I wrote an earlier post titled “There are NO Jobs out There” and received a very thoughtful comment that led me to realize the tone of my post suggested that the reason people struggle to find jobs is that they’re lazy or stupid. I apologize for that impression. It wasn’t my intention. I just landed […]
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Vintage Valentines at Mount Holyoke College
This past week I had the opportunity to learn about Esther Howland, an 1847 Mount Holyoke College alumna, who is credited with starting the American Valentine card industry. The Mount Holyoke College Archives & Special Collections, where I’m working as the Digital Collections intern, has a large Valentine collection, including 3 created by Howland. As […]
The Classic Archives Debate Rears its Ugly Head
This past week I participated in the classic archives debate… Rectifying best practice with what is possible in a real archive. Background: My department is interested in including already digitized from analog audio files in our digital collection. These audio files were digitized three years ago according to best practice and the standards of the […]
Bibliographic Instruction in Archives
Bibliographic instruction in university archives represents just one area where practices as well as standards continuously and consistently evolve, and where archivists have the incredible opportunity to make their visitors become stakeholders and supporters from a positive reference exchange. When searching for articles, I chose to focus on three difference approaches to reference and user […]
Visit to National Yiddish Book Center
This past weekend I finished Aaron Lansky’s book Outwitting History. I found his prose that related the details of his twenty- year project to rescue Yiddish books a compelling tale. I was so taken with all that Lansky accomplished, rescuing 1.5 million books- when early estimates predicted he wouldn’t find more than 70,000 titles- that […]
Records Management Literature: the language of collaboration
Literature Review The central issue related to records management in the corporate setting is often that neither the company owner nor the employees can agree on what records must be saved, which items can be shredded and in what order when a company faces the prospect of being dissolved. Furthermore, collaborating and receiving buy-in from […]
Research guide for Women’s History
If you’re looking for sources for a women’s history research guide for college or graduate students take a look: 19th Century American Woman’s Suffrage Research Guide Archival and Primary Sources Beecher Family Papers. Mount Holyoke College. Archives and Special Collections. South Hadley, MA. Online finding aid • This archival collection offers users an excellent starting […]
Can I come back??? Archival Outreach through the reference interview
Recently, I had the opportunity to observe reference interactions at a local college’s archives and special collections. Unfortunately, for archivists in training such as myself or for new practitioners there is scant professional literature that analyzes the reference interview in an archival setting. During my observation, I encountered a college student who approached the reference […]