Archives & Preservation

Punk rock music has lived many lives, but its spirit has always meant the freedom to question everything, and to create or think for yourself. So how does one take the heart of this movement and archive it? That’s a question curator John Davis and Ben Jackson, manager of the University of Maryland’s Michelle Smith Performing Arts Library, had to ask themselves while creating their online exhibit, Persistent Vision: The D.C. Punk Collections at the University of Maryland.

As a cataloging librarian, I decide how a resource is described in its catalog record by assigning subject headings and a call number and determining whether notes or a summary is necessary. All of these decisions impact the findability of a resource and how a catalog user will perceive its content. So I am especially concerned with how a library resource is represented when it contains prejudicial content.

In 2020, partner schools Monash University in Melbourne, Australia, and Penn State University in the United States decided that a friendly baking competition involving the two universities would hit all the outreach notes they wanted, spotlighting cookbooks from both schools’ collections and fostering worldwide connections during a stressful time. Now in its third year, the Great Rare Books Bake Off is a hit worldwide.

The Mütter Museum’s less famous upstairs is equally fascinating—and it’s now open to non–medical professionals without an appointment. The library, an independent collection of books and ephemera related to the “history of medicine and medical humanities,” according to its mission statement, recently announced that it is now open to the public on weekends, included in the price of admission for the Mütter.

When Librarian of Congress Dr. Carla Hayden heard that pop star Lizzo planned to be on tour in Washington, DC, at the end of September, she wasted no time inviting the classically trained flautist to stop by and check out the Library of Congress’s collection of some 1,700 flutes.

While most people think of postcards as inexpensive media showing iconic places, they may not realize the opportunities that postcards can hold for understanding the past. The Chicago-based Newberry Library houses one of the largest collections of postcards in the United States.

In the archives profession, MLS/MLIS degrees are becoming more important; Black, Indigenous, and people of color continue to be underrepresented; and as many as 20 percent of workers are considering leaving the profession within the next five years. These are just a few of the findings in “A*CENSUS II All Archivists Survey Report” from Ithaka S+R and the Society of American Archivists.

Las Vegas: For many people the words conjure images of the glittering lights of casinos, the floor shows, and, of course, the famous Las Vegas Strip. Many of those images came from the Las Vegas News Bureau, which had photographers take pictures to market the city to the world. Over 7 million images, 11,000 reels of film and video, and other artifacts are now housed in the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority (LVCVA) Archive Collection.

John Bracken, Micah May, and Shaneé Yvette Willis discussed DPLA's new partnerships, recent projects, and the new Palace Project ebook platform during the “Digital Public Library of America: A Look Ahead” session at the American Library Association’s 2022 Annual Conference.