Oral Histories

            Oral histories are among my most favorite type of collection.  I’m fortunate because there are tapes at each of the institutions where I work so I’ve gotten to do a lot.  Some are really fascinating while others are just ok. A lot depends on the interviewer.  When I do transcripts, I make a verbatim transcript so as you read it you have a feel for how the person speaks.  Verbatim transcripts can be tedious to do because often the quality of the tape is poor, or people mumble or talk over each other.  It can be challenging.  I should have studied court stenography.  That would help, except then I think you have to transcribe the shorthand notes – twice the work.  Guess my way is best.

          The first step in doing an oral history is to make a copy of the original.  You’ll use the copy to do the transcript so you don’t risk damaging the original.  If you have an old audiotape there are still machines around that can make copies of tapes.  Of course, then you have to have an old tape recorder in order to listen to it.  The other alternative is to digitize them to CDs.  I have done both.  Once you have a copy you’re ready to go.  One of the librarians I work with suggested an application called the Amazing Slow Downer (http://amazing-slow-downer.en.softonic.com/).  It’s also available on ITunes.  This app was designed for music, but works great for CDs of oral histories.  You can adjust the speed of the speech as well as the bass and treble tones.  All of that can help with the transcription.  You can try this app for free. To buy it, I believe, is around fifty dollars.  I did fine with just the trial.

            Have fun with oral histories. There’s no telling what you will learn about the past. 

Preserving paper - more information

          Photographs can be preserved by keeping them in cool, dry place out of light. Don’t forget to label them appropriately.  Now what about paper? How do you keep your important papers whether they are personal papers or those in an archive? Well, what matters most is the type of paper that you have.  If you are a big newspaper clipper, expect anything you save made of newsprint will turn yellow and brittle in a pretty short amount of time. Why?  Well newsprint is an example of cheaply made paper made from wood pulp. Wood has lignin, which is an acid.  It is this acid in newsprint that causes the deterioration.  On the other end of the spectrum is bond paper.  Bond paper is made from cotton rags, which do not have acid.  They will last 100 years if kept out of the sun and in a cool and dry place next to other non-acidic papers.  That's why colleges have historically demanded that masters theses and dissertations be printed on bond paper because they want the material to last as long as possible.  Other materials like archival non-acidic file folders or other non-acidic products have had the acid (lignin usually removed) to extend their shelf life.  They can help reduce the migration of acid from acidic paper to non-acidic material.  Did I mention that acid will move from one piece of paper and chemically alter material next to it? Test this by putting a news clipping on a piece of paper and leave it in direct sunlight for several weeks.  When you lift the news clipping a brownish stain (acid) will be left on the paper underneath.

            So what can you do to preserve your material?  Not much if it is newsprint.  Archives microfilm their newspapers.  Microfilm is stable and will last for about 100 years.  The other recourse is to copy the article onto bond paper and throw the clipping away.  If you must save the clipping use acid free paper or other archival material between the clipping and other papers.  The clipping will still deteriorate but you will protect the surrounding papers at least a little. The other way to protect paper is to reduce human handling.  Some archives require white clean gloves be used when handling paper. I find I do more harm than good with gloves. Do wash your hands. No drinks or food around paper material you want to preserve.  No rubber bands to bundle paper together.  Rubber bands deteriorate, turn black and may stick permanently to the paper.  Metal paper clips and staples will rust over time if there is moisture in the air.  Use plastic paper clips.  You can keep paper together by folding a blank piece around the group you were going to staple.  Or go ahead and staple if you must just know that it may rust over time.  Other considerations – Store paper in archival boxes  or in metal filing cabinets.  Never store paper products in wooden containers – acidic, remember? Archives use special non-acidic shelving for their collections.  Coating on that shelving does matter.  Baked coating is recommended.  For archives that have wooden shelving and can’t afford to replace it, a cheap reasonably effective solution is to line the shelves with archival board (a non-acidic cardboard only available from archival supply houses).

            The newest solution to preservation is, of course, digitization.  It works, but we’re just not sure for how long.  I have files in Excel, for instance, that can only be read using old Excel software.  The newer versions don’t support the older ones. You must keep upgrading your files to stay current and I wasn't quick enough. (Of course, there are "how to upgrade" these files on line. I should do that but haven't.)  For now saving as pdfs or in Word are the best options for long-term usefulness.  For photographs JPEG and TIFF have stayed readable so far. 

For more information on paper preservation see:

http://www.nps.gov/history/museum/publications/conserveogram/19-15.pdf - Great resource!

Information on archival shelving

http://www.archives.gov/foia/directives/nara1571.pdf   “Use a powder-coating system to paint all painted metal shelving surfaces (including map cases, museum cabinets, etc.) used within all records areas. The powder-coating polymer must be a polyester epoxy hybrid or best equivalent available that passes NWT- conducted or independent lab tests for hardness, coating stability, bending, coating adhesion, and coating durability. The paint must not exceed the off-gassing limits specified in Appendix B. Do not apply powder coating to the metal surfaces onsite in the storage area.”

Not Everything Should be Scanned, Part II

                        Prioritizing what to scan is key to having a digital archive that is accessible and worthwhile from a research prospective.  Sometimes that can be hard.  There are some rules that dictate what can or cannot be made accessible to the public.  Those rules, actually laws, apply to physical papers as well as digital material.  Specifically the laws that cover accessibility are privacy and copyright.  Some donors request that their material not be made available until after their death.  Lyndon Johnson’s papers were not available for study until after Lady Bird died, for example.  Privacy laws also govern accessibility of some material such as school records, medical histories, employee records.  Copyright laws apply to a wide range of materials including PhD dissertations, Master’s theses.  Some of this material can be scanned and kept in a dark archives.  Access is restricted and managed by the archive.  Some material is only accessible at the archival facility even if it has been digitized.  Each institution has to address the privacy and copyright issues for every collection and each institution develops its own rules.  Lawyers need to be consulted when a policy is being developed.

                        Copyright and privacy concerns are the main considerations in what to scan and what not to scan, but there are other issues.  One question to ask is whether the material is already on line in another website.  That is true for some of the collections in the institutions where I have worked.  One library has stereo cards, a 19^th century invention of two images on a card that create a 3D picture when viewed through a stereoscope.  Apparently the cards were part of the library material available to patrons at the turn of the century.  When the librarian in charge of the digitization project determined that the cards were already on line, the decision was made not to scan them.  Another institution made a different decision for their material some of which was on line already and is also copyrighted.  They decided to scan as a preservation mechanism, but have not as yet posted the images on the website.  My vote would be not to duplicate what is already at another website and not to take a chance posting copyright material.  Use the storage space for something original and avoid copyright questions and repetition.