Margot Note's Blog, page 51

Five Questions to Ask When Using Primary Sources

Following up on my previous post about developing primary source literacy, I want to continue discussing primary sources, the materials that historians use and archivists preserve. Primary sources serve as evidence for the interpretation of past events. Analyzing primary sources will help you to understand how an argument has been constructed and to adopt a more critical stance towards the books and articles that you encounter.

Reading an original document or describing an image is daunting, especially when it is historical and originates from a period when attitudes, values, and modes of expression were different from our own.

The most important principle to remember when using primary sources is that they cannot be taken at face value. They have to be interrogated. A series of questions have to be asked of any primary source before we can begin to decide what it can tell us about the historical subject we are addressing. These five questions are:

What is it?

First, consider what kind of primary source document you have. Is it a letter, a newspaper clipping, or a report? Is it a photograph? What technology was used to create it? No matter what kind of document you are dealing with, be as specific as possible about what it is. You must understand the type of historical record it is to proceed to the next set of questions.

Who made it?

Consider its authorship. Who wrote, published, photographed, recorded, or otherwise made the document? Sometimes this is straightforward, such as with a letter. The creator is the person who signed it.

It can be more complicated than this. Who was the person who wrote the letter? What do you know about their position in regards to the events you are researching? If it is a famous person, answering this secondary question may be easy. But if the person was not well-known, you may have to get clues by doing further research.

When and where was it created?

Figure out when a document was created. It is important to be able to place the creation of the document on a timeline in relation to the events you are researching.

Knowing the place a document was created is another aspect of understanding its context. Try to figure out, with as much specifically as possible, where it was created.

What does it tell you? What does it not tell you?

Once you have tried to determine what the document is, who its creator was, and the time and place of its creation, examine what the document might tell you about the topic you are researching.

If it is a written or audio document:

Read through or listen to the document. What does it say? What information does it provide that you did not know before? Pay attention to what you do not understand or recognize, such as the terms, people, places, and events that are mentioned.

If it is a picture or moving image:

Examine it. What is represented? If there are people in the picture, what are they doing? Are they posing for the picture? What is the relationship between the artist or photographer and the subject? What places, buildings, natural surroundings, signs, or other objects are in the picture? What was going on when the picture was created? Note what you do not recognize such as buildings, objects, or people.

The questions raised during this process will guide the background research needed to understand the document better.

Why was it created?

Try to determine the message the document was conveying in its particular time and context. What audience was the creator trying to reach? For what purpose?

What do you know about this audience or reader, and how may they have understood the document? Consider the point of view of the creators. What was their stake in making the document?

No research project relies on a single source. You will need to examine related documents in the same record series to get more information that will help to put your document in context. If you are doing your research right, these five initial questions will lead to many more queries.

Developing analytical skills through primary source interrogation will enable you to appreciate the complexity of historical knowledge, the fragmentary character of the sources from which it is derived, and the provisional and uncertain character of historical explanation.

Reviewers Love Project Management for Information Professionals

 

In the October 2016 issue of Library Resources & Technical Services, the official journal of the Association for Library Collections & Technical Services, Chelcie Juliet Rowell, Digital Initiatives Librarian at Z. Smith Reynolds Library at Wake Forest University, writes in her review that Project Management for Information Professionals:

is clearly envisioned and executed as a handbook for librarians, archivists, and curators who find themselves leading project-based work. By empowering individual information professionals to manage projects more effectively, this work may play a part in shifting the organizational culture of memory institutions: from taking a defensive stance within an information environment in constant flux, to embracing project-based work as a way for libraries, archives, and museums to learn and grow and vitally engage the communities they serve.

Note is the consummate project manager, and it shows in her handbook of project management for information professionals. This book knows what it is, and what it is not; it remains true to its project scope. It achieves its objectives, and delivers what it promises to its readers. Novice project managers will keep it close at hand; more experienced project managers will consult it when they feel themselves becoming stuck and will look back at past projects with a sharper eye for what they might do better.

Writing is a solitary endeavor. You hope that your work will resonate with people, especially with librarians, archivists, and other information professionals who may already be stretched thin at work. You want to solve their burning pains and simplify their work. Nothing makes me happier than when my readers reach out to me to tell me about how my books helped them, when I'm cited in other books, or when I get positive reviews. I hope this is the first good review of many!

Developing Primary Source Literacy

Primary sources are the raw materials of history. They are documents and objects that were created during the event being studied or created later by the participant of an event, reflecting their viewpoint. They enable researchers to get as close as possible to what happened during a historical event or period.

Primary source literacy is the ability to interrogate evidence, such as documents, images, or objects for credibility, trustworthiness, and accuracy using sourcing, contextualization, and corroboration. Examining primary sources provides a powerful sense of history and demonstrates the complexity of the past. Even more importantly, analyzing primary sources develops better critical thinking and analysis skills.

To understand the significance of a primary source, you must evaluate key characteristics, including the role and perspective of the document creator, the intended purpose, the type of information or opinion conveyed, and the extent of the corroborating or conflicting evidence.

Developing primary source literacy engages four types of queries:

Description: What is this document? What kind of document is it? Who created it? When was it created? Was it personal or public? Are there any attributes (e.g., notarized, postal marks, tears, etc.) that are present?Relationship: For what purpose was this document created? What is the context from which it emerged? What other documents are related? How is the context in which I am encountering it different from the context in which the creator intended? What is unknown about this document?Meaning: What sense can I make of this document? Of what does it provide evidence? What interpretive frameworks help to understand this document? Is the meaning contested?Use: How will I use this document in my work? Does it provide supporting evidence for my claims? Does it provide contrary evidence that I need to engage? What is the appropriate way to cite the document?

Primary sources raise questions that should be answered with sound research. While some answers are better than others, and some answers are wrong, good historical questions do not have a single right answer. The end product of primary source analysis should be a historical interpretation, supported with evidence from the documents, that answers the driving question.

An Archives & Records Management Palette

Some of us remember Carole Jackson’s classic book Color Me Beautiful, which everyone seemed to own in the 1980s. I remember browsing through my mother's copy when I was a child.

The theory is based on four color types: Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter. Each seasonal type depends on the undertone of your skin, hair, and eyes, and your overall tone. I'm a Summer because my coloring is soft, light, and cool. 

The swatches in the book made me think of the colors appropriate to archives and records management. Grey, beige, and blue predominate, but occasionally there's a bright splash of red!

October is American Archives Month

American Archives Month is a time to focus on the importance of records of enduring value and to enhance public recognition for the people and programs that are responsible for maintaining our communities’ vital historical records.

In the course of daily life, individuals, organizations, and governments create and keep information about their activities. Archivists are professionals who assess, collect, organize, preserve, maintain control of, and provide access to the portions of this information that have lasting value. Archivists keep records that have enduring value as reliable memories of the past, and they help people find and understand the information they need in those records

These records, and the places in which they are kept, are called “archives.” Archival records take many forms, including correspondence, diaries, financial and legal documents, photographs, video or sound recordings, and electronic records.

An archives serves to strengthen collective memory by creating a reliable information bank that provides access to an irreplaceable asset – an organization’s, government’s, or society’s primary sources.

Archival records are essential to support society’s increasing demand for accountability and transparency in government and public and private institutions. They protect the rights, property, and identity of our citizens.

Archivists play a key role in ensuring that the digital records being created today will be accessible when needed in the future.

One of the many activities I’ll be participating is #AskAnArchivist Day. Join me and my fellow archivists on October 5 on Twitter for when archivists from across the United States will be answering questions and talking about what it is like to preserve enduring records. 

Project Management as Change Management in Heritage Institutions

 

Adhering to proven project management practices reduces risk, cuts costs, and improves the success rates of projects. Organizations are likely to nurture a project management culture when they understand the value it brings and how projects drive change. Organizations also recognize that when projects fail, they are less likely to achieve strategic goals. Archives, libraries, and museums should acknowledge the value of people who are resourceful, have strategic insight, and champion knowledge development and transfer as essential to performance improvement. Utilizing project management makes success possible.

Project management is closely tied to change management because projects, by their very nature, cause change. Change management is the implementation of planned alterations to established missions, objectives, or procedures within an organization. It typically refers to the intentional processes undertaken by organizations in response to internal needs, but it may also include strategies for reacting to external events. Lasting change incorporates the mission, goals, and objectives of the institution. Simultaneous changes in structures, systems, and people leads to changes in the culture of the organization. As with project management, change management requires that stakeholders understand the rationale for change and that they are engaged and supportive of new solutions.

Information professionals need to be capable of managing and participating in projects and should be able to anticipate and support the resulting organizational change. Indeed, change management is crucial to the success of projects involving the integration of new information technologies. For example, it is not enough to implement a new content management system and incorporate it into organizational functions. It must also be accepted and applied by the creators and users of documents, which involves the application of change management skills.

Weingand (1997) writes:

Too often, organizational culture is rooted in tradition and habit, and change is often an unwelcome visitor. Yet, change is today’s one constant, and no organization can escape its presence and effects. Whether regarded as an opportunity or as a threat, the specter of change sits on every organization’s board of directors; the library is no exception (7).

In the world in which most information professionals work, innovation and the change that comes as a result have not always been welcomed in organizations focused on maintaining the status quo of previous generations. Memory institutions like libraries, archives, and museums adhere to traditions, which can sometimes make change difficult. Schreiber and Shannon (2001) write:

The hyper speed of change in information services now demands libraries that are lean, mobile and strategic. They must be lean to meet expanding customer expectations within the confines of limited budgets; mobile to move quickly and easily with technological and other innovations; and strategic to anticipate and plan for market changes (36).

Additionally, information professionals work in environments that include complex classification systems, technical infrastructures, and organizational configurations. It is tempting to view these conditions as constraining. However, thinking about organizations structurally overlooks the challenge that is central to the information profession: deploying information services in ways that change the communities libraries, archives, and museums serve. Information professionals are increasingly called upon to facilitate the reconceptualization and redesign of services. As project managers, team members, or stakeholders, information professionals are involved in projects that change organizations.

As a result, Doan and Kennedy (2009) note that information professionals have: come to view change as the means of accomplishing significant goals, recognizing that our organizations must keep pace with user needs, acknowledging that we do indeed have information competitors and that we are part of organizations and therefore must align with larger objectives than our own. It is essential to innovate to continue to be meaningful (349).

Munduate and Media (2009) state similarly, “Organizations will only survive if they have the flexibility to react to the constantly changing demands and if they are adept enough at redirecting, orientating, and exploiting their resources efficiently” (299). Successful projects are one way to create an environment that embraces change as an opportunity, not as a threat.

Present situations in organizations are largely the result of decisions made in the past. Information professionals should not allow themselves to become captives to previous decisions. They must question decisions made in the past and effect changes that would position the organization well in the future. Innovation and the systematic abandonment of obsolete practices is a critical factor in the renewal and growth of memory institutions.

Works Cited

Doan, T., Kennedy, M.L., 2009. Innovation, creativity, and meaning: leading in the Information Age. Journal of Business and Finance Librarianship 14 (4), 348–358.

Munduate, L., Media, F., 2009. Organizational change. In: Tjosvold, D., Wisse, B. (Eds.), Power and Interdependence in Organizations. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp. 299–316.

Schreiber, B., Shannon, J., 2001. Developing library leaders for the 21st century. Journal of Library Administration 32, 35–57. 

Weingand, D.E., 1997. Customer Service Excellence: A Concise Guide for Librarians. American Library Association, Chicago.

What the Future of Image Management Holds for Information Professionals

Since its invention more than 150 years ago, photography has revolutionized communication and has provided a technological method for the comprehensive documentation of social and physical landscapes. Since photographic images serve as immediate links to the past and transcend time and place, they provide a valuable visual record of the past century for scholars and non-academic users alike.

Due to photography’s usage as a primary source for pedagogy and research, archives, libraries, and museums holding historical photograph collections have a responsibility to manage them properly and make them available for generations to come. Until the advent of online collections, most historical collections of photography were difficult to access, but as photographic equipment and methods have evolved, so have photographic collections. The digitization of image collections has vastly increased the numbers of images available to researchers through electronic means. The phenomenal growth of digital information in cultural heritage institutions prompts an examination of the nature and importance of hybrid image collections, as technology changes the ways in which users access information and conduct research.

There is a continuing argument within memory institutions and photographic circles that nothing changes with regard to how users evaluate the relevance of a photograph, even if it no longer has a material existence but is stored as digital code. Users continue to view images, whether analog or digital, as indexical representations of the real. Others feel that digital images are pure abstractions with constitutive mutability and manipulation, and that without some physical link to their subjects, they are not ‘real’ photographs. The first approach emphasizes the continuity of the medium, based on the unchanging combination of photographer, camera, and subject. Those who see digitization as the end of photography wish to cling to the traditional, tangible imprint of reality; they blame digitization for the death of photography, for the end of the believability that photography holds as an index, rather than an icon or symbol.

How the nature of photography has changed as a result of digitization remains a matter of discussion. As Batchen (1999) notes:

A singular point of origin, a definitive meaning, a linear narrative: all of these traditional historical props are henceforth displaced from photography’s provenance. In their place we have discovered something far more provocative—a way of rethinking photography that persuasively accords with the medium’s undeniable conceptual, political, and historical complexity (202).

Whatever the conclusion to this debate, it seems clear that digital technology has thoroughly assimilated photography of all kinds, including image collections that will enter the archives, libraries, and museums hereafter. Lipkin (2005) notes that the future holds more questions than answers:

How will [technological] advances change our notion of what photography can or should be? What will happen as modeling software becomes increasingly capable of generating photo-realistic imagery that cannot be distinguished in any way from real life? The only thing we can be sure of is that the human desire to understand the world through representation will propel the process of making images through greater and greater changes in the years to come (10).

Although the fate of photography remains unknown, and technical, social, practical, and theoretical issues continue to emerge, there are several factors that information professionals can depend on as they look to the future of image management. Digital resources will increase significantly and information technology will change rapidly. Research trends will expand and scholars will continue to demand that collections be as inclusive as possible. Intellectual property rights management will also evolve as digital content replaces analog sources. Financial and human resources will be unable to keep pace with demand but should be allocated in the most cost-effective manner to achieve an acceptable balance between the quality of resources and the expenditure of time and money. The sustainability of collections will also continue to be an issue, as digitization is not just about the creation of images, but also about their maintenance and management. As a result of these developments, best practices for access, preservation, and management of image collections will transform as well.

Works Cited: 

Batchen, G. (1999). Burning with desire: The conception of photography. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Lipkin, J. (2005). Photography reborn: Image making in the digital era. New York: Harry N. Abrams.