have gotten to actually see a larger part of the workings of NHS, which is exactly what I had hoped. It is true, I do not exactly want to run a small historical society, but ideally I would work at a small-medium sized museum, and if nothing else, I would be aware of the different aspects outside of focusing directly on archives. This is why I want to go into museum studies and not directly through a library science/archival track. Archives are awesome, rare book collections are impressive, but the atmosphere of the museum is really what makes it all come alive.

Whenever I see a need, I am drawn to fix it. The photograph cabinet is a good example: there is so much potential in there, but it is not particularly organized, not kept track of, and about 40% non-accessioned. It is going to be almost painful to only come 6 hours a week. The complete inventory of the photograph cabinets will be a very long and tedious process, and I can’t wait until I can see it completely through.

I am a planner; I am future-oriented. I am always looking toward something or other a few weeks or months away; I am rarely content with the present. However, even though I would be heading to California over interim break, or diving back into Latin second semester, going to finally see the Smithsonian in April…I was content to live in the present. I did not want the future to come. My parents and friends have heard it far too many times; I did not want interim to end! They thought it was crazy, but it is true. I am still sad that I won’t be able to go to NHS on a daily basis (until perhaps senior week!). It feels strange writing this – my time at NHS is by no means over, so I should use the present tense, but it will feel like I am indeed leaving, simply because I will only work on Thursdays, instead of every day of the week. I just mean to say, this has been, and will continue to be, the best not only preparational, but also one of the overall best experiences in my life up to this point.

"I'm an Archivist" "What's that?"

As many of you know, I subscribe to the Society of American Archivists emailing alias, and am, in short, a complete archives dork. Anyway, Last night, I sent in a question asking about differences in graduate degrees. This prompted a flood of discussion, mostly on-list, but some off-list as well.

Basically, I asked if a Masters in Archives or Library Science is better. Here is one related thread I found particularly interesting and true:


When you ask Joe Blow on the street what a librarian is, they instantly know SOMETHING about what a librarian does. When you ask the same person what an archivist is, they give you that quizzical look. Thus the need last year for the short saying of what an archivist does.

We cannot hope to make a name for ourselves, to take control of our destiny, until we are able to define for ourselves what an archivist is and what an archivist does. Heck, most people can't even pronounce it right - they pronounce it 'arch I vist" instead of "arch-iv-ist" with the long I instead of the short i. I've known archivists who can't say it correctly. If you cannot pronounce your professional title correctly, how can you hope that the person on the street will know what it is you do and the importance you have in society?

Washington DC Trip (April 2009)

I just got back from a 4-day weekend in Washington DC. I had been planning this trip for weeks, figuring out all the details. For those of you who may not know, I want to be an archivist. Washington DC is one of the centers in the world for archiving, so I set up appointments with archivists at the Library of Congress, National Archives, Smithsonian, and planned to stop by and hopefully get to talk to someone at the Holocaust Museum Archives. In total, I had 6 informational interviews in 2 days (Thursday and Friday, because, of course, I could only visit museums, not archives, on Saturday and Sunday): LOC-1, NARA-2, Am Hist-2, Holocaust-1, and got to meet far more than 6 archivists. In addition to visiting those archives, I went through the public areas of: The Library of Congress, Holocaust Museum, American History Museum, Air & Space Museum, Postal Museum, Natural History Museum (briefly), American Indian Museum (briefly), and the Castle (Smithsonian headquarters). These experiences I had just a week ago Thursday and Friday, were life-changing - I have yet to see the exact degree to which they were..

My first interview was with the head of the Rare Books at the Library of Congress, a St. Olaf graduate. He held a major grudge against "normal" archivists, saying they were not as skilled as rare book archivists. However, he did offer me a paid internship for summer 2010...

All of the archivists I interviewed had MLS degrees, library degrees. Most or all of them also had history degrees, either at the BA or MA level. Most took no more than 10 years from grad school to get to the position they were currently in. One person said it would probably be possible to get a job with a MA in museology; everyone else seemed skeptical. Many seemed skeptical of my plan to work as an archivist without a history degree, but German was generally considered an ok alternative. Psycholinguistics was hardly mentioned.

Now here comes the question: Do I change my course plan, and go to library school, or stick with the original plan, and get a museology degree? I've always thought I wanted to work in a mid-sized museum, where a museology degree would be preferable...although MLS degrees would also be just about equally functional. But what if I wanted to "move up," to Washington-level archiving? What if I want to take a break from the non-profit sector and work at Microsoft for a few years to save up some money? A museology degree would count for something, sure, but not near as much as an ALA-certified MLS with archives certificate/concentration.

So of course, Friday night, I immediately jumped on the computer and did research on grad schools. My requirements: ALA-certified, archives concentration/program option, urban location. My current top choices are: Pratt Institute (NY), Queens College (NY), San Jose State University, and University of British Columbia (Vancouver, Canada).



As for fun aspects of my trip, I stayed with a friend who goes to George Washington University, so I got to pretty much be in the center of everything. I met some of her friends, saw the area, went to the memorials and monuments (and massively scraped up my leg when I tripped on my morning run!), ate some good ethnic food for once, and went to a Marian Anderson commemorative concert at the Lincoln Memorial, with the Marine Band and Chicago Children's Chorus, among other performers.