Awesome Archives

Hiring Librarians: New Survey: Interview Questions "Database"

If you have recently been interviewed, or if in the future you go on and interview, or even answer some supplemental questions, please go to the

Library Interview Questions Form,

and let us know what you were asked.  As it says on the form, please of course conform to any confidentiality agreements your potential employer put in place with you.

If you are going on an interview, eventually

the spreadsheet

will be a place to help you prepare.

Niiiiice!

Born Analog: Archives forced to auction off portions of collection in order to downsize

bornanalog:

This is gut-wrenching to see. The Association for Cultural Equity, custodians of the Alan Lomax Archive, is in the process of selling off portions of their collection on Ebay. In the words of the seller’s site:

“Lomax established the Association for Cultural Equity in Hunter College’s MFA building on Manhattan’s West Side in 1983. For nearly thirty years, ACE has, in this space, overseen the Alan Lomax Archive: an immense collection of tape and film reels, photographs, research materials, and equipment amassed over the course of Lomax’s 50 years in “the field.”

Hunter College, however, has decided to close our building, and ACE is relocating and downsizing. We simply can’t bring everything with us. We’re auctioning records, photographs, audio and film equipment, and other items from Alan Lomax’s archive, in the hopes that they will be of use and inspiration to similarly minded institutions and individuals.”

I can’t imagine what a heartbreaking decision it must have been for the individuals who have worked so long and so hard to protect, interpret, and make accessible these collections. It’s a collections management Sophie’s choice - what do you save? What goes? How do you know that Ebay will help you find suitable homes for your materials? Does this move actually guarantee that the collections that you’ve saved will be safe? Once those items leave their care, it’s truly anyone’s guess what will happen to them. It also seems to be the case that once you’ve been forced into accepting drastic measures, it becomes a situation of giving an inch and administration taking a mile.

Here’s hoping that things will normalize for the ACE after their move, and that things slowly begin to improve.

Handsome Atlas

What happens when designers get a hold of special collections. Statistical Atlases of the US, Digitized by the Library of Congress and displayed in a pleasant fashion by Brooklyn Brainery. And oh look, they have a tumblr.

The MoMA has put online a directory of all exhibitions MoMA PS1 has hosted from 1971 to the present. The exhibition list itself is a bit stressful because it is so circular and never directly leads to images of the exhibitions themselves, but it’s still an interesting resource.

1, 2, 3

Art as Verb: A heartbreaking thing happened at my internship today. The librarian...

artasverb:

A heartbreaking thing happened at my internship today. The librarian and I have been searching our archives for old things lately. An artist I am doing research for is interested in an exhibition the museum held in 1938, so these hunts aren’t completely random, although they usually end in boxes labelled haphazardly.

This particular box had a lengthy, meaningless label. So we opened it. And it was horrific (if you care at all about archiving). Beautiful engravings on copper plate wrapped in a 1955 newspaper and corrugated cardboard.

The plates were released from their coffins, but it was too late. The copper surface was in terrible shape. You could see impressions of corrugation and folded pages. Their former glory was rubbed in our faces as we uncovered beautiful proofs. In their heyday, these plates were used to print reproductions of some of the museum’s treasured collection pieces.

A friendly reminder from the archive gods to always use acid free materials. RIP Copper plates.

The Belfast Case: Information for SAA Members

I’ve posted news on this case before, where the police clashed with archivists over interview tapes in which possible evidence concerning murder was contained.

The SAA has recently created a concise link list to help archivists understand the issues concerning this case. It makes for very interesting reading… if you’re an archives nerd, at least.

Hack Library School is running a day in the life project

I’m participating, and I encourage other tumblarians (particularly archives peeps!) to join in.

Alfred Hitchcock explaining the difference between surprise and suspense.

(via reddit)

Disney Fans, Twitter followers, and the media have been speculating on the contents of a perplexing box labeled “1952,” since Pixar Animation Studios writer/director Brad Bird and screenwriter/producer David Lindelof posted photos of this curious container on their personal Twitter accounts on January 23. Last week, The Walt Disney Studios announced the film, which will release on December 19, 2014, is now titled Tomorrowland (it was previously known as 1952). Bird is in the director’s seat and is writing the script with Lindelof. But what do the box’s contents reveal?

D23: The Official Disney Fan Club turned to the Walt Disney Archives Director Becky Cline—no stranger to archival sleuthing—to help us unravel some of the riddles wrapped inside this mysterious and enigmatic photograph. Here’s what she shared with us:

Content list Here.