2013 Conference

Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://hdl.handle.net/11213/8549

Presentation and materials from “O Rare! Performance in Special Collections,” the 54th Annual RBMS Preconference, Minneapolis, MN, June 23-26, 2013.

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2013 Preconference Miscellaneous Files
(2013)
Miscellaneous files relating to the 2013 RBMS Preconference, including registration forms and dining guides.
Open Access
Building Collections: Acquiring Materials and Working with the Antiquarian Book Trade
(2013-06) Schroeder, E. C.; Slive, Daniel J.
The workshop is primarily intended for librarians working at all types of institutions and with all levels of budgets who are responsible for acquisition and collection development of special collections materials. The session will also be of interest to individual collectors and dealers. The purpose is to provide attendees with practical information which can be utilized for building collections and developing beneficial relationships with members of the antiquarian book trade. Although the emphasis will be on printed materials, manuscripts and archives will also be discussed. The workshop will include the context and history of special collections, collection development, and institutional interaction with the trade, particularly in the United States. Practical matters will include materials on the market, auctions, online sources, comparing prices, purchasing collections, deaccessioning, and provenance issues. A full reading list will be provided.
Open Access
Cataloging Medieval Manuscripts, from Cassiodorus to Dublin Core
(2013-06) Cashion, Debra Taylor; Bair, Sheila; Steuer, Susan
The purpose of this workshop is to introduce librarians and collection managers to medieval manuscripts and discuss issues relevant to cataloging them. Medieval manuscripts are hand-crafted books or documents made in the medieval tradition, that is, without mechanical forms of reproduction, dating from about VI-XVI centuries. As information objects they differ essentially from most modern manuscripts because although they are unique objects, they are usually not unique texts. That is, from a FRBR perspective, they represent expressions of greater works, such as St. Augustine’s The City of God, in all of its translations, recensions and redactions. We thus propose a three-part conceptual model of medieval manuscripts as manuscripts, artifacts, and books, one that considers not only their literary content, but also their physical characteristics and historical background. Thus any catalog for medieval manuscripts should reflect their nature as complex information objects: texts, cultural artifacts, and historical artifacts. We will discover that for any cataloging system, the best records will follow a faceted structure based on three components: 1) Content, 2) Carrier, and 3) Context. To establish a historical and conceptual framework, we introduce our topic not only through examining various types of medieval manuscripts, but also through exploring the traditions of medieval library cataloging. We then discuss several existing platforms for cataloging medieval manuscripts and weigh the advantages and disadvantages to each, including MARC, EAD, VRA-Core. We especially examine the standards available for digital catalogs, including Digital Scriptorium, an online union catalog specifically designed for medieval manuscripts, and ENRICH (European Networking Resources and Information Concerning Cultural Heritage), here introduced with a newly crafted application to Dublin Core, the standard used for many local online digital environments, such as CONTENTdm. Through hands-on exercises the workshop participants will learn how to take a prose description of a manuscript and selectively parse the appropriate information into controlled descriptive data for various applications. Creating catalog records for collections with medieval manuscripts is especially important because the records must serve as surrogates for historically significant and valuable objects that require restricted physical access. It is thus no small challenge to create effective descriptions for medieval manuscripts, especially in the ever changing circumstances of digital technologies and library cataloging standards. We hope this workshop will encourage enthusiasm for these rare and fascinating library materials while taking some of the mystery out of managing them as information objects.
Open Access
Collecting at the Crossroads: Cuban theater collections from Cuba and beyond at the Cuban Heritage Collection, University of Miami
(2013-06) Baur, Natalie
This poster session will highlight the outreach, instruction and scholarly research conducted using theater collections at the Cuban Heritage Collection with examples of the repository’s role in promoting access and usage of the collections.
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Discussion 1, Directing without a Script: Strategies for Successful Technical Services Project Management
(2013-06) Mascaro, Michelle; DeZelar-Tiedman, Christine
Projects, such as retrospective barcoding, relocating collections, grants to catalog hidden collections, etc., are as common in Special Collections technical services areas as the day to day work of keeping up with new acquisitions. While the final goal of these projects is clearly defined, the path to reaching that goal requires creativity and improvisation. Technical Services projects often become complex production numbers, involving coordinating workflows and personnel. Effective management is essential to direct these projects through unanticipated challenges to completion. Participants in the session will discuss successes and lessons learned from managing past or current technical services projects.
Open Access
Discussion 4, Archivist and Librarian Roles in Building Trust with Donors and Patrons
(2013-06) Bryan, Ruth
The effectiveness of an archives or library for its donors and patrons is based in large part on their trust in both the place and the staff, in donors’ and patrons’ “willingness to be vulnerable to the actions of another party based on positive expectations regarding the motivation and behavior of the other” (Pirson and Malhotra 2007). This trust is developed and built by librarians and archivists performing a variety of roles in order to develop collections and entice people to use them. These roles might include gatekeeper, event planner, booster, counselor, friend, activist, steward, and expert. This discussion session would be an opportunity to share case studies or stories about different roles each of us has played in relation to a particular donor or patron and exploring various questions that have arisen in our own experiences?
Open Access
Hamp’s Legacy: The International Jazz Collections at the University of Idaho
(2013-06) Reese, Garth D.
This poster will highlight the International Jazz Collections (IJC) at the University of Idaho, formally established in 2000 with the donation of the papers and photographs of the legendary Lionel Hampton.
Open Access
Hidden Treasures: The Max and Gertrude Hoffmann Papers
(2013-06) Mulder, Megan; Petersen, Rebecca
This poster will focus on a “hidden collection” of famous vaudevillian and performing arts figures of the early 20th century uncovered during a survey of the Z. Smith Reynolds Library manuscript storage areas.
Open Access
I. Opening Plenary: Submerged Voices in Underground Performance
(2013-06) Mann, Larisa; Reagan, Katherine; Ortiz, Ben
What are the practical and ethical issues involved when collecting institutions assume responsibility for documenting living cultures? Do marginalized communities have particular claims on the organization, identification and accessibility of documentations of their culture? What happens to our ability to understand and document communities when their cultural artifacts are removed from their living social contexts? How can an archive of underground music connect with and serve the community whose culture it archives, and how is its value measured? This panel will present two points of view about documenting music and performance: a perspective from Dr. Larisa Mann based in scholarship and practice from Jamaican dance music scenes, and an approach used within a special collections repository by Cornell University Library’s Hip Hop Collection.
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II. Revaluing mimeographs and other obsolete things: an introduction to media archaeology
(2013-06) Hawley, Elizabeth Haven; Supple, Shannon
Dr. Hawley is an historian of technology and special collections professional whose scholarship focuses on the relationship of technological change to marginalized producers and communities. A specialist in historical printing and the social history of technology, she will introduce the interdisciplinary approaches employed by media archaeologists, especially those examining obsolete or “failed” technologies. Using forensic analysis, Hawley will explore the importance of reconstructing evidence about how less powerful social groups communicated and advanced their aims. Historical collections in libraries bring together past media with present and emerging technologies, offering an exceptional opportunity for interdisciplinary scholarship. She will discuss how knowledge of older technologies and the uses to which they were put comprises an important aspect of special collections practice and opens new avenues for education, engagement and scholarship.
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III. Closing Plenary: “It’s Showtime, Folks!”: The Evolving Nature of Research and Public Engagement With Performing Arts Collections
(2013-06) Reside, Douglas L.; Taylor, Marvin J.; Jackson, Athena
Throughout the conference we have seen innovative and traditional performances and performing arts materials, both within and outside the library. For this closing plenary, let’s look back at what we learned and consider some of the things that can be done with materials in all of our collections. Marvin J. Taylor will speak about items found in almost all of our collections, theater materials. Who doesn’t have a play or two, or hundreds, in their collection? What special consideration do we have for these materials beyond normal books and pamphlets? Which researchers use these materials and for what? Douglas Reside will speak about performing arts materials within the digital age. What is missing in the digitization of materials unique to the performing arts such as set and costume designs, manuscripts, photographs, programs, and ephemera? Is there tactile information that is lost? What is gained? How can exhibitions, programs, and classes serve to animate performing arts collections? How can they be leveraged to provide a window into the possibilities of these collections?
Open Access
Lights, Camera…Catalog! Helpful Approaches to Cataloging Screenplays in RDA
(2013-06) Rhoda, Andrew
The goal of this poster is to illustrate through specific bibliographic examples two methods of cataloging screenplays that are currently used by the Lilly Library, Indiana University.
Open Access
Photos from 2013 Preconference
(2013-06)
Includes: Image from Plenary II, Hawley; Image from Seminar D, Green; Image from Seminar F, Grob; Image from Cataloging Medieval Manuscripts Workshop
Open Access
Seminar A: Collecting in the Moment
(2013-06) Bouché, Nicole; Gueguen, Gretchen
In the wake of recent events at the University of Virginia surrounding the ousting, and later reinstatement, of President Teresa Sullivan, the University Library, including the University Archives, in the Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library, scrambled to collect picket signs, gather tweets and Facebook postings, and bring together other materials documenting the events on Grounds, even as they were unfolding. In the light of this event and others like the Occupy Movements, Arab Spring, and 9/11, this discussion will explore questions of how institutions document, save, and preserve materials pertaining to current events, especially when those events are born through social networking sites. Gretchen Gueguen, Digital Archivist at the University of Virginia, will discuss her work to capture digital material from social media and websites during the Sullivan episode. A wide-ranging discussion with all audience members will follow to uncover questions of how to approach such events and what the role of the Archives or Special Collection might be in creating and managing such records.
Open Access
Seminar B: Reviewing our (Classroom) Performance: Evaluating Special Collections Instruction
(2013-06) Thomas, Lynne; Horowitz, Sarah M.; Gardner, Julia; Taraba, Suzy
Evaluating and assessing student learning and experiences in special collections can help librarians tailor their teaching in the future, and can also help them determine whether students are meeting the learning outcomes set for their classes. However, creating assessment tools for special collections has often been a challenge. While there are many quick, popular tools for assessing library instruction, many of these do not lend themselves to special collections classes. This seminar will provide information on tying assessment to learning outcomes, course-level objectives, and discipline-specific competencies; the usefulness of both formal and informal means of assessment; and results of both anecdotal feedback and targeted assignments aimed at understanding students’ learning after class visits to special collections. We hope that attendees will come prepared to discuss their own ideas, experiences, and questions about special collection teaching and assessment.
Open Access
Seminar C: Bibliography in Action
(2013-06) Cloud, Gerald; Gaub, Andrew; Schreyer, Alice; Tabor, Stephen
This seminar features three speakers – a rare book curator, a special collections administrator, and an antiquarian bookseller – all of whom actively practice and disseminate bibliographical scholarship to broad audiences, including students, scholars, library researchers, book collectors, and other members of the bibliographic community. Each panelist will discuss a different purpose, methodology, and application of bibliographical research as conducted in their daily work, offering audience members a course of action when analyzing and interpreting local rare book holdings, writing catalog descriptions for the book trade, and leading collaborative projects in humanities research. This session is sponsored by the Bibliography Society of America.
Open Access
Seminar D: There has to be a Better Way: Connecting Curators and Dealers in the Brave New World
(2013-06) Schaffner, Jennifer; Green, Daryl; Mann, Joshua; Johnson, Brad; Nadal, Jacob
Communication norms have changed radically and preferred methods for contact are not what they were in the worlds of special collections and antiquarian bookselling. Dealers would like to hear from newer librarians about the best ways to offer materials and engender working relationships. Likewise, professionals new to the world of special collections are sometimes unfamiliar with new or established best practices for business interactions with booksellers. In this seminar, younger speakers will present examples of new ways to work together, in order to ensure continuity and guarantee the future of our institutions and primary source materials. This session is sponsored by the William Reese Company.
Open Access
Seminar E. Living in a Material World: Digitization for Profit
(2013-06) Lowe, Jennifer; Espo, Hal; Jaycox, Emily; Dowell, Erika
This seminar will examine the considerations involved in planning and undertaking mass digitization projects to generate revenue from special collections holdings. Hal Espo, a consultant in the digital services arena, will provide a general overview of the factors that should guide and shape a library’s digital strategy toward either a self-directed project or a partnership with a vendor; he will also offer recommendations for navigating the commercial world, making favorable contracts, and structuring and implementing projects in ways that protect the materials. Librarians Emily Jaycox and Erika Dowell will follow up by discussing the lessons their institutions learned from an in-house project (the Missouri History Museum’s Genealogy Index) and a commercial partnership (with Adam Matthew Digital – the Lilly Library’s “London Low Life: Street Culture, Social Reform, and the Victorian Underworld”). They will address not only the processes, structures, terms and conditions of these projects, but also their degree of success in relation to institutional mission, access, staff workflow, preservation and conservation, and investment versus revenue. This session is sponsored by Backstage Library Works.
Open Access
Seminar F: Progressing Primary Source Literacy: Guidelines, Standards and Assessment
(2013-06) Bahde, Anne; Smedberg, Heather; Yakel, Elizabeth; Daines, J. Gordon III; Grob, Julie
Primary source literacy refers to core knowledge and skill sets that enable students to both use and understand original materials held in special collections and archives. Building on calls in recent years for codification or standardization of primary source literacy skills, presenters will explore the potential impact of standards or guidelines on teaching objectives, development of exercises and classroom work, instructional collaborations, and assessment techniques.
Open Access
Setting the Stage: Engaging Uses of Primary Sources for K-8 Outreach
(2013-06) Ahnberg, Katherine; Dekydtspotter, Lori; Williams, Cherry
This poster will present the outcomes of a two-year collaboration with K-8 teachers to design an outreach program that helps students contextualize primary sources in both original and digital formats through the use of medieval manuscripts, theatrical performances, self-discovery heuristics and hands-on demonstrations.

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