Kelly in Kansas

Richard Rayner's article on what archivist Tim Rives discovered in the documents at the Eisenhower Library. A good read.

Labels: Ambrose, Eisenhower, Eisenhower Library, NARA, National Archives, Stephen Ambrose, Tim Rives

February is going almost as fast as January did. We have a dusting of snow this morning and definitely cold temps.

Last week we took our TAH grant teachers to the National Archives in Kansas City. Based on their reflection papers, they seemed to really enjoy the experience. It's also a learning experience for me because I went over some of the material during our first meeting last spring. I'm wondering if it's as simple as the continual repetition to help them understand how ARC works? I hope they'll tell me more as we progress in the grant.

I also now know to emphasize more the "Our Documents" and the "Document of the Day" at the site.

I'm working away on grant proposals and also picked up my new vehicle last week.

An alumnus is coming to speak to my teaching methods class - it's a great way to help them better understand the real world. I'm not sure either of them currently knows where that is but maybe today will help.

Labels: National Archives, TAH, Tahoe

It's the start of another week and I'm certainly glad daylight savings time is over. It was too dark too late in the morning. We're finally having some great fall days and I wore myself out working outside yesterday. We've had so much rain that there hasn't been the opportunity to make steady progress on the outside work. 

I spent two days at the Eisenhower Library last week. There were newly released documents (or at least critical parts of documents) and I also discovered a new big topic to investigate after I finish the current one. I'm actually pretty excited about given that I can do such a much better job this time around. I had taken teachers to the Ike Library a few years ago but otherwise it had been over a decade since I had researched there. But I was looking at some of the same collections with new and much more experienced eyes and felt much more efficient. This is the part of my job I've missed - doing my work and not scrambling to get material together for teachers that they sometimes use and sometimes don't. 

I'm headed to a national meeting and looking forward to engaging with colleagues from a variety of disciplines. I'll be in DC again in a month so there isn't the push to see and do everything in the evenings there normally is. I'm headed up early so that I can get out to Archives II to meet with the Assistant Archivist who was responsible for my appointment to the committee. I solicited his latest insight into the NARA move to a more comprehensive digital strategy and so I will navigate out to College Park and then get myself back. No rain is expected which always makes traversing walking and riding to the meetings and walking around in the evening. We were there for the election this time last year and I still remember waking up at 3 am to hear Katie Couric say that as Pennsylvania went, so did the rest of the country. It was amazing to be in DC that next morning - I hadn't thought about what great effort it would take to buy a newspaper announcing the election results. And, since we were near the capitol area, there was the post-election buzz in the air. 

The semester is on the downhill slide. Lots of grading awaiting me and managing some various personalities in both positive and less than positive ways. 

I'm using Facebook more for daily updates and to share but I'm not quite ready to let go of my version of reflective practice. I should be putting big project updates on that blog but I have to get a bit more organized. And I'll be learning Wordpress as a result of some of my service activities. 

Fall is definitely one of the best things about the academic life. And living in the Midwest. We had outstanding color this year despite what seemed to be the continual rain torrents. 

Labels: academic life, ACERA, DC, Eisenhower, Eisenhower Library, electronic records, ERA, Facebook, fall, Harry Truman, NARA, National Archives, Washington, WordPress

This Chronicle article examines the challenges faced in all of our human archives - what to do with all of the digital records of our existence. We're struggling with this on the ACERA committee on the federal record level but it impacts us down to teach individual. I kept a journal that was actually too detailed through my late teenage years but the record of my life for more than the last decade are the emails I've sent to my friend I met via H-Net online that have been authored in more than one email program. I've purposely stayed away from Outlook and Outlook Express because of the viruses. But I'm not sure anyone will ever be able to open my Pegasus Mail (if there is any one out there that would ever want to, that is . . . )

The article explores the work taking place at the University of Maryland's Institute for Technology in the Humanities. Furthermore, the author asserts how important for us to know how a particular individual did their writing since it's often no longer comparing and contrasting the rough drafts. With modern writers, how many ideas are on their first generation Blackberry we would already have trouble accessing? We keep records in so many different places, how will we reconcile and understand these multiple inputs?

On another front, I'm enjoying a crisp spring day before it rains on the Easter Bunny.

Labels: access, ACERA, humanities, National Archives, preservation, technology

NARA seeks input into the development of alternative models for Presidential Libraries. Read the Request for Input here
and submit to: pres-lib-alternatives@nara.gov.

As someone who has visited ALL of the presidential libraries operated by the National Archives and Records Administration and as someone who has conducted both graduate and post-graduate research in seven of these diverse institutions, I think it is important to explain how important location is to each of these institutions and to NARA as an entity.

When President Harry Truman worked within his presidential administration to provide for a presidential library system that would benefit not only himself but also his successors, he clearly envisioned a tangible explanation available for all American citizens to visit and explore. Knowing that not every citizen can afford to visit the nation's capital city even once in their lifetimes, this Missouri native knew that allowing presidents to choose locations throughout the United States for their presidential libraries would allow more citizens from all over the world access to these important components of our nation's heritage.

I disagree with the assertion that a 'central location' would be beneficial. Not only would we lose the character that Texas brings to the LBJ and Bush Presidential Libraries and the Boston metro area brings to the Kennedy Library, we would also lose the expertise that archivists focusing on one collection bring to the table. Their expertise is quite simply essential to not only finding the appropriate records for a particular research interest but in understanding them. While there is a place for supervisory archivists who manage much more diverse collections at the National Archives locations in DC and Maryland and the regional branches throughout the nation, we would lose a piece of our history if we changed our approach to the presidential libraries.

First, I applaud the possibility of asking the foundation to provide more funding for the initial building as well as past legislation to limit the size of future presidential libraries. Electronic records will make this much more feasible over the next few administrations. And, I know firsthand from seeing them myself and from talking to directors of presidential libraries that the presidential gifts collections are sometimes the most cumbersome and physically largest components to manage. It would be a common sense approach to allow the foundation to also oversee the "care and feeding" of these historical artifacts.

Second, presidential museums are often more than controversial, especially during their initial iteration and/or while the president is still alive, but they are an important component of understanding the man from Michigan or the man from Kansas who became president. Having said that, however, it would be a more suitable alternative to separate the museums from the presidential libraries than the move the entire presidential records component to Washington, DC.

Third, if the only option is to move the presidential records to a central location, I would highly encourage NARA to look at locating that 'central repository' in a cost-efficient and climate-controlled atmosphere location in the nation's heartland. The caves surrounding the Kansas City metro area (both Kansas and Missouri) provide numerous possibilities here. Furthermore, this location would be more accessible to more of the nation's citizens, whether they are researchers or just interested members of the public.

Teaching American History grants have provided funding to take teachers and undergraduate and graduate students to presidential libraries across the nation and they continually comment on better understanding "the man" who was president by actually seeing where he "came from". This importance of this tangible component of history needing "place" to actually occur cannot be overstated. Washington, DC, is a wonderful place but also not accessible and much more expensive than visiting the locations where most of the presidential libraries are now located.

As a member of the Advisory Committee to the Electronic Records Archives, I wholeheartedly support the most efficient ways to organize presidential records that are already primarily electronic but also ensuring that all of the nation's citizens have a "people" connection to those records. The digital world has drastically changed my entire life but people are still a key to understanding the world around us.

Finally, and most importantly, presidential libraries should be processed systematically and not primarily through FOIA requests as they are now. Imagine going into a collection of millions of records and having to look for the needles in the haystacks. It goes back to a basic rule of scientific management, handle any particular piece of paper (or electronic record) as little as possible rather than having to go through it several times to figure out whether or not it is relevant to a particular lawsuit. Why do specialized segments of American society get first access to the records? Instead, it should be left to the expertise of experienced archivists to complete the initial steps of the processing of these diverse presidential records before FOIA is allowed to be activated to get at what may be some of the more controversial records.

Respectfully submitted,

Dr. Kelly A. Woestman
H-Net President and
Professor of History and History Education Director
Pittsburg (KS) State University
woestman@pittstate.edu

Labels: NARA, National Archives, presidential libraries

Ralph at Cliopatria points out this recent article about how Web 2.0 is dramatically changing the nature of historical research:

UNTIL RECENTLY, IF you were a historian and you wanted to write a fresh account of, say, the Battle of Leyte Gulf in World War II, research was a pretty straightforward business. You would pack your bags and head to the National Archives, and spend months looking for something new in the official combat reports.
more stories like this

Today, however, you might first do something very different: Get online and pull up any of the unofficial websites of the ships that participated in the battle - the USS Pennsylvania, for example, or the USS Washington. Lovingly maintained by former crew members and their descendants, these sites are sprawling, loosely organized repositories of photographs, personal recollections, transcribed log books, and miniature biographies of virtually every person who served on board the ship. Some of these sites even include contact information for surviving crew members and their relatives - perfect for tracking down new diaries, photographs, and letters.

Online gathering spots like these represent a potentially radical change to historical research, a craft that has changed little for decades, if not centuries. By aggregating the grass-roots knowledge and recollections of hundreds, even thousands of people, "crowdsourcing," as it's increasingly called, may transform a discipline that has long been defined and limited by the labors of a single historian toiling in the dusty archives.

Labels: crowdsourcing, historical research, history, National Archives, research, Web 2.0

New Archives Facility for
National Archives – Central Plains Region

The National Archives Central Plains Region in Kansas City will move to a new facility in the Union Station complex. The move is expected to take place in late 2008.

“This new facility offers easy public access in the heart of Kansas City. It is also an opportunity for the National Archives, working in partnership with the community, to highlight our extensive research services,” said Archivist of the United States Allen Weinstein. “We will be able to feature innovative outreach efforts through student training programs, civic education, special events, and other learning experiences that invite broad public participation and promote civic literacy.”

The new Central Plains Regional Archives facility will be located in the former Adams Express building, a part of the Union Station complex. Under the supervision of the General Services Administration, the historic building will be renovated and then leased to the National Archives. Upon completion, the Central Plains Region will then move from its present facility at the Bannister Road Federal Complex, where it has been since 1969.

Treasures of the Central Plains Region include records relating to the milestone Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka decision, Wild West showman “Buffalo Bill” Cody, President Ulysses S. Grant, and Walt Disney which are among the 50,000 cubic feet of records in its holdings. In commenting on the move, Professor Weinstein said, “The Central Plains Region will serve as a focal point for promoting greater appreciation of the region’s role in American History. The new facility will allow us to better showcase the treasures that we hold in trust for our citizens.”

Labels: Kansas City, NARA, National Archives, Project Primary Sources, research, Union Station

Reading Archives: "Faust argues that the American Civil War brought with it a new kind of national meaning: “The rhetoric of Civil War mortality statistics provided the language for a meditation on the deeper human meaning of the conflict and its unprecedented destructiveness, as well as for the exploration of the place of the individual in a world of mass – and increasingly mechanized – slaughter. It was about what counted in a world transformed” (p. 265). Although it is not Faust’s intent to write a meditation on the archival impulse, archivists and others interested in archives reading this book will come away with a deeper sense of why records are created and why they are preserved."

Labels: Civil War, death, Drew Gilpin Faust, electronic records, memory, National Archives, suffering

To continue yesterday's post, I wanted to underscore one of the most important points underlying all the controversy over the timely release of presidential records - there just simply aren't enough people and resources to process any faster. Here's Fawcett's quote explaining how she would like NARA to be able to approach the process:

I would try to do the processing more comprehensively. If you think of an intersecting line, the FoIA requests would eventually start to intersect with the records that have already been systematically processed, so they would be open and available. That would mean there would be a continuing decline in what people would have to FoIA, and the staff could get the records out in a more timely fashion.

We are making some modifications to our system in that we take a look at our FoIA requests, and we attempt to bundle them, so that if we have a number of FoIA requests on a specific related subject, we will bring them together.

For example, say we had a lot of requests on Afghanistan, but they cover different aspects of Afghanistan, we'd probably try to identify the majority of files that would cover that subject and let researchers know that we're processing that systematically, and then process it that way and notify all the FoIA requesters at the same time when the material is done. They are likely to get the material much more quickly that way. But again, it depends on the subject interest of the FoIAs, and FoIAs really come in based on what's happening. You know, Hillary Clinton is running for president, so we have FoIA requests asking for her records.

Labels: access, NARA, National Archives, presidential records

I've been meaning to spend more time at our university library and recent circumstances have allowed more time for doing work there instead of at home. Much to my surprise, I not only found 5 or 6 interesting new books, I found more like 25. I just immersed myself knowing that I couldn't focus on any one thing for very long anyway. Lots of 20th century history along with blogging, podcasting, and education books had arrived on our shelves. I also worked on an Eleanor Roosevelt encyclopedia entry. I hope to do some research in our special collections and in the records annex for the county historical society nearby (in my hometown across the state line).

Today I'm off to DC for a National Archives electronic records meeting. It will be good to be away and engaged and learning and interacting with fellow professionals as well as many who are leading the way into the digital future.

Labels: ACERA, books, DC, electronic records, library, National Archives, research

Thanks to Dan Reed, I ordered a copy of "Avoid Boring People" and had a chance this afternoon (or should I say, made time) to sit down and start reading it. While it's obvious that he has not patience for those not as intelligent as he is, his "rules of life" including avoiding boring people (and he also references scientists who are boring at social parties . . . ). It's a retrospective of Watson's life - written after he wrote his books about his vital work with DNA.

I have tried to better understand science through the context of writing grants for the local education service center through which I do some of my history grant work. And I met Dan Reed as part of a committee we're both on for the National Archives and the future of electronic records. Dan is amazing as bringing the conversation to a 'consensus' of either mutual agreement or disagreement but, most importantly, ensuring that the conversation moves forward instead of getting stuck in circles. It's amazing to watch the non-science aspects of his personality within the group dynamic. And it's definitely an approach I can learn from and I'm sure it's part of what propelled him to North Carolina to work for the larger good.

I've been at the farm this weekend and my most proud accomplishment is getting the generator working again without having to call expensive repair people from over 100 miles away. I had lost track of the time I had checked on it at the actual generator and discovered the oil was once again low - I can't imagine how that happened given that I know I haven't checked it in a year. After attempting to decipher the operation manual among the maze of electrical diagrams and multiple, multiple warnings of electric and shock hazards leading to death, I went outside and checked the oil. Then, I found the switch that allowed it to be off, on, or auto. If I want it to kick on when the electricity coming to the house ceases, I guessed right (after re-consultation with the manual) that auto was the correct setting. And, then, on the inside switch that also sets the time it self-tests each week and runs for 20 minutes so it's ready, willing, and able when it's actually needed (most likely in below-freezing temperatures accompanied by howling winds), I worked with the diagrams and re-re-consulted the manual how to set it to auto-test each week and hopefully on Sundays late in the mornings. One of the early challenges upon completing the farm house in 2002 was a generator that went off at 3am on Thursdays. Given that I am a light sleeper, that meant that I was up for the day. If only I had realized how easy it was to re-set.

I've also had time to reflect on the loss of one opportunity last week and a new opportunity the week earlier. While it took awhile for the earlier opportunity to sink in, I am now at peace with no longer having the latter opportunity. I'm pretty stubborn and sometimes have to be knocked around a bit before I head in the right direction. But I have faith I am getting closer to the right destination - or shohttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifuld I say the right next destination, since I have now figured out the cycles and processes of life are not usually endpoints even when my Type A personality strives (and wishes) to find them and accomplish them. As my brother has stated several times, telling me I can't do something is like waving a red flag in front of a bull. I just need to decide which red flags to challenge and which to ignore or, if not possible to ignore, to manage as a normal part of life.

I have some more grant reports to write and the ever-present grading to do next week along with a trip to Topeka to become a foundation board member.

Another decision made this weekend was to enjoy the great fall weather and working outside. Breaking limbs into sticks and watching them burn in the chiminea is great therapy. My eyes are still causing problems but I'm not going to lose the fall to them - esp. when the doctor mentioned that it may not disappear until we have a hard freeze and it may be something that just corrects itself with time if it's not allergy related.

Labels: ACERA, boring people, Dan Reed, farm, goals, James Watson, KSHS, life, National Archives, North Carolina, opportunities, outdoors, RENCI

http://www.kansascity.com/business/local/story/251454.html

NOTE VIDEO link in online article.

National Archives formally announces plan to relocate branch near Union Station
By KEVIN COLLISON
The Kansas City Star


* Video from the Associated Press Union Station officials hope archives facility will build traffic, revenue

The National Archives on Tuesday formally announced its plan to relocate its regional branch to a site near Union Station at a ceremony where pork-barrel politics got a plug.

The federal agency, described as the “guardian of the nation’s history,” will renovate the old Adams Express Co. freight building west of the terminal. It is to become a 44,000-square-foot repository for more than 30 million records compiled in the Great Plains region dating to 1821.

The $10 million new home for the Central Plains Region is expected to open in late 2008. It will replace the facility at the Bannister Federal Complex in south Kansas City.

“The National Archives building is going to be part of the vision that Kansas City has for the Union Station and Liberty Memorial area,” Sen. Kit Bond, a Missouri Republican, told the estimated 150 people gathered for the announcement. “Our beautiful old buildings will be a vital part of Kansas City’s future while honoring and recognizing the past.”

While Bond saluted the concept and its backers, U.S. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, a Missouri Democrat, offered some political commentary.

“There are people who are opposed to earmarks,” Cleaver said, referring to funding that lawmakers include in the federal budget for pet projects back home. “This country is better because of people like Senator Bond who have been able to bring dollars to the city.”

While the Central Plains project is not technically an earmark, Bond helped include funding in the National Archives budget.

Cleaver’s observation won applause.

The new facility is expected provide better access to regional documents for professional and amateur historians, and also provide electronic access to documents kept by the National Archives around the country.

The Central Plains Region has most of the records collected by nonmilitary federal agencies in Missouri, Kansas, Iowa and Nebraska until 1990. It also has some Indian agency records from Minnesota and the Dakotas.

Labels: Kansas City, National Archives