Running head: SITE VISIT
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Site Visit Paper
Megan L. Anthony
San Jose State University
School of Library and Information Science
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Abstract
A brief history on the San Diego History Center will be provided, as well as an ample
amount of description of their collections. Another brief history will be provided,
this time on the Archivist Jane Kenealy. Many unique challenges and some facts on
the San Diego History Center will be presented in narrative form, much like the rest
of the paper. Appraisals (donations, evaluating records), acquisitions/accessioning
records (contracts, transfer of legal rights, etc.), arrangements (original order),
description (finding aids), preservation/security (various precautions, archival
tools), and digitalization (Jane’s opinion) will be discussed as well. Some specific
examples from Jane Kenealy will be supplied through the resource of an interview.
Keywords: San Diego History Center, Archive, Appraisal, Acqusitions, Accessioning,
Arrangement, Description, Digitalization
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Brief history on Archival Repository, San Diego History Center
Opening in 1929 and known as the San Diego Historical Society, the San
Diego History Center (SDHC) was motivated by the understanding that San Diego
was a growing city. Its objective upon opening was:
For the discovery, collection and preservation of books, pamphlets, maps,
genealogies, portraits, paintings, relics, manuscripts, letters, journals,
surveys, field books and any and all other books, articles or materials which
may establish or illustrate the history of Western America, particularly the
County of San Diego and the State of California, and the publication and
dissemination of such historical matter as this corporation may authorize.
(“San Diego History Center” 2014)
Previously located on Presidio Hill above Old Town San Diego, SDHC moved
to its current location in Balboa Park in 1982. The museum is located in the Casa de
Balboa in Balboa Park, while the archive repository is located in the basement.
Serving over 81,000 visitors each year and attracting over 640,000 hits to their
website, the SDHC is a product of the enormous amount of rich, San Diego-related
content on their site.
The SDHC used to include Yuma and Riverside counties, but now sticks to
San Diego County only. The SDHC collects just about everything from documents,
objects, and photographs. The SDHC incorporates exhibitions for the public. Some
past exhibitions include: Sin Diego, A Sweet Life, Nature Improved, and FASHION
REDUX!
Document Archives
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SDHC’s document archives contain a collection of material relating to San Diego’s
history and includes: grant projects, books, public records, maps, scrapbooks,
unpublished manuscripts, document and manuscript collections, architectural
records, ephemera (created specifically for a transitory purpose such as theatre
programs, restaurant menus, postcards, brochures, tickets, etc.), oral history,
newspapers and serials, and biographical and subject files.
Object Collection
SDHC’s object collection consists of four main collection areas: costume and textiles,
decorative arts, fine arts, and objects of daily life. Some of the costume and textile
collection can include clothing for men, women, and children, the history of dress
from the late 18th century to the present, and samples of textiles. The decorative arts
collection can include items like furniture, ceramics, and dinnerware. The fine arts
collection contains paintings, sculptures, drawings, and more. The objects of daily
life collection incorporates items such as children’s toys, items of transportation,
and other items that have been donated and were once used by everyday people.
Photograph Collection
The photograph collection at the SDHC can be searched using finding aids. From
projects to photo galleries, the photograph collection can be viewed online or mailed
to you.
The SDHC’s current mission statement is “The San Diego History Center tells
the diverse story of our region – past, present, and future – educating and enriching
our community, preserving our history and fostering civic pride” as located in the
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Center’s website. Directly under her, Archivist Jane Kenealy has an Assistant
Archivist, along with 12 volunteers. No researchers are employed with the SDHC.
With at least 4000 books, 9000+ newspapers and serials, 150+ scrapbooks, 300+
archival collections, 1300+ minor document collections, 3000+ maps, 2500+
architectural plans, 1500+ interviews and 1200+ transcripts from oral history
interviews, 3330 individual subject files from ephemera records, and 6000+
volumes, 1500+ boxes, and 690 rolls microfilm of public records, the SDHC has quite
the collection.
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Brief history on Archivist, Jane Kenealy
Originally from the UK, Jane Kenealy is a trained teacher. She came to the
States in 1999 with her husband, and she began volunteering for the SDHC two full
days a week for four years. She saw on the Society of American Archivists (SAA)
website that you could receive training while on the job. Since the MLIS degree
wasn’t meant for archivists in the late 20th/early 21st century, she decided to take
advantage of the training that SAA was offering. Now they have classes in the MLIS
program that will help train for an archival future.
She received a two-week training from Western Archives Institute, ran by the
California State Archives. She eventually got her work Visa and began work as a
library assistant. She is now an Archivist and has been working for the SDHC for
nearly 10 years now (since 2005).
Jane’s day begins with reading and responding to emails that have collected
in her inbox. Patrons can begin entering at 9am while she moves on to other
archival duties. Archival duties can range from: processing all documentary archival
materials, supervising and training the archives volunteers and interns, developing
and managing departmental budget, managing the receiving and appraisal of
donations to the archives, assisting with the exhibits, the processing of new
acquisitions, identify material for deaccession, and more.
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Unique Challenges & Interesting Facts
Jane mentioned that most of her biggest challenges stem from the fact that
the SDHC is located in a city building, and they’re in the basement. There was a fire
at Balboa Park in the late 70’s and they had to rebuild. The pipes are old and they’ve
had several floods, therefore the air is not ideal for archival preservation. The A/C
was just replaced; consequently the humidity in the room is not what it should be.
The major aspects of environment are not up to archival standard, which is a shame.
During the interview, because they are located in the basement, the construction
that they were doing to maintain the building and prepare for exhibitions was loud
and often distracting.
Another challenge that is unique to the SDHC is that an old archivist that was
employed through the SDHC had put stamps that stated “San Diego History Center”
on almost everything. Now, if they want to display something for an exhibit, they
must figure out a way for that stamp not to show. Not only is that not allowing for
the record to remain fully authentic, but also the stamp ink may ruin the material of
the record, breaking one of the cardinal rules for archivists’ “never do anything to an
archival record that you cannot undo” (“Lindberg…Preservation,” 2014).
Jane brought up past employees that are now working for larger, not
independent, places of employment. The differences in daily tasks vary greatly as
she compares the daily routine she performs with the daily routine of her past
employees. For example, one person would only engage in one aspect of archival
duty; the task could be processing, while another individual does the appraisals. She
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used the term “fragmented” when describing the duties of larger places of
employment (personal communication, 2014).
In 1984, the SDHC was given temporary custody of city documents. They’re
just now giving items back to the city from this temporary custody. This will leave
more room for future donations.
Appraisal
Appraisal is the process of determining the value, and thus the disposition
(retention or destruction), of records (Hunter, 2003, p. 4). Jane spoke about how she
rarely goes out into the field to look at donated items. For instance, the SDHC may
already have an item that someone wants to donate, and rather an archivist go to
their house or the possible donors bringing in their items to the archival repository,
the items in question are to be listed so the archivist can determine through tools
like memory and experience to deduce if those items will become part of the
archival inventory. Appraisal is a necessary component of evaluating records since
most repositories don’t have unlimited space for items, particularly duplicates.
There are many tools that archivists utilize to determine the worth of items, and
Jane prefers memory, experience, and lists.
One example of an appraisal involves a recent donation from a woman whose
father, who was a civil engineer for the city of San Diego, passed away. The civil
engineer’s daughter wanted to donate his diaries to the SDHC. Part of the appraisal
process to make sure the item would have long-term value is if the diary was legible,
is relevant, and in decent condition. Jane stated that she rarely gets donations from
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the owner/creator. The most common donations are passed down to the SDHC once
the owner/creator has passed away.
Acquisitions/Accessioning
The bridge between identifying records of enduring value and preserving
them is represented by two these archival functions. Acquisition covers such areas
as donor relations and contacts, and policies for collecting records and papers.
Accessioning involves the actual transfer of records or papers to an archives or
manuscript repository, along with the transfer of legal rights to the physical and
intellectual property (Hunter, 2003, p. 4-5). One of the challenges Jane discussed
was their lack of processing due to the shortage of staff. A grant is something that
assists in making processing happen; for instance, the staff of the SDHC got 130
boxes processed due to a grant. Applying for grants to get projects done is
something that the SDHC, and other smaller archival repositories are familiar with.
Jane mentioned that in comparison to special libraries or University libraries, which
tend to have more people helping, the SDHC has to completely utilize every resource
they have to get projects done in a timely and organized manner. When using
volunteers to receive assistance in projects, Jane described difficulties within that.
Using volunteers can be a struggle because you can’t assign them any work without
providing them supervision due to their lack of experience and knowledge in the
field. The archival vernacular is also unknown to them (personal communication,
October 27, 2014).
Accessioning, arranging, describing, and properly storing archival materials
are all part of the processing of archival records (“Lindberg…Accessioning,” 2014).
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Accession takes place when there is contact made with the collection owner. Then, a
temporary receipt is given to the original owner that states the archives are given
legal responsibility and custody, but not ownership of the collection; all while the
collection is being looked at (personal communication, October 27, 2014).
The limit for processing items is 1,000 dollars for the SDHC. If the amount is
larger, the acquisition committee will have to interfere and check and balance with
the SDHC. One example in which the limit exceeded 1,000 is when the San Diego
County Water Authority had a whole room full of items to donate. Needing more
than 1,000 dollars, the SDHC then applied for an award from a foundation. Once
receiving the award money, the SDHC processed the large collection. It is then Jane’s
responsibility to write a report, regardless of if the processed collection exceeded
1,000 dollars, then give the report to the registrar for the Deed of Gift to be sent to
the original owner. Once the original owner signs the Deed of Gift and it is in
possession of the archivist, the archival repository is now the owner of that
collection.
Arrangement
Part of preserving historically valuable items, arrangement is the
organization of archives or manuscripts in accordance with accepted professional
principles (Hunter, 2003, p. 5).
A challenge that Jane is facing is the 20 boxes of newspapers that are
separated by date. The SDHC is just now starting to make them more accessible and
easy to find information by having them be subject based. Jane shared that 80% of
their collections are not in original order, for they come already dated. However, for
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the ones that aren’t dated, they are put in order by date, if legible, and left in
chronological order to maintain practical future use.
Description
Description is the bridge between preserving records and making them
available; it is the opportunity for the archivist to record what is known about the
collection and its arrangement in a way that will facilitate access by researchers
(Hunter, 2003, p. 6). 200+ DACS (describing archives content standard) finding aids
are now available online thanks to a grant that was awarded by the Council on
Library and Information Resources (CLIR) Hidden Collections Program (personal
communication, October 27, 2014). The DACS finding aids include: summary
information, biographical/historical notes, scope and content, arrangement,
administrative information, controlled access headings, physical characteristics and
technical requirements, comments, and collection inventory.
Preservation/Security
Preservation involves both the protection of records from physical
deterioration and damage and the restoration of previously damaged items. Security
is the safeguarding of records from natural and human disasters (Hunter, 2003, p.
5). Jane said during the interview that they take their recently acquired donations
out of their original boxes and put them into archival boxes with folders and
archival clips. For some of the other more delicate items, cotton gloves, and dusting
and photo brushes are used to help preserve records. Metal shelving was visible as
Jane showed me their archival collection.
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Jane expressed that the security in the SDHC is not as she would like it to be.
The library’s front and back door are always locked, and someone has to be
expecting your arrival in order for you to be let in. There is an alarm for any
unwanted guests. Only collection staff are allowed in collection space, and if a
patron wants to see something, an archivist or other employee will bring the items
in question to the main room for the patron to review. The photo below displays the
main room with archival boxes shelved along the wall. Patrons have access to these
archival boxes, which are copies of the original. However, before entering the main
room, patrons are urged to leave their bags and purses behind.
Digitalization
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Jane has an opinionated view on technology and the ever-changing
advancements. She pointed out that there used to be floppy disks, then DVD’s, and
now Blu-ray. New technology is constantly changing and evolving, and Jane would
like to know that something will stick around for a while before she commits to any
digitalization of records. “Programs change, computers evolve, there are constant
upgrades” is what Jane feels on this subject (personal communication, 2014).
The cloud is something that Jane feels is untrustworthy, for it belongs on
someone’s server. When thinking about digitizing the records in the SDHC, she
recognized just how large the amount of items would need to be digitized. For
instance, one archival box may look small, but there could be a large amount of
items inside. The hypothesis of digitizing a letter could promote some problems; for
example, would the envelope have to be digitized? What about in regards to the
front and back? Jane feels that what she has heard in the archival world is that there
is no one standard, just one that is preferred. Until a unified standard happens, Jane
would like to hold off on digitizing items in the SDHC.
Jane brought up their large collection of architectural plans and how large
the paper is to scan, which creates a problem. However, with some quick thinking,
Jane could take advantage of the connection that SDHC has with architects and
utilize their resources; for instance, their scanner. Then the files could be given to
Jane.
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References
Hunter, G.S. (2003). Developing and maintaining practical archives. New York: NealSchuman.
Jane Kenealy, personal communication, October 27, 2014.
Lindberg, L. (2014). Accessioning. Retrieved from
https://sjsu.instructure.com/courses/1118172/files/34374696?module_ite
m_id=7484447
Lindberg, L. (2014). Preservation. Retrieved from
https://sjsu.instructure.com/courses/1118172/files/34374747?module_ite
m_id=7484477
San Diego History Center. (2014). Produced by Balboa Park Online Collaborative.
Retrieved from: http://www.sandiegohistory.org
INSTRUCTIONS
There are two parts to this individual assignment.
Part 1:
You are to contact and arrange to visit (preferably you visit
sometime during Weeks 9 or 10) a local archival repository, ask a
series of questions (suggested topics below) and lead a targeted
discussion with the Archivist in charge. In this process, you
will gather data.
Don’t conduct the visit too early, before you’ve gotten through
much of the course content. You are encouraged to take photos and
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may record your interview if you have available technology, but be
mindful of their policies and ask in advance.
>>>Please notify me via email by Friday of Week 4 with your site
and the records professional with whom you will be meeting. I
need the name of repository, location and the Archivist name and
contact information.<<<
Once I approve your site, during Week 6 please prepare and post
for your colleagues a brief abstract of basic information about your
repository, noting its location, mission, collections and staffing.
Introduce your Archivist and their ‘shop’ to the class. Use the
Week 6 Site Visit Site Abstracts discussion forum I have created
for this under the Discussions area on Canvas.
Part 2)
Write a brief opinion piece (less than 10 pp narrative, not including
title page, abstract and references) about your site and its real
-world position vs. the model as posited in the course readings and
lecture. Armed with the knowledge you have gathered from the
course so far, please address the following issues within two major
areas:
Information about the repository
-basic information about the repository: its location, mission, its
collections, its staffing, and its researchers, policies, volunteers,
technology
-examine the site from the perspective of the functions of the 21st
century archival repository (some examples in parens):
accessioning/acquisition (forms, info gathering, deed of gift,
policy), appraisal (policy, criteria, worksheets/tools), arrangement
(feeling on original order, arrangement schemes for materials),
description (standards/tools/types of finding aids, distribution),
preservation (digital and analog, strategies, materials), access and
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use (rules, forms, clientele, procedures), technology etc.
Information about the Archivist
-discuss the Archivist’s professional background and development,
his/her work responsibilities and activities, the type of work done
and the types of materials collected by his/her repository, the
Archivist’s views on major professional issues, and/or the
unique challenges faced by working at his/her repository.
Use your slides, exercises and notes to help you. Gather as much
information as you can and present your information as a report. A
suggested way to organize your report is with your site as the
subject: 1) prefaced by a brief introduction covering the basic
information about your repository and a bio of your Archivist, 2)
around the major archival functions as listed above, 3) interlaced
with some of the Archivist’s views on those functions and some
current issues (perhaps surfaced by your bookmarking?).
(80% of points)
Submission requirements:
You must use APA style for your report, and include a title page,
abstract and list of resources. I do not require a Table of Contents.
Because I ask you to present your work as a report, the narrative is
not expected to be double
-spaced in order to give you more room for content and stay within
the page limit.
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