Faces of America with Henry Louis Gates, Jr.

“What made America? What makes us? These two questions are at the heart of Faces of America with Henry Louis Gates, Jr. The Harvard scholar turns to the latest tools of genealogy and genetics to explore the family histories of 12 renowned Americans — professor and poet Elizabeth Alexander, chef Mario Batali, comedian Stephen Colbert, novelist Louise Erdrich, journalist Malcolm Gladwell, actress Eva Longoria, musician Yo-Yo Ma, director Mike Nichols, Her Majesty Queen Noor, television host/heart surgeon Dr. Mehmet Oz, actress Meryl Streep, and figure skater Kristi Yamaguchi. Gates unravels the American tapestry, following the threads of their lives back to their earliest origins around the world. Along the way, the many stories he uncovers — of displacement and homecoming, of material success and dispossession, of assimilation and discrimination — illuminate the American experience.”

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/facesofamerica/

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There is a big momentum these days about data being accessible, available, and re-usable. Increasingly people want open data; Science Commons have been recommending using CC0 to make the fully open status of data clear. More recently the Panton Principles start:

“Science is based on building on, reusing and openly criticising the published body of scientific knowledge.

For science to effectively function, and for society to reap the full benefits from scientific endeavours, it is crucial that science data be made open.”

We’ve been big fans of Open Access at the DCC since its early days. We use a Creative Commons licence for our content by default. This blog was one of the earliest to be specific about a Creative Commons licence not only for the core text that we write, but also for the comments that you might add here.

So we strongly support the Open Data approach… where possible. For of course in some areas of science and research, there are data that cannot be open. Usually this is because the data are sensitive. They could be personal data, protected under Data Protection laws. Sensitive personal data (such as medical record data) has extra requirements under those laws. They could be financial microdata, commercially sensitive. Or perhaps data with strong commercial exploitation potential. They could be anthropological data, sensitive through cultural requirements. Research needs to go anywhere, whatever the issues; we can’t be constrained to only research where the data can be open.

So perhaps it’s as simple as that: some science should have open data, and some should have closed data?

Well, maybe not. Because the underlying issue of the Panton Principles must still apply. Research should be verifiable, whether through repeatable experiments or through re-analysable data. Unverifiable research is, well, unreliable- perhaps indistinguishable from fraud. Some access is needed; perhaps we should think of even sensitive data as Less Open Data rather than closed data.

So how do you go about dealing with sensitive data? Keep it secure, transfer securely, provide access under strict licences and controls in dat enclaves, aggregate, de-identify, anonymise, there are plenty of tricks in the book. That’s the topic of the 4^th Research Data Management Forum starting tomorrow in Manchester. I’ll hope to have more to write about what we learn later.

His visit also brought us a charming booklet of housestaff photographs from New Haven Hospital, 1944, including this shot of the young Dr. Grossman “doing something with a burette.”

The booklet has photos of the following staff:

Francis Blake
John Peters
Art Geiger
Marion Howard and Allen Poole
Ted Danowski and Alen[?] Winkler
Sam Kushlan[?]
Bernie Ravlin[?]
Nick Tierney and [blank]
Frank Ferguson
John Findley
Charles Grossman
Bob Furman
Joe Kriss[?]
Alan Peterson? [sic]
Don Seldin
Margaret, Mary, and Mac
Ben Robinson
Tom Sappington
Sandy Paley
Moe Tulin

This is an interesting and possibly significant issue as we begin to develop our distributed cataloging project for the work of Semyon Fridlyand. Will we need to develop a semantic thesaurus of some kind that will help us bridge the gap between how we think about and name things and how others do? Adding to the dilemma is the fact that we will also be dealing with multiple languages and even multiple alphabets.

At the Web Wise conference last week, I heard Monika Hagendorn-Saupe of Europeana the EU’s aggregator of digital libraries. They are dealing with a huge alphabetic, semantic, and language issue and are developing a semantic search engine that you can test. I think it has promise and I’m hoping to find out more about the project and will report it here.

The concept of the semantic web has been around for a number of years, and for at least 10 years we’ve been hearing how the semantic web would change the way we use the web. The automatic linking of similar ideas, even if those ideas are not specifically indicated in the resource has been something of a holy grail for information professionals since the digital age began and we realized that it would be impossible to maintain metadata about digital content in the way that we did for analog content.

Finding a way out of our semantic/language/alphabet dilemma is going to be a bigger deal than we had originally thought when we come up with this idea.

This looks like a report that should generate a wealth of discussion and ideas.  The idea of “personal curation” is one that might filter its way into the tools and training that we give students and adults.  I’ll be interested to see what comes out of this…

March 9, 1875

Professor J. Henry.

Respectfully returned. Beautiful plates of the microscopical appearances of various kinds of milk can be found in the Atlas of the “Cours de Microscop[i]e,” of A. Donné, Paris, 1845, Plates XVII, XVIII, and XIX, and very good woodcuts, with an excellent account of the subject, in the article on “Milk and its adulterations,” in Arthur Hill, Hasslin [Hassall] “Adulterations Detected,” 2nd Edit, London, 1811, p. 205.

Very respectfully,
J.J. Woodward

Pauling family portrait taken in 1941. Back of photograph is annotated, "1941. Daddy very ill."

[Part 1 of 5]

On March 7, 1941, Linus Pauling stood before distinguished colleagues prepared to deliver an address in response to his receipt of the prestigious William H. Nichols Gold Medal, presented by the New York chapter of the American Chemical Society.

Before Pauling began his recitation, he spoke candidly to his audience. He thanked the award committee for his selection and expressed gratitude that the acceptance of this award had provided him with an opportunity to reconnect with old friends.

On this rare occasion, however, it was apparent to all in attendance that Pauling’s physical health was suffering. His face was bloated and he reportedly lacked the enthusiasm that he was so well known to exude. Addressing the observations of many of his peers, Pauling joked, “Several of [my old friends] said to me tonight that I appeared to be getting fat. This is not so.”

Just that morning, Pauling had awoken to find his face so bloated that his eyes were nearly swollen shut. His tongue felt enlarged and his voice was flat. Over the previous few weeks, Pauling had been experiencing noticeable swelling, weight gain, and chronic fatigue but he could not identify the cause of his ailments.

With his audience, Pauling half-heartedly pondered over the cause of his puffed-up appearance. He compared the experience to childhood memories of unfortunate encounters with poison oak.

Yesterday I must have bumped into something similar…while I was wondering what the responsible protein could have been, I decided that it was a visitation – that I was being punished for thinking wicked thoughts.

The following evening Linus and Ava Helen had dinner at Alfred Mirsky’s residence. Pauling was examined by another guest at the dinner party, Dr. Alfred E. Cohen, a cardio specialist from the Rockefeller Medical Institute. After ruling out problems with Pauling’s heart, Dr. Cohen remained perplexed by Pauling’s condition. Nothing appeared to be wrong with the forty-year-old man other than his extreme edema. Concerned by the severity of the swelling however, Dr. Cohen recommended that Pauling come into his office the following day for a more thorough examination and lab work-up.

Adhering to the physician’s recommendation, the Paulings met Dr. Cohen in his office at the Rockefeller Medical Institute the next day. After a battery of lab tests, Pauling was diagnosed with Bright’s disease – a potentially fatal renal disease that results in the degradation of the kidneys. At the time, little was known about Bright’s disease and the majority of the medical community considered it to be a terminal condition.

After receiving this diagnosis, Pauling was fortunately referred to a leading specialist in renal diseases, Dr. Thomas Addis, head of the Clinic for Renal Disease at Stanford. Dr. Addis was a pioneer in the field of nephrology and his treatment plan, at the time, was new and revolutionary. Had Pauling not been referred to Dr. Addis’ care, the treatment he would have received elsewhere would almost surely have killed him.

Under the guidance of Dr. Addis, Pauling’s condition was effectively treated by alternative means – a low-protein, low-sodium diet – rather than the polysaccharide infusions that would have reduced his edema but done little to improve his health.  By May, Pauling reported improvements in his overall well-being and by August, the edema had completely disappeared.

Since Pauling’s time of diagnosis, Bright’s disease has been reclassified and redefined. Now it is believed that Pauling was affected by what is currently termed acute glomerulonephritis.

Acute glomerulonephritis is characterized by inflammation of the kidneys due to an immunological response. Damage to the small clusters of capillaries within the kidney, known as glomeruli, results in what can most simply be described as a “leaky kidney.” When the glomeruli are damaged, proteins leak from the bloodstream into the urine through the damaged portions of the kidney. Thus glomerulonephritis consequentially leads to excessive protein loss. Glomerulonephritis profoundly effects the body’s ability to function, because the nephritic kidneys are unable to properly filter the blood.

In his 1941 speech, Pauling had wondered aloud about a protein that was responsible for his swollen condition. The culprit protein can now perhaps be identified as albumin. As proteins leak from the bloodstream into the urine, blood proteins, called albumin, exit the bloodstream. These proteins are known to be essential in the regulation of blood osmotic pressure. Without sufficient albumin in the bloodstream, the body becomes incapable of efficiently extracting excess fluid from the body cavity. This excess fluid then remains trapped in the body and ultimately results in excessive swelling – such as the bloating that Pauling experienced in 1941.

Although the albumin did not cause Pauling’s condition, the loss of this blood protein due to the nephritis appears to have resulted in the symptoms that he was experiencing at his award ceremony. Therefore, contrary to his original speculation, it was the absence, rather than the presence, of a protein that caused his extreme fluid retention.

Over the next series of posts, we’ll explore the details of Pauling’s battle with this frightening disease, and learn more about the people and methods who saved Linus Pauling’s life.

First, keep in mind that archival collections are rarely used exclusively for the subject they were created about. This is extremely important to remember when describing collections. Every professor is happy to mention that Google-searchable encoded finding aids create a new market of researchers. What they’re not telling you is how many people saw their great-uncle’s name on a folder list for an organization’s records and think there must be a lot of material on the guy there, and proceed to check every folder labeled “General” or lacking specific details about material in the subject line. Also, remember student papers are often fueled on ideas like gender roles in unions or artists in the blacklist era, which are not necessarily subjects that are obvious from DACS-based titles.

Applying that to this collection means little things like adding brackets to the folder for anything like the Union Executive’s correspondence or local chapter correspondence when there’s a topic or issue that comes up frequently. My supervisor also advocates putting notes involving famous names in parentheses. Researchers must be optimistic about a collection’s contents, or they wouldn’t be looking for their needles in haystacks. Some researchers will try any long shots, so adding a few notes before the eternally optimistic researcher explores another general file is in the best interest of everyone involved, not to mention the documents. I’ll never forget working with the National Park Service’s perfectly arranged William Floyd papers, described entirely in the context of property records, which made the description useless to historians.

My research also increased my awareness of the difficulty in distinguishing people with the same name. With modern privacy concerns, performing arts unions become particularly challenging in this respect, especially due to practices of preventing people from working under the same name. Unions distinguished people involved in these issues using personal data. Given the volume of correspondence in performing arts unions trying to distinguish between performers with the same name, this gets tricky. When redacting or restricting personal data, archivists need to remember that some information may be useless if researchers can’t distinguish their person from any other person.

Archivists frequently offer the specter of the terrorizing researcher demanding to know why every scrap of paper was not saved on their pet interest. I’m not suggesting gum wrappers need to be saved. But people processing collections should consider the research potential of what they’re working with, and remember their descriptions impact who uses the collection. That goes both ways—no one will ever be able to find—or want to look for—brochures for technology or hotels in the collection I’m working with. But receipts can indicate where people were at what time, and ones offering specific details of purchases can change a picture. Researching my spies I learned a little bit about using evidence beyond the traditional historian’s “find a primary source saying the words.” I used financial records to try to mirror modern espionage institutions’ methods of tracking operatives. Try to remember the variety of researchers that could be using your collection, and assess their needs as you describe a collection.

Andrea Meyer is a student in the dual-degree program and a student employee at the Tamiment Library’s Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives. She will complete her M.A. in Public History and Archives from NYU this spring, and her M.L.I.S. from Long Island University this summer.

More information about the documentary
Visit the Brown Media Archives & Peabody Awards Collection

One of the things I think anyone who has ever been on a job hunt has to deal with is limbo. There’s the time between when you apply for a position and wait to hear back, hoping it is a request for an interview. If the stars are aligned and it is a call for an interview, then following the interview, you end up back in another limbo waiting to hear back. Very very rarely have I heard of anyone getting a job offer at the end of the interview (although it has been known to happen). Most times, whenever I have gone in for an interview, I’ve known they still have more people scheduled, so regardless of what they thought of me, the panel will see more people. Following the interview, one of two things will happen: a) you get a phone call or some communication indicating the institution wishes to make an offer or b) a nice and/or terse letter thanking you for your time and wishing you the best of luck in your further endeavors. Then with other positions, the process resumes until hopefully the cycle ends with the offer an acceptance of a new position.

Limbo on either side of the application process can last for a long time. Especially in a market like today’s where there are not as many job postings and quite a bit of competition for those postings, especially if you’re confined to a specific area. What’s been helping me is doing volunteer work. Besides what I have heard so many people say about it being good for adding to a resume and for offering something to potentially discuss at an interview (I have had earlier volunteer experience actually give me an edge the last time I was looking for jobs), I think what helps me the most is that it keeps me focused. Doing something in my chosen field, even if it’s not paying, helps give a purpose. It also helps to keep up to date with what’s happening in the field. One way I’ve found to that is using Twitter. There are several archivists who are active users and it’s a great way to keep up with what other archivists are doing and what might be happening at conferences and work shops. If you’re not already a member of SAA and your local state/regional society, join up. The local society’s listserv is how I found out about a few possible job openings the day they were posted. The world’s becoming a lot smaller thanks to social networking and the like, and my experience has been that the network is very welcoming to newcomers and if you post a question, within a short time you’ll have others happy to answer it for you. Most societies will also offer discounted rates if you’re unemployed and if you’re a student, there are deep discounts available. Conference meetings and workshops are a great way to meet others in the field, ranging from those who are new to those who have been working for years. Keeping up with the newest developments in the field and taking opportunities presented to meet and interact with other archivists can help make limbo a lot easier to deal with.

Right now, I’m on both sides of the limbo I mentioned earlier. I’m hopeful and right now what’s helping to keep me sane is the hours I’m volunteering. All the best.

• Chicks Dig Time Lords successfully debuted (and sold out!) at the Gallifrey One convention. It is available at fine booksellers of all kinds officially on March 15. We now also have a Facebook page. Those of you on Twitter can look for the #cdtl and #chicksdigtimelords hashtags.
• The 30th annual Children’s Literature Conference at NIU, featuring Tamora Pierce, Nnedi Okorafor, Amy Krouse Rosenthal, and Jill Thompson, is later this week. You should come!
• OCLC has issued a report on barriers to EAD adoption that is worth a look.
• DigitalKoans notes a paper posted in the SSRN that states that the Amended Google Books Settlement is still exclusive. ARL and the Library Copyright Alliance have released a March Madness Grid of possible paths forward for the settlement.
• Neal Beagrie notes that the Final Report of the Blue Ribbon Task Force on Sustainable Digital Preservation and Access is now available.
• JISC has released a report on Usability Inspection of Digital Libraries. (via DigitalKoans)
• For those interested in writers, writing, fiction, and media, here is a great discussion of taxes, and one on strong female characters, and the Supreme Court’s recent copyright decision about freelancers.

A.M.M. [Army Medical Museum] No. 10156
Pathological Section

Washington, D.C.
March 9, 1891

Robinson Dr. C.B.
Veterinary Surgeon

Foetal bones, said to have been discharged from the uterus of a mare, about 12 years old. Owned by Senator J.S. Barbour of Virginia.

It is stated that she had not been put to a horse for 6 years.

History received verbally
Specimen received Mar. 8, 1891

CD-ROM

Type:	Optical storage media
Introduced:	1985
Active:	Yes [2010]
Cessation:	-
Capacity:	Size dependent. Standard data disks have a maximum capacity of 870 MB and audio disks can hold up to 80 minutes of audio.
Compatibility:	All drive developments should be backwards compatible and therefore be able to read any CD-ROM.
Users:	Use for commercial music, but declining. Used to hold software – games etc.
File Systems:	ISO9660, HSF, UDF, HFS/+, Red Book Audio

Recognition

CD-ROM stands for Compact Disk-Read Only Memory and is a manufactured pre-pressed disk. As a data disk it is commonly used to hold and distribute software and as an audio disk it contains commercial music. Because these are predominately commercial disks they are not the most common form of CD to be found in an archive collection, but it is not unheard of.

Because these disks are manufactured and made commercially available they are usually very easy to identify: it is unusual to find a completely blank CD-ROM. These disks conform to the Yellow Book standard if containing data, or Red Book if they are audio disks.

CD-R

Type:	Optical storage media
Introduced:	1990
Active:	Yes [2010]
Cessation:	-
Capacity:	Size dependent, but standard CD-R holds a maximum of 700MB of data or 80 minutes of audio track
Compatibility:	Pre-1990 machines may be incompatible with CD-R formatted disks but all other optical drive types should be able to read them.
Users:	Broad but declining. Preferred over CD-RW for long term preservation due to longer lifespan, but being superseded by more reliable, larger capacity data storage devices.
File Systems:	ISO9660, UDF, HFS/+, Red Book Audio
Common Manufacturers:	Maxell, Philips, Sony, Verbatim, Memorex

Recognition

CD-R stands for CD-Recordable and is also known as CD-WO (CD-Write Once). These disks can be written to once and the data or audio added cannot be erased or written over. However, the data does not have to be added all at once; provided there is free space on the disk, more data can be added at a later date. This is multisession recording.

Data CD-R disks adhere to the Orange Book standard and audio CD-R disks conform to the Red Book standard.

Most CD-R disks are clearly labelled as such, though they can be blank. If this is the case more detail can be obtained from the report produced by imaging software during the disk image process. The report often states what type of CD the disk is, although in a few cases it does not.

CD-RW

Type:	Optical storage media
Introduced:	1997
Active:	Yes [2010]
Cessation:	-
Capacity:	Size dependent, but standard size CD-RW holds a maximum of 700 MB of data or 80 minutes of audio track.
Compatibility:	Pre-1997 machines may be incompatible with CD-R formatted disks but all other optical drive types should be able to read them.
Users:	Broad but declining. To large extent replaced floppy disks for short term data storage and back up, although the relative cost and risk of damage means that other media, such as USB flash drives are now superseding CD-RW.
File Systems:	ISO9660, UDF, HFS/+, Red Book Audio
Common Manufacturers:	Maxell, Philips, Sony, Verbatim, Memorex

Recognition

CD-RW stands for CD-Rewritable. These disks can be written to, with the data then being deleted and new data written to the disk. Such a disk typically has around 1,000 write cycles. As with CD-R the book standard is orange for data disks and red for audio.

The disk format is also determined in the same way as CD-R: through the disk image report if the disk itself is devoid or labels or markings.

My main concern was that they would simply produce lots of nice drawings of animals, but I needn’t have worried. The students really engaged with D’Arcy’s ideas and produced work in a whole range of media, including printmaking, sculpture, animation, and artist’s books. One of the students even did a performance piece at the opening, plugging himself into D’Arcy’s brain (which he’d helpfully brought along for the occasion) and answering questions on behalf of the great man.

The exhibition can be seen in Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design until 20 March. It finishes just after the main historical exhibition on D’Arcy’s life and work (and in particular his 32 years in Dundee) opens in the Lamb Gallery of the University Tower Building. Accompanying that will be a new publication on D’Arcy and the history of the Zoology Museum, which includes images from the collections held by Museum Services, Archive Services and from the Special Collections at the University of St Andrews Library.

Finally, there’s a whole programme of special events to mark D’Arcy’s birthday in May including music, talks, poetry readings and even live street theatre. There’s lots of information on the events taking place to make the 150th anniversary of D’Arcy Thompson’s birth online at www.darcythompson.org or you can become his friend on facebook.

Matthew Jarron, Museum Curator

When we talk about long term digital preservation, about access for the future, about the digital records of science, or of government, or of companies, or the designs of ships or aircraft, the locations of toxic wastes, and so on being accessible for tens or hundreds of years, we are often whistling in the dark to keep the bogeys at bay. These things are all possible, and increasingly we know how to achieve them technically. But much more than non-digital forms, the digital record needs to be continuously sustained, and we just don’t know how to assure that. Providing future access to digital records needs action now and into that future to provide a continuous flow of the necessary will, community participation, energy and (not least) money. Future access requires a sustainable infrastructure. Ensuring sustainability is one of the major unsolved problems in providing future access through digital preservation.

For the past two years I have been lucky enough to be a member of the grandly named Blue Ribbon Task Force on Sustainable Digital Preservation and Access, along with a stellar cast of experts in preservation, in the library and archives worlds, in data, in movies… and in economics. C0-chaired by Fran Berman (previously of SDSC, now of RPI) and Brian Lavoie of OCLC, the Task Force produced an Interim Report (PDF) a year ago, and has just released its Final Report (Sustainable Economics for a Digital Planet: Ensuring Long-Term Access to Digital Information, also PDF). (The Task Force was itself sustained by an equally stellar cast of sponsors, including the US National Science Foundation and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, in partnership with the Library of Congress, the UK’s JISC, the Council on Library and Information Resources, and NARA.)

Sustainability is often equated to keeping up the money supply, but we think it’s much more than that. The Task Force specifically looks at economic sustainability; it says early in the Executive Summary that it’s about

“… mobilizing resources—human, technical, and financial—across a spectrum of stakeholders diffuse over both space and time.”

If you want a FAQ on funding your project over the long term you won’t find it here. Nor will you find a list of benefactors, or pointers to tax breaks, or arguments for your Provost. Instead you should find a report that helps you think in new ways about sustainability, and apply that new thinking to your particular domain. For one of our major conclusions is that there are no general, across the board answers.

One of the great things about this Task Force was its sweeping ambition. Not just content with bringing together a new economics of sustainable digital preservation, but thinking so broadly. This was never about some few resources, or this Repository or that Archive, it was about the preservation and long term access of major areas of our intellectual life, like scholarly communication, like research data, like commercially owned cultural content (the movie industry is part of this), and the blogosphere and variants (collectively produced web content). Looking at those four areas holistically rather than as fragments forced us to recognise how different they are, and how much those differences affect their sustainability. They aren’t the only areas, and indeed further work on other areas would be valuable, but they were enough to make the Task Force think differently from any activity I have taken part in before.

The report is, to my mind, exceedingly well written, thanks to Abby Smith Rumsey; it far exceeds the many rather muddled conversations we had during our investigations. It has many quotable quotes; among my favourites is

“When making the case for preservation, make the case for use.”

Reading the report is not without its challenges, as you might expect. It has to marry two technical vocabularies and make them understandable to both communities. I’ve been living partly in this world for two years, and still sometimes stumble over it; I remember many times screwing up my forehead, raising my hand and asking “Tell us again, what’s a choice variable?” And the reader will have to think about things like derived demand for depreciable durable assets, nonrival in consumption, temporally dynamic and path-dependent, not to mention the free rider problem. These concepts are there for a reason however; get them straight and you’ll understand the game a lot better.

And there are not surprisingly big underlying US-based assumptions in places, although the two resident Brits (myself and Paul Ayris of UCL) did manage to inject some internationalism. Further work grounded in other jurisdictions would be extremely valuable.

Overall I don’t think this report is too big an ask for anyone anywhere who is serious about understanding the economic sustainability of digital preservation and future access to digital materials. I hope you find the great value that I believe exists here.

This is a nice example of why pinback buttons fall under the heading of ephemera.  Who (well, besides me) would have held onto this teasing question from officials at Raleigh-Durham International Airport after they added an American Airlines flight to Paris in 1988 — a direct connection then lacking at Charlotte/Douglas International.

American dropped the Paris flight in 1994 and shut its RDU hub a year later.

Caramelized-Apple Skillet Cake
from Karen DeMasco’s “The Craft of Baking”

Ingredients:

• 1 cup sugar
• 8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, very soft
• 2 tart baking apples, such as Mutsu or Granny Smith
• 3/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 2 large eggs, separated
• 3/4 cup plus 3 tablespoons unbleached all-purpose flour
• 3 tablespoons coarse yellow cornmeal or fine polenta
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/3 cup whole milk

Preheat the oven to 350 F.

In an 8-inch ovenproof skillet, preferably cast iron, combine 1/4 cup of the sugar with 2 tablespoons water, stirring to make sure all of the sugar is damp.

Cook over high heat, stirring occasionally, until the sugar turns a golden brown caramel, about 2 minutes. Remove the pan from the heat and whisk in 2 tablespoons of the butter.

Peel, core, and using a mandoline or a sharp knife, cut the apples crosswise into 1/8-inch thick rings. Tightly shingle all of the apple rings over the caramel, starting around the outside of the skillet and working toward the center, overlapping the slices.

[Note from Adam: that step may've been where I messed up, I only had one apple. But would that have made the cake less likely to detach?]

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the remaining 3/4 cup sugar, the remaining 6 tablespoons butter, and the vanilla. Beat on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Mix in the egg yolks, one at a time.

In another bowl, whisk together the flour, cornmeal, baking powder, and salt. In three additions, add the flour mixture, alternating with the milk, to the butter mixture. Using a rubber spatula, scrape the batter into a large bowl.

Clean and dry the bowl of the electric mixer well. Add the egg whites and, using the whisk attachment on medium speed, beat to soft peaks, about 4 minutes. In three additions, fold the whites into the batter.

Spread the batter evenly over the apples in the skillet.

Bake, rotating the skillet halfway through, until the cake is golden brown and firm to the touch, 45 to 50 minutes. Place the skillet on a wire rack and let it cool just until the cake is warm, about 30 minutes. Then run a knife around the edge of the cake and invert it onto a plate. Serve warm or at room temperature.

The cake is best eaten the day it is baked but can be kept at room temperature, wrapped in plastic wrap, for up to 2 days.

In considering this question, I was reminded of a previous post about how the “space” in which interaction takes places affects the quality/quantity of interaction. Building on that discussion, I can see several possible ways to proceed (although I’m sure there are others).

First, allowing users to add tags, comments, and additional information to the catalog records in ARC or to other descriptive information on the NARA site. Questions immediately arise about the level of moderation this would entail, both to avoid information with no value and potentially offensive information. Does the question of moderation arise if only tags are permitted? I think it would, although it certainly might involve less time. I would be surprised if NARA would allow users to post information on their site (even if the information were clearly differentiated from NARA-provided data) if it did not go through a moderation process, wouldn’t you? This also requires that users add their information within the current descriptive structure (Record groups, series, file units, etc. and as well to the the records for people and organizations). So this option is essentially allowing users to annotate and supplement NARA’s information within NARA’s current descriptive products.

A second option would be creating a separate space, still controlled and moderated by NARA, dedicated to collecting user-provided information along the lines of The National Archives (UK)’s Your Archives wiki. The advantage of this option is that it clearly separates user-provided information from “official” information, and also allows the user community more freedom in how it structures the information it provides (at least in the wiki model, users can add pages, etc.). In such a model there might be a greater reliance on the kind of community policing one sees in Wikipedia, where inaccurate information is identified and deleted by the community of interest for the topic. Clearly this kind of site would also have to be monitored or moderated. And, of course, it wouldn’t have to take the form Your Archives does, of one large resource that is sub-divided. Smaller topical “spaces” could be established, perhaps around areas that have an active community of interest (or for which information is particularly needed).

Another option would be to directly solicit the participation of researchers in the description of materials. If a researcher is working with a given group of records, there’s a good chance he or she may know more about the materials than the description reveals. Why not provide them with a template for providing descriptive information (and guidance about what information to provide) and let them take a crack at adding more to the description provided? Yes, of course, all of it would have to reviewed and some of it might be worthless, but there are many highly skilled researchers who might be able to provide either relatively complete descriptions or at least valuable supplementary material. NARA may even have developed its own online tutorials for its staff about how to write descriptions, which could be easily reworked as a tool to train researcher volunteers.

I don’t know about the viability of this idea, but I’ll throw it out there anyway. As a way of possibly mitigating “frivolous” tags, comments, and notes in Option #1, provide a “space” that’s dedicated to adding personal or creative content to collection descriptions. A place where people can essentially have tools to remix or annotate NARA’s content any way they want. (Yes, again, within the terms NARA would have to establish to ensure people weren’t creating offensive products.) But think about the potential for that one–galleries, exhibits, videos, performances? If it actually took off it could even the kind of thing where notable examples were highlighted on a regular basis. And, while we’re at it, why not actually make this area a larger playing field and have it also draw from the collections of the Smithsonian and the Library of Congress? That’s an idea, isn’t it?

But I wandered away from the issue of description. Still, providing an area for “play” might help keep the “serious” area more serious. Just a thought. Similarly, providing designated “discussion spaces” (in either of the first two options) might provide a channel for debate or information exchange other than the comments on the descriptive information.

In the comments on the earlier post I referred to above people also discussed the need to consider collaborative sites that the archives doesn’t control, created by communities of interest–either scholarly or not. “Partnering with a community, in a neutral space, as power equals” as one wise commenter put it. I feel as though I’m once again wandering away from the topic of user contributions to descriptions, but not entirely. Communities might be more inclined to share their knowledge in a space where they are “power equals.”

So, I’ve provided you with a range of options, from small steps that have already been implemented elsewhere to possibilities that might not yet exist anywhere. Can you add any other possibilities for harnessing the wisdom of NARA’s users? Which of the ideas above do you think has the most promise?

First pages of a handwritten draft of ‘Infinite Jest’ by David Foster Wallace.

Bonnie Nadell, longtime literary agent of David Foster Wallace, shares her thoughts on what scholars can learn from Wallace’s archive about his creative process:

Organizing David Wallace’s papers for an archive was not a task I would wish on many people. Some writers leave their papers organized, boxed, and with careful markers, David left his work in a dark, cold garage filled with spiders and in no order whatsoever. His wife and I took plastic bins and cardboard boxes and desk drawers and created an order out of chaos, putting manuscripts for each book together and writing labels in magic markers.

But what scholars and readers will find fascinating I think is that as messy as David was with how he kept his work, the actual writing is painstakingly careful. For each draft of a story or essay there are levels of edits marked in different colored ink, repeated word changes until he found the perfect word for each sentence, and notes to himself about how to sharpen a phrase until it met his exacting eye. Having represented David from the beginning of his writing career, I know there were people who felt David was too much of a “look ma no hands” kind of writer, fast and clever and undisciplined. Yet anyone reading through his notes to himself will see how scrupulous they are. How a character’s name was gone over and over until it became the right one. How David looked through his dictionaries making notes, writing phrases of dialogue in his notebooks, and his excitement in discovering a wild new word to use.

We want readers to see how he thought because how he thought was unique and beautiful and precise. So anyone looking through his drafts and even his books will see the levels of thinking that went into every sentence and every page. The corrections on Infinite Jest for the paperback edition even after a master copyediting job, David’s love of language in his dictionary and in his notebooks, and how he deconstructed other writer’s stories and sentences so he could teach his students how to write better and how to read better. The archives are a window into his mind, and I really think scholars and readers will appreciate seeing that for the first time.

David Foster Wallace’s copy of ‘The Cinema Book.’ Photo by Pete Smith.

Approximately 200 books from David Foster Wallace’s library arrived at the Ransom Center with his papers. When the staff unpacked the collection to check its condition, we could see immediately that the library was not simply a supplement to the archive but an essential part of it. Wallace annotated many of the books heavily: he underlined passages, made extensive comments in the margins, and utilized the front and back inside covers for notes, vocabulary lists, brainstorms, and more. As a reader of Infinite Jest, one book in particular caught my eye: a battered paperback copy of Pam Cook’s edited volume The Cinema Book (New York: Pantheon, 1985). This reference work is heavily used: it lacks both its front and back cover, its spine is held on with two pieces of tape, and the exposed inside cover is inscribed “D. Wallace ’92,” four years before the publication of Infinite Jest. 

Infinite Jest is a book about many things, and the mesmerizing power of movies is one of its most dominant themes. One of the book’s central figures is the late James O. Incandenza, an auteur whose filmography has left an indelible mark upon all of the novel’s characters in one way or another. Early in the novel, the reader learns of the extent of his importance in endnote 24. Endnote 24 comprises Incandenza’s entire filmography, which fills eight pages in tiny print. The reader discovers here that it is essential to actually read Wallace’s footnotes (spoiler alert), because only in this endnote do we learn that Infinite Jest is the title of an Incandenza film.

Traces of The Cinema Book may be found throughout Wallace’s novel, beginning with the basic format of the filmography itself: notably, Wallace penned a bracket around the “Special Note” at the front of The Cinema Book, in which Cook outlines the format her citations will take, and Wallace’s citations of Incandenza’s films resemble these closely. Wallace may also have gathered much film knowledge from this volume. The Incandenza filmography is a virtuosic pastiche of film history, technology, and vocabulary. We are told that Incandenza made every kind of film: “industrial, documentary, conceptual, advertorial, technical, parodic, dramatic noncommercial, nondramatic (‘anti-confluential’) noncommercial, nondramatic commercial, and dramatic commercial works” (985). Wallace annotated passages throughout The Cinema Book, with the exception of two theoretical chapters. He noted concrete information such as the names of actors, directors, production companies, film journals, and significant events in film history. His annotations show his interest in a wide range of terms and themes covered in the volume, with particular interest in sections on the idea of the auteur, the technology of deep focus cinematography, new wave cinema, the Hollywood star system, and most film genres (with the notable exception of the “the gangster/crime film,” the only genre lacking any Wallace annotations).

At two points in the volume he explicitly mentions Infinite Jest. In the section on “National cinema and film movements,” he underlines much of the section on Roberto Rossellini’s place in the neo-realist Italian tradition, writing in the bottom margin “Rossellini + ‘ad-hoc’ structure—Infinite Jest” (39). More dramatically, he writes the letters “IJ” no less than four times in the three-page section on “The Hollywood Star Machine.” He underlines several passages with particular attention to the following, which will not come as a surprise to readers of Infinite Jest:

It has been argued that the erotic play of the “look” around the female star figure in classic Hollywood cinema is an integral part of the narrative drive towards closure and the reinstatement of equilibrium (Mulvey, “Visual pleasure and narrative cinema,” 1975). This argument uses psychoanalytical concepts to address the question of the fantasy relationship between spectators and film and the role of the star in that relationship (see also Cook, “Stars and politics,” 1982; Friedberg, “Identification and the star,” 1982). [51]

Finally, my favorite set of annotations surround the section on the genre of the musical, written by Andy Medhurst. Medhurst spends a considerable amount of time discussing this genre’s dominant theme: entertainment. Wallace has underlined passages discussing the ways in which this genre taps into viewers’ nostalgia and their desire to experience a “vision of human liberation” in a utopian entertainment experience. Wallace has penned “ENTERTAINMENT” at the top of the page and circled the page number (107). This word is central to the project of Infinite Jest, and it is enlightening to read one of the sources from which its meanings in the novel likely derive.

Unpacking Wallace’s library was a once-in-a-lifetime experience for this reader; once this and his other books have been cataloged, I look forward to seeing what insights scholars will derive from the hundreds of books and thousands of annotations beyond the few I have noted here.

Materials and books from David Foster Wallace archive. Photo by Anthony Maddaloni.

The journey an archive takes from an author’s desk to the Ransom Center is often long and circuitous. The archive of David Foster Wallace arrived at the Ransom Center in the last days of 2009, but the earliest seeds of the acquisition were sown years before.

Because of the Ransom Center’s strong collections in contemporary literature, our curators and staff keep careful watch on promising, young writers. Over the past 20 years, we have built a list of hundreds of contemporary writers we follow, and we collect first editions of all their books. David Foster Wallace was added to this list early in his career. As we watched his career progress, it became apparent that he was one of the great talents of his generation.

We had our first glimpse into Wallace’s creative process in 2005 with our acquisition of the papers of Don DeLillo. Unexpectedly, the archive included a small cache of letters between Wallace and DeLillo, a correspondence initiated by Wallace when he was struggling through his colossal novel, Infinite Jest. Wallace’s letters show a writer who was deliberate, funny, and often uncertain, but most clearly, they show a writer who took painstaking care with his art.

In 2006, after reading Wallace’s essay on tennis player Roger Federer in The New York Times, Thomas F. Staley, the Director of the Ransom Center and an avid tennis player, wrote to Wallace to inquire about his archive, invite him to visit the Center, and challenge him to a friendly match of tennis. For years Wallace had been among the top names on our wish list of potential speakers—a long-shot, of course, for a writer who made few public appearances. The letter went unanswered.

Several weeks after the shocking news of Wallace’s death, we wrote to his literary agent, Bonnie Nadell, to express how saddened we were at the Ransom Center by this tragic loss. We also expressed our hope that Wallace’s papers would be preserved somewhere—anywhere—so that his remarkable contributions to our culture could be studied for generations to come.

Several months later, we were contacted by a bookseller representing Wallace’s literary estate, and we began the negotiations that led to the eventual arrival of Wallace’s archive at the Ransom Center. This long journey, however, has not quite come to an end. Wallace’s papers related to his final book, The Pale King, though part of the archive acquired by the Ransom Center, will remain with publisher Little, Brown until the book’s release, which is scheduled for April 2011. After the book’s release, the papers, notes, and computer disks related to this novel Wallace never fully completed will be reunited with his archive at the Ransom Center. If these materials are anything like the papers already here, they will be a fascinating and rich resource for students and scholars.

The ads press the case that magazines remain an effective advertising medium in the age of the Internet because of the depth and lasting quality of print, compared with the ephemeral nature of much of the Web’s content.

“The Internet is fleeting. Magazines are immersive,” says one ad.

Two news items that ought to make you physically ill… This first one comes from the AP…

The grant program that helped restore the original star-spangled banner, Rosa Parks’ bus and hundreds of historic sites is now on the Obama administration’s chopping block.

The program, Save America’s Treasures, was created by then-first lady Hillary Clinton while her husband was in the oval office. It continued under the Bush administration.

The National Trust for Historic Preservation says the program has paid out nearly $294 million in the past decade to more than 1,100 different sites. Bobbie Greene McCarthy, who has overseen Save America’s Treasures and was Hillary Clinton’s deputy chief of staff, says there was no warning the program was being wiped out of President Barack Obama’s budget.

And from the Nashville City Paper…

With untouched pockets of wilderness for sale to developers all over Tennessee, conservationists are pressuring the legislature this session to stop emptying millions of dollars in tax money from the state’s funds to preserve natural land.

On the list of threatened properties are some of the sparkling gems of Tennessee’s natural treasures. Even the bluffs overlooking Fall Creek Falls — one of the state’s most photographed scenic vistas — aren’t safe from high-priced condominiums and mountain resort communities. The owner tells The City Paper a deal for that land is imminent, adding urgency to the conservation effort.

UPDATE (3-9-2010): Good news… WPLN, Nashville Public Radio, reports that there appears to be bipartisan support for restoring funding for Tennessee’s land conservation fund.

RELATED LINKS:

• More budget cuts to state historic preservation programs – The Posterity Project

• Saving America’s Treasures – National Trust for Historic Preservation

• Nature for Sale: Saying So Long to Tennessee’s Beauty Spots – Nashville Scene

• Forever Green Tennessee blog

This morning, a researcher plunged into the records of the North Pacific Pediatric Society (2009-002), becoming the first interested party to request the unprocessed collection of materials chronicling the history of the Society from 1919 to the present (literally; we received the meeting program from 2009 in a recent accrual to the records).

There were oohs and comments from the research table and requests for scans through the first couple of boxes, but then the excitement died away. By the 1970s, the group was talking about “the usual stuff,” and so the motivation to continue leafing through the 30- and 40-year old records slowly evaporated. In those earlier meeting minutes and programs, the titles of presentations seemed quaint and amusing, the names of the presenters imbued with a faint air of dignity, if not legend. The more recent programs were unremarkable in content, the speakers more well-known and familiar.

So, is that how far back one needs to go? Fifty years? Is the “quaint line” a constant, like 25 years for classic cars? Or is it more contextual, based on the nature of the field being surveyed? In medicine, where knowledge (or at least information) is expanding at an ever greater rate, perhaps the line is at 50 years for an established specialty like pediatrics but at ten or twenty years for genetics and maybe even five years for robotic surgery? This field specificity is certainly one component of historicality (if you’ll allow me to use that word), but as a reference archivist, it’s not the one I most commonly see. Most researchers–amateur historians, genealogists, students, curious onlookers–perceive things as “old” largely as a function of their own age. Or their time in the field. Or the reach of daily memory in their unit/department/cohort. Even practiced historians have to work, to some extent, to overcome this natural bias.

This is not a revolutionary insight by any means, but it’s one that we ignore at our peril. All of us: historians, writers, donors, senior faculty, junior faculty, but especially archivists (and all other workers in cultural heritage resources). Just because it’s new to me doesn’t mean it’s new to a given researcher. Just because it isn’t new to a given researcher doesn’t mean it won’t provide a younger researcher with a great insight. If one person’s memory has assimilated, refined, and generalized a concept introduced twenty years ago to such an extent that the concept is perceived as “the same thing we’re talking about today,” that doesn’t mean it is the same thing.

Which is all a rather roundabout way of saying that faculty input on archival collecting can only get you so far. That the importance and value of archival repositories collecting contemporary material cannot be assessed with modern metrics of usage. That just because you think there’s nothing of value in your papers, doesn’t mean fresh eyes won’t find excitement and inspiration there.

(PS: Frankly, this 1999 NPPS presentation sure sounded quaint and amusing to me: “Finding Quality Resources on the Web”–but, that’s just my age showing….)

George survived the war, and eventually married and settled in Waterbury, Connecticut, with his wife Emma, their daughter Edith, and his brother Levi B. Downs, another veteran of the war.  George was not particularly literate, which is also part of the story and which makes reading his letter a bit of a challenge. We know he died before 1898 when Emma remarried. The complete  story remains a bit sketchy, but having both the letter and the tintype makes it more complete than usual. Ms 1008831. Photograph 2010.057.

Now, maybe that’s just me — I’m inclined to mark most days with music. I collect LPs as a hobby, and I got this one from Joycee.

25 years ago this month, Whitney Houston’s  debut LP was issued. It was a smash, with consecutive hits and #1s, and it began Miss Houston’s great career in music and films, that keeps going and going….

Whitney Houston is the daughter of soul and gospel singer Cissy Drinkard Houston.  With her sisters, Cissy made gospel records and sang backup on several others. One of her sisters, Lee Drinkard Warrick, managed the group and was herself mother to gospel and R&B singer Judy Clay  and pop legend Dionne Warrick. 

By the time she was in her teens, Whitney Houston had absorbed some serious musical training. She signed with Arista, and the rest is history.

Miss Houston’s eponymous debut featured stellar songwriters, producers and players, including Julia  and Maxine  Waters, who released tons of records and sang with everybody. (Julia and Maxine sang as Supremes, sort of, on the 1969 hit “Someday We’ll be Together,”  after the Motown legends had gone their separate ways.) Since that first record, the Whitney Houston sound has become the standard for so many pop singers. TV’s “American Idol” is a stream of singers doing their best Whitney Houston  for better or worse.

Whitney Houston’s career is 25 years old. She comes from a mighty female heritage and an amazing vocal heritage. She has worked in a business where many women have succeeded, in front and behind the scenes. She has inspired millions of women since.

Whitney Houston is our historical marker today.

This poster enters the Beinecke collection along with another wonderful
print marking the publication of Dubuffet’s illustrated version of Jean Paulhan’s Métromanie.

Thanks a million to Dee Dee for her awesome new comic about sexism in our feminized profession:

Thanks to Dee Dee for being awesome… and for letting me re-post this.

Holy moley, there’s so much happening here that I love. I especially love the bit about how library school tells us that it’s perfectly fine to give away our specialized labor for free. I went to an “i-School” for information science, and you can bet your boots that our career counselors were telling the human-computer interaction people to hold out for a paying internship with Microsoft (or Amazon.com, or whatever) while we library-and-archives students were encouraged to not be too pushy, and to embrace our 20-hour per week unpaid internship at the Podunk Historical Society without asking for a stipend, or travel expenses, or at least setting expectations for mentoring. It’s no wonder that archival administrators have notoriously been unsuccessful convincing their parent institutions that we need more staff, more supplies, and professional development funds.

So, in Dee’s spirit of real-life sexism in the profession, here’s one of my many stories of sexism at my workplace.

I work in an archives that’s part of a larger unit at an EXTREMELY WEALTHY East Coast university. (You will often see ivy on the walls. HINT. Oh, and their tagline should be “architects of the current financial crisis.” HINT HINT.) In any case, my partner also works here. He started six months after I did, when the university was REALLY tightening its belt. While I was expected to negotiate salary with my supervisor (I was told that there was absolutely no room for salary negotiation, nor for relocation expenses, formalized professional development budget, etc.), the chief of staff of this institution called my partner and asked if he would like to negotiate. My partner was flown out for an interview, mine was over the phone because there were no funds. My partner had a search committee, I had a rambling supervisor conducting a very short interview  who gossiped about the current and previous administrators of the institution and never asked any questions about my knowledge or skills.

My partner is a database administrator, I am an archivist. I have specialized knowledge and a master’s degree from an excellent archives program; he was fresh out of college. I went to a prestigious undergraduate college and graduated with honors — he went to a mid-tier state school and scraped through. He did not major in his professional field. He’s very bright and very good at his job, but isn’t terribly impressive on paper. I have interned at the Library of Congress; I have grantwriting experience; I’ve worked with some of the leading archivists in the field…

Punchline: My partner makes more money than I do.

My very nice red-haired Eagle Scout partner (WHOM I LOVE. My problem is not with him) makes more money than I do with less education, much less experience, and far less specialized skill. Our work is very, very similar. We both work with data standards, we process huge quantities of information, we help set policy at our institution. I have more supervisory responsibilities than he does, much less support than he does, and work with materials that are (sorry, man) much more important and irreplaceable than his are. At the risk of being tedious, I have to state again that I have the terminal degree in my profession. I am competent, professional, and I work very hard to bring our practices into the twenty-first century.

I can’t think of anything to explain this imbalance other than the feminization of the profession and the “women don’t ask” phenomenon of institutions not anticipating that women would expect that same professional structures that men do. Let’s just say that this attitude has reared its ugly head during my tenure here time and again.

So, young archivists and librarians, I know that it’s a tough labor market, but take it from me, if they don’t treat you as a specialized professional during your interview, they certainly won’t improve upon acquaintance.

Curatorial Records: Numbered Correspondence 553

Memorandum:

March 8, 1895, Mr. S. B. Taylor, No. 1626, 7^th St., N.W., Washington, D.C. presents a specimen of oyster blenny (Chasmodes boscianus).

A.M.M. No. 10813 Pathological Section.

Some info on card 10813

Given that this is a species of fish that lives in mangrove roots in warm water, I have no idea why we gave it a pathological section number. It was undoubtedly for the Comparative Anatomy section.

Day 1 will address the case for digital preservation, digital preservation as a risk management activity, the action that needs to be taken and introduce the Planets framework, tools and services as an integrated approach to digital preservation. Local organisations will present two case studies to show how they are preserving digital collections.

Days 2 and 3 provide an opportunity to meet and learn from the experts, creators and developers of Planets. Using a sample collection, you will gain hands-on experience of Planets tools and services. There will also be plenty of opportunity to ask questions, network with peers and to try out tools and exercises.
Register now for day 1 only at a cost of EUR95 or for the whole three-day event at a cost of EUR199 at: http://www.tcp-events.co.uk/planets2010/.

Places are limited and registration will close on 9 April 2010.

To see the event programme and to find out more information on Planets and the training and outreach event, please visit: http://www.planets-project.eu/events/rome-2010/ or send an email to trainingevents@planets-project.eu.

To read delegates’ first-hand accounts from our previous London event visit: http://www.archiveshub.ac.uk/blog/. http://futurearchives.blogspot.com/2010/02/music-planets-and-secret-messages.html.

Planets (Preservation and Long-Term Access through Networked Services) is a four-year project co-funded by the European Union and delivered by 16 national libraries, national archives, universities and technology companies across Europe.

Digital Preservation

“No sudden madness had gripped the distinguished Senator…. North Carolina was one of only five States without an official bird. Winner of a Statewide newspaper poll had been the Carolina chickadee, and the State Federation of Women’s Clubs asked the Legislature to elect the chickadee.

“Senator George McNeill of Fayetteville trooped over to the State museum, brought back a stuffed chickadee to enlighten his urban colleagues. Someone told Salisbury’s veteran Representative Walter Pete Murphy that the chickadee eats insects. ‘For God’s sake,’ cried he, ‘don’t turn the chickadee loose on this House.’

“When legislative wit had run its course both houses conferred official status upon the chickadee. Then it was the State’s turn to have fun. The chickadee is a member of the titmouse family. Editors remembered ‘Little Tommy Tittlemouse’ who ‘lived in a little house,’ began to refer to the ‘Tomtit Legislature.’ Clubs and societies stirred uneasily at the prospect of North Carolina’s becoming known as the ‘tomtit State.’

“The legislators withstood the waggish barrage for ten days. Then another bill was quietly introduced. With no voice raised in opposition, North Carolina’s Senate & House last week repealed the chickadee.”

– Time magazine, May 29, 1933

Hill was more successful, of course, in his munificent advocacy of the North Carolina Collection.

In conjunction with my visit, Finn arranged for me to meet some of his archival colleagues from the Danish State Archives, the Aalborg Archives, and the Byhistorisk Samling og Arkiv Blaakildegaard, a historical museum and archives in the town of Taastrup, west of Copenhagen.   In addition, several archivists from the Danish State Library attended my talk (“Preserving the ‘Papers’ of 21st Century Science”).

I learned quite a bit about digital preservation and archives work in Denmark, particularly at the state archives. They have developed a particularly interesting approach to digital preservation.

As part of my visit, Peter Edelholt demonstrated four pieces of software that the state archives is developing as part of its overall program for the preservation of business records and private papers. The approach that the Danish State Archives is taking toward digital preservation is unique, so far as I am aware, since all of the materials to be deposited by individuals (with the exception of audio and video) will be converted to tiff format for inclusion in the archives.

The program for private papers and business records is based on a established method that they developed over the past ten years for preserving government records.  The basis of which is described in the proceedings of a Symposium which they hosted in 2008. The Danish legal context for archives is quite unique, in that government bodies are legally mandated to supply digital records in a format mandated by the archives.    Documents, whatever their format, are converted to tiff format and supplied with a series of tabular and xml files providing metadata, which can be read by a database application that the archives developed. All materials, including the tiff files, text files for searching, and the tab files/metadata are stored within one folder and are deposited as an archival information packet, into a repository system based on redundant offline storage (2 DVDs in separate physical locations and backup magnetic tapes). All of the media are on a continuous, monitored refreshment schedule.

The state archives chose tiff as a preservation format since they feel it has the most long-term stability and least likelihood of changes. Compliance by state agencies is required under law, and documents must be supplied in tiff format.   The existence of such a requirement has provided a certain amount of stability so that a market for conversion tools and services has developed. Peter said most state agencies now understand  the requirements, and budget for them.

The Danish State Archives is beginning to develop a programmatic basis for the deposit of electronic ‘papers’ from individuals, businesses, and associations. These files (with the exception of audio, video, and other special formats) will also be converted to tiff for permanent retention. Obviously, the archives cannot require that individuals deposit materials in this particular format, so the will have to be converted by the archives

To help people deposit their materials, they are in the process of developing four software tools.  The tools will be used by the state archives and will also be provided to other Danish archives that are provided legal authority to accept electronic papers.  (I am not sure I understood Peter correctly, but he seemed to suggest the Danish law mandates that only certain archives, including the Danish State Archives and some local authority archives, can accept electronic materials from private donors.)   The are developing an appraisal tool , a file conversion tool, a validation tool , and an access tool. All of the tools are written in C#/.Net framework, so they will work only with files that are accessible via a computer running Microsoft Windows.

The appraisal tool is quite interesting, and I think it could be very useful outside of the Denmark.  It provides method for donors or archivists to browse, select, and copy files for deposit. That might not sound all that innovative, since someone could use a file browser to do the same thing. However, the tool is very simple to use (even with a Danish language interface), and I think it would help donors take an active, engaged role in determining the shape of their archives. It also includes a simple method for supplying basic descriptive information regarding both the materials being transferred and the archival creator. In addition, files that were not selected by the user are also listed,  in effect providing a list of files that were ‘weeded’ by the user.  Information about weeded files can be suppressed from the dissemination packet that is provided to end users.   All of this information is saved by the appraisal tool to a USB key or other location as a submission information packet.

Peter has sent me the appraisal tool, and as I work with it more, I may provide some more information about it.

The conversion tool is a bit more complex and is the final stages of development. Although it is mainly intended for archivists, it is possible that experienced computer users could make use of it. Ideally, it would be run on the computer the created the files, since every file to be deposited (which can be rendered graphically without animation or sound) is converted to tiff format. The archives also plan to use in on some dedicated servers in their Copenhagen location.

The conversion process uses a proprietary application that installs as a standard printer driver. The license allows the archives to integrate the driver directly into the tool itself, so users will not need to pay a separate license fee. The conversion application reads file extensions (defined in an editable .ini file) to open the application that is associated with the extension. It then prints the output to a tiff file. If necessary, complex formats such as email are unpacked by the tool prior to conversion.

Each tiff file is provided a numeric identifier, and a series of .tab (text) files are generated, along with an xml file, to provide structural metadata and to record the object’s original file name. If a file cannot be converted, the user can try again (sometimes conversions fail for unexplained reasons, probably due to resource conflicts in the printer queue). If necessary, the user can also attempt to correct problems with the file extensions or choose to exclude certain files from the conversion process. If the user chooses to exclude files, they will be listed as excluded in the ‘archival information packet’ that the application produces. Since the creating or viewing application must be opened, the conversion process can be quite lengthy if there are many files to manipulate.

For each file that is converted, a text file is made. In addition, certain metadata fields are extracted from particular document types, such as email, so that the end user can search on access points such as the to, subject, and cc: fields. In addition, the full structure of the documents, as they existed on the user’s hard drive, ar retained. Simiarly, the tab files (and its xml ‘key’ provide structural metadata to allow for the reassembly of multi-page documents or complex objects, such as email with embedded attachments.  When all conversions have been accomplished, the converted files and metadata are copied to another location for validation.

The validation tool is used ensure that the files to be deposited are in the correct formats and that adequate metadata is supplied, according to the standard which the state archives defined. The testing tool includes several options to examine files and metadata, so a visual verification of conversion may be performed, at least on a sample of items (there is no automated method to ensure that the print driver did not garble the output.) Once the testing has been completed, the file are written to a storage media and placed into secure storage locations..

The Archives provides access copies of the DVDs, along with a copy of the access software, for use either in the search room on on user’s home computers.

Peter did not demonstrate the access tool to me, and I believe it is still under development. In any case, Peter said that all of the tools will be complete by Mor or June, at which point they will be distributed to institutions in Denmark and other interested individuals.

In choosing tiff as its preservation format, the Danish State archives has choosen an approach that is quite different from other repositories. But I think it is important to note that the program has been very successful for government records, and the archives will be building on its strengths. Obviously, the decision to take only tiff files leads to a potential loss of functionality, but to a certain extent, this has been accommodate for in the access tool which the archives is developing.

The archives is also developing conversion tools for other formats such as audio and video, but we did not have time to discuss these.

All in all, I was very impressed with the project, since it has a clear vision, achievable objectives, and a long-term likelihood for sustainability.  The solution works within the confines of the resources the repository has available, and leaves the Danish state archives with a clear migration and maintenance path for the future, since only one format is being used for the representation of static documents, photographs, and other items that can be transferred. It remains to be seen how widely used the method will be in the partner institutions,  but it is definitely worth following.  Above all else, it shows that there are many potential approaches to digital preservation, and that whatever system one chooses, it will be successful to the extent that it is attuned to local needs and available resources and expertise.

In conjunction with my visit, Finn arranged for me to meet some of his archival colleagues from the Danish State Archives, the Aalborg Archives, and the Byhistorisk Samling og Arkiv Blaakildegaard, a historical museum and archives in the town of Taastrup, west of Copenhagen.   In addition, several archivists from the Danish State Library attended my talk (“Preserving the Papers of 21st Century Science”).

I learned quite a bit about digital preservation and archives work in Denmark, particularly at the state archives. They have developed a particularly interesting approach to digital preservation.

As part of my visit, Peter Urkedall demonstrated four pieces of software that the state archives is developing as part of its overall program for the preservation of business records and private papers. The approach that the Danish State Archives is taking toward digital preservation is unique, so far as I am aware, since all of the materials to be deposited by individuals (with the exception of audio and video) will be converted to tiff format for inclusion in the archives.

The program for private papers and business records is based on a established method that they developed over the past ten years for preserving government records.  The basis of which is described in the proceedings of a Symposium which they hosted in 2008. The Danish legal context for archives is quite unique, in that government bodies are legally mandated to supply digital records in a format mandated by the archives.    Documents, whatever their format, are converted to tiff format and supplied with a series of tabular and xml files providing metadata, which can be read by a database application that the archives developed. All materials, including the tiff files, text files for searching, and the tab files/metadata are stored within one folder and are deposited as an archival information packet, into a repository system based on redundant offline storage (2 DVDs in separate physical locations and backup magnetic tapes). All of the media are on a continuous, monitored refreshment schedule.

The state archives chose tiff as a preservation format since they feel it has the most long-term stability and least likelihood of changes. Compliance by state agencies is required under law, and documents must be supplied in tiff format.   The existence of such a requirement has provided a certain amount of stability so that a market for conversion tools and services has developed. Peter said most state agencies now understand  the requirements, and budget for them.

The Danish State Archives is beginning to develop a programmatic basis for the deposit of electronic ‘papers’ from individuals, businesses, and associations. These files (with the exception of audio, video, and other special formats) will also be converted to tiff for permanent retention. Obviously, the archives cannot require that individuals deposit materials in this particular format, so the will have to be converted by the archives

To help people deposit their materials, they are in the process of developing four software tools.  The tools will be used by the state archives and will also be provided to other Danish archives that are provided legal authority to accept electronic papers.  (I am not sure I understood Peter correctly, but he seemed to suggest the Danish law mandates that only certain archives, including the Danish State Archives and some local authority archives, can accept electronic materials from private donors.)   The are developing an appraisal tool , a file conversion tool, a validation tool , and an access tool. All of the tools are written in C#/.Net framework, so they will work only with files that are accessible via a computer running Microsoft Windows.

The appraisal tool is quite interesting, and I think it could be very useful outside of the Denmark.  It provides method for donors or archivists to browse, select, and copy files for deposit. That might not sound all that innovative, since someone could use a file browser to do the same thing. However, the tool is very simple to use (even with a Danish language interface), and I think it would help donors take an active, engaged role in determining the shape of their archives. It also includes a simple method for supplying basic descriptive information regarding both the materials being transferred and the archival creator. In addition, files that were not selected by the user are also listed,  in effect providing a list of files that were ‘weeded’ by the user.  Information about weeded files can be suppressed from the dissemination packet that is provided to end users.   All of this information is saved by the appraisal tool to a USB key or other location as a submission information packet.

Peter has sent me the appraisal tool, and as I work with it more, I may provide some more information about it.

The conversion tool is a bit more complex and is the final stages of development. Although it is mainly intended for archivists, it is possible that experienced computer users could make use of it. Ideally, it would be run on the computer the created the files, since every file to be deposited (which can be rendered graphically without animation or sound) is converted to tiff format. The archives also plan to use in on some dedicated servers in their Copenhagen location.

The conversion process uses a proprietary application that installs as a standard printer driver. The license allows the archives to integrate the driver directly into the tool itself, so users will not need to pay a separate license fee. The conversion application reads file extensions (defined in an editable .ini file) to open the application that is associated with the extension. It then prints the output to a tiff file. If necessary, complex formats such as email are unpacked by the tool prior to conversion.

Each tiff file is provided a numeric identifier, and a series of .tab (text) files are generated, along with an xml file, to provide structural metadata and to record the object’s original file name. If a file cannot be converted, the user can try again (sometimes conversions fail for unexplained reasons, probably due to resource conflicts in the printer queue). If necessary, the user can also attempt to correct problems with the file extensions or choose to exclude certain files from the conversion process. If the user chooses to exclude files, they will be listed as excluded in the ‘archival information packet’ that the application produces. Since the creating or viewing application must be opened, the conversion process can be quite lengthy if there are many files to manipulate.

For each file that is converted, a text file is made. In addition, certain metadata fields are extracted from particular document types, such as email, so that the end user can search on access points such as the to, subject, and cc: fields. In addition, the full structure of the documents, as they existed on the user’s hard drive, ar retained. Simiarly, the tab files (and its xml ‘key’ provide structural metadata to allow for the reassembly of multi-page documents or complex objects, such as email with embedded attachments.  When all conversions have been accomplished, the converted files and metadata are copied to another location for validation.

The validation tool is used ensure that the files to be deposited are in the correct formats and that adequate metadata is supplied, according to the standard which the state archives defined. The testing tool includes several options to examine files and metadata, so a visual verification of conversion may be performed, at least on a sample of items (there is no automated method to ensure that the print driver did not garble the output.) Once the testing has been completed, the file are written to a storage media and placed into secure storage locations..

The Archives provides access copies of the DVDs, along with a copy of the access software, for use either in the search room on on user’s home computers.

Peter did not demonstrate the access tool to me, and I believe it is still under development. In any case, Peter said that all of the tools will be complete by Mor or June, at which point they will be distributed to institutions in Denmark and other interested individuals.

In choosing tiff as its preservation format, the Danish State archives has choosen an approach that is quite different from other repositories. But I think it is important to note that the program has been very successful for government records, and the archives will be building on its strengths. Obviously, the decision to take only tiff files leads to a potential loss of functionality, but to a certain extent, this has been accommodate for in the access tool which the archives is developing.

The archives is also developing conversion tools for other formats such as audio and video, but we did not have time to discuss these.

The archives is putting all of its eggs in to the tiff basket, since the original files are not being retained (again, this approach is at odds with most of the other projects of which I am aware.) All in all, I was very impressed with the project, since it has a clear vision, achievable objectives, and a long-term likelihood for sustainability. It would be easy to dismiss it for its reliance on tiff format, but in the end, the solution works within the confines of the resources the repository has available, and leave the Danish state archives with a clear migration and maintenance path for the future. It remains to be seen how widely used the method is in Denmark or elsewhere, but it is definitely worth following.  Above all else, it shows that there are many potential approaches to digital preservation, and that whatever system one chooses, it will be successful only to the extent that it is attuned to local needs.

Second, each time I teach a semester-long course in digitization, I have my students interview someone who is currently involved in a digitization project/program.  These interviews are educational for the students, since they get to hear what practitioners are doing and thinking. They are also educatinal for me, because I get a quick peak into many programs.  

What I always find interesting from the interviews is how people learned about digitization as well as how they keep up with what’s going on. Many practitioners learned about digitization by doing it, rather than from classes, etc.  Rarely do my students find someone who took extensive formal training, even though that traning exists.

Most people stay up-to-date through email discussion groups, newsletters and conference sessions. Only a few people talk about anything formal that they do in order to stay current.  In looking at where people do go for information, there is no central location that everyone visits.  We all go in different directions.  That could mean that we’re all not tripping over important information that could help us in our programs.

Question - should there be workshops or conferences (virtual or in person), specifically for those people that are out in the field, geared to help them learn about and discuss the latest information, techniques, hardware and software?  If yes, what would your vision of such an event be?

Digital Preservation

Visit ALA | Preservation Week

Visit FCC to propose new video archive in national broadband plan – Nextgov

Visit Slashdot Your Rights Online Story | A Second Lessig Fair-Use Video Is Suppressed By WMG

Visit Microsoft Online Surveillance Guide – Cryptome Leak | Geekosystem

Visit ongoing by Tim Bray · Let Your Data Go

Visit Without Warning, Google Closes Music Blogs; Years Of Archives Gone | paidContent

The European Conference on Digital Libraries (ECDL) is the leading European scientific forum on digital libraries and associated  technical, practical, and social issues, bringing together  researchers, developers, content providers and users in the field.  ECDL 2010, the 14th conference in this series, will be organised by the University of Glasgow.  The proceedings will be published as a volume of Springer’s Lecture Notes on Computer Science (LNCS) series.

Digital Libraries

Nobbys Beach, Newcastle NSW

The members of the Coal River Working Party at the University of Newcastle have been sifting through early colonial archives in their search for the Macquarie Pier Foundation and Inscription Stone laid in 1818 at the Newcastle breakwater. They plan to combine a number of strategies to find the inscription stone including Archival Research, Ground Penetrating Radar and an Archaeological Dig. Their site states:

In recognition of Macquarie 2010, The University of Newcastle’s Coal River Working Party and Newcastle City Council will embark on the quest to find the Foundation and Inscription Stone laid in Newcastle by Governor Lachlan Macquarie back in 1818, and believed lost for over 190 years.

Governor Lachlan Macquarie laid the foundation stone for the Newcastle breakwater, named in his honour by Commandant Captain James Wallis as “Macquarie Pier” during one of his three visits to Newcastle on the 5th August  1818

Visit their blog to view the work so far and keep up to date with the investigation as it progresses!

Post from: Archives Outside@State Records NSW

Macquarie 2010: the search for the Macquarie Pier Foundation and Inscription Stone (Newcastle)

Also of interest:

• Our new blog
• Archival detective work in action at the University of Newcastle
• Grant of Arms – The University of Newcastle’s Declaration of Independence

Here’s my translation of the handwriting from the flyleaf (but please correct me if you think I am wrong!):

Saml. Hillman

Sandy Harris — Book

This is the property of Saml. Hillman and not Sandy Harris as he states — Why will men choose to claim that which does not belong to them

The “argument” over this book can be found in copy 5 of the following item:

A collection of the statutes of the Parliament of England in force in the state of North-Carolina / published according to a resolve of the General assembly by Francois-Xavier Martin … Newbern : From the Editor’s Press, 1792. VC345.2 1792

Interestingly enough, there is a list of subscribers to this publication at the end of the book–and neither Mr. Harris nor Mr. Hillman is listed.

Dispensary received Mar. 7, 1901

Extract from Letter of Ludwig Rosenthal, filed in the Library Branch, Mus. & Lib. Division.

Munchen,
Hildegard – Strasse 16
Nov. 14, 1900.

To the Library of the Surgeon General’s Office,
Washington, D.C.

I beg to report if not sold meanwhile:

Little house-dispensary with contents, XVI-XVIIth century. The little shrine, worked in black ebony is inlaid and ornamented with ivory and marble. Lock, angles, rings, etc. in gilt iron with artfully worked heads and foliage. The opened (lead) lid shows 15 divisions, in which are kept little glasses with brass clasps and two engraved little silver boxes. One division is empty; the narrow sides form pushers opening little drawers and secret panels, wherein are remnants of pills and three colored tablets with the impressed inscription “Terra Sigillata” 1851 and the monograms K. B with a crown. In another secret panel a tin box with old salve. At the lower part of the shrine are two drawers, where the instruments may have been kept.

This little shrine is artistically and carefully worked and well kept. H. 16.4 cm, L 27 cm depth 16.5 cm.

Price M. 250.

I actually became interested in becoming an archivist (after a lifetime of loving what they did but not knowing it was archivists who did those things) as I began to do research on my own genealogy. I picked up where my maternal grandmother left off and then did a lot on my paternal side, as well. And it all began with census records.

I became a pretty good genealogist and when I coupled the skills there with the history graduate degree, I found that I had entered a whole new world that was exciting. Part of me wants to be a researcher for life, but the love of archives keeps me from that.

But over the years I have heard the many jokes archivists tell, and the sneering and snickering, and seen the mean ugly faces some archivists get when the conversation changes to dealing with genealogists. As an archivist, I have always welcomed genealogists into my realm, maybe because I too am a genealogist.

Census records, even those taken in less than 25 days, are valuable records in themselves. But when coupled with diaries and letters and business records of all types, the census takes on a new meaning.

I have been thinking again lately a lot about the education an archivist should achieve. I wish that the Clayton State University in Atlanta, in conjunction with NARA-Atlanta and the Georgia Archives, could get that MAS (Master of Archival Studies) degree off the ground. I’ve done some thinking and I think any such degree, which will blend history and library science together to form a more perfect archivist, should include history classes on – historiography, historical research, genealogical research, and history of archives. Why genealogical research? Well, genealogists make up a large part of the patronage of many archives, including donors and volunteers, and I think every archivist should have to do their own or someone else’s genealogy while in a graduate program so they can come to appreciate and maybe embrace that which is genealogy, especially the importance census records have to that type of research.

Maybe someday someone will create such a graduate degree program in the United States and I can have some hand in it. It’s still okay to dream, right?

Because the San Francisco History Center serves as the official archives for the San Francisco Public Library, we have a collection of folder files (aka vertical files, because they’re filed vertically) for specific branches, including one for the Potrero Library. Besides the items reproduced here, the file includes correspondence from the 1950s, program fliers, a building fact sheet, a community profile from the mid-1990s, and photocopied clippings and articles about the renovation.Visit the San Francisco History Center to view the paper file in person.

Invitation to the ground-breaking ceremony, Tues. Nov. 21, 1950 and Program for the dedication of the building, Mon. June 25, 1951, courtesy of the San Francisco History Center, SFPL.

 To view photographs of the branch library before the renovation, visit the San Franciso Historical Photograph Collection online and do a subject search on Libraries–SFPL branches–Potrero.

To view contemporary photographs of the branch during its renovation and its opening gala, visit the branch library’s social media webpage.

Some of you may already be subscribers to Above The Fold (ATF) our weekly current awareness compilation and commentary. We just sent out the seventieth issue. Our objective in assembling the newsletter was to offer an information professional’s view of issues from outside our domain that were worth your consideration and related to library, archive and museum challenges. We selected items of interest likely to be beyond your normal reading sphere to help folks you look farther more often with less work.The selection and the commentary on the chosen articles would, we hoped, encourage some lateral thinking in our domain.

The date above marked our seventieth weekly issue and ATF now has nearly 3100 subscribers. We decided that we’ll feature a chosen article each week here in hangingtogether. I’ve chosen this article to feature not because it’s outside our domain but because it shines such a light on the obstacles to change in the research library arena.

E-Library Economics

See the rest of this ATF issue here.
Subscribe to ATF here.
Subscribe to the RSS feed of ATF here.

Back issues are here.

“In 1803 Raleigh’s population numbered fewer than 1,000. Marshall found lodging in the boardinghouse of Henry H. Cooke — a rickety frame building about a quarter of a mile from the courthouse.  The rooms were spartan, and Marshall had to gather his own wood and make his own fires. But for the next 32 years he stayed with Cooke whenever he held court in Raleigh.”

– From “John Marshall: Definer of a Nation” (1996) by Jean Edward Smith. Strange as it seems today, not until 1911 did Congress permanently free Supreme Court justices from circuit-riding duty.

Washington, March 6, 1896

My dear Doctor:-

I hardly think it worth while to purchase a new Ruhmkoff coil for the purpose of making experiments with the Roentgen rays. Very active experimental work is going on in different parts of the country and it is not probably that any experiments that you would find time to make would add anything of importance to our knowledge of these rays and their practical application in medicine. I judge that neither yourself nor anyone else at the Museum competent to make such experiments has the time for original research work, and it is hardly worth while to experiment simply for the purpose of verifying that is done by others. Later, when the exact practical value of photography by these rays has been determined, we may want the necessary apparatus in order to assist in the diagnosis of cases occurring in the District, to which the new method may be applicable.

Have you seen the last number of the American Journal of the Medical Sciences containing a number of photographs and an account of experiments which have been made in Philadelphia?

Very truly yours,

Geo. M. Sternbertg

Lieut. Col. D. L. Huntington,
Deputy Surgeon General, U.S. Army
Washington, D.C.

Yale University
The School of Medicine
Affiliated with the New Haven Hospital
on the
Anthony N. Brady Memorial Foundation

Laboratory of
Pathology and Bacteriology

New Haven, Connecticut
March 6, 1919

Colonel Charles F. Craig,
Army Medical Museum
Washington, D.C.

My Dear Colonel Craig:

I am sending you, under separate cover, four illustrations of the lung in influenza, which were done by artists from the Army Medical Museum. The autopsy numbers of these cases is on the illustration, and there is attached an anatomical diagnosis of the case. I have, besides these four illustrations, eight colored drawings of more or less similar lesions of the respiratory tract in influenza. They are as follows:

Aut. No. 1. Trachea showing an accute hemorrhagic inflammation.
” ” 2 &3. Pleural surface and cross section of lobular pneumonia in influenza.
” ” 4 &5. Pleural surface and cross section of the lobar type of inflammation.
” ” 6. Fibrinopurulent pleurisy
” ” 7 &8. Cross sections of subacute and chronic necrotizing and organizing pneumonia.

There are besides these illustrations of influenzal pneumonia, one hundred and thirty-eight gross and microscopic drawings and photo micrographs of the lungs of animals that have died or were killed after exposure to one of the following poisonous gases; chlorine, phosgene, chloropicrin, mustard, cyanogen, chloride, bromide, arsene, organic arsenic compounds, and superpalite.

The monograph which includes these illustrations is in the hands of the Yale Press. A complete list of the illustrations has been furnished to Colonel Lyster of the Chemical Warfare Service, and I have no other list of them to submit at the present time. Of course, it can be made if you feel that is is absolutely necessary.

Very truly yours,
[Major M. Winternitz]

THE MIKE WALLACE INTERVIEW, Guest: Pearl Buck, 2/8/58

“Pearl Buck, Pulitzer and Nobel Prize-winning novelist, talks to Wallace about American women, marriage, career versus family, and the difference between men and women.”

http://www.hrc.utexas.edu/multimedia/video/2008/wallace/buck_pearl_t.html

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Museum of Fine Art, Boston

Sunday, March 7, 2010. 11am

Amores Locos (Mad Love)

by Beda Docampo Feijóo, 2009

“Julia, a young curator at the Prado Museum, is convinced that she appears in a Flemish painting, together with a man she claims is her lover. The day she meets Enrique, a well-known psychiatrist, she freely confesses her belief that they are both the figures in the 17th-century painting, madly in love four centuries ago. Realizing she is ill, Enrique allows her to continue her research project on passion-related delusions, but treats her as his patient. Enrique attempts to cure her while Julia is determined to convince him they are destined to be together. Their struggle takes them to Bruges, where one of them is bound to achieve their purpose.”

http://www.mfa.org/calendar/event.asp?eventkey=42643&date=3/7/2010

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and apparently because it’s Women’s History Month…

Cinemateca de Cuba

through March 11, 2010. 9pm

Tout Le Plaisir Est Pour Moi (TODO EL PLACER ES MÍO/The Pleasure Is All Mine)

by Isabelle Broué, 2004

“Una joven deja de sentir placer sexual repentinamente. Desesperada, acudirá a varias opciones, para recuperar el deseo.”

“A beautiful, self-centered young woman’s life turns upside down when she suddenly ‘loses her clitoris’.” -IMDb

http://www.cubacine.cu/cartelera/index.htm

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While Bravo was vaporizing part of Bikini Atoll, approximately 7,000 miles away Brigadier General Edward F. Griffin was taking the oath to become North Carolina’s third state director of civil defense. Six weeks after Bravo, Griffin reported via radio and television that the state was unprepared to withstand any type of attack. Regarding the hydrogen bomb, Griffin warned that while there were no “critical targets” in the state, “the power of the hydrogen bomb places this state in the fringe of the disaster area, where blast can be felt from a bomb dropped over either Norfolk, VA, Oak Ridge, TN, or Savannah River project in South Carolina.”

Tar Heels were told to “duck and cover” until a warning net and evacuation plans were in place.

Each medal is available for an $8.00 donation to the library, which can be paid with cash or a check. 100% of the proceeds from the medals will go to the library due to the generosity of Theresa Baucum and Roxann Garcia, members of the DRT Library Committee who donated the funds needed to produce the medals.

You can pick up a medal at the library during its regular business hours (Monday through Friday, 9:00 am until 5:00 pm), or we can mail one to you for the cost of postage.

To order your medal or to receive information about postage costs, please contact the library by telephone at (210) 225-1071 or by email at drtl@drtl.org.

Be sure to save some room on your Fiesta sash for a DRT Library medal!

Author and critic Isaac Rosenfeld (1918-1956) was born in Chicago and, as a young man, was a student at the University of Chicago.

After graduating from the University of Chicago with his master’s degree in 1941, Rosenfeld moved to New York to pursue a PhD at New York University. There, he became a regular contributor to the New Republic, Partisan Review, and The Nation, among other journals.

The majority of Rosenfeld’s stories, reviews, and essays were written in the 1940s, and his novel, Passage from Home, was published in 1946.

The Isaac Rosenfeld Papers includes manuscripts of fiction and critical prose, some of which has never been published. It also includes correspondence concerning the publication of King Solomon and Other Stories (1955) and correspondence between Rosenfeld and Oscar Tarcov (1937-55).

Researchers interested in the Isaac Rosenfeld Papers should contact the Special Collections Research Center.