From Timothy Kanke who completed a year-long internship with Special Collections this spring:

The Florida State University Science Education Curriculum Development Collection documents the creation and development of science teaching materials produced by the science education program at Florida State University from the 1960s to the 2000s. A portion of the collection is composed of many different types of digital media containing completed games as well as various stages of code development. My internship focused on further exploration of what is in this portion of the collection and to research means of preservation and access to these materials. This collection provides many interesting challenges. It contains many different types of storage media including 3.5” floppy disks, CDs, micro cassettes, DAT, Travan, VHS, DVDs, EX drives, Jaz disks, laser disks, 8mm magnetic tape, and U-matic tape. Another challenge is that a majority of the material are stored on older file formats for Apple II and Commodore Amiga computers that are not directly compatible to most modern operating systems.

Playing one of the video games included in the Science Education Curriculum Development Collection

There are a few methods of moving old software to a modern platform. Both of the following methods create disk images that an emulator can read. One method is to directly connect the older machine to a clean workstation. For Apple II computers this is achieved with Apple Disk Transfer ProDos. This process has a specialized program installed on a modern operating system which is connected to an Apple II which has a modified version of its operating system. Another method is by using a specialized controller such as KryoFlux. It is a combination of a hardware controller (i.e. circuit board) and software. The original media storage device such as a floppy disk drive is connected to the controller. This allows access to the contents on a floppy.

This internship has also given me experience on conceptualizing a collection which shapes how the items are preserved and accessed. If the collection is to provide future generations the chance to experience educational software game play from the late 1980s to early 2000s, then the original equipment, or at least an emulator, is a necessity. If the collection is to document historical computer code, then the code itself and the accompanying documentation needs to be viewable. Or if the collection is focusing on the pedagogy, then a description of the gaming experience with the supporting printed materials might be sufficient for future research. The description of the game could be a walk through video. This kind of video interview captures the monitor output and the audio of the game as well as the words spoken by the player.

Of course choosing one conceptualization does not automatically exclude the others but a focus curtails unnecessary expenditures and brings to light what is truly necessary to preserve the collection. This allows the researcher to immerse themselves into the content and not be distracted by inconsistency of processing. It is impossible to predict how exactly a collection is going to be used in the future but a focus brings a cohesion to the individual items.

From the June, 1941 WQXR Program Guide:

The first issue of the WQXR program booklet was dated June, 1936, just five years ago. The station was called “W2XR” then, and was on the air only four hours a day. The printed program was not really a booklet at that time, but a leaflet of four pages.

In those five years, we have kept everlastingly at it to give you a radio service in which we attempt to consider rather than disregard your likes and dislikes, to inform and to please you rather than to exploit you. And by sticking to these simple policies WQXR has grown rapidly and, we hope, soundly. Our growth is reflected in many ways. Among them are the recent power increase to five thousand watts, the expansion of this program booklet to twenty-eight or thirty-two pages, and its increase of “net paid circulation” to 13,782 copies last month. For your part in the three-way cooperation that has resulted in this growth of our services, we are profoundly grateful.

Perhaps I should tell you exactly what I think I mean by this “three-way cooperation” that I think is fundamental to WQXR’s work. I mean just this: first, you listeners, and second, our advertisers, and third, we at the station –all have a genuine community of interest. If we recognize that each of us can do something for each of the other two, and that in return for an honest effort to do our share we will each receive something we want from the other two, this American system of broadcasting can be made the framework of a really fine activity.

More specifically, you listeners want to hear the kind of programs that you like. We at the station can help to that end by studying your likes and dislikes and by doing our best to send to you programs that will please you. That is the WQXR policy. And our sponsors can help by paying the costs of running the station and of producing those programs. There is no other way in which they can be paid for.

Again, you listeners are all consumers. You buy all kinds of products and services. You want to know where and how you can buy the best, and you want to be sure that every dollar you spend gets for you a good dollar’s worth. Well, we can help to that end by refusing to advertise catch-penny schemes and merchandise or services that we know are shoddy or disreputable or dishonest. That is the WQXR policy, and I think the list of sponsors published on the back page of this program booklet shows that it is succeeding. [Please see page below.]

Now, what does the sponsor want? It’s easy to say “he wants to sell his goods,” but there’s more to it than that. The really good sponsor, the kind we try to have on WQXR, wants to give you good service and good value. WQXR’s advertisers are not of the hit-and-run variety. They don’t make their living by “first and only” sales, but by building up sound businesses in which their customers are and remain pleased and so continue to use their products. And, of course, WQXR helps the sponsors by providing a medium through which they can reach hundreds of thousands of listeners, most of whom have a better-than-average appreciation of good things and good values. But what can you, the listeners do to help the sponsors, and through them to help WQXR, and through WQXR to get for yourselves still more and better programs? You can, and I hope you will, do something more than merely buy what is advertised on WQXR. If you mention WQXR when you buy what our sponsors advertise, it will show them why you are buying.

We at WQXR pledge you to keep on with our “all-out” efforts to do our part of this cooperative job. Our sponsors are doing their part in a splendid and increasing way. And most of you listeners are doing yours. So this is not an attempt to cudgel you into a flurry of activity–it is more a report of progress and an attempt to tell you a little more of what WQXR is all about. Just bear in mind that the more each one of us does along the lines I have explained, the more both he and the other two will get back. And let’s see what the program booklet will look like next June, on its sixth birthday!

        WQXR advertisers page from the June, 1941 program booklet. (WQXR Archive Collections)

Student publications at Amherst College have been around for nearly as long as there have been Amherst College students. From the first hand-written issue of La Critique in 1829 to today’s issue of the Amherst Muck-Rake or AC Voice, the character and concerns of Amherst students and the times they lived in are readily apparent.

Below is a selection of images from student publications, click on the thumbnail for more information and a larger image. All the publications here can be found in the Amherst College Student and Alumni Publications Collection in the archives and most can also be found in the college catalog.

Student publications at Amherst College have been around for nearly as long as there have been Amherst College students. From the first hand-written issue of La Critique in 1829 to today’s issue of the Amherst Muck-Rake or AC Voice, the character and concerns of Amherst students and the times they lived in are readily apparent.

Below is a selection of images from student publications, click on the thumbnail for more information and a larger image. All the publications here can be found in the Amherst College Student and Alumni Publications Collection in the archives and most can also be found in the college catalog.

Despite the challenges of the past year–sequestration, the government shutdown, and other obstacles we have had to face– the staff of the National Archives has consistently risen to the occasion and has done some extraordinary work.

Staff receive awards at the 2014 Archivist’s Awards Ceremony at the National Archives in College Park

For me, every week is Public Service Recognition Week and I have come to look forward to the Archivist’s Awards day when we celebrate our staff’s accomplishments.  All of our staff members are winners based on feedback supplied by our customers–the day-to-day work that doesn’t always get heralded. Here are some of the terrific things customers have to say about the staff of the National Archives:

• An IRS agent was “taken aback by the professionalism and personal attention she received” at San Bruno. And another IRS person praised the FRC staff in Boston, Pittsfield, Seattle, and Lee’s Summit who “really went the extra mile to locate some very old Form 1120s––corporate tax returns.”
• A  Department of Commerce records officer wrote: “Thank you again for coming and providing ERA training. You did fantastic, and the feedback was very good…. You are welcome to come back any time.”
• At the National Personnel Records Center, a daughter searching for the military records of her late father wrote that “it is apparent you did a great deal

… [ Read all ]

World War II ended in Europe on May 7, 1945 with the formal acceptance by the Allies of Germany’s surrender. This mysterious recording offers a satirical theory on the early childhood of one of its major players, Adolf Hitler.

This one-of-a-kind disc was recorded on August 23, 1940 in London, at the height of the Battle of Britain and just two weeks before the start of the terrible German blitz bombings on that city. Although satirical songs about Hitler were not uncommon even before the start of WWII, we know little about this recording and its performers, Inga Anderson and Harold Stead. Was she a Canadian comedienne? Who wrote the defiant piece? So far, these mysteries remain unsolved.

_{University Archives student assistant cleans item from collection. Photo by University Archives / UNCW.}

read more

During World War II, the South Side of Chicago was home to one of the largest war plants in the country, used by Dodge-Chrysler to build bomber plane engines. After the war, Preston Tucker leased two of the buildings to build his “Torpedo” car. This site is now the home of the National Archives at Chicago! Our National Archives Education team shares the full story on their Facebook page.

Here are the patent drawings for Tucker’s “Torpedo” car:

Tucker Torpedo Patent Drawing, 6/14/1949, National Archives Identifier 594674… [ Read all ]

Dr. Teri Abstein’s Spring 2014 Museum Object class, in collaboration with FSU’s Special Collections & Archives, is pleased to present its exhibit, John MacKay Shaw: The Man Behind the Collection. Shaw was born in Scotland and immigrated to the United States as a teen. After marriage and having his own children, Shaw began his collection of childhood poetry and literature in the 1930s. His collection grew to include all the masters of English literature who have written about childhood – and almost every English poet has.  The Shaw Collection was donated to FSU with 6,000 volumes; the collection currently comprises of over 35,000 volumes and 69 linear feet of archival material.

In the exhibit, you will be able to view Shaw’s own poetry written for his children, letters between Shaw and Dr. Seuss, first editions of books which turned into popular children’s movies, part of the largest Scottish collection in America and finally, the legacy Shaw has left to his children, to Florida State University and many others.

A digital exhibit to complement the physical exhibit can be found here.

John MacKay Shaw: The Man Behind the Collection is open from 10am-6pm in the Strozier Exhibit Room and will be available to view until Fall 2014.

From the June, 1943 WQXR Program Guide:

Editorial Note: You know that various organizations are doing a great deal to bring music to the boys in the armed forces. But here is what one anonymous private is doing for himself. We at WQXR were amused and pleased when we read it and thought you would enjoy it, too. So through the courtesy of Common Sense magazine in which publication’s May issue it appeared, we bring you this down-to-earth appreciation of good music.

Although I’m not the sort of person who carries a score to Carnegie Hall, I do go to concerts. And for me, WQXR is the bright spot on the broadcast band. So when the Army shipped me to a post within listening distance of WQXR, there was added reason to feel fortunate.

When I first came into the outfit, through, it was almost a case of so near and yet so far. On my floor of the barracks there was just one radio, the property of Sol, a self-satisfied and bossy lawyer from the Bronx. Next to him bunked Ziggy, a light-headed young zoot-suiter who had played drums in a small-time dance combination and who now was a loader in the supply section. Because of Ziggy’s proximity and brash lack of inhibition, he ran the radio.

Scorching swing was Ziggy’s meat. After evening chow and News Around the Clock (brought to you by the Daily News, New York’s picture newspaper), Ziggy would stretch out on his bed and expectantly wait for Martin Block to fade in the Make-Believe Ballroom from one of his numerous imaginary stages.

To the bandstand then would trot Harry James, Benny Goodman, Xavier Cugat, the Andrews Sisters, etc., until I thought my insides had turned to water. One evening I got back from the mess hall before the others and bravely snapped on WQXR. As my bunk mates streamed in to the strange rhythm of a Strauss waltz, they wrinkled their noses as if they detected some of our usual foul-smelling Friday filet.

“What the hell is that?” writhed the drummer dogface.

Who put that on my radio?” bellowed the ambulance chaser from my native hills, circling his best courtroom scowl over the recruit end of the squad room.

Tentatively I looked up from my book and said, “I did.”

Somehow, I had impressed Sol as a man of culture and he wanted to make clear that he was no Philistine. With an audible grinding of gears, he changed his tone. “You know,” he blandly confided, “there’s nothing like good music. Give me a Havana cigar and a copy of the Sun and I can spend an evening just listening to good music.” But he quickly added, “Let’s have something lively now,” and sharply twisted the dial.

Glum as it appeared for the finer things in life, the cause of WQXR soon was aided by several non-esthetic forces. In the first place, our men were in just 50 percent of the evenings and on their time off most of them tore like mad out of the camp. Fortunately, Ziggy and I were on alternate schedules, and after he pushed off on one of the rampages that would bring him staggering in at three or four in the morning, I could often manage to tune in Music to Remember.

Deserted by their leader, the jive hounds listened with bewildered tolerance. There was an almost tangible tension in the air and momentarily I expected an outburst of protest. By the time the slightly heavier A Treasury of Music came on, these ex-Brooklyn shipping clerks could bear it no longer.

“Come on, you’ve had enough of that stuff,” one opened. His pals growled in reinforcement and so with much show I begrudgingly gave in, secretly pleased that I had accomplished so much.

Later I became bolder. At times I could get well into the Treasury of Music before someone would howl. Hearing Symphony Hall, of course, was beyond my most reckless hope. With their increasing confidence, my recruit classmates who gagged at too much swing became more outspoken in my support. Including in their number a librarian from Yale, a French instructor from Andover, and an anthropologist from Trenton, these new GIs were in general a better educated crowd than then old timers.

By far the best blow for good music, however, was struck by the detachment order moving the stray cooks and supply men (especially Ziggy) into separate barracks and leaving upstairs in No. 134 exclusively to the more genteel clerks. Shortly afterward our barrister went to OCS [Officer Candidate School] and with him his radio.

But we soon got another. More changes in personnel also added weight to the case of WQXR, for now my bed is flanked by a Chicago music teacher and a Stamford law student. An extension cord I bought permits me to keep our new floor model right beside my bunk. Such a purely physical factor is of great tactical value. Now there are evenings when I can get through Symphony Hall as thoroughly relaxed as if I were in my own home.

From this it shouldn’t be concluded that the three B’s reign supreme in my company. A recent arrival in our floor is Jackie Searl* grown older, with his own tan leather portable. This persistent hepcat is generally quite obstreperous. Some nights swing rumbles at symphony from opposite ends of the squad room. In the mornings, Pvt. Searl, reaching for the tuning knob as he rolls back the blankets, is master of radio row. But then, as I go through my housework, making my bed and mopping under it, Tommy Tucker [popular bandleader] seems more appropriate than Toscanini.

________________________________________________________________

*Jackie Searl (1921-1991) was an American child actor especially known for playing bratty kids.

On behalf of the members of the Public Interest Declassification Board, I would like to thank Elizabeth Rindskopf Parker for her dedicated service to the PIDB and acknowledge her extensive contributions.  Elizabeth concluded her third term as a member of the PIDB and we are lucky to have had her knowledge and expertise during her tenure.  It has been a pleasure working with her and we have certainly treasured her company these past eight years.  She was an inaugural member of the PIDB and was present at its first meeting on Saturday, February 25, 2006.  Her passion and advocacy for transparency and responsible declassification have guided our work, benefiting the public and advancing needed conversations about balancing national security imperatives and the principles inherent to our democracy.  Elizabeth possesses a unique understanding of how secrecy affects the functioning of our legal system, including insights as to how the growing body of “secret law” and the issues surrounding precedence affect public access to government information.  Among her many accomplishments as a member of the PIDB, Elizabeth played a vital role in writing both of the PIDB’s Reports to the President, Improving Declassification and Transforming the Security Classification System.  We have valued her thoughtful insights, wit and wisdom and hope she will continue to engage with the PIDB in her new emerti status.  Thank you, Elizabeth, for your kindness, dedication, and professionalism. We will greatly miss you and we wish you the best both personally and professionally.

With the arrival of May Day, it seemed to me a natural thing to go exploring in our so-called “Bloom Ephemera” collection. To do so is to experience almost pure randomness and happenstance.

Full-page back cover art work in Real Free Press Illustratie, no. 1, Antwerp, Belgium (undated).

The collection, consisting of 88 record cartons, is an unsorted amalgamation of printed matter from the 1960s and 1970s, almost all of which from a left-wing/counterculture perspective. It is the unprocessed counterpart to our Marshall Bloom Alternative Press Collection, which came to us through the late Marshall Bloom ’66, who co-founded Liberation News Service in 1967 to supply news stories to the thousands of “underground” alternative newspapers springing up all over the country.

What I discovered in my exploration of the Bloom Ephemera is that it really does not really consist of “ephemera” at all — at least not as traditionally defined as “paper items (as posters, broadsides, and tickets) that were originally meant to be discarded after use but have since become collectibles” (Merriam-Webster). It consists, in fact, chiefly of periodicals — and while periodicals (magazines, newspapers, newsletters, etc.) have a limited active life and might in that sense be considered somewhat ephemeral, they are regular publications that libraries, for example, systematically retain (as opposed to handbills and ticket stubs, which they do not).

Cover of the Fall 1968 issue of Caw! published by Students for a Democratic Society. This special issue addressed the May 1968 Events in France.

Some of the magazines here, I’m sure, are duplicates of those found in the Bloom Alternative Press Collection. Some are fairly mainstream popular magazines (e.g., Commonweal, Ramparts) that don’t closely fit the definition of “alternative.” But much else is wonderfully obscure and one-of-a-kind: newsletters put out by tiny leftist organizations, press releases, zines, local free newsweeklies, and so on.

Che Guevara broadside printed by the New World Liberation Front, San Francisco.

Spark is a forum for socially-responsible engineers. It seeks submissions from “any individual, groupuscule, group tendency, or faction.”

Jimi Hendrix featured on the cover of the January 1976 issue of the Brazilian zine Cogumelo Atomico, published in the small city of Brusque, Santa Catarina.

The collection also includes the occasional pamphlet, such as these on the conscientious objector options during the Vietnam War.

There is much Socialist, Marxist and Communist material, including this bit of North Korean propaganda. (Bonus points for apparently bearing a small blood stain.)

The collection seems to have a mixed provenance. Some items bear labels addressed to individuals in Washington, D.C., but there is also much else that is addressed to Liberation News Service, 160 Claremont Ave., New York, NY. The material dates to as late as 1975. With the eventual decline of the New Left movement after the end of the Vietnam War, LNS ceased operations around that time.

An interesting early edition of the hugely popular Our Bodies, Ourselves, printed on newsprint and bound with staples.

Unfortunately, the research value of the Bloom Ephemera Collection is compromised in its current random state. Undoubtedly it contains rich and fascinating documentation of the New Left and the myriad socio-political issues it encompasses, but any researchers seeking material on a specific topic within it would need to be very dogged in their pursuit!

With the arrival of May Day, it seemed to me a natural thing to go exploring in our so-called “Bloom Ephemera” collection. To do so is to experience almost pure randomness and happenstance.

Full-page back cover art work in Real Free Press Illustratie, no. 1, Antwerp, Belgium (undated).

The collection, consisting of 88 record cartons, is an unsorted amalgamation of printed matter from the 1960s and 1970s, almost all of which from a left-wing/counterculture perspective. It is the unprocessed counterpart to our Marshall Bloom Alternative Press Collection, which came to us through the late Marshall Bloom ’66, who co-founded Liberation News Service in 1967 to supply news stories to the thousands of “underground” alternative newspapers springing up all over the country.

What I discovered in my exploration of the Bloom Ephemera is that it really does not really consist of “ephemera” at all — at least not as traditionally defined as “paper items (as posters, broadsides, and tickets) that were originally meant to be discarded after use but have since become collectibles” (Merriam-Webster). It consists, in fact, chiefly of periodicals — and while periodicals (magazines, newspapers, newsletters, etc.) have a limited active life and might in that sense be considered somewhat ephemeral, they are regular publications that libraries, for example, systematically retain (as opposed to handbills and ticket stubs, which they do not).

Cover of the Fall 1968 issue of Caw! published by Students for a Democratic Society. This special issue addressed the May 1968 Events in France.

Some of the magazines here, I’m sure, are duplicates of those found in the Bloom Alternative Press Collection. Some are fairly mainstream popular magazines (e.g., Commonweal, Ramparts) that don’t closely fit the definition of “alternative.” But much else is wonderfully obscure and one-of-a-kind: newsletters put out by tiny leftist organizations, press releases, zines, local free newsweeklies, and so on.

Che Guevara broadside printed by the New World Liberation Front, San Francisco.

Spark is a forum for socially-responsible engineers. It seeks submissions from “any individual, groupuscule, group tendency, or faction.”

Jimi Hendrix featured on the cover of the January 1976 issue of the Brazilian zine Cogumelo Atomico, published in the small city of Brusque, Santa Catarina.

The collection also includes the occasional pamphlet, such as these on the conscientious objector options during the Vietnam War.

There is much Socialist, Marxist and Communist material, including this bit of North Korean propaganda. (Bonus points for apparently bearing a small blood stain.)

The collection seems to have a mixed provenance. Some items bear labels addressed to individuals in Washington, D.C., but there is also much else that is addressed to Liberation News Service, 160 Claremont Ave., New York, NY. The material dates to as late as 1975. With the eventual decline of the New Left movement after the end of the Vietnam War, LNS ceased operations around that time.

An interesting early edition of the hugely popular Our Bodies, Ourselves, printed on newsprint and bound with staples.

Unfortunately, the research value of the Bloom Ephemera Collection is compromised in its current random state. Undoubtedly it contains rich and fascinating documentation of the New Left and the myriad socio-political issues it encompasses, but any researchers seeking material on a specific topic within it would need to be very dogged in their pursuit!

From Sara Nodine, Head of Collection Development and Special Collection at the Allen Music Library here at Florida State University:

The Allen Music Library is thrilled to announce their first collection of sheet music available through the FSU Digital Library.  On April 25, 2014 the Confederate Sheet Music Collection was added to the digital repository with the intention of making valuable and fragile resources available for use not only on the campus of Florida State University, but also to the broader virtual community of scholars.

In 1987, the Warren D. Allen Music Library acquired a large collection of Confederate sheet music imprints.  The collection includes more than 300 items which comprise approximately 40% of all sheet music titles know to have been published in the Confederacy.  In addition to these imprints, there are other scores included in the collection that are related to the Confederacy.  These items are not considered imprints because they meet one or more criteria: published outside of the years of the war, published prior to secession, published in a city once under Union control, or by a Northern publisher.

There are several resources that discuss Confederate imprints in the library collections at FSU. Alumnus John G. Rivest’s “A Descriptive Bibliography of Confederate Sheet-music Imprints Held by The Florida State University” [Music Library – ML125.C6 R58 1990] describes the content of this collection in detail.  In addition, Frank W. Hoogerwerf’s Confederate Sheet Music Imprints [Music Library – ML125.C6 H66 1984] is a thorough catalog of all existing confederate sheet music imprints.

This project was made possible by a Student Technology Fee Grant from FSU, enabling the Music Library to purchase a high-quality scanner for the digitization process.  Additionally, the library was able to host an intern from the FSU School of Information who digitized the scores and provided the records needed to create an accessible collection.  I would like to thank Shanna Speer for her commitment to the project over the course of the semester.  We are excited to continue adding collections to the larger digital library and look forward to the collaboration that these resources will inspire.

If you missed the Whale Guitar unveiling and exhibition opening a week ago, you missed a great show.

After Jen Long and Rachel Rosenkrantz eloquently explained the motivation and process that led to the guitar, they officially unveiled it…

And then lots of people packed the balcony outside Special Collections…

… to hear performances by Area C (aka Erik Carlson), Reza Clifton, and Shannon Le Corre & Chris Carrera (of Bloodpheasant):

The performers signed the back of the guitar…

… and then it went in to the exhibition case…

… where you can see it until June 5th, as part of an exhibition on the guitar’s creation.

The exhibition is in the Level 3 hallway beside Special Collections. And stay tuned for more information about the June 5th closing celebration, which will feature more music.

I recently attended the Institute of Museum and Library Services’ public hearing on broadband access, hosted at the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library in Washington, DC. I was joined by colleagues from Federal agencies, universities, museums and libraries to examine the need for high speed broadband access in America’s libraries, and how this access is essential in meeting the educational, cultural, and information needs of all citizens.

As the leader of an agency dedicated to providing access to the permanent records of the federal government, I support this initiative to increase broadband access. Tom Wheeler, Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, spoke eloquently of his own experience in using archival records and the value of electronic access to those records.  Broadband access is the crucial piece in this equation; we need to ensure that our holdings and content can reach the eyes of many more people in order to truly make access happen.

Watch the full recording of the IMLS Public Hearing: “Libraries and Broadband: Urgency and Impact”: 

… [ Read all ]

Last year, we told you about Through the Lens: Building Vancouver’s History, two different shows featuring huge panoramic images from our holdings projected on the dome of the Star Theatre.

View of the C.N.R. Station under construction and the completed G.N.R. (Union) Station, March 1918. Reference code AM54-S4-3-: PAN N178

The Space Centre is bringing back these very popular history shows in May due to popular demand.  The first show is curated and presented by John Atkin and the second by Michael Kluckner.

More information is available here.