New Issue: RBM

Fall 2016, Volume 17, Issue 2

Contributors

Editor’s Note
Jennifer Sheehan

Articles

Collaborative Social Media Campaigns and Special Collections: A Case Study on #ColorOurCollections
Anne Garner, Johanna Goldberg, and Rebecca Pou

In the Flesh? Anthropodermic Bibliopegy Verification and Its Implications
Jacob Gordon

From Peshawar to Kabul: Preserving Afghanistan’s Cultural Heritage during Wartime
Laila Hussein Moustafa

A Constructivist Approach for Introducing Undergraduate Students to Special Collections and Archival Research
Silvia Vong

Book Reviews

A Great Library Easily Begets Affection: Memories of the William L. Clements Library 1923–2015. Brian Leigh Dunnigan, Cheney J. Schopieray, Emiko Hastings, and J. Kevin Gaffagnino, eds. Ann Arbor: William L. Clements Library University of Michigan Press, 2015. 169p.
Libby Hertenstein

Wolfgang Ernst. Stirrings in the Archives: Order from Disorder. Translated by Adam Siegel. Lanham, Md.: Rowman and Littlefield, 2015. vi, 102p.
Simran Thadani

New Issue: Records Management Journal

Table Of Contents: Volume 26 Issue 3

Michael Jones , Richard Vines

Donald C. Force , Jane Zhang 

Special New Issue: Provenance

When I was still Provenance Editor, I started the process of a special audiovisual issue. From the start, then Associate Editor and now Editor Heather Oswald took the reigns. I’m excited to see it is now available!

What makes this issue different is that some of the content is audiovisual “articles.” The goal was to not have a print/text only issue, but experiment with AV as content. I hope to see more of this not just in Provenance but other journals as well!

Current Issue: Volume 34, Number 1 (2016) Audiovisual Issue

Front Matter

Front Matter
Heather Oswald

Editor’s Note
Heather Oswald

Articles

Opening Access to Fresh Air’s Archives
Melody Kramer and Anu Paul

The Digitizing of ’34
Traci JoLeigh Drummond and Kathryn Michaelis

From Basement Storage to Online Access: Processing and Digitizing the Mathematical Association of America General Mathematics Film Production Elements
Justin Kovar

University Of Maryland Madrigal Singers 1964 Tour
Eric Cartier

Art of Defiance: Found Footage, Legal Provenance, and the “Aesthetics of Access”
Claudy W. Op den Kamp

“Is This Enough?” Digitizing Liz Lerman Dance Exchange Archives Media
Bria Parker, Robin C. Pike, and Vincent Novara

Moving Forward: Enhancing Preservation of and Access to Oral Histories at UNLV University Libraries
Karla Irwin

Some Remarks on Motion Picture Film Digitization and Communicating Expectations to Digitization Vendors
John Christian Lott and Alexnader Kroh

Demonstrating Playback: Two Legacy Videotape Machines in Action
Michael Angeletti

Playback Equipment: Interviews with AV Professionals
Alicia Esquivel

Words Painting Pictures: Indexing the H. Lee Waters Project using OHMS
Craig Breaden

Back Matter

How to Choose a Journal

As I talk to people about publishing, one of the questions I hear the most is “How do I know what journal to publish in?” It’s a great question, and it doesn’t have an easy answer. When I was editor of Provenance, I of course wanted the submissions but it was more important to focus instead on what is best for the author. Many times I suggested other journals if I thought they were more appropriate.

We all strive (dream?) to have an article accepted for American Archivist. They receive a lot of submissions, and it can be tougher. If you’re interested in acceptance rates, you can read the reports online including from the May Council meeting. While I can’t speak for all the archives journals, I seldom received more than 10, and usually less, in any given year for Provenance. Fewer submissions does not mean automatic acceptance, as all go through the peer-review process and not all are accepted for publication. Journal of Archival Organization is quarterly, and more issues may (theoretically) increase the chance of acceptance. Archival Practice has a rolling deadline, meaning that as articles are accepted they are published (after revisions, of course).

And what about non-archives journals? I have no idea about acceptance rates for other disciplines, but don’t limit yourself. The more we publish about what we do and how we do it to non-archivists, the more others will understand our role in documenting society.

Then there’s the chicken-egg dilemma: do you pick a journal and then write, or write and then find a journal? I have no good answer for this either. It really depends on your topic and type of article you’re writing. American Archivist has great guidelines on different types of submissions. But if you follow those, that doesn’t necessarily limit you to that journal. I suggest reading the scope and submission guidelines of several journals to be familiar with what’s out there. Review my list of journals and see what might work for you.

So how to decide? Here is a list of considerations to get you started:

  • Who is your audience? Is it archivists or possibly historians, environmentalists, genealogists, political scientists, journalists, academic faculty, or others?
  • What is your timeframe? Are you publishing for tenure or for fun?
    • If for tenure, is there a requirement to publish in top-tier journals? A number of articles?
    • Does the publication’s CFP/issue release work with your timeline? It can take a year or longer to get published, though some journals may have quicker turnaround times.
  • What is your topic? Is it general in nature? Or does it have a focus such as technology, audiovisual, manuscripts, records management, conservation, or other? Is there a subject-oriented journal that would be most appropriate?
  • Is there a journal that you read and really like the content?
  • Does your article meet the journal’s scope and guidelines?
    • Don’t send it to more than one journal at a time; this is often stipulated in submission guidelines.
  • If declined at one journal, go ahead and send it to another. Different review boards have different ideas of what fits their journal.
    • I’ve said this before but is always a good reminder: don’t take rejection personally. Use the feedback to make your article better and keep going.
  • If you’re not sure, email the editor. Don’t be shy, they want to hear from you! (And trust me, they want submissions).
  • Talk to your peers. Find out what journals they read regularly.
  • Do you have a strong opinion about open-access vs. subscription?

ACA Archivaria Prizes

from the Association of Canadian Archivists website:

At the Awards Luncheon, Jennifer Douglas, Archivaria General Editor and Catherine Bailey, former General Editor announced the winners of these prizes:

Raymond Frogner was awarded the W. Kaye Lamb Prize for his article “Lord, Save Us from the Et Cetera of the Notary”: Archival Appraisal, Local Custom, and Colonial Law which appears in Archivaria #79

Tom Nesmith was awarded the Hugh Taylor Award for his article Toward the Archival Stage in the History of Knowledge which appears in Archivaria #80

Grant Hurley was awarded the Gordon Dodds prize for his article, Community Archives, Community Clouds: Enabling Digital Preservation for Small Archives published in Archivaria #81

CFP: Manuscript Studies

reposted from H-NET:

Manuscript Studies: A Journal of the Schoenberg Institute for Manuscript Studies aims to bring together scholarship from around the world and across disciplines related to the study of pre-modern manuscript books and documents. This peer-reviewed journal is open to contributions that rely on both traditional methodologies of manuscript study and those that explore the potential of new ones. We publish articles that engage in a larger conversation on manuscript culture and its continued relevance in today’s world and highlight the value of manuscript evidence in understanding our shared cultural and intellectual heritage. Studies that incorporate digital methodologies to further understanding of the physical and conceptual structures of the manuscript book are encouraged. A separate section, entitled Annotations, features research in progress and digital project reports.

The editors are now accepting submissions for the Fall 2017 issue. To submit, please send a cover page with your name and contact info, the title of the submission and a short abstract along with your submission to sims-mss@pobox.upenn.edu. For more information and to subscribe, go to http://mss.pennpress.org.

We are delighted to announce that the first issue is out and available online through Project Muse (https://muse.jhu.edu/issue/33571).

The Fall 2016 issue will be devoted to histories of collecting and provenance studies, featuring the following contributions:

  • Megan L. Cook, Joseph Holland and the Idea of the Chaucerian Book
  • Anne-Marie Eze, “Safe from Destruction by Fire”: Isabella Stewart Gardner’s Venetian Manuscripts
  • Julia Verkholantsev From Sinai to California: The Trajectory of Greek NT Codex 712 from the UCLA Young Research Library’s Special Collections (170/347)
  • Eric Johnson and Scott Gwara, “The Butcher’s Bill”: Using the Schoenberg Database to Reverse-Engineer Medieval and Renaissance Manuscript Books from Constituent Fragments
  • William P. Stoneman, The Linked Collections of William Bragge (1823–1884) of Birmingham and Dr. Thomas Shadford Walker (1834–1885) of Liverpool
  • Peter Kidd, Medieval Origins Revealed by Modern Provenance: The Case of the Bywater Missal
  • Lisa Fagin Davis, Canons, Huguenots, Movie Stars, and Missionaries: A Breviary’s Journey from Le Mans to Reno
  • Toby Burrows, Manuscripts of Sir Thomas Phillipps in North American Institutions
  • Hanno Wijsman, The Bibale Database at the IRHT: A Digital Tool for Researching Manuscript Provenance
  • Debra Taylor Cashion, Broken Books

The Spring 2017 issue, guest-edited by Justin McDaniel, Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Pennsylvania, will be devoted to a survey of major Thai manuscript collections around the world.

If you are interested in proposing a special issue for 2018 and beyond, please contact Lynn Ransom, Managing Editor, at lransom@upenn.edu.

Seeking Expression of Interest: Archives & Manuscripts

for any Australian readers:

Seeking Expressions of Interest Standing Committee on Archives & Manuscripts

The current contract for publication of ASA’s scholarly journal Archives and Manuscripts is scheduled to expire in December 2018. On 13 May 2016, Council decided that it would undertake a member consultation and business analysis of options for the future publication of Archives and Manuscripts. A Standing Committee of professional members is to be established for this purpose, tasked with advising the Council. Council is seeking expressions of interest from interested members in the position(s) of Committee Member, and Chair of the Committee.

A&M is the leading peer-reviewed archival journal published in the Australasian region and has been published continuously since 1955. Since it began life in the 1950s as a publication of the Archives Section of the Australian Library Association, Archives & Manuscripts has evolved from a printed industry journal to a peer reviewed academic publication published in hard copy, and online, as part of the Taylor & Francis stable of academic publications. Changes to the market place and modes of academic publication, suggest that a major review should be undertaken with input from major stakeholders including ASA members, academics and others.

Read the full announcement.

Open Positions: Primary Source

reposted:

The Society of Mississippi Archivists is currently transitioning its open access semiannual journal, The Primary Source, to peer review. As part of that process, we have two positions open on the editorial board. This is an exciting opportunity to work with a dynamic group of fellow archivists to make a significant contribution to the field of archival science. These editors will serve a one year term, renewable every April, in which they solicit submissions, liaise with peer reviewers and article contributors, and make decisions on article fitness for review and acceptance in the journal.

If interested, please send a CV and a statement of interest to Derek Webb at dswebb@muw.edu. First consideration will go to candidates who send their information by July 25.

Derek Webb | University Archivist | Mississippi University for Women

Open Positions: JCAS

reposted:

The Journal of Contemporary Archival Studies (JCAS), a peer-reviewed online journal hosted by Yale University and New England Archivists, seeks an Associate Editor and a Marketing Associate. All interested candidates should apply by August 1, 2016. See below for details.

JCAS‘s mission is to further awareness of issues and developments in the work of professional archivists, curators, and historians, and serve as a locus for graduate students and professionals in library science, archival science, and public history to contribute original works of research and inquiry for peer review and publication. JCAS publishes research articles, case studies, literature reviews (book, web-based, multimedia), work-in-progress articles, and conference reports that emphasize unique intellectual and technological developments in the archival profession. JCAS is an open-access, online academic journal published via the Berkeley Electronic Press Digital Commons platform.

ASSOCIATE EDITOR
The Associate Editor collaborates with the Managing Editor in soliciting, selecting, and developing content for the journal. The Associate Editor reviews assigned submissions and oversees the peer review process for them: reading and evaluating reports submitted by peer reviewers and recommending to the Managing Editor whether the manuscripts should be accepted for publication, accepted for publication with revisions, or rejected for publication. The Associate Editor participates in outreach programming whenever possible and assists in the solicitation of submissions on an ongoing basis. This person will serve a term of three years, with the opportunity to serve a second term if desired.

MARKETING ASSOCIATE
The Marketing Associate generates and oversees all publicity, networking, and liaison work for the journal’s social media presence. The Marketing Associate manages all incoming and outgoing communications and coordinates outreach events with the NEA Communications Committee. This person will serve a term of two years, with the opportunity to serve a second term if desired.

Interested candidates are asked to submit a resume and a short cover letter for consideration by the NEA Executive Board. Deadline for submission is August 1, 2016. Applications and questions should be directed to NEA Immediate Past President Colin Lukens: colin_lukens@harvard.edu.

New England Archivists
Communications Committee

CFP: College & Undergraduate Libraries

I saw this call come through and while the word “librarian” is everywhere in it, “archivist” is not. However, they mention things like data curation, preservation and access of DH projects, and other aspects that either archivists could (or should) have a say in, archivists with librarian duties may be involved with, or of interest to archivists with interest in digital humanities. Hope someone out there is interested in contributing!

THE DIGITAL HUMANITIES: IMPLICATIONS FOR LIBRARIANS, LIBRARIES, AND LIBRARIANSHIP

The redefinition of humanities scholarship has received major attention in higher education over the past few years. The advent of digital humanities has challenged many aspects of academic librarianship. With the acknowledgement that librarians must be a necessary part of this scholarly conversation, the challenges facing subject/liaison librarians, technical service librarians, and library administrators are many. Developing the knowledge base of digital tools, establishing best procedures and practices, understanding humanities scholarship, managing data through the research lifecycle, teaching literacies (information, data, visual) beyond the one-shot class, renegotiating the traditional librarian/faculty relationship as ‘service orientated,’ and the willingness of library and institutional administrators to allocate scarce resources to digital humanities projects while balancing the mission and priorities of their institutions are just some of the issues facing librarians as they reinvent themselves in the digital humanities sphere.

A CALL FOR PROPOSALS

College & Undergraduate Libraries, a peer-reviewed journal published by Taylor & Francis, invites proposals for articles to be published in the fall of 2017. The issue will be co-edited by Kevin Gunn (gunn@cua.edu) of the Catholic University of America and Jason Paul (pauljn@stolaf.edu) of St. Olaf College.

The issue will deal with the digital humanities in a very broad sense, with a major focus on their implications for the roles of academic librarians and libraries as well as on librarianship in general. Possible article topics include, but are not limited to, the following themes, issues, challenges, and criticism:

  • Developing the project development mindset in librarians
  • Creating new positions and/or cross-training issues for librarians
  • Librarian as: point-of-service agent, an ongoing consultant, or as an embedded project librarian
  • Developing managerial and technological competencies in librarians
  • Administration support (or not) for DH endeavors in libraries
  • Teaching DH with faculty to students (undergraduate and graduate) and faculty
  • Helping students working with data
  • Managing the DH products of the data life cycle
  • Issues surrounding humanities data collection development and management
  • Relationships of data curation and digital libraries in DH
  • Issues in curation, preservation, sustainability, and access of DH data, projects, and products
  • Linked data, open access, and libraries
  • Librarian and staff development for non-traditional roles
  • Teaching DH in academic libraries
  • Project collaboration efforts with undergraduates, graduate students, and faculty
  • Data literacy for librarians
  • The lack of diversity of librarians and how it impacts DH development
  • Advocating and supporting DH across the institution
  • Developing institutional repositories for DH
  • Creating DH scholarship from the birth of digital objects
  • Consortial collaborations on DH projects
  • Establishing best practices for dh labs, networks, and services
  • Assessing, evaluating, and peer reviewing DH projects and librarians.

Articles may be theoretical or ideological discussions, case studies, best practices, research studies, and opinion pieces or position papers.

Proposals should consist of an abstract of up to 500 words and up to six keywords describing the article, together with complete author contact information. Articles should be in the range of 20 double-spaced pages in length. Please consult the following link that contains instructions for authors: http://www.tandfonline.com/action/authorSubmission?journalCode=wcul20&page=instructions#.V0DJWE0UUdU.

Please submit proposals to Kevin Gunn (gunn@cua.edu) by August 17, 2016; please do not use Scholar One for submitting proposals. First drafts of accepted proposals will be due by February 1, 2017 with the issue being published in the fall of 2017. Feel free to contact the editors with any questions that you may have.

Kevin Gunn, Catholic University of America
Jason Paul, St. Olaf College