Intern at UC Irvine Special Collections & Archives: Final thoughts

Meet the Intern

During the fall of 2012 I had the pleasure and privilege of working as an archival intern at UC Irvine Libraries Special Collections and Archives (SC&A). For a graduate MLIS student interested in being exposed to archival best practices in a professionally run environment, UCI's SC&A easily fits the bill.

I am an Information Technology professional by trade and I volunteer for a California desert historical society in my free time. After thirty years of making a living in business information around Orange County, I decided to pursue a second career in history information -- an occupation otherwise known as archivist.

Archivists preserve and make accessible the documentary evidence of our American heritage. It is a somewhat obscure profession (there are only 6,000 practicing, and 1,100 certified archivists in the U.S.), yet it is the only one dedicated to maintaining the existence of our historical record. Archival practice is rooted in librarianship and students are typically educated through a master's program in library and information science (MLIS) or history.

As part of the MLIS educational experience students are encouraged to obtain practical experience by means of internship programs in working archives. I work and live in south Orange County in southern California. The UCI campus has been a recurring theme in my life although my higher education has been obtained primarily from Cal State institutions. Through my coursework I was familiar with Michelle Light’s publications and learned she was the Head of Special Collections, Archives, and Digital Scholarship at UCI. From her presentation at the 2011 Society of American Archivists conference I learned that the department she managed was at the forefront of archival practice. I introduced myself and she encouraged me to apply for an internship at SC&A.

The learning outcomes I intended to satisfy through my internship revolved around the gaps in my practical knowledge of how to process archival collections. My MLIS coursework and supplemental reading of archival science literature have provided me with the principles and knowledge required, but the practical skills that come from hands on processing were missing. Life experiences have taught me that there is no substitute for understanding the particulars of a process other than to roll up one’s sleeves and personally perform the work. UCI SC&A offered me the opportunity to test theories and to practice skills by engaging in a field-based learning experience. Secondary considerations that contributed to my site choice were the desire to be guided by professional archivists, work in an environment utilizing best practices and technology-based solutions, and to process regional (Orange County) collections.

The Internship Site

The UCI Libraries, Special Collections and Archives houses the UC Irvine Libraries' collections of rare books, manuscripts, archives, photographs, and other rare and special materials. The department is home to the scholarly archives of some of the campus's most noteworthy present and former faculty members, including philosopher Jacques Derrida, Nobel Prize-winning scientists F. Sherwood Rowland and Frederick Reines, and choreographers Eugene Loring and Donald McKayle. Students, researchers, and community members are encouraged to visit and use the collections and services available within the department’s reading room.

The Special Collections and Archives department, stacks, and reading room are situated on the top floor of the main or Langson library. The reading room is a large, neat and pleasant environment of large tables with large windows overlooking the campus. The reading room also shares space with a limited number of stacks and map files.

Staff offices, cubicles, student assistant work areas, and additional stacks are located off the reading room. Additionally, there is separate secure space on the fifth floor with work and storage space and where bulk archival supplies are kept. In the basement of the Langson, SC&A has several compact stacks behind two locked cages within the academic library space. Lastly, there is a work area in the newer Ayala Science Library where a project archivist is stationed processing regional collections.

Outreach activities conducted by SC&A include both traditional exhibits and use of social media. During the fall Special Collections displayed “LGBT Communities in Orange County: Highlights from the Archival Collections” in the Special Collections and Archives lobby exhibit cases. Publicity for SC&A public programs is disseminated through its New & Noteworthy Collections blog and the UC Irvine SC&A Twitter feed. There are efforts currently underway to digitize early University materials for presentation in a web-based content management system. This is being done in anticipation of UCI's 50th anniversary in 2015.

Back in the staff area of the Langson, one of two cubicle spaces is set aside for sharing by transient resources such as interns. It’s a nice space with a networked computer, a decent amount of flat work area, and a window view of the San Gabriel Mountains. Archivists’ Toolkit is the archival data management technology used along with a home-grown Stacks Locator for logging the locations of shelved collections. Other utilities such as JEdit and NetDrive used to upload EAD to OAC are covered in my Day 8.0 blog post.

In addition to putting in a full day of interning once per week at UCI Special Collections and Archives, I maintained a weekly blog called Archivist Apprentice. To generate additional interest in the blog postings, a companion Archivist Apprentice Twitter account was used to tweet the presence of new postings to followers.

Internship Reflections

Overall, my internship at the UCI SC&A was a personal success because I was able to accomplish the goals I set out for myself. Most of my MLIS coursework has revolved around archival theory. This internship was my opportunity to apply that theory in a practical setting in highly organized archives under professional guidance. At its core, my plan was to process manuscript collections from “soup to nuts,” and the wonderful archivists at UCI helped me do just that over the course of 138 hours of hands-on work on seven collections comprising 7.6 linear feet of processed material.

To make the best use of my short time “on station” at my internship, I would spend the first half hour or so of my day determining what I needed to do to complete a module of work before I went home. I did not want to leave in the middle of any one task and lose my train of thought before I came back a week later. This required me to plan what tasks I could get done in a day, sometimes employing unfamiliar procedures. I learned to manage my time carefully which allowed me walk out the door on my last day with seven completed collections ready to be uploaded to OAC.

Sometimes, I think it was the small decisions, the ones that were neither intuitive nor spelled out in procedure manuals that were the most difficult aspects of the work experience. There are some things that are learned only by asking someone in the know and the archivists at UCI, especially my site supervisor, were generous with their time and knowledge.

From my internship I gained confidence with and practical knowledge of accessioning, rehousing, arranging, describing, preserving, shelving, creating finding aids, and generating and uploading EAD code to the Online Archive of California (OAC) for paper-based collections. In terms of more advanced archival techniques I was able to apply minimal processing concepts, DACS standards, and Library of Congress subject headings. At UCI, I had the privilege of working with archivists who are serious about adhering to professional and internal standards. As my supervisor said to me, “our finding aids and the presentation of source materials are how our patrons judge the quality of our work. Let’s be consistent, accurate, and neat!”

UC Irvine will be celebrating the 50th anniversary of the campus in 2015. The Special Collections staff has been tasked with developing retrospective exhibits to honor that major milestone. One of the issues of concern to the SC&A staff is how they are going to digitize the massive amount of photographic materials from the earliest years of the school and make them available in a content management system with limited resources and no funding. I like to think that my processing of a handful of less time critical paper collections may have in a small way freed up some resources for the archivists to apply to the University’s half-centennial project.

If the success of my internship were to be quickly summed up in terms of processing output then the answer would be the finding aids of the following seven small collections posted at the Online Archive of California:

MS-R160, Committee of 4000 Records, 0.2 linear feet
http://www.oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/c8kp82qz

MS-R161, Orange County Commission on the Status of Women Records, 0.4 linear feet
http://www.oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/c8fx7b0n

MS-R162, Orange County Human Relations Commission Records, 1.2 linear feet
http://www.oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/c8qz2bjr

MS-R163, Collection of Clippings on the Development of Irvine, California and Orange County Local Agency Formation Commission, 0.6 linear feet
http://www.oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/c8m61kvs

MS-R164, Environmental Coalition of Orange County Records, 2.0 linear feet
http://www.oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/c82806xg

MS-R165, Fair Housing Council of Orange County Records, 1.4 linear feet
http://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/c8b56k9p

MS-F037, Jerome Tobis papers, 1.8 linear feet
http://www.oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/c89g5nfq

Internship - Day 13.0

Quality Control

The task today was to begin executing on my quality control (QC) recommendations for unfinished collections started by student assistants. The student assistants are not expected to have a foundation of archival theory or experience. Mostly, they are instructed on how to perform repetitive tasks such as refoldering, labeling, and rehousing materials. So that's where I pick up on the first two of five such collections.

I'm pleased to find mostly tidy and neatly labeled materials, although I'm not sure if the students were instructed to maintain original order or how they made their refoldering choices. I'm guessing they maintained original order -- if only by default.

The first thing I did was compare the folders and their labels with what was input into Archivists' Toolkit (AT). Right off the bat I found the collection number was missing from all of the folder labels. Also, there was a date range mismatch between what was on the folder labels and what was input into AT. Some materials genres were misidentified, such as calling a pamphlet or report a booklet. There were no names or subjects selected for the collection nor were there any notes other than a Content and Scope note, and that probably migrated from the accession record. In one case, a too-large sized box was used for a thin stack of folders.

This all may sound a bit nit-picky, but the procedures and expectations for the quality of arrangement and description at UCI Special Collections and Archives is high. And the things I'm catching and fixing are really the realm of an archivist. It was heads down, intensive work, but this exercise was good practice and reinforcement for me.

Internship - Day 12.0

Refinement

Much of today was spent heads down reviewing my first collections and applying corrections. The exercise of upgrading the processing level on the ECOC and FHCOC collections from minimal to moderate involved the application of new work by student assistants and by an intern (me). This of course had the effect of introducing new errors in the form of typos and unmet requirements.

As I compared physical file folder labels with the data input into Archivists' Toolkit, I found discrepancies that needed to be fixed between the two. Through a combination of the backspace, an eraser, and a pencil I brought the two sides back in alignment. As usual, my supervisor had some great feedback that only improved the quality of the finding aids for these two collections.

New Challenge

The rest of my day was spent working on a new challenge presented to me by my supervisor . Special Collections has a backlog of  five collections previously processed by student assistants. They needed to have some quality control (QC) applied before they could be considered complete. My supervisor explained that as a future archivist who will be supervising non-archivists, I could benefit from checking the work of our student assistants. This will give me a chance to apply the learning I've gained over the previous three months.

We agreed that I would pick one of the five student-processed collections and develop a list of recommendations for improvement. My supervisor would then QC my QC,  provide feedback, and then have me apply the agreed upon changes.

Old days on the Irvine Ranch.

The collection I picked to QC first was MS-R160 -  Committee of 4000 records, a group of Irvine area homeowners who lived on land leased to them by the Irvine Ranch/Company and argued that their original lease terms were unrealistic in the 1970s climate of soaring Orange County real estate prices. By the end of the day I delivered my QC recommendations to my supervisor for review. Next week I'll tackle the other four collections.

Internship - Day 7.0

Finishing Touches

The collection I processed at the start of the internship, Environmental Coalition of Orange County records (ECOC), came back from the student assistant. She had been assigned the task of refoldering and labeling the 85 or so folders spread across five Hollinger boxes.

As pictured above, there are three elements in labeling each of the new acid-free folders. On the left side is the collection number. For example, MS-R164 indicates this is the 164th Regional history ManuScript collection in the UCI Special Collections and Archives. The center portion of the folder tab is reserved for labeling the contents of the folder. The right side of the tab indicates this folder sequence in the box. This is folder number 4 in box number 1.

After checking the student's work, I had the pleasure of formatting,  printing, and applying the box labels to the ends of the document boxes. My supervisor had mentioned that she finds this one of the most satisfying steps in collection processing. I have to say there is a certain amount of pride one takes in seeing how a rag tag archives box of loose papers can come together into an organized and cohesive arrangement.

For finishing touches, I filled out the rest of the Archivists' Toolkit (AT) resource record for the collection, added the series and subseries hierarchy, added their corresponding box and folder range instances, refined the collection level finding aid data and notes, updated the work plan, and sent it off to my supervisor for review. This is exciting because we're getting close to generating the EAD and uploading it to the Online Archive of California (OAC) where the world will be able to find it!

And now, back to our other collection already in progress...

With the ECOC packed off to the archivist for review, I re-engaged with processing the Fair Housing Council of Orange County (FHCOC) records. In some ways this collection was more challenging intellectually. There were really only three categories, or series of documents, but almost none of them came organized. I started with an archives box containing a bunch of paper heaped in different directions.

Last week, when I pulled out the papers out of the bankers box, I did my best to maintain the original order. To make the papers easier to handle I placed them in acid-free folders while transferring them into Hollinger boxes. Since each folder can only hold about an inch thick of paper, the challenge was making decisions where to divide them into natural breaking points.

Handing off the folders to a student for labeling was out of the question. The papers are in no discernible order. So I took on the labeling task. I quickly reviewed the contents of each folder and labeled each with one of the three previously identified series titles; court documents, newsletters, or planning documents. I whipped through all folders in all four document boxes before the end of the day.

Next week, my goal will be to pull together the FHCOC collection into the same state of readiness that I got the ECOC into earlier today. Whew!

Internship - Day 6.0

A different kind of day...

Today, I was not heads-down in collection processing as I have been in previous weeks. But it was an interesting day nonetheless.

Ayala Science Library at UCI

UCI has four libraries; the Medical, Science, Law, and Main (now Langson) Libraries. Special Collections and Archives (SC&A) is in the Langson, one of the oldest buildings on campus at the ripe old age of 47. Today, I had the pleasure of walking over to the Ayala Science Library and visiting with two of our catalogers. Sarah Wallbank does the cataloging of items (rare books) for Special Collections and Carole McEwan edits the EAD and MARC catalog entries for collections entered into Archivists' Toolkit. Both ladies were very welcoming and generous with their time providing me with an overview of how they support SC&A.

Back at SC&A, my supervisor and I interacted with the student assistant who has been assigned the work tickets for the Environmental Coalition of Orange County (ECOC) collection I processed. We realized that the re-foldering process was causing the collection to outgrow the four document storage boxes, so I incorporated a fifth. Unfortunately this caused a little extra work for the student as it messed up the <box : folder > numbering work she had done. I saw how my inexperience in extrapolating how re-foldering would add a bit of length to the linear footage, and therefore the number of document boxes. I immediately applied this lesson-learned to the current Fair Housing Council of Orange County (FHCOC) collection I'm currently processing.

As far as deliverables today, I handed in three to my supervisor:

• An updated Accession Checklist for the FHCOC collection which corrected the extent's linear footage.
• An updated Processing Work Plan for FHCOC to  eliminate the sub-series level I had proposed for the filing unit organization.
• A revised Accessioning Manual containing several suggestions for improving this useful document for a newby like me. (My supervisor has encouraged any suggestions to improve SC&A procedural manuals.)

Internship - Day 3.0

Two Deliveries

Today my efforts resulted in the delivery of two documents, an accession checklist and a collection work plan. Both of these forms cover my first assigned collection; the records of the Environmental Coalition of Orange County (ECOC).

ECOC Accession Checklist

Here is the header portion of the ECOC accession record. The Accession and Collection Numbers are determined by checking Archivists' Toolkit (AT) for the next available numbers. The purpose of the checklist is to make sure that a new collection that has come into the Special Collections & Archives (SC&A) is properly received and accounted for even if it is not immediately processed.

I started filling out the checklist and inputting the accession record in AT back on Day 2, but I had not quite finished. I realized that my initial cursory review of the folders in the ECOC box was not thorough enough to provide the necessary detail on condition, disposition, and restrictions. So I took the time to review the contents of each folder at a very high level. I made notes on candidate materials for the following four areas;

• Separation
• Disposition
• Restriction
• Preservation

I'm glad I did the more thorough review as I found more mailing labels than I found the first time. My supervisor advised that these should just be discarded / shredded. I also found correspondence between elected California officials and the ECOC containing original signatures. I asked if they should be restricted to avoid potential theft. (It's not like I found Abraham Lincoln's signature, but I did note that a page with Senator Alan Cranston's signature was already missing.) My supervisor advised that SC&A tends to not restrict correspondence to that level. Additionally, I found a small box of 35mm color film transparencies that constituted the visual portion of an educational slide show. These will receive special sleeving attention but will otherwise not be separated from the paper script found in the same folder.

ECOC Work Plan

Here is the header portion of the work plan developed for the ECOC collection. Some header data overlaps that of the accession checklist. The main purpose of this document is to communicate the significance of the collection to the archivist. This is accomplished by the accessioning processor answering a series of questions designed to assist the archivist with determining how to prioritize the processing of the collection and the level to which it should be processed.

As I made my high level review of the box contents I noted the label text and original order of each of the eighty-five (85) folders. The contents of each folder seem to agree with its label. This indicated to me that, overall, the collection came fairly well-organized. The condition of the folders is another matter. They exhibit some past, light water damage and would benefit from refoldering.

One set of questions on the work plan is; "How will you organize the collection? Is there any existing meaningful order? What series will you use?" Although this was not a difficult question, I found that answering it was the same amount of work as just reorganizing the folder labels I had already captured electronically. Using the suggested series groupings in the Processing Manual I was able to quickly  organize the 85  folders intellectually in the following proposed series and sub-series filing units:

• Correspondence [4 folders]
• Operational records [3 folders]
• Program records
• Air Quality [12 folders]
• Conservation (Energy, Water) [12 folders]
• Educational [6 folders]
• Transportation [5 folders]
• Water Quality [1 folder]
• Project records [26 folders]
• Public relational records [16 folders]

All this fun work was topped off with generating  the AT resource record from the accession record.

Towards the end of the day I presented the above two forms to my supervisor for approval and consulted with her about next steps. She suggested that I write up work tickets for the preservation activities, refoldering, labeling, and reboxing so that the work can be assigned to a student assistant.

Another next step will be to review and complete the resource record. My supervisor advised that she has the student assistants perform the data entry of the filing unit information in AT resource record. That would be the series, sub-series, and folder children. All of the data entry is the realm of the archivist processor.

We also discussed that I would update the estimated time frame for processing based on guidance provided in either the Processing Manual and/or the UC Minimal Processing Guide. Also, I'll look at clarifying the series/sub-series filing unit, and determine if I'll do folder level descriptions.

Internship - Day 1.5

Finished How to Manage Processing in Archives and Special Collections by Pam Hackbart-Dean and Elizageth Slomba (Society of American Archivists, 2012). Be sure to refer to my flagged areas throughout the internship for pointers on what to do and when to do it.

There are several forms/templates in the book that should be helpful to use to reinforce the processing experience.