Documentation strategy: Mastodon or retro-success?

American Archivist

Volumn 71, Issue 2, 2008, Pages 384-409

  Malkmus, Doris J ^a  

^a NONE

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[No Author keywords available]

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EID: 79957748645     PISSN: 03609081     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.17723/aarc.71.2.v63t471576057107     Document Type: Article

References (88)

1. Helen Samuels, "Who Controls the Past?," American Archivist 49, no. 2 (1986): 109-24.
2. The following articles provide case studies or overviews of documentation projects: Larry Hackman and Joan Warnow-Blewett, "Documentation Strategy Process: A Model and a Case Study," American Archivist 50 (Winter 1987): 12-47;
3. Richard J. Cox, "A Documentation Strategy Case Study: Western New York," American Archivist 52 (Spring 1989): 192-200;
4. Timothy Ericson, " 'To Approximate June Pasture': The Documentation Strategy in the Real World," Archival Issues (1997): 5-20.
5. In addition, the following articles report on fully implemented documentation research projects: Joan Warnow-Blewett, Joel Genuth, and Spencer R. Weart, AIP Study of Multi-Institutional Collaborations: Final Report Highlights and Project Documentations (College Park, Md.: American Institute of Physics, 2001) .also available online at http://www.aip.org/history/pubs/ collabs/highlights.html, accessed 15 March 2004.
6. Joseph Anderson, "Difficult to Document: The History of Physics and Allied Fields in Industrial and Government Labs," Journal of Archival Organization 3 (Winter 2005): 7-21;
7. Robert Horton, "Cultivating Our Garden: Archives, Community, and Documentation," Archival Issues 26 (2001): 27-40;
8. David Danboom, "Rethinking Rural America"
9. and Dean Carlson, "Reflections from the Land," in Documenting Change in Agriculture and Rural Life: Perspectives on the Issues (North Dakota State Historical Records Advisory Board and Minnesota State Historical Records Advisory Board, 2001), also available at http://www.mnhs.org/preserve/shrab/ AgRuralLifeWeb.pdf, accessed 4 April 2004.
10. Judith Campbell Turner, participant with the Milwaukee documentation strategy project, characterized the difficult project as "a mastodon who'd wandered into the La Brea Tar Pits [and] died of exhaustion," Judith Campbell Turner, "To the Editor," Archival Issues 22, no. 2 (1997): 100.
11. Documentation strategy was first mentioned by Andrea Hinding in 1981 in a talk before the Association of College and Research Libraries. She used the term "documentation strategies" for an approach that began with "asking simply, what is the total amount of information being generated and how . . . to determine which portions of that information to select for preservation?" Andrea Hinding, "Toward Documenation: New Collecting Strategies in the 1980s," in Options for the 80s: Proceedings of the Second National Conference of the Association of College and Research Libraries (Greenwich, Conn.: JAI Press, 1982): 535, 537.
12. Nine sessions at the 1984 annual meeting of the Society of American Archivists were devoted to documentation strategy. Richard J. Cox, American Archival Analysis: The Recent Development of the Archival Profession in the United States (Metuchen, N.J.: Scarecrow, 1990), 293. See his footnote 2 for a brief history of the development of this idea.
13. Samuels, "Who Controls the Past?," 111-14, 116.
14. See also Hackman and Warnow-Blewett, "Documentation Strategy Process," 12-47.
15. Lewis J. and Lynn Lady Bellardo, "Documentation Strategy," A Glossary for Archivists, Manuscript Curators, and Records Managers, in SAA Archival Fundamentals Series (Chicago: Society of American Archivists, 1992). In 2005
16. Richard Pearce-Moses defined the term as "a methodology that guides selection and assures retention of adequate information about a specific geographic area, a topic, a process, or an event that has been dispersed throughout society." Richard Pearce-Moses, "Documentation Strategy," A Glossary of Archival and Records Terminology (Chicago: Society of American Archivists, 2005), available online at http://www.archivists.org/ glossary/term-details.asp?DefinitionKey=225, accessed 4 November 2007.
17. Helen Samuels, Varsity Letters: Documenting Modern Colleges and Universities (Metuchen, N.J.: Scarecrow Press, 1992), 254.
18. Joan Warnow-Blewett, Joel Genuth, and Spencer R. Weart, AIP Study of Multi-Institutional Collaborations: Final Report Documenting Multi-Institutional Collaborations (College Park, Md.: Center for History of Physics American Institute of Physics, 2001), iv.
19. Joan Warnow-Blewett et al., Study of Multi-Institutional Collaborations: Final Report Highlights and Project Documentations.
20. Richard J. Cox, Documenting Localities: A Practical Model for American Archivists and Manuscript Curators (Landham, Md.: Scarecrow Press, 1996);
21. Cox, "A Documentation Strategy Case Study," 192-200.
22. Ericson, " 'To Approximate June Pasture,' " 7-8. Ericson joined the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee after the NHPRC grant had been awarded.
23. Richard J. Cox, "Evangelical Religious Institutions Consider Their Archival Needs: A Review of the 1988 Evangelical Archives Conference Proceedings," Provenance 8 (Spring 1989): 66-79;
24. Richard J. Cox,"The Archival Documentation Strategy and Its Implications for the Appraisal of Architectural Records," American Archivist 59 (1996): 144-54;
25. Richard J. Cox, "The Documentation Strategy and Archival Appraisal Principles: A Different Perspective," Archivaria 38 (Fall 1994): 11-36.
26. Philip Alexander and Helen Samuels, "The Roots of 128: A Hypothetical Documentation Strategy," American Archivist (Fall 1987): 518-31;
27. Maureen Jung, "Documenting Nineteenth-Century Quartz Mining in Northern California," American Archivist 53 (Summer 1990): 406-18;
28. Jack Wertheimer, Debra Bernhardt, and Julie Miller, "Toward the Documentation of Conservative Judaism," American Archivist 57 (Spring 1994): 374-79;
29. T. D. Seymour Bassett, "Documenting Recreation and Tourism in New England," American Archivist (Fall 1987): 550-69;
30. Richard J. Cox, A Heritage at Risk: The Proceedings of the Evangelical Archives Conference, July 13-15, 1988 (Wheaton, Ill.: Billy Graham Center, Wheaton College,1988).
31. Cox, A Heritage at Risk;
32. Joan D. Krizack, "Hospital Documentation Planning: The Concept and the Context," American Archivist 56 (1993): 16-34.
33. Krizak also edited a book about documentation planning: Joan D. Krizak, ed., Documentation Planning for the U.S. Health Care System (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1994). Documentation strategy apparently has not been widely applied in this field. The Cederberg-Baker Archives acquired the records of several closed hospitals when ViaHealth consolidated local hospitals in the Rochester, New York, area. The archives acquired materials passively, rather than implementing strategic goals. Phone conversation with Phillip Maple, 4 April 2007.
34. Ellen Garrison, "The Very Model of a Modern Major General: Documentation Strategy and the Center for Popular Music," Provenance 7 (1989): 22-32.
35. Horton, "Cultivating Our Garden," 27-40.
36. Horton's article was one of three in the final report on the project, "Rethinking Rural America," in Documenting Change in Agriculture and Rural Life.
37. and Dean Carlson, "Reflections from the Land."
38. For the report of this project, see Warnow-Blewett et al., AIP Study of Multi-Institutional Collaborations.
39. Anderson, "Difficult to Document," 7-21.
40. Frank Boles, "Mix Two Parts Interest to One Part Information and Appraise Until Done: Understanding Contemporary Record Selection Processes," American Archivist 50 (1987): 356-68;
41. Terry Abraham, "Collection Policy or Documentation Strategy: Theory and Practice," American Archivist 54 (Winter 1991): 44-52
42. and "Documentation Strategies: A Decade (or More) Later," paper presented at the Society of American Archivists annual conference, Washington, D.C., 31 August 1995, also available at www.uidaho.edu/special-collections/ papers/docstr10.htm, accessed 15 April 2004;
43. Terry Cook, "Documentation Strategy," Archivaria 34 (Summer 1992): 181-91.
44. Angelika Menne-Haritz, "Appraisal or Documentation: Can We Appraise Archives by Selecting Content?," American Archivist 57 (Summer 1994): 528-42.
45. Jennifer Miller, "Documentation Strategies in the Twenty-first Century? Rethinking Institutional Priorities and Professional Limitations," Archival Issues 23 (Spring 1998): 59-74.
46. W. James King, "Source Materials for the History of Recent Physics," Physics Today 15 (January 1962): 44-48;
47. James King, "The Project on the History of Recent Physics in the United States," American Archivist 27 (1962): 237-43;
48. Warnow-Blewett et al., Study of Multi-Institutional Collaborations, iii-v. In the 1980s
49. The LGBTRAN website is located at http://lgbtran.org, accessed 7 March 2007. Unless otherwise noted, all information is taken from the website, including archived newsletters.
50. King, "Source Materials for the History of Recent Physics," 44-48;
51. King, "The Project on the History of Recent Physics in the United States," 237-43;
52. "The Conference on Science Manuscripts," Isis 53, part 1, no. 171 (1962);
53. Sources for the History of Quantum Physics (Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, 1967), available on microfilm.
54. Mark Bowman, "LGBT Religious Archives Network," speech given at the LGBTRAN Awards Banquet, 25 April 2003, Chicago.
55. quote on page 100. Hers is the only account written by a project participant. Turner responded to Ericson's conclusions by faulting the ambitious goals and tight time-line of the project rather than the deficiencies of the repositories. Ericson, "'To Approximate June Pasture,'" 7;
56. "Documenting Metropolitan Milwaukee NHPRC Grant No. 89-060," Semiannual Report (December 1989-June 1990), 1.
57. King, "Project on the History of Recent Physics," 240;
58. Elmer Hutchisson, "A Proposal for the Continuation of the Project on the History of Recent Physics in the United States," NSF grant proposal, 1963, Hutchisson Papers, CHP, AIP, College Park, Md.
59. The documentation strategy project that attempted to define "rural change" in the Red River Valley foundered because experts and residents could not agree on a definition of "rural change" or what would document these changes; Horton, "Cultivating Our Own Garden," 29-31;
60. Cox, "Western New York," 194.
61. See a detailed treatment of the categories in Cox, Documenting Localities, 132-47.
62. This instrument was based on George P. Murdock's Outline of Cultural Materials, and included various subtopics under each category. Judith Endelman, "Looking Backward to Plan for the Future: Collection Analysis for Manuscript Repositories," American Archivist 50 (Summer 1987): 277. Milwaukee archivists used the framework to create the Guide to Historical Resources in Milwaukee Area Archives, 1975-1977. A copy is located in the Library Council of Metropolitan Milwaukee Records, Box 1 Folder 13, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Manuscript Collection 48, University Manuscript Collections, Golda Meir Library, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.
63. "Documenting Metropolitan Milwaukee," NHPRC Grant No. 89-060, Summary Report, July 1991. The grantor, the National Historical Publications and Records Commission, urged Milwaukee to develop subpanels in the subject areas, perhaps reflecting the experience in western New York.
64. Warnow-Blewett et al., Study of Multi-Institutional Collaborations: Final Report Highlights, iii-v.
65. Conversation with Jade River, 28 November 2004. One individual from Africa requested his photograph be removed from his biography on the LGBTRAN website. For example, the LGBTRAN collection catalog index lists only one collection for Buddhism, Hinduism, and Islam. There is only one collection from South America, and none from the Middle East, Asia, or Africa (except South Africa).
66. King, "The Project on the History of Recent Physics," 238-39.
67. Phone call between Richard J. Cox and author, 30 March 2007. This instrument was based on George P. Murdock's Outline of Cultural Materials and included various subtopics under each category. Endelman, "Looking Backward to Plan for the Future, 277;
68. "Documenting Metropolitan Milwaukee," NHPRC Grant Proposal No. 89-060, 28 September 1988.
69. Photocopy of grant application and reports supplied by project director, Susan Davis. "Documenting Metropolitan Milwaukee," NHPRC Grant No. 89-060, Semiannual Report, June-December 1990, 3. Photocopy supplied by project director, Susan Davis.
70. Gordon Melton, Encyclopedic Handbook of Cults in America (New York: Garland Publishers, 1992). The delicate task of building relationships with various communities takes time-another reason to extend the time frame of documentation strategy projects. Phone conversations with Mark Bowman, 2006. A European member was added to the board in 2008 to begin to remedy this difficulty.
71. Marshall, "Documentation Strategies," 67-69.
72. King, "The Project on the History of Recent Physics," 239;
73. Hutchisson, "A Proposal," 5-6.
74. Phone conversation between Richard J. Cox and the author, 30 March 2007.
75. "Documenting Metropolitan Milwaukee," Summary Report, 1, 9-10.
76. A similar NHPRC-funded project in the Red River Valley lacked a host institution, and when the project ended, neither of the sponsors, the Minnesota and the North Dakota State Historical Records Advisory Boards, nor any state historical society felt an interest in sustaining the project. Local historical societies in the Red River Valley, which might have been interested, lacked the financial and professional resources to continue the project. Ben Leonard, project manager, presented a paper, "From Independence to Interdependence: Rural Perspectives on Change in the Red River Valley Border Region," at the Midwest Archives Conference in May 2001, 28.
77. Chicago Theological Seminary has opened an LGBTQ Religious Studies Center, which complements the primarily historical efforts of LGBTRAN. Chicago Theological Seminary, "Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer Religious Studies Program," at http://www.ctschicago.edu/academic/lgbtq.php and http://www.ctschicago.edu/library/LGBT.php, both accessed 7 April 2007. According to its April 2008 newsletter, LGBTRAN has agreed to affiliate with the Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies in Religion and Ministry (CLGS) at the Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley, California. The CLGS is the largest existing research center on LGBT persons and religion in the United States.
78. Philip Alexander and Helen Samuels also argued that documentation strategy projects should be narrowly focused and could be expanded later. Presenting these ideas to the Society of American Archivists conference in 1984, they suggested Route 128, the technology corridor around Boston, as the appropriate size for a project, since "any effort to document so broad a topic as science and technology in all of New England" would be "formidable"; Alexander and Samuels, "The Roots of 128," 519;
79. "NHPRC Records Program Grant Application," 24 September 1987, Project on the History of Recent Physics, Center for the History of Physics Records, Center for the History of Physics, American Institute of Physics, College Park, Md.;
80. Warnow-Blewett et al., Study of Multi-Institutional Collaborations: Final Report, iii-v.
81. See a report of this survey and its findings in Towards a Usable Past: Historical Records in the Empire State (Albany: New York State Historical Records Advisory Board, 1984);
82. Ericson, " 'To Approximate June Pasture,' " 17;
83. "Documenting Metropolitan Milwaukee," 8, appendix 1, chronology dated 6 February 1991.
84. The oral history interviews with pagan women were conducted in 2003; the interview with George Hyde in 2005. The exhibition of Congregation Beth Simchat Torah opened in 2007. These projects reflect the composition of the board and staff
85. "Documenting Metropolitan Milwaukee," personnel budget, page 9; overall budget, page 10. Copy supplied by Project Director Susan Davis. When the project goal switched from creating the database to entering catalog records into OCLC, this money was used to enter catalog records.
86. Telephone conversation between Richard J. Cox and author, 30 March 2007.
87. After initial start-up costs of $40,000 annually, expenses have stabilized at two-thirds of that amount, with additional funding directed to specific projects; 2006 Annual Report, Attachment H, Finances and Fund Raising Report.
88. Abraham, "Documentation Strategies."