Archival Objects

Move on over to the new blog

2011-07-27T19:47:00.003-04:00

Well hello faithful readers and occasional spam guests! I have decided to abandon Blogger and adopt a more versatile WordPress blog that I can host directly from my own URL. Please direct your browsers to www.archivalobjects.com/blog for all new posts. Thanks!

Archival Objects store is up and running

2011-05-01T10:47:00.006-04:00

Help support your local archivist! The Archival Objects Cafe Press store is up and running. Just a few items to start with and more to come.

Look at me... I'm in the National Post

2011-02-22T12:43:00.003-05:00

Melissa Leong has produced an article about the shifting identity of the Church-Wellesley Village. The article appeared in print in the Saturday , February 19 edition, but you can also read it online here.

I'm quoted in the article, but my section is very brief. Trust me, I had way more to say....but I will be remembered in posterity as the person who said that the gays can shop anywhere they damn well feel like.

Missing from the article is our conversation about the disappearance of the Tranny Stroll, the push to move street involved youth off Yonge Street and further east, and the differences between gay and lesbian politics and evolving queer politics.

Anyway....

Looking back on 30 years of gay liberation: The 1981 bathhouse raids

2011-02-22T12:38:00.004-05:00

OK, I'm a little slow on the uptake. But Xtra! has put together an incredible collection of articles and clips related to the 1981 raids on Toronto bathhouses, an event that many claim sparked the gay liberation movement in Canada. Look here for the full article.

The collection also includes a link to the documentary Track Two about the gay village, prostitution and Toronto's Yonge-Church-Wellesley corridors. It's just over an hour and well worth the investment of time.

To Bentley, With Love

2011-02-12T11:00:00.002-05:00

Thanks to a tip from Laura Millar, I would like to recommend that you have a look at the EAD finding aids of the University of Michigan Bentley Historical Library. Just try to find them on you own (i.e. Google Bentley UMich and see if you can navigate to the finding aids on your own). I'm curious to hear whether or not you find the Bentley easily or with some difficulty.

If you have trouble locating them, look here: http://bentley.umich.edu/EAD/

What do you see? Do you like what you see? How are these finding aids different from those of the Toronto Archives?

Archival Photographs of the Bain Avenue Coop

2011-01-25T09:33:00.005-05:00

Just before I made the big, scary move to Hamilton, I lived at 100 Bain Avenue in Toronto. The Bain has quite the history! Humour me, if you will:

For those of you who are unfamiliar with this property, ‘the Bain’ is a cooperatively run townhouse complex that is both the pride and scourge of the upper middle class Riverdale neighbourhood. On one hand it is a gorgeous heritage property; on the other, the buldings are home to tenants from all walks of life (i.e., low income riff-raff, retired hippies, and young families who can’t afford to buy a home in the area). You can guess which category I might fall into. Originally called the Cottage Flats at Riverdale Courts, the 260-dwelling complex was built in 1913 by Toronto Housing Authority and was Canada’s first experiment in social housing. Each block of townhouses surround courtyards, providing as much green space as possible in such a densely populated complex. The architect, William James, also built the Spruce Courts apartments in Cabbagetown and the two are often mistaken for one another.

The property passed through several owners until the early 1970s when the last owner let the buildings fall into disrepair. In 1977, after an incredibly successful lobby by tenants, the property was converted into a cooperative housing project (i.e. it is now ‘owned’ by tenant members) with a mortgage granted by Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC). Today, the Bain Co-op is a vibrant, member managed co-operative. If you want to learn more about the Bain, look here and here.

Your mission: There are several stunning photographs of the Bain held at the City of Toronto Archives in the William James family fonds. I want you to find the digital surrogates of these photographs available online at the City of Toronto Archives website. Throughout your search, pay careful attention to the organization of the finding aid. Do descriptions comply with RAD? Are there any surprises? Any additional information not prescribed in RAD? How would a novice researcher navigate the finding aids to search for these photographs? Do you have to understand multi-level description to do research online? Can you actually find the photographs? How are they described?

The City of Toronto Archives website is here.

Try to find the William James family fond on your own first. If you need a little extra help, look here.

For those of you who want a challenge: how have archivists addressed the problem that the Spruce Courts and the Riverdale Courts are frequently mistaken for one another?

Broken Links and Broken Hearts

2011-01-15T09:06:00.009-05:00

Hi archivalobjects readers (psst, ya you). This term, I am working with Laura Millar as a teaching assistant for a course in arrangement & description. So, over the next three months I will be posting a ton of blog entries that will focus on A&D, finding aids, online collections, and descriptive standards. Yaay multi-level descriptions! Here is the first post below:

When considering a visit to an archives, most researchers will look for an institutional website to make sure that the archives holds relevant records. After all, archives are sometimes difficult to access or far away from home, so it is important to assess the value of a trip into the reference room before making that trek.

Many archives have excellent information available on their websites. They post institutional mandates, hours of operation, institutional histories, etc. Some will make available finding aids to give researchers an idea of the treasures they hold in their repositories. A few -- those blessed with project money -- will even offer digital scans of photographs or other material from their collection.

On the other hand, some archives simply do not have the human resources or technological capacity to build adequate websites. They might rely on free webspace, which can be unstable and offer little functionality, or they might use simple web design that can become easily outdated. Others choose to use blogs to promote their collections, but these do not usually offer opportunities for posting finding aids. Many community archives simply continue to rely on word-of-mouth and paper finding aids to provide access to their collections.

Recently, I was looking for information about the photographs collection at the Canadian Lesbian & Gay Archives (CLGA) and found myself in a hyperlink loop that kept taking me back to the same page on the website. When I finally got to a page that claimed to contain an index of photographs, the link was broken. Ack! Broken link broken heart! This was particularly frustrating because I know that the finding aids for this collection was made available on their website at one point and probably still exists in some sort of cyber junkyard, but who knows where... You can have a look for yourself here. Great information about the collection, but no multi-level finding aid.

So I ask you, is it better to provide this information and a broken link to a missing finding aid or just make a statement that the CLGA collects photographs and interested researchers can contact the archives for more information?

The ONE National Gay & Lesbian Archives, which has far more institutional support than the CLGA, has posted beautiful finding aids. Have a look here. Although the finding aids are not 'electronic' -- they are not embedded in the website or hyperlinked -- they are easily downloadable PDFs with rich and well organized descriptions. The website is designed so that a change in the finding aid only requires volunteers to update the one PDF file and not muck around with the html. Probably a good idea.

My mission for you, should you choose to accept it, is to have a look at a few archives websites and see what kind of finding aids they include. Are they embedded in the html? Are they downloadable PDFs? Do they exist at all? If finding aids are not available online, how might a researcher assess what the institution has in its collections? Is their adequate information available on the website? Or, does your favorite archives have a website at all?

Post your findings.... I'd be curious to know what you find out.

Next: we will take a closer look at online finding aids and consider how they are organized.

Launching queer@ischool Exhibit at the University of Toronto

2011-01-10T20:16:00.003-05:00

The queer@ischool exhibit celebrates the passion, dedication and chutzpah of LGBT and allied information professionals. The display will feature rescuer-historian James Fraser (long-time archivist at the CLGA), librarian and legendary pioneer Barbara Gittings, and radical cataloguer Sanford Berman. Please join us for the launch January 20, 2011 at 7:00 pm, followed by a pub night at The Central (603 Markham Street).

Details:

Where:
4th Floor Inforum, 140 St George Street
Faculty of Information, University of Toronto

When:
Thursday, January 20, 2011 @ 7:00 pm

Why:
Because LGBT librarians and archivists are awesome!

This event is sponsored by the Faculty of Information queer@ischool student group. For more information about queer@ischool, visit us on Facebook or email queer.ischool@gmail.com

Beyond the White Gloves

2010-10-03T12:00:00.004-04:00

Although I have rarely known archivists to sit on the cutting edge of fashion, we are apparently the inspiration for John Smedley Fall/Winter collection. A couple of quotes from the catalogue:

"The menswear personality for autumn 2010 is the archivist. A collector and lover of found objects, he treasures special things and the knitwear and clothing he chooses are part of his lifestyle. The texture, colour and feel of the fabrics are all-important to him, with attention to detail being the feature he enjoys."

"The striking men’s images are captured by Jamie Rowan and styled by Karen Russell, the two combining to give direction to the look and feel of the imagery and creating the perfect interpretation of the archivist. There is an English heritage feel, with a modern-dressed man."

If only archivists could afford this fine knitwear.... Download the full catalogue with stunning (and I mean stunning) photography here

Audio-Visual Material as Organizational Records

2010-09-24T20:52:00.005-04:00

When we think of organizational records, we usually think of paper, emails and legal contracts. We don’t often consider film and other A/V material that is created in the course of business. Radio and television stations, for instance, record their broadcasts not only as evidence of their business—the recording ‘fixes’ their work so that it may be protected under copyright and other intellectual property legislation, but also for their research value. In fact, many broadcasters rely on revenue generated from licensing their material as part of their business model. Even CBC makes a few dollars each year licensing clips to documentary filmmakers and other secondary users. It is my understanding that their most valuable footage is of the 1972 Hockey Summit Series between Russia and Canada.

Not all media companies, however, have been so careful about keeping their film or audio material. Canada’s British counterpart, the BBC, wiped (junked) a lot of their videotapes between 1967 and 1978 to make room for newer programmes. Unfortunately, the BBC had no central archives at the time and the engineers who junked the tapes were unaware that they included master video for several popular TV shows, including Doctor Who and the Avengers. Luckily, Doctor Who had such a fanatical following that many of the episodes had been recorded on home VHS recorders; BBC Enterprises recorded others onto 16mm for commercial exploitation abroad. The broadcaster put out an open call to the public seeking copies of the show and was able to recover most of the missing episodes; however, the quality will never match the lost masters. 108 Episodes remain missing to this day. You can read more about the missing BBC shows here.

I’m thinking about the importance of audio-visual records today for two reasons.

First, I finally sat down this week and watched the restored version of the Fritz Lang film Metropolis, which I somehow missed when it was released in theatres last year. The restored version included 20 minutes of film thought to be missing since the film’s original release in 1927. Paula Felix-Didier of the Museo del Cine in Buenos Aires, Argentina discovered the long-lost footage in her museum archives during a shelf read. You can listen to an interview with Felix-Didier on the NPR website here.

Then today, I caught an article in the Toronto Star about the recovery of 16mm reels of the 1960 Yankees-Pirates World Series games that had been stored in Bing Crosby’s longtime home near San Francisco. Crosby was a part owner of the Pirates from 1946 until his death in 1977. The current vice president of Bing Crosby Enterprises found the tapes recently when he was searching for reels and tapes of Crosby’s old TV specials. What makes this find so exciting is that the original footage of the games was destroyed by NBC and no other copies were known to exist. In addition, Crosby stored the footage in his wine cellar, which had perfect environmental conditions for preserving film. Yaay Bing! Now, the games have been transferred to DVD and will be made available for sale later this fall.

How do you know what to keep and what to tape over? Maybe NBC didn’t see the historical or commercial value of live baseball once the broadcast was finished? Would a records retention program have helped BBC avoid a glut of tapes in the library that forced them to junk master footage to make room for new shows? Maybe a proper indexing system would have prevented the loss of loaned reels of Metropolis for more than 70 years. And the $10,000 question: how do you preserve audio-visual material when formats change so frequently? I guess the first step is to recognize the importance of film and audio records for their evidence, information, and commercial value.

Bella Bella Beach bonfire

2010-09-20T15:15:00.005-04:00

I've stumbled across a shocking but true account of a records management nightmare known as the Bella Bella Beach bonfire incident. The event occurred prior to the introduction of Freedom of Information/Privacy legislation in Canada and is a perfect example of how NOT to protect sensitive health records.

It seems that in 1994, the administrator of a regional hospital near Bella Bella in British Columbia asked a maintenance worker to take eight boxes of health records to the beach and burn them. This was likely done in anticipation of the soon-to-be enacted access to information legislation that would have obliged the hospital to retain confidential health records for a certain period of time and allow limited access to these records. Better burn them now, thought the administrator, than have to arrange and describe them in the near future.

Well, the maintenance worker did as he was told and took the boxes down to the beach and lit them on fire; however, shortly after the spark was lit, the blaze attracted the attention of local authorities. Because open fires were not allowed at Bella Bella Beach, the fire department arrived and doused the flames. Some records were left on the beach and were carried out to sea, soon washing up on shore along the coast. According to a FIPA Bulletin published in Fall 1994, hospital workers were charged with salvaging the records lost in the bungled bonfire but many were lost. Those that were found contained medical histories, adoption information, and other sensitive documentation. Whoops!

The moral of the story? Iron Mountain shredding trucks are not cheap, but they are a much better alternative to bonfires on public beaches. At the end of your retention schedule, it is best not to attempt to light your records on fire.

The incident is referenced in a brief to BC Legislature in support of the upcoming FOI legislation due in that province at the time.

Ontario MPP wants medical records to belong to patient

2010-09-20T14:29:00.001-04:00

What happens to your medical records after your doctor retires? According to an Ontario MPP, many of his constituents are finding out the hard way that medical records are difficult to obtain once your doctor retires and many offices are charging a lot of money to make copies.

Under the current legislation, physicians (as health information custodians) are able to charge a small fee to make copies of records in order to recoup costs incurred. However, this can be anywhere from $5 to $10 a page, which can add up to a fortune if you are a frequent consumer of health services.

Former health minister David Caplan, Liberal MPP for East Don Valley is planning to introduce a private bill to ban any fees associated with getting your health records, and require informed consent about the specific way your personal data is to be used.

Should you own your own records? Have any of you had experiences with this situation?

Read more about the bill here.

Doing Queer Studies Now

2010-09-15T09:28:00.000-04:00

I will be presenting at the University of Michigan conference Doing Queer Studies Now, taking place in Ann Arbour October 21 to 23. The title of my presentation is "To Begin in the Archives: Positioning Queer Archives as Tactics of Pleasure." A summary of the paper is below:

Queer archivists have embarked on rescue missions to preserve documents otherwise lost and reclaim queer records from the sanitizing grip of public institutions. Ann Cvetkovich writes, “…in the absence of institutionalized documentation or in opposition to official histories, memory becomes a valuable historical resource, and ephemeral and personal collections of objects stand alongside the documents of the dominant culture in order to offer alternative modes of knowledge.” Imbued with a residue of collective memory, queer archival collections offer a material means to memorialize, investigate and cherish the passing of events beyond the actors who created these records. Brien Brothman describes this phenomenon as archival “afterglow”. Furthermore, queer archivists, mostly volunteers and amateur historians, offer expertise and personal experience to help researchers mediate between the records of the past and the here and now.

Drawing on the works of Heather Love, José Esteban Muñoz, and Svetlana Boym, this project aims to situate queer archives as tactics of pleasure. That is, these collections and the spaces that house them are not only tangible zones of contact for remembering and reparation, but also as places where queer people can imagine a shared heritage. I argue that the acts of collecting and caring for queer archives are pleasurable—for many, archival work is serious leisure. Public outreach and reference are equally important for helping to build a positive queer genealogy. As well, researchers can experience pleasure when uncovering records of the past. The juissance of touching the past and incorporating it into the present ensures the continuance of knowledge creation, making public our once hidden histories. Thus, queer records do not end in the archives, but begin in the archives.

Craigslist, erotic services & electronic records

2010-09-11T12:56:00.007-04:00

On September 8, 2010, CBC reported that the RCMP was working with administrators at Craigslist to shut down the adult services section of the site. The police fear that erotic ads are merely cover for prostitution and other sex trade services, which are against the law in Canada. The American version of Craigslist has already removed its adult services ads at the request of police.

This is an interesting story for folks in many different disciplines. Law enforcement officials believe these Craigslist ads facilitate illegal activities and want the ads censored or removed. Harm reduction advocates believe that taking down the ads will only force sex trade workers to go underground and use less safe avenues to solicit work. Owners of the ads believe that they should be allowed to continue posting because they pay for the services of Craigslist just like anyone else.

What does this have to do with RM? Glad you asked.

Last year, Craigslist began charging money for ads in its adult services section at the behest of US law enforcement. Why? Because Craigslist believed that it was a good way to create a 'paper trail' that could lead police to the owners of the ads in the event that any charges were laid. The only form of payment Craigslist allows is by credit card and hence, posters must submit their credit card information when they place an ad. The creation of this electronic record is actually a way for Craigslist to improve accountability. After all, it was an ad placed on Craigslist's adult services site that allowed American medical student/serial killer Philip Markoff to meet his victims. (Read more about that case here).

On a side note, I recently moved. While packing, I used old copies of Now, Eye, and Xtra! to wrap my dishes and other breakables. My mom had a good laugh when she was helping me unpack because essentially all of my mugs and vases were sheathed in ads for sex services, bear chat lines, and offers of erotic massages. Does the fact that these ads are printed on newspaper make them any less offensive to law enforcement? What is the difference between adult ads in the back of Eye Weekly and classifieds posted on Craigslist?

In my humble opinion, the harm reduction advocates have it right. As long as there have been johns, there have been prostitutes. Better to create a paper trail in the event that an encounter turns bad than send sex trade workers back to the corner of Jarvis and Gerrard.

Just sayin'.

Records in the clouds

2010-09-09T16:15:00.004-04:00

Here is an interesting interview with RM guru Samantha Lofton discussing the implications of cloud computing on records management strategies. I suspect that cloud computing will continue to gain momentum over the next few years and we will soon be storing our data in the ether. So, like, how do you document these bits and bytes?

Lofton asks:

"In a review of cloud storage as a method to reduce storage costs, organizations must also consider the Records & Information Management implications — how will they manage and control information in the cloud to ensure information security and privacy (including authenticating user access and identity in the cloud)? How will they administer and manage litigation holds, discovery requests, and retention and destruction requirements?"

As a follow-up to this, check out the Wired article that declares the Web is dead, long live the Internet. It seems that cloud computing is becoming more and more popular, while activities such as FTP, email and even surfing the Web have diminished over time.

As an aside, Prince has declared the Internet dead. See here.

I will put my money on Lofton and Wired.

Archivist calls out Beck on his 'truthiness'

2010-09-09T09:28:00.003-04:00

No, Mr. Beck, you may not manhandle George Washington's inaugural address.

As if Glenn Beck needs any more ridicule from media, the Huffington Post recently ran an article that described how the ultra-conservative radio host was caught in a white lie by a NARA archivist. Apparently, Beck claimed that he held George Washington's handwritten first Inaugural Address in his hands at the National Archives. Unfortunately for Beck, this fabrication was part of a speech that he gave at his own "Restoring Honor" rally.

A spokesperson for NARA stated that Beck did visit the Archives and was shown Washington's inaugural address, but did not hold it. "Those kinds of treasures are only handled by specially trained Archival staff."

Beck admitted Thursday that he stretched the truth because he "thought it would be a little easier."

Normally, I would support little white lies for the sake of a story, but in this case I have no sympathy for Beck or the restoration of his honor.

I Love the Archives on Vimeo

2010-08-20T16:12:00.000-04:00

I am quite aware that this blog has been dead for a while now. I hope to resuscitate it shortly, but for now, I give you this:

I Love the Archives on Vimeo

Hot Off the Presses.....the ACA Student Session Call

2009-11-05T20:46:00.001-05:00

Call for Student Proposals
Association of Canadian Archivists Conference 2010
New Ideas, New Voices: The Student Session
Halifax, NS – June 10-12, 2010

Are you an archival studies student with an idea that you want to share with the archival community? Are you researching a paper and would like to take it to the next stage? Are you honing your public speaking skills, and looking for ways to enhance your CV? The ACA 2010 Program Committee wants to hear from you!!

Proposals are now being accepted for the ACA Conference’s annual student session.

Submissions relating to the conference theme, “Standing on the Shoulders of Giants: The Next Generation of Canadian Archivists,” are encouraged, though proposals on other archival topics will also be considered. For more information about the conference theme, see the ACA conference website. All full-time students who are presently enrolled in or will graduate from a Canadian archival studies program in the 2009-10 academic year are eligible to apply.

The student session, “New Ideas, New Voices,” will be held on Thursday, June 10th, 2010 from 1:30 to 3:00 pm. Three student papers (15 to 20 minutes each) will be selected by the Program Committee, each by a student from a different institution.

Thanks to the Association of Canadian Archivists Foundation (ACAF), those selected participants who do not have full-time employment will receive a bursary which covers the cost of the registration fees as well as some assistance for the travel and accommodation expenses, through their schools. Students who meet the eligibility criteria (e.g. ACA member, Canadian, travel originating in Canada), may also apply for a travel subsidy through the ACA’s SSHRC travel fund, while the completed SSHRC travel form must be submitted directly to the ACA office.

Please include the following in your submission:

Your name, telephone number, postal address, and email address
Name and address of the school/program that you attend
Title and abstract of your paper (max. 250 words)
A one-sentence statement indicating your commitment to attend the 2010 ACA Conference and to deliver your paper in person if selected by the Committee

The deadline for submissions is January 25, 2010.

Defintion: Special Collections

2009-10-26T18:34:00.002-04:00

It’s definition time! Ever wondered what distinguishes a special collection from an archives? Well, you are about to find out:

In information science, a special collection is the name applied to a specific repository or department, usually within a library, which stores materials of a “special” nature, including rare books, archives, and collected manuscripts. Works kept in special collections (as opposed to the library's general collection) are typically stored there because they are unusually valuable, rare (possibly unique), or fragile, or because they should not, for some particular reason, be allowed to commingle with the library's other works.

Unlike an archives, a special collection may originate from more than one provenance and is collected (usually) because the materials share some kind of “aboutness”. For example, the E.J. Pratt Library is home to the Virginia Woolf Collection. This special collection consists of more than 3,000 items, including books by and about Virginia Woolf and other members of the Bloomsbury Group. The special collection is “about” Virginia Woolf, but was not created by her. On the other hand, California State University, Bakersfield is home to the Center for Virginia Woolf Studies, which owns an archives of Woolf’s resource notebooks for her seminal work, Three Guineas. This archives has a single provenance (Woolf) and is not “about” the author or her work. Rather, the author created the resource notebooks during the course of writing Three Guineas. Although researchers may use the archives to shed light on the thoughts and processes of Woolf as she wrote her book, they are by-products of her actions and not meant to be “about” her thoughts or processes. Clear as mud?

So, what about a queer archives? The Canadian Gay & Lesbian Archives (CLGA), for example, houses a rare book library, a vast collection of photographs, organizational records, and videos. The CLGA’s mandate is to collect and preserve material “about” LGBT experiences in Canada. Is this an archives or a special collection? Thoughts?

When the Historical Record is Neglected or Ignored

2009-09-28T14:17:00.003-04:00

Prime Minister Harper has unwittingly provided a great example of the danger of neglecting the historical record when making assumptions about the nation. According to Harper, as it appears in a recent article in the Calgary Herald, "we have no history of colonialism." Ummmmm?...

A few morsels from the article:

"Canada remains in a very special place in the world. . . . We are the one major developed country that no one thinks has any responsibility for this [economic] crisis. In fact, on the contrary, they look at our policies as a solution to the crisis. We're the one country in the room everybody would like to be."

"We're so self-effacing as Canadians that we sometimes forget the assets we do have that other people see. We are one of the most stable regimes in history. . . . We are unique in that regard."

"We also have no history of colonialism. So we have all of the things that many people admire about the great powers but none of the things that threaten or bother them."

I'm going to go out on a limb and suggest that the First Nations people of Canada might think differently about colonialism in the country. I will point readers to:

Collections Canada
NativeWeb
http://www.qub.ac.uk

etc......

Ontario Divisional Court rejects claim that electronic data is not a "record"

2009-09-23T10:08:00.003-04:00

Calling all 1330 students! If anyone is interested in a recent ruling that helps clarify the definition of "record" with regard to electronic information, I would like to direct you to the Information and Privacy Commissioner's (IPC) January 13th press release regarding the Toronto Police. Click here for the full release.

One interesting excerpt from the IPC press release:

The Star originally filed two freedom of information requests with the Toronto Police, seeking information from the police databases of arrests and occurrences, with personal identifiers removed, for its series of articles on racial profiling. When the Star was not able to obtain the information it sought, it filed an appeal with the IPC. The position taken by the police – that the information sought was not a “record” – was rejected by the IPC, which ordered the police to make a decision on access to the information.

The police then challenged the IPC Order and applied for judicial review to Ontario’s Divisional Court, which overturned the IPC’s Order, holding that the need to develop new software takes the request outside the statutory definition of “record.”

Good fodder for those upcoming papers!

How do they know my address???

2009-05-28T15:18:00.004-04:00

Yesterday, I received a brand new credit card in the mail. And I started to panic. I didn't remember applying for a credit card and I recently moved, yet the bank had my correct address? How? Why? Where did they find me? Seriously, how?

I phoned the credit card company and discovered that this new card was a replacement card for one that I've had since 1998. Really? Well, I did have a spending problem in University, so this didn't seem so far out there.... but I think I probably cut this card up about 10 years and almost as many addresses ago.

I was still baffled at how they found my new address so I asked the rep on the phone and he explained that they keep addresses for customers on file and they keep cards active even if the cardholder hasn't used the account in over ten years....as in my case. This still did not answer my questions, so I asked again:

RS: Yes, I understand that you keep the account active, but I don't even live in the same province as I used to when I originally held this card. How did you find my new address?
CC: You must have updated our records.
RS: No, I've had no communication with the bank.
CC: Hhmmm....well, do you have another type of bank account, such as a savings or chequing account?
RS: No, I just said that I've had no communication with the bank. I didn't even remember that I had this card.
CC: Well, that is interesting. Perhaps you have an account with one of our affiliated brands.
RS: (!!!???) You have affiliated brands?
CC:....er, yes. Well, oh I see that your card is now activated and everything is good to go. Is there anything else I can help you with?
RS: ah, no.
CC: Thanks for your business. Have a great day.

Anyone know anything about how a credit card company would have my most recent address on file even if I haven't communicated with them in over a decade? I should also mention that I have the type of address that doesn't fit nicely into any kind of form. It's a miracle that any mail gets to me at all, let alone a long-lost credit card that I forgot I owned. Oy!

The mysterious dissemination of my address information is quite unnerving.

Palin’s email hacker a cyber-modern Robin Hood?

2009-05-26T10:25:00.002-04:00

Remember last year when Sarah Palin was running for Vice President? I know, I’ve tried to block it from my mind as well, but she just keeps popping up in the news and reminding me that she almost became Second-in-Charge of the United States. (Oy!).

A few days ago, Wired ran a story about the Tennessee college student charged with hacking into Palin’s Yahoo account and sifting through her emails. The 20-year-old defendant David Kernell, and his lawyer are claiming that the young man did not violate Palin’s privacy because a judge had already declared the emails in this account to be public records. Apparently, it would be difficult for the prosecution to prove that privacy was violated if the records were public records....I'm not sure I believe this, but anyway...

So, if not a breach of privacy, then is this theft? Was Kernell stealing property from Palin by accessing her account and forwarding emails to his own account? There appears to be some controversy surrounding the notion that email constitutes property. Kernell's lawyer, Wade Davies, argues that email is not defined in law as a traditional property and therefore the charges of theft against his client are invalid.

I'm assuming that the charge of computer fraud will stick, but invasion of privacy and theft are still up in the air. Whatever the result, it will set an interesting precident for US law regarding email as public record and property.

Kernell’s trial is set for October 27 and he faces 18-24 months in prison and a fine between $4,000 and $40,000.

Boing Boing / Geist nail the the Conference Board of Canada to the wall

2009-05-25T15:05:00.002-04:00

Captain Copyright to the rescue, er, wait.... It's another collossal CopyFAIL!

Canadian think-tax spends tax dollars to plagiarize and regurgitate talking points from US entertainment lobby group

The Conference Board of Canada, a think-tank, took money from the province of Ontario to develop a paper on the "Digital Economy" and then copy-pasted most of the material in it from the International Intellectual Property Alliance (an American lobby group representing the music, film and software industries). Some of the material was plagiarized -- copied without attribution.

Read more here:
http://www.boingboing.net/2009/05/25/canadian-think-tax-s.html

and here:
http://www.michaelgeist.ca/content/view/4000/125/

and then take a look at the Copyright Board of Canada's "About Us" page:
http://www.conferenceboard.ca/about-cboc/default.aspx

The website states the following:
"Objective and non-partisan. We do not lobby for specific interests."

Not just a comedian…

2009-05-22T13:53:00.003-04:00

I should follow up that last post with a more serious summary of Graham Dominy’s talk at the Calgary ACA conference. Dominy’s morning plenary was entitled, “Anchoring archives in the cross-currents of the human rights debate.” Three of his main points stood out for me:

South Africa has one of the most progressive constitutions in the world, but it is extremely difficult to apply to his post-colonial society. That is, the constitution defines ideal governance, but does not provide any guidelines for how to make this happen. Dominy wonders how archivists can help?
In order to develop an archival heritage, archivists must help records creators understand the importance of record-keeping and develop systems that work for these creators. We must become “archival rescue rangers”. I assume that this is contrary to the type of archivist-activist who sneaks in and absconds with archival treasures before they are lost forever either by negligence or destruction. Instead, Dominy encouraged archivists to engage their communities and the communities of Others to ensure that a diverse and rich history is appropriately documented.
Dominy urged archivists to rethink appraisal for accountability and human rights. Archivists should undertake a comprehensive review and assessment of human rights and then develop a records program that seeks out and preserves the records necessary to uphold these human rights. This includes preserving records that document the social-historical processes that led to records creation.

See, Dominy is pretty serious about his work and not just a self-confessed A. archivarius.

Australopithecus archivarius

2009-05-22T11:45:00.008-04:00

“Australopithecus archivarius: When Foucault’s pendulum swings between Neanderthal and Cro-Magnon.” ~ Graham Dominy, National Archivist of South Africa

I hope Dr. Dominy will forgive me if I expand on his off-the-cuff humor just a little...

The species Australopithecus archivarius was first described in 2009 by Dr. Graham Dominy, the National Archivist of South Africa. A. archivarius remains are generally from three sites: the Dutch Manual, Jenkinson, and Schellenberg. The largest of these sites is Schellenberg, where remains of primary and secondary value have been discovered in vast quantities. One of the major problems with these sites is dating, but generally, A. archivarius remains can be safely placed from 1898 to present, with significant evolutionary leaps in 1922 and 1956.

The diagnostic features of the A. archivarius include:

Strong desire to keep records that have enduring informational and evidential value

Expanded knowledge of conservation and preservation techniques for various media types

Inflexible allegiance to the principle of respect des fonds and original order

Deep understanding of historical context and record-keeping practices

Reduced capacity to work with the general public

Weakly developed or absence of digitization or computer technology skills

Propensity for wearing white gloves

Presently, the number of A. archivarius is in decline while the species A. archivarius secondi (commonly known as archivists 2.0) appears to be increasing in population. The diagnostic features of A. archivarius secondi are still being investigated, but trends point to a greater interest in archival users and better understanding and appreciation of electronic records.

So, your are now a Master of Information Studies

2009-05-21T13:33:00.011-04:00

In honor of my fellow college chums who will be graduating in June, I've pulled a few of my favorite archival photos from the City of Toronto Archives.

On June 4, 2009, you will be taking part in a centuries-old ceremony:

Some of you will become librarians:

Some of you will become information systems professionals:

Some of you will become archivists; others records managers. What will I be doing? I will be hanging out with all of my friends:

Congratulations graduates!

Creation, erasure and silencing of historical records

2009-05-15T16:19:00.002-04:00

I'm sitting in an interesting session that addresses sexuality, gender and personal life in archives and public policy. I'll summarize the presentations briefly:

Lyle Dick, a historian with Parks Canada, presented on the importance of maintaining legal records in the case of the homosexual arrests and trials in Edmonton in 1942. He stressed that the legal documents have been largely destroyed by the RCMP and the police, but some still exist in Edmonton City Archives. The near complete erasure of records relating to these cases has served to silence the experiences of gay men living in the heterosexist and homophobic Canadian Prairies.

Jean Barman, a historian and professor emeritus at the University of British Columbia, presented an interesting talk on the hidden lives of mixed-race relationships in BC in the 19th and early 20th centuries. In particular, she looked at the experiences of métis children in the Vancouver area that have rarely been documented. She also argued that records that document the lives of métis people or mixed-race couples have been largely erased because they contain "dangerous knowledge"--that which counters the mainstream.

Elizabeth Jameson from the University of Calgary then presented several cases in which archival records have shed light on same-sex relationships in Post-War and Cold War North America. The women of whom Jameson spoke often performed self-censorship and destroyed many of their own records before they ended up in public repositories, but references to these records remain. Jameson, however, questions how sexuality is socially constructed because many of these women did not identify as lesbian and still others were assumed to be lesbian just because they were intimate with one another. She also wonders whether it is more important to maintain the privacy of these women or expose their intimate personal writings to bring more attention to the lives of lesbians in pre-Stonewall North America.

Is Reconciliation Possible?

2009-05-15T16:15:00.002-04:00

The theme of this year’s ACA conference is “Rights, Responsibilities, Trust: Archives and Public Affairs,” and the program is top-notch. Not surprisingly, there are several sessions that address the Truth and Reconciliation Commissions (TRCs) that seek to redress the crimes committed against First Nations children in residential schools. In fact, my first session of the day was a round table with four church archivists and lawyer from the University of Calgary who has been instrumental to the commissions work. Also at the table was Verne Harris, an activist-archivist who works with the Nelson Mandela Centre in South Africa. The goal of the discussion was to explore the experiences of researchers, archivists and lawyers in assisting the commission to obtain records to support residential school survivors.

Notably, Verne Harris presented four questions that archivists must ask before undertaking a truth-seeking exercise of such magnitude as the TRC.

1. What is the responsibility of archivists in problematizing the record?

Records do not always support the memories of those who they claim to document. In some cases, documentation might even contradict oral testimony. What role, if any, does the archivist have in reconciling memory with documentation? Should archivists question the authenticity or trustworthiness of the record? As Verne pointed out, the official record can help fill in details about the circumstance, dates, and actors, while oral testimony may provide the context, meaning, and impact of the event. It is also important to understand record-keeping practices to reveal potential gaps in the record.

2. What protocols should be put in place to incorporate records?

Most archivists would admit that it is impossible to consolidate the totality of all relevant records into one physical repository. As a result, it is imperative that archives and heritage institutions work collaboratively to create comprehensive inventories and finding aids to help researchers understand not only what records exist, but also where to access them. A comprehensive list of records will also enhance context for the records by bringing them together intellectually if not physically. To Verne’s words, I would add that this type of collaborative finding aid is possible with the advent of EAD and other digital finding aid standards.

3. What control mechanisms should be put in place to support long-term preservation?

In the case of records to support a TRC, preservation can refer to the process of safeguarding the physical records over time or it can mean the preparation of standardized and thorough descriptions of records to ensure that the evidential and informational value of the records persists over time even when the records are lost or returned to their ‘rightful’ owners. In the case of the residential schools TRC, an educational research centre will be established. How will archivists make sure that researchers have access to records at this centre? Will they be digitized? If so, how will they be digitized and by which standard? Who will describe these records and how? What kind of finding aid will be created?

4. What mechanisms should be put in place to secure access to the records?

With specific reference to the TRC process, Verne discussed the advantages and disadvantages of search and seizure, and the use and impact of subpoena. He explained that the South African TRC used search and seizure only once and were met with such controversial response by mainstream media that this power was never invoked again. On the other hand, researchers who can subpoena records must balance their authority with a desire to work with records collectors collaboratively. A subpoena can be an adversarial approach. Alternatively, TRCs that do not have the authority to subpoena or to undertake search and seizure risk having restricted access to the records. Records holders might consciously without records that they do not wish to be reviewed or might unconsciously prevent access by failing to provide a comprehensive and accurate inventory of their records or because they simply do not know what kind of information is in their holdings.

So, is reconciliation possible? Maybe. But, it's going to take a long time.... and a lot of work and assistance on behalf of archivists across the world. We not only hold the evidence, but we also shape how it is presented, preserved, and accessed. Archivists have a lot of power to either hinder or foster a TRC. I hope that we chose to do the latter.

ACA 2009: Cow Town

2009-05-14T12:18:00.000-04:00

According to wikipedia, Calgary is the fifth largest city in Canada and well known as a destination for ecotourism and winter sports. In fact, Calgary has been experiencing an explosion in popularity since the Olympic Winter Games were held in the city in 1988. With a strong economy, its proximity to the Rockies, and low taxes, Calgary seems to be the black hole of the Prairies, sucking in young professionals from Vancouver to Winnipeg. It is certainly an appealing place to explore.

But I would argue that Prairie folk* just don't really understand what it takes to develop a vibrant, culturally diverse urban environment.

Montreal: check.
Toronto: check.
Vancouver: check.
Ottawa: check.
Calgary: fail.

Despite the economic boom (or perhaps because of it), the city has become a bloated version of a small Prairie town. That is, the residential and commercial zones are completely separate to ensure maximum domestic privacy and promote car ownership. Houses are big and all look the same. The few remaining inner city post-War neighborhoods are less desirable than the outskirts. Downtown is a ghost town after 6:00 pm.

I think Malvina Reynolds would have a field day in North Calgary.

But, let's just leave this negativity alone for now. The hospitality of Calgary is pretty fantastic. You can't browse a store without entering into a casual chat with the clerk and you need not be concerned about being lost; someone is always around to give you directions. In fact, it's a great group of folks.

(Unless you are homeless and then you are rounded up a ticketed, but don't get me started on that...).

I'm looking forward to the ACA conference and will try to blog it up as the days unfold.

* It takes one to know one. I was born and raised in Saskatoon, Sask.

Word of the Day: Copyfraud

2009-04-03T14:12:00.003-04:00

Copyfraud [n]: a term coined by Jason Mazzone to describe the use of false claims of copyright to attempt to control works not under one's legal control. Copyfraud can include:

Claiming copyright ownership of public domain material.
Imposition by a copyright owner of restrictions beyond what the law allows.
Claiming copyright ownership on the basis of ownership of copies or archives.
Claiming copyright ownership by publishing a public domain work in a different medium.

Mazzone argues that copyfraud is usually successful because there are few and weak laws criminalizing false statements about copyrights and lax enforcement of such laws and because few people are competent enough to give legal advice on the copyright status of commandeered material. Interestingly, the US Copyright Act does not provide for any civil penalties for claiming copyrights on public domain materials, nor does the Act prescribe relief for individuals who refrain from copying or pay for copying permission to an entity that engages in copyfraud.

Calling all Queer Archivists!

2009-04-03T13:31:00.001-04:00

Where are you? Why are you not at the DigCCurr conference. I thought I spotted one of you, but I'm still unconvinced. I miss you. I need you to take me out on the town tonight.

Ooooh! Data Forensics!

2009-04-03T13:24:00.002-04:00

Remind me to never say anything dumb/naive/ignorant in front of Richard Cox. He will call you on it.

I'm sitting in a session called "Archives in the Wild" and a sadly misplaced computer guy has just given a presentation on the Use of Computer Forensics in the Digital Curation of Removable Media. I will refrain from commenting on the paper itself, but just note that it appears that 'computer guys' are about 10 years behind archivists and records managers in their thinking about appraisal and records preservation. And they still don't seem to understand the ethics or public policy aspect of their jobs. Go figure...

Richard Cox responded to the presentation by stating that the major issue in archives is not how to build technology to perform forensic retrieval, but developing public policy around when to perform forensic retrieval. For example, if NARA has the ability to retrieve Presidential Records, do they have an obligation to do so?

Alan Bell, also in the audience, commented that it might be pertinent for computer technologists to understand appraisal theory. He went on to reinforce the appraisal adage, just because you can preserve something, should you? Most hard drives, for example, contain bits and pieces of data, e.g. forms and transient records, that would not constitute an official record if they existed on paper. Do you preserve these bits and pieces?

I suspect that Computer Guy had not thought of appraisal theory before.

Acronym of the Day

2009-04-02T14:52:00.001-04:00

GLAM = Galleries, Libraries, Archives & Museums.

As in, "We are aiming for a GLAMorous digital curation curriculum."

My Archival Access Heart is a-Fluttering

2009-04-02T13:47:00.004-04:00

I'm sitting in the same room as Richard J. Cox and Elizabeth Yakel.

I'm attending a panel discussion that has brought together four instructors who are attempting to build a digital curation curriculum to be taught in archival studies programs across the (Western) world. Apparently, Michigan has started an "area of focus" in Information Preservation, which provides students with a solid theoretical background in digital curation, but also an opportunity to take on an internship in an organization where they can put this theory into practice. (Praxis?) According to Magia Krause, from the Michigan iSchool, this model of instruction is known as Cognitive Apprenticeship. Could this provide a solution for the Toronto iSchool's perpetual tension between theory and practice? Hhhmmm....

Distributed Custodial Archival Preservation Environments

2009-04-02T13:30:00.003-04:00

This is what I learned between the hours of 10:30 am and 12:00 noon, post-coffee/hard-boiled egg & hot sauce breakfast (!).

DCAPE is the acronym for the Distributed Custodial Archival Preservation Environments, a project spearheaded by the University of North Carolina (UNC) at the Renaissance Computing Institute (RENCI). According to the DCAPE website, the goal of the project is to build a distributed production preservation environment that meets the needs of archival repositories for trusted archival preservation services.

Huh?

Well, basically this means that archives are finally starting to admit that they will never, ever be able to secure enough funding to build their own indigenous infrastructure for digital preservation and have looked to collaborative efforts as a feasible alternative. Kind of like a universal library, each archival repository would be able to use the technical infrastructure of a custodial archival preservation environment and adapt it to suit their own rule-based preservation policies. In theory, a collaborative, normative environment makes digital preservation storage easier to update and maintain. Not so easy to develop. But work is being done: right now there are 9 US institutions participating in the partnership, including Tufts, Getty, and UNC.

Hopefully, these partners don't meet over drinks in the bar. They have some serious work to do. Ask me about this comment off-line.

Conference bloat

2009-04-02T11:20:00.001-04:00

And by "conference bloat", I am not referring to an over-provision of sessions, but the particular shape that my body takes on during conference proceedings.

The best food I ate yesterday: three Chipotle Grill soft tacos with organic shredded beef and green tomatillo salsa.

The worst food I ate yesterday: one fist-sized biscuit rolled in sugar and filled with peach cobbler-like jam.

Number of alcoholic beverages: 4: 1 lime & lager at Chipotle Grill, 2 glasses of white wine at the opening reception, 1 Sam Adams at the Ax-Snet meeting.

Hours of sleep: 7!!

Awkward conversation #2

2009-04-01T22:44:00.001-04:00

The follow conversation actually occurred about 4 hours ago at the opening reception for the DigCCurr conference:

WD: So, Rebecka, I’d like to introduce you to RJC.
RS: [shaking hands with RJC] Hi, nice to meet you.
WD: Rebecka is entering into our PhD program at Toronto.
RJC: Oh, well, I will write your name down in my prayer book then.
RS: [awkward laughter]
WD: I’m also trying to convince her to do a PhD in access.
RJC: Does she know that yet?
RS: .....

What do you mean you have a dedicated computer station in every classroom?

2009-04-01T15:53:00.002-04:00

It's official: the Toronto iSchool lags behind just about every other university and college in available technology in the classroom. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if we rank the lowest on the technology scale.

This morning, I sat in on an archives access & advocacy class at UNC, taught by Helen Tibbo. The first thing that I noticed was that the class was held in a building that was certainly several decades older that the Toronto iSchool's Bissell Bulding home. And yet....and yet....the classroom that I was in came fully stocked with functioning electrical outlets so that students can use laptops, a working projection screen, and a dedicated computer station at the front of the classroom. Helen only had to log in to the computer with her UNC ID to immediately access the Interweb and/or her personal space on the faculty server, and this was automatically projected on to the screen. You could even adjust the lighting in the room to improve sight! I know, this sounds like crazy talk. But how many times have we UofT students sat in room 319 in the Bissell building while one of our beleaguered IT techs fix technical errors caused by "excessive fiddling"? I once sat through a presentation (with almost 40 other students) during which the presenter passed around her own laptop displaying her Powerpoint presentation because the projector in the classroom wouldn't work.

* Side note for clarification: I don't think the iSchool's problems stem from a dearth of talented Information Services folks. We've got plenty of talent in IT. It's a systemic problem that needs to be addressed by the entire faculty. Cause: unknown.

OK, but enough bitching...

No, wait, one more thing for those who believe that children are important members of the archives/libraries/museums/cultural heritage world. UNC has a huge (!) collection of children's books in their faculty library and they even invite kids in to read them. I know, revolutionary! They can sit in little egg-shaped chairs and chat with librarians about what they are reading and how they found their books. It's like ethnography by proxy.

I would encourage anyone interested in building or working with digital repositories to check them out. The school website is here.

Anyway, UNC's School of Information and Library Science kind of rocks. Hands down. Too bad they only have a couple of archives courses. More are promised, I'm told. And they certainly have the urge to build a digital curation curriculum.

Why is the Music Here So Good?

2009-04-01T00:01:00.002-04:00

Shocked and pleasantly surprised. Tonight I was entertained by the following playlist in a random bar on Franklin:

Nick Cave
Morrissey
Ladytron
Peaches...yes, Peaches!
Blond Redhead
Tegan and Sarah...yes, Tegan and Sarah!

Who knew North Cackalacky had such great tunes. Tomorrow, my plans are to explore the library school and the Belgian beer bar.

Oh the People I Shall Meet

2009-03-31T16:22:00.002-04:00

Just met Ian Anderson from HATII in Glasgow. Check out his faculty URL here. Ian is the father of two-year-old triplets. He also looks like he is 30, but has been a prof since 2000 and now supervises 4 PhD students. What?! Am I too old to start this whole journey? Please say "no".

Also met this guy. His name is Kevin Anderson and he is Head of Digital Archives Department, University of London Computer Centre. He seems to know a lot about the Carolinian forest.

I am soon to meet Marc Fresko, the Director and founder of Inforesight, a specialist Information Management (IM) consultancy in the UK. This dude and his team of geniuses invented MoReq2, the European standard for electronic records management.

So far the day is shaping up to be quite nerdtastic.

Man in the Suit

2009-03-31T14:10:00.001-04:00

I forgot to mention in the last post that I sat across the aisle from a nice elderly Southern gentleman wearing a three-piece black-and-white herringbone suite with a bow tie.

Off to North Carolina for DigCCurr

2009-03-31T13:43:00.004-04:00

It’s been a long while since I’ve had a free minute to blog, but as it is, I am stuck in the Raleigh-Durham Airport in North Carolina for 2 hours or until rescued by a fellow grad student. So, I guess you could say that I have some time to kill.

First, I should say that I’m in North Carolina to attend the DigCCurr (Dig-SEE-ker) conference. This is the second annual digital curation curriculum symposium hosted by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. According to the conference website, the primary goals of DigCCurr are to develop a graduate-level curricular framework, course modules, and experiential components to prepare students for digital curation in various environments. Neat stuff. You can find our more about DigCCurr and its program here.

My journey to DigCCurr began at 6:00 am this morning in Toronto. Navigating a ten minute walk to the streetcar, a transfer to the subway, and a TTC shuttle bus to Pearson International Airport, I finally checked my bag at about 8:40. But not before this conversation occurred between yours truly and a surly customs officer (CO) at the US Homeland Security Pre-Clearance counter:

CO: What will you be doing in Raleigh?
Me: Actually, I’m attending a conference in Chapel Hill.
CO: What kind of conference?
Me: It’s a professional conference for archivists.
CO: [with raised eyebrow] Where do you work?
Me: I’m a graduate student at the University of Toronto.
CO: [still with raised eyebrow] But you attending a conference?
Me: Yes. I’m traveling with one of my professors.
CO: [looks around; does not see professor]
Me: Oh, she is traveling later today. We’re not flying together.
CO: So, you are the only one going to this conference?
Me: Er, do you mean from the university or in general?
CO: No one else is going to this [struggles to remember word] ar-chii-vist conference?
Me: Well….I’m the only student from the University of Toronto who is attending.
CO: So, no one else is interested in attending this conference?
Me: Um, I guess not…
CO: Is this a specialized field?
Me: You could say that. I guess you've not had too many archivists through this line-up? [struggling very hard to get a smile and/or laugh and/or pleasantry]
CO: No.
Me: …
CO: So why are you traveling with your professor? [looks around at line of people standing behind me] Where is he again?
Me: She is traveling later today on a different flight.
CO: But you said that you were a student? Why do you need to go to a conference if you are a student?
Me: Ah, to learn… stuff…
CO: OK. [passes back passport and boarding pass]
Me: Um, thanks. Bye.
CO: [loudly] Next!

After this fiasco of an interaction, I stumbled my way to the gate and soon found myself on the best airplane flight I have experienced since….oh, I don’t know, the age of eight (trip to Hawaii, received my own set of wings). Lots of leg room, no stranger sitting beside me, and free organic cranberry cookies. I’m now convinced that Air Canada has put all of their most awesome jets on the Toronto-New York trip. Best part, though: we did a full circle of Manhattan before landing at Laguardia. I got to see the Empire State Building and an itty bitty Lady Justice in the harbour.

Random observation: La Guardia is a hole! Am I the last to discover this atrocity? I ran, and I mean ran, from one confusing terminal to the next to catch my transfer to North Carolina. On the way I managed to spend US$3 on a cup of organic vanilla yogurt and use a nasty-smelling loo. On the plane, I was surprised to find that this was the best yogurt ever until I read the nutritional facts and learn that the reason for its unbelievable goodness was its 10% fat and 24g of sugar. Oy!

Now, I am perched on a chair in the Raleigh-Durham Airport (see above) and waiting for my ride. I wonder where the rest of this journey will take me?

Holy Olive Oyl! I'm out of copyright!

2009-01-16T22:55:00.000-05:00

Excuse me Mr. President, can I search your computer?

2009-01-15T22:32:00.000-05:00

On the heels of Canada's own recent court decisions involving electronic records (see below), a U.S. Federal District Court judge has ruled that White House employees must allow their computers to be searched for public records prior to vacating their positions next week in the presidential shift. And what seems to be the matter? Well, the New York Times explains, investigators are still looking for emails related to a privacy breach that occurred more than 3 years ago. Michael Falcone writes:

"That trove of e-mail messages, dated from March 2003 to October 2005, has been the subject of continuing litigation by groups seeking to preserve the electronic communications of White House officials during a period that encompassed the beginning of the war in Iraq and a federal inquiry into the leak of the identity of Valerie Wilson, the former C.I.A. officer."

Blah blah blah. What's most interesting about this decision is not the decision itself but the strong words used by Magistrate Judge John M. Facciola, who chastised White House staff for not preserving the emails in the first place.

“You rolled the dice that you’d win,” Judge Facciola told the lawyers, “and you lost.”

I wonder if the CFIA, who is currently scrambling to respond to a massive Freedom of Information request regarding last summer's icky listeriosis outbreak, has anything to learn from this. The key here is PRE-emptive records management as opposed to Oh-Crap-They-FOI'ed us records management. We trust these folks to manage a pandemic and they can't even manage their information related to a state-wide outbreak with a clearly identifiable source? Oy.

Toronto police ordered to release e-records

2009-01-14T15:04:00.000-05:00

It's -22C here today and so I wimped out and took the subway to school, which led to my surreptitious discovery of an article in today's Metro newspaper, a free daily available at most train stations.

According to the article (originating with Toronto News Services), the Ontario Court of Appeal has ruled in a unanimous decision that municipal government institutions must produce electronic documents in a Freedom of Information (FOI) request even if the task requires considerable effort and technological expertise. Wow. Imagine those city workers scurrying today to develop records management policies!

The court also ordered that the Toronto Police Services Board must respond "immediately" to requests from a Toronto Star reporter for information stored in two electronic databases. The requests, made formal for the first time in 2003 by Jim Rankin, seek information about the sanctioned use of racial profiling by Toronto police officers. Police initially refused the request, stating that it would be too time-consuming to produce such documents and would also require the use of a special computer program to redact personal information contained in the records.

The courts, however, don't care.

I guess if anyone is looking for a job in records management, one might be coming available with the cops!?

1911 Census causes a revolt

2009-01-14T12:06:00.001-05:00

The friendly folks at the UK National Archives have entered into a digitization agreement with FindMyPast.com, a fee-for-use ancestry web service. Recently, FindMyPast launched a new website that features searchable census records obtained and digitized with permission from the National Archives. Although no one is denying that such a service will be a boon for researchers and genealogists alike, many have criticized the National Archives for allowing FindMyPast to charge for access to census records that are, in fact, a public record and were originally paid for with public coffers.

BoingBoing recently caught wind of this uproar and posted a fairly good synopsis of the criticism that the Archives has received thus far. None of these issues are novel: pressured to digitize their materials and sorely lacking in funds, many archives have entered into agreements with corporations who profit from posting archival records online. Citizens complain when they are asked to pay money for access to these materials when they discover that they are public records paid for by tax dollars. Of course, the original records are still available for consultation in the reference room of the archives. Everyone expects that archives will digitize their collections--isn't this part of your mandate?--but don't realize the heavy costs involved with doing so.

And if digitization costs money, who pays? Either a corporation or the public. Is is better to charge only users of the records for access (e.g. fee-for-use commercial enterprises) or take money from the public to make them accessible to all for free (e.g. archival institutions)? It's not an easy question to answer...

However, if democracy relies on the transparency of government and freedom of information, then the answer must be that the public implicitly agrees that money should be allocated to making these documents accessible to all. Right?

Try selling this argument to a public steeped in economic downturn and faced with more urgent spending issues, such as health care and education.

Karen Coyle sticks it to Google

2009-01-11T21:21:00.001-05:00

My favorite digital librarian, California-based consultant Karen Coyle, manages a fantastic blog called InFormation. Although she posts infrequently, when they go up, they go up with a bang. Thoughtful, engaging and well-written commentary on topics ranging from cataloging standards to intellectual freedom.

Coyle's most recent blog outlines the nagging fear that we all have about Google's encroachment on the role of the library to preserve, protect, and make available the written word as a vitally important public good. In particular, Coyle is concerned about Google's rush to scan books of all shapes and sizes, and make them available online. At first, this seems like corporate philanthropy or, at the very least, a display of social responsibility; however, things are a bit disconcerting under the surface. As Coyle explains, Google's monopoly on e-versions of books is akin to a massive privatization of library resources.

Some may shake off Coyle's thoughts as paranoia; after all, books aren't going anywhere and we all benefit from e-versions, right? And, because libraries can't afford to digitize, they have turned to the corporate world for help. It's a fair trade, right?

Coyle challenges Google to maintain the same high standards set by librarians that have facilitated access to information for many generations.

Read Karen Coyle's full entry here.

Copyright hits the news early this year

2009-01-06T20:24:00.000-05:00

Already three stories of note have been bubbling up through the lines over the past week.

The first is a story profiled by Question Copyright on January 3 about animator Nina Paley, who recently earned critical acclaim for her film Sita Sings the Blues. According to Paley, she was inspired to make her feature-length film after hearing several songs recorded by Annette Hanshaw in the late 1920s. The film is crafted around several of these songs. Herein lies the copyright crux. The recordings are now in the public domain; however, the compositions are still owned by a music licensing company. Unfortunately, this licensing company is requesting a fee of $50,000 for the use of the songs in the film. As Paley explains in an interview with Question Copyright, she has no means to pay this fee and has been forced to shelf her film despite its successful showings at several global festival.

The second story, posted on BoingBoing, reports that a Harvard law professor Charlie Nesson filed a motion to force the courts to broadcast online the proceedings of two cases being heard by the U.S. District Court in Massachusetts. These cases involve college students who have been named in copyright infringement suits by the the RIAA. The professor has argued that Internet streaming video will improve transparency in the court proceedings and help the public better understand how and why copyright was infringed by the students named in the cases. Interesting... I wish I was a Harvard law prof. Man, I could kick butt.

Finally, a Norwegian public broadcaster has been forced to yank all of its mp3 recordings of old radio programs called "Our daily Beatles", which featured copyright protected music. The broadcaster had obtained licenses for the tunes from a licensing agency; however, it was recently informed that this license only allows posting for four weeks after original air date. Because all shows were aired in 2007, they are no longer allowed online. Bah! Check out the full story here. Hasn't the success of CBC Radio 3 podcasts taught us anything? Get it out there, post it up, share it, and people will come. Really, I promise.

So, yeah, copyright is starting the year off with a bang. Now, we wait until Parliament is in session and see if Harper pursues a Canadian DMCA.

I'm inclined to follow Corey Doctorow's philosophy that copyright is a license from the public domain to the creator to acknowledge creative work and allow the creator to earn a living. At what point will we no longer be able to create without money to provision 'creative supplies'? Downloading Lady GaGa is one thing, but creating new works, derivative works is a whole other can of worms. I wonder if Bob Dylan would have earned his fame if he ha to license every damn folk song he ever stole snippets from?

Bush's Digital Dark Age

2009-01-04T13:53:00.000-05:00

Surprise surprise. The NY Times has reported that there are some major gaps in the public records documenting the Bush administration's time in office. The editorial, titled "Exit, Stonewalling" states:

True to its mania for secrecy, the Bush administration is leaving behind vast gaps in the most sensitive White House e-mail records, and with lawyers and public interest groups in hot pursuit of information that deserves to be part of the permanent historical record.

2008 in Cities

2009-01-02T07:18:00.000-05:00

Interesting concept from Jason Kottke who’s listing all the cities he’s been to in 2008. My list (not counting places I just drove through or switched planes in) with asterixes for places I’d never been before:

London, ON.
St. Catharine's, ON.
Kitchener/Waterloo, ON.
Toronto, ON.
Scarborough, ON.
Niagara-on-the-Lake, ON.
Montreal, QC. *
Fredericton, NB. *

Let's just say that I was a little bit caught up with school in 2008.

Now, if you had asked me to do the same in 2007:

Den Pasar, Bali, Indonesia. *
Hong Kong, China. *
Macao, China. *
Seoul, South Korea.
Busan, South Korea.
Osaka, Japan.
Vancouver, BC.
Drumheller, AB.
Saskatoon, SK.
Niagara-on-the-Lake, ON.
Toronto, ON.
Burlington, ON.

NY Docs Participating in Public Health Surveillance

2008-12-30T07:28:00.000-05:00

But they are not exactly calling it that...

The NY Times reported today that a group of primary care physicians in NY City are turning to electronic record-keeping to help the city monitor the spread of infectious diseases, e.g. Legionnaires, and keep an eye on public health, e.g. obesity rates and high blood pressure. Personal health records will be made available to patients online in an effort to maintain transparency and encourage active participation in one's own health.

Online interactive access to personal health records is not a novel idea; Google has been promoting its Google Health beta for a few months now and several other companies have developed e-health record systems that promote patient use. However, the NY docs may have developed something that will stand the test of time, or at least the test of medical record-keeping standards. New York City has invested $60 million into the new e-health record system, which was initially put to use during an outbreak of Legionnaire's disease last summer.

Unfortunately, the NY Times article does not investigate the system's management of patient privacy nor the exchange of funds between physicians who use the system and the city. The system is also a not-so-secret incentive for docs to provide better care for their patients. For example, a physician will receive a maximum $20,000 bonus payments for 'hitting targets' such as mitigating patient risks to high blood pressure or reducing cholesterol.

There is something about the U.S. medical industry that just makes me shudder.

Anyway, the good news is that the NY system seems to be popular among physicians and the city health department has reported high usage rates. Could this finally be the beginning of e-health record-keeping that meets e-health standards?

I won't hold my breath.

2008-12-27T19:27:00.000-05:00

Stolen Christmas Cake Exposes Data Theft

2008-12-27T19:14:00.000-05:00

CBC reported today on the unfortunate theft of a Stollen chocolate cake by two couriers in Germany. In an effort to cover up their crime, they decided to mail another package to their client. And this is where it all turned ugly. The replacement package actually contained microfilm containing sensitive bank data, such as credit card and account information. Oops!

The thieves claim that they did not know what was in the second package. The data remained secure. No word on the cake.

Will George Bush's email crash the National Archives?

2008-12-27T17:20:00.000-05:00

According to the New York Times, the U.S. National Archives are concerned that the amount of digital records created during George Bush's presidency will overwhelm the Institution's new $144 million IT infrastructure. This is assuming that Bush hands over all public records on January 20th as he is required to do under the law.

From the Times:
The National Archives has put into effect an emergency plan to handle electronic records from the Bush White House amid growing doubts about whether its new $144 million computer system can cope with the vast quantities of digital data it will receive when President Bush leaves office on Jan. 20.

Blog encourages swindlers, liars, and cussers to switch to IM

2008-12-22T07:41:00.000-05:00

What has the scandal surrounding Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich and his FIB wiretapped phone calls taught us? It's time to adopt Web 2.0 technology and switch to IM! Apparently, the Men in Black haven't caught up to speed yet on managing to capture text vis-a-vis instant messaging systems and IP companies are not too cooperative in providing their back-up tapes. What does this mean? The next time you try to sell off a political seat or discuss your sexual exploits, try put down the phone and launch GTalk. It's the safer way...

More on this hilarious subject can be found on the 236 blog here.

For the Love of Google Knols

2008-12-04T10:40:00.000-05:00

Did you know that Google has a great new tool in beta? It's called Knol and I'm quickly falling in techo-lust.

According to Google's website, a knol is, "an authoritative article about a specific topic." Users may post a knol, invite others to collaborate, edit or comment, and ultimately, share their knowledge with the World Wide Web. Click here for an example.

My favorite aspect of a knol is that it allows other experts to supply feedback to authors and initiate a dialogue. This is particularly helpful in disciplines such as knowledge management, information management, and records management. It also helps professionals become boundary spanners, who can share information with others in their profession and contribute to a growing body of literature.

Peer review takes on a completely new definition.

Bailout docs redacted

2008-10-24T00:45:00.001-04:00

http://www.propublica.org/article/why-are-docs-from-the-bailout-being-redacted-1022/

Librarian fined $500

2008-10-24T00:37:00.000-04:00

Laziest post ever.

http://www.boingboing.net/2008/10/23/librarian-fined-500.html

2008-10-10T21:57:00.001-04:00

Found this here on blog called Crappy Graphs. Swoon.

Palin's abuse of power exposed in Yahoo email accounts

2008-10-10T21:39:00.000-04:00

Thanks Boing Boing for the best illustration I've seen today. (Above).

The New York Times reported today that a chief investigator has found that Sarah Palin abused her power as the Governor of Alaska by attempting to have her former brother-in-law fired from his job as a state trooper. Ho-hum.

What's really interesting to all of you RM folks out there is that a judge ordered Ms. Palin to preserve her private email messages in her Yahoo personal account as evidence of her activities as governor. Now, if Palin was trying to cover up dirty deeds by sending them through a personal email account rather than across the appropriate communication channels, she failed miserably. Unfortunately, I think it's just that, like many in this email-glut world, Palin made no distinction between her personal affairs and her role as a civil servant. Sigh. Convenience over security.

This explains why a Tennessee student, David Kernell, was able to hack into Palin's Yahoo account by guessing her password based on personal information about the governor that was widely available in the mass media. Kernell changed the password on Palin's account and blocked her access to her own communications materials. There is a full article on Kernell and the Palin Problem in Wired. Read here.

Drool-inducing private library

2008-10-08T21:00:00.000-04:00

Yup, Gerstein's got nothing on this. Wired Magazine has just published an article, complete with glamour shots, about Jay Walker's library. Walker, who lives in New England, has created the "Disney World" of libraries, a three-story 3,600 square feet room. Featured in Walker's custom-designed, Escher-like library:

An original Sputnik 1 satellite, a model of NASA's experimental X-29 jet,
An early-19th-century medical masterwork by the Italian illustrator Paolo Mascagni,
The Nazis' supposedly unbreakable Enigma code machine, and
The original "Thing" hand from the TV show The Addams Family, signed by the cast.

Oh, it looks like several thousand rare and special edition books, including a Kelmscott edition of Chaucer and the 1535 Coverdale Bible (the first completely translated into modern English).

I think Walker wins for the Sickest Collection of Curios. Too bad it's a private library and not open to the public. What a shame to collect all of these interesting things and never share it with anyone!

I'm a Hacker, not a Cracker!

2008-09-29T13:10:00.000-04:00

One of the most uproariously hilarious tasks that I undertook while working for a publisher in Korea was being put in charge of an English translation of a legal document. Full disclosure: I am not a lawyer. the document was the company’s response to a complaint that they had violated international intellectual property laws. Seeing that the books often contained text directly lifted from Wikipedia and other online sources, the fact that we were getting caught wasn’t a shocker. What was interesting, though, was the fact that the complaint was a domain name dispute and had nothing at all to do with the content of our books.

Wow, did that make sense? In a nutshell, our company’s name was Hackers and we specialized in preparing Korean students to write the TOEFL and TOEIC, two exams that evaluate English language proficiency. The terms TOEFL and TOEIC, however, are trademarks of the Educational Testing Service (ETS), and Hackers had neglected to seek permission to use the trademarks in our domain names, www.hackerstoefl.com and www.hackerstoeic.com. The major component to ETS’s complaint was that they did not want their trademarks associated with the word ‘hackers’, as it was a pejoratives term and violated certain fair business laws in the International Domain Name Registration.

This part of the complaint astounded the bigwigs at Hackers because they did not actually realize that there were any negative connotations attached to the term at all. In fact, written right in the company mandate was something to the effect of, “we are hackers, not crackers…” Uh-huh. So, somehow had to show that the term (‘hackers’) was not actually pejorative and that it was chosen specifically for the name of the company because, when translated into Korean, the word actually referred to the dissemination of knowledge for the benefit of others. Think Robin Hood. ‘Crackers’, on the other hand, are deviants who steal code. Huh? Anyway, this is what I came up with and a few weeks later, the verdict was returned in our favor.

I apologize in advance for the lack of reference. In Korea, you rarely cite anything…

The etymology of Hackers

The noun ‘hack’ was first used in the early 18th century to mean a person who was hired to perform routine work. It is a shortened version of the word ‘hackney,’ meaning an average horse that was employed as a Beast of Burden, pulling carts, etc. In contemporary usage, the word ‘hack’ can refer to someone who performs dull, unimaginative, and meaningless work in exchange for money, i.e. a hack writer. Over time, however, other meanings of the word ‘hack’ have emerged.

Notably, in 1976, an MIT student reputedly coined the term ‘hacker’ to refer to a computer enthusiast who ‘works like a hack’ (meaning, this person performed banal tasks to experiment with computer programming or technology). For roughly a decade, the term ‘hacker’ conveyed positive connotations.

In 1983, the Government of Canada passed a piece of legislature called Bill C-667, an Act to amend the Criminal Code and the Canada Evidence Act. This bill recognized data stored on a computerized retrieval system as property under Canadian Law. Thus, anyone who gained access to this data (information) without authorization was committing a crime against the owner of the information. In 1984, the term ‘hacker’ was amended to describe a person who illegally gained access to a computer system and/or retrieved data without prior consent.

Since this time, the term ‘hacker’ has taken on a pejorative connotation because it implies that the person to which it refers is a criminal or attempts to commit a crime by ‘breaking into’ computers.

However, some scholars have begun referring to the general desire to share and disseminate information as ‘hacker culture’ and those who desire to do so as having a ‘hacker ethic.’ This does not imply that the participants wish to commit a crime. Thus, the term ‘hacker’ has achieved a new meaning in contemporary English: one who freely shares information with others and performs tasks necessary to do so.

Ultimately, the meaning of the noun ‘hacker’ may be deemed negative or positive based on the context of its use.

The etymology of Crackers

Presumably, the origins of the noun ‘cracker,’ meaning one who hacks his way into a system in order to cause damage or steal data, passwords is based on the verb ‘to crack,’ meaning, to decipher a code. (In a superficial search of the Internet, I did not find any conclusive etymological evidence). During WWII, these code breakers were perceived as heroes because they obtained important information that helped their militaries determine the positions and intent of enemy forces. In contemporary English, ‘the code’ can refer to a serial number that must be entered into software before access is granted to the user.

Various definitions of ‘cracker’ exist on numerous websites, including:

‘A person who deliberately cracks a computer security system to steal or vandalize data-to describe the subset of hackers who apply their computing skills maliciously.’

‘A person who uses various techniques on computer software to defeat copy protection, or to add features such as game cheats.’

‘Someone who hacks his way into a system in order to cause damage or steal data, passwords etc.’

Ultimately, ‘cracker’ appears to be predominantly a pejorative term. I would suggest that this is because it is less common in contemporary English than its counterpart, ‘hacker,’ which has been adapted into a more positive meaning over time.

586 peeks into the life of Marylin Monroe

2008-09-17T13:39:00.000-04:00

According to a recent Vanity Fair article, Marylin Monroe was encouraged by Frank Sinatra to keep a personal archive of ephemera, news clippings and other keepsakes. This archive, stored in two locked filing cabinets, was left with her business manager, Inez Melson, upon her death. Stored in relative secrecy for more than forty years, the contents of these two cabinets has finally been documented by photographer Mark Anderson.

The 586 items, including telegrams, fan mail, jewels and clothes, has been photographed and catalogued in a new book by Anderson. Read more about the archive here and more about Anderson's book here.

This is the kind of story that gets my heart beating faster....a chance to see and touch and document the intimate keepsakes of an interesting individual whose life was as dramatic as they come. I wish someone would let me do the same with the Leonard Cohen files. Urgh!

Oo Oo! Another records management fiasco at the US government!

2008-09-13T23:10:00.000-04:00

I always enjoy little stories about how the official records of the US government just seem to disappear sometimes. This one, published this morning in the New York Times, is pretty typical: electronic records gone missing, the Web is an administrative nightmare, archivists are freaking out, danger, danger!

But seriously, when are the Feds ever going to learn that misplaced records never improves one's sense of trust in government. Just invest the time and money and develop a solid RM program. Really, there are plenty of us out here who would love the work.

Mr. Friedman versus the Lincoln Centre Library

2008-09-13T22:54:00.000-04:00

Oy! The conflict is just heating up between former photographer Leo Friedman and the librarians who work with the New York Public Library’s performing arts collection at Lincoln Center. According to the New York Times, there is plenty at stake, namely "an extraordinary theater archive: about 4,580 prints and 2,655 contact sheets representing 168 stage productions from the 1950s and ’60s, the golden age of the Broadway musical."

It seems that Mr. Friedman, who sent the collection of images to the Lincoln Centre in 1971, never agreed to the terms of an agreement that the centre offered, although he did allow the library to own/administer copyright to the photographs. Now, almost forty years later, the collection remains largely uncatalogued and many of the photographs are damaged due to neglect. Other photographs have been purposely damaged by library staff, who have scratched out copyright notices and written in their own notices over the years. Of course, Friedman is not happy. But the library claims they have their hands tied without a finalized agreement with the donor. What. A. Nightmare.

I'm thinking that settling the terms of a donor agreement before his or her collection is accessioned is probably a good idea, right?

What a shame...these images look utterly fantastic.

New digital photo archives at the American Museum of Natural History

2008-09-09T20:54:00.000-04:00

Click here to see the brand-spanking-new collection of glorious photography documenting the early years of the NMNH.

Google begins scanning microfilm newspaper archives

2008-09-09T09:57:00.000-04:00

The New York Times reported this morning that Google has undertaken a massive project to digitize the archives of several newspapers. This will involve scanning microfilm. The article suggests that the digitization project is a joint venture; Google will make the archives available online, but also offer the digitized files back to the newspapers for their own use.

This sort of collaborative work between archives (both corporate and public) and Internet businesses seems to be a trend these days. I suppose digitization is a good thing if it allows more people to access the files, but there is always a danger for public archives that the partnership may be skewed in favor of the Internet business turning a profit. Then again, purchasing, using and maintaining the equipment necessary for digitization is a hefty financial burden. Turning to these collaborative partnerships may be the only way that small or even medium-sized operations can get their archives online. Careful contracts need to be drawn up to ensure that the archives does not lose control of their records or that the e-records become inaccessible to those who cannot afford to pay whatever fee is charged for their use.

I wonder how many lawyers are on staff at Google?

The article also mentions the National Digital Newspaper Program, a joint program of the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Library of Congress. This program s working to digitize "significant" American newspapers published between 1836 and 1922, and the archives will be freely available on the Internet.

Excellent journalism!

2008-09-08T13:41:00.000-04:00

90210 oral history now online

2008-09-01T10:29:00.001-04:00

Revisit the Peach Pit before the Tuesday launch of the new and (hopefully) improved 90210! New York Times has just published a fantastic tribute to the original 90210 with plenty of interviews with the original cast and reflections on the gossip that plagued the series.

Where will you be Tuesday night? I'll be glued to my TV.

McCain camp too lazy to search paper archives

2008-09-01T09:28:00.000-04:00

Well, it seems that the digital world has made us all a bit lazy when it comes to researching primary sources. Recently, the Republican Party undertook an extensive vetting process regarding Sarah Palin, McCain's newly minted running mate. As a gun-loving, anti-choice mother or five in Anchorage, Alaska (aka America's last chance to gain independence from Middle East oil tycoons), Palin seems like a perfect choice for McCain and his conservative cronies. Or is she?

The Huffington Post has reported that the party never bothered to review the archives of Palin's hometown newspaper--a process that is usually part of the vetting process. Why did they fail to perform such basic research? It seems that the Valley Frontiersman has yet to digitize its archives and a search through old newspapers would have required actual archival research, not just a Google search. So....it was never done.

I guess this proves that I'm not alone in my refusal to use any sources that are not easily accessible from my laptop and chesterfield. Except, I'm not responsible for choosing the next candidate for the Vice President of the United States.

This situation exposes a major concern for contemporary archivists. Clearly, researchers are becoming more resistant to on-site research and there is a growing expectation that collections will be accessible online. Yet digitization is not only a time-consuming task for archivists, but also a costly one. Is it worth digitizing all of the collection or just those records that are frequently accessed? Who pays for this service? Once the collection is digitized, how do archivists ensure that it continues to be accessible over time as software and hardware evolves?

A person even more cynical than I recently stated that the only element of the 20th century computer age to outlast the next century will be dot matrix printer paper.

I'm back after a brief hiatus

2008-09-01T09:25:00.000-04:00

I've been MIA these last two weeks, with good reason. On August 16th, I got married; the following Tuesday, I moved into a co-op. Then, we left for a fast-paced, decadent, lovely mini-moon in Montreal and arrived back in Toronto just in time to celebrate the last long weekend of summer.

Now, it's back to school and back to work. And back to blogging!

CAPTCHA unites Web developers and digitization archivists

2008-08-15T14:38:00.000-04:00

Digitization and Optical Character Recognition (OCR) technologies have been a boon to the archival profession, allowing archivists to preserve precious documents and make them available to patrons all over the world. Nevertheless, digitization techniques are not perfect and distortion does occur. There are some documents that make OCR choke; in these situations, archivists have to review each letter of the text to ensure accuracy, an effort that requires a level of commitment that many archivists simply cannot provide. This is where CAPTCHAs come in handy.

CAPTCHA, which stands for Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart, is a technology that many Web 2.0 tools use to ensure that users are human and not webcrawlers or other bots accessing the site to post spam. You've all seen them... At the bottom of most Internet forms, the user will be asked to identify a set of distorted characters before the form can be submitted, thus required a human eye to complete the task. What most people don't realize is that CAPTCHAs are not always randomly generated. They incorporate actual digitized content from archives that OCR technologies have failed to identify. As a result, Web 2.0 users, archivists, and Web developers work hand-in-hand.

Science has recently published a comprehensive article about CAPTCHA technology, but the journal required a paid account. Read the Arstechnica synopsis and review of the article for free here.

Archives that pack a punch!

2008-08-13T09:50:00.000-04:00

A heavy punching bag pounded by Cassius Clay
Signed photographs of Joe Louis
A gold-plated cigarette case given by Max Baer to his trainer, Issy Kline
Ali’s training trunks for the Leon Spinks fight

Thanks to Hank Kaplan, widely regarded as America's foremost boxing historian before his death in 2007, many of these treasures have been preserved at the Brooklyn College Archives and Special Collections Division. And now, thanks to the commitment of Professor Cucchiara, the college archivist and head of distinctive collections (and former boxer), these objects will be properly arranged and described in a bona fide archival collection. Read more about the new boxing archives here.

The collection is valued at $2.94 million.

Converting 78s to digital ~ an archivists dream/nightmare

2008-08-13T08:21:00.000-04:00

BoingBoing has picked up on a story about Cliff Bolling, a 78RPM record enthusiast who has digitized and posted nearly 4,000 old vinyl tracks, complete with cartridge hiss and pops.

Bolling's work has garnered an equal amount of accolades and raised eyebrows. On one hand, digitization has helped 'rescue' numerous lost recordings and introduced a new generation to music from the 30s, 40s and early 50s. A lot of Bolling's collection is music that has been

On the other hand, AV archivists are shaking their heads at the poor sound quality of these digital copies. While Bolling's earnest effort to preserve music is commendable, his techniques are not only amateur, but he may actually be destroying the 78s that he loves so much. the Library of Congress, for example, has developed an optical scanning technology to digitize fragile vinyl recordings that produces a sound quality that can be compared to remastered DCs. The other concern is that Bolling has chosen to use low-quality equipment (an old 1950s Gerard turntable witha GE (General Electric) VR cartridge) and to capture in MP3 format instead of lossless or higer quality format such as OGG or WAV.

Of course, preservation and conservation are only one piece of the digitization pie. In an era of increased copyright restrictions and routine litigation, Bolling takes a huge risk in pirating music and posting it on the Internet. It's also difficult to justify posting some of his music; many of these songs have been carefully remastered by studios and re-issued on CD. Not only does this imply that studios have and will asstert copyright, but also high quality preservation has been addressed.

Bolling's digitization project raises some fairly difficult questions for archivists and is a great example of how technology, format wars, and a love of music can lead good people to make interesting decisions.

Where have all the bees gone?

2008-08-12T11:48:00.000-04:00

Rebecka's doomsday speech of the day:

In 2006, CBC's Quirks & Quarks program ran a story about the strange disappearance of honeybees throughout the United States and Canada. It was a little story at the time, but one with major consequences. Where have all the bees gone? And what do we do without them? Bees are reponsible for the vast majority of pollenation. Without pollenation, there are no plants. Without plants, there are no animals. Not fish, nor foul, nor fur.

Today, the rapid decline of the honeybee is attracting worldwide attention. Scientists now fear that a 33% drop in bees could wreak havoc on crops. Imagine the high costs of food when crops have to be pollenated by human intervention? I don't mean to sound X-Files here, but bees are the key to human survival and extinction.

Eek!

The Guardian UK shares my feelings.

Thanks to Engrish.com for confirming the existence of this t-shirt

2008-08-11T12:16:00.000-04:00

For a few months during summer 2007, I used to see this t-shirt walking around Seoul about once or twice a week. One of my co-workers, a very sweet Calvinist boy named Chung-hoon, also wore it on occassion. But do Koreans really come up with these slogans on their own? I'm fairly sure that there is one Western t-shirt designer living and working somewhere in Korea who is responsible for creating some of the more ironic, hilarious and ridiculous t-shirt designs available in the Engrish language. AAaaiiiieeeesh.

Archiwhat? blog presents a Public (Enemy) Announcement

2008-08-08T17:27:00.000-04:00

Heritage workers from Canada and Australia gather together to celebrate

2008-08-08T14:15:00.000-04:00

CBC reported this morning that archivists from the Australia National Archives paid a recent visit to Ottawa and the Library and Archives of Canada (LAC). Their mission? To say thanks to a group of librarians and archivists who recently discovered an Australian playbill dating from 1796 in a Library of Parliament scrapbook. The treasure was returned to Australia last fall by Stephen Harper.

It's a great bear-hug of a story for archivists. But, it's not the content of the story that captured my interest--it was the amount of comments that the article inspired, mainly about the manner of celebration that archivists are apparently known for. They were responding to the first paragraph:

"An Australian playbill from 1796 brought together librarians and archivists from both Canada and Australia for a celebration in Ottawa this week."

Interesting... I had no idea that our talents were this widely known or, more truthfully, that anyone really knew what an archivist was.

(For the sake of self-disclosure, I have "celebrated" with many archivists over the last year and yes, they can, um, party. I believe the hotel bar in Fredericton was drunk dry during the ACA conference in June.)

Again with the vinyl...

2008-08-07T13:19:00.000-04:00

A few days ago, I blogged about my not-so-secret love for vinyl. Well, today's article in the Globe and Mail just adds more fuel to my fire. It seems that archivists and museum conservators have discovered that a nasty little fungus known as tape mould has been eating away at video stockpiles stored in AV archives. The dust-like mould spreads so easily that some Scottish archivists have been forced to adopt CSI-like quarantine chambers to work with magnetic tapes in their collections.

Think your DVDs and CDs are safe? Nope. These shiny disks are coated with a thin layer of aluminum that is susceptible to laser rot. In a few short years, the aluminum can oxidize and degrade--a process that is irreparable.

What's the answer to these preservation problems? Vinyl. Ha! It seems that vinyl is a technology with staying power.

Of course this only works for audio recordings....

Proof that people make their own ugly

2008-08-06T15:35:00.000-04:00

On the left is a skeezy bike thief and resident Queen W. drug dealer....on the right is a dapper resident of Toronto's upscale Yorkville neighborhood. And yet both are Igor Kenk. Doesn't that make your head shake?

Queer + trans travel writers wanted!

2008-08-06T14:46:00.000-04:00

homosaywhat? presents... Out of Place

After a two-year hiatus, homosaywhat? is back!

The new project will reflect the sweet / funny / tragic / awkward / banal / romantic and just plain bizarre experiences of LGBTT travelers through fiction, non-fiction, b & w photography and artwork. Never been further than Oshawa? No problem! We want to hear about all kinds of trans-cultural experiences, regardless of whether they occur on another continent or a short bus ride away.

Some suggested topics:

coming out to new friends;
finding community;
falling in love in a foreign language;
dealing with homophobia, isolation, and culture shock;
re-evaluating your own culture in the midst of another;
and, of course, your own creative stories.

For submission details, contact Rebecka and Kate at outofplace@homosaywhat.ca.

homosaywhat? gratefully acknowledges the generosity of the Lesbian and Gay Community Appeal for making this project possible.

Thief nabs laptop containing personal information of 33,000 applicants to an airport security prescreening program

2008-08-05T14:46:00.000-04:00

CBS just ran a story about a security breach at the San Francisco Airport. Why is it that I have to take off my shoes, have a metal detector wand shoved up my ya-hoo and remove my belt to get through security at the airport, but airport staff security is so lax that a laptop containing sensitive information for 33,000 passengers can go missing for a week without anyone noticing?

A copy of an original....puppy?

2008-08-05T11:48:00.000-04:00

I know this is a little bit off topic, but I just can't let this go by without a post.

Just as the won appears to be collapsing, South Koreans have grasped on to a new export commodity: cloned puppies. The International Herald Tribute reported this morning that two rival genetic companies, one founded by disgraced scientist Hwang Woo Suk and the other by his protege, Lee Byeong Chun, have begun cloning puppies for grieving pet owners who have lost their own precious animals. One American customer, Bernann McKinney, recently paid US$50,000 (and this was a publicity discount) for a clone of her now deceased pet bulldog "Booger". Last week, a litter of five clone Boogers was born in a lab in Seoul. Here's my favorite quote: "When Booger was dying, his eyes locked on mine," McKinney said. "And he told me with his eyes, 'Don't be sad, because I am going to see you again."'

I wonder what amont of speculative fiction this new industry validates? And where do you draw the line? Cats? Hamsters....human children who have succumbed to a childhood disease?

I'm sure there is a movie about this already? Anyone?

For $50k, I could have paid off my student loans AND bought poor Bernann McKinney some grief counselling. Damn...

**UPDATE**

This case just gets more and more strange....could the owner of the newest litter of cloned puppies actually be Miss McKinney who was once charged with kidnapping a young Mormon and forcing him to have sex with her while he was locked to her bed with mink fur-lined handcuffs? Um, what...? Read this article from the Daily Mail.

Reliability, integrity, forgery?

2008-08-03T10:51:00.000-04:00

New York Time ran a great article this morning about Lee Israel, a failed biographer and successful forger of letters and memos from stars such as Noel Coward and Louise Brooks. She was also a freelance journalist who frequently stole her research materials from libraries and archives across the U.S. That is, until she was caught. She has recently written a memoir about her downward spiral, titled Can You Ever Forgive Me?, and is attempting to make peace with those she has swindled, cheated and defrauded. Sounds absolutely fascinating. Read more about the literary forger here.

...And now for a different kind of record

2008-08-01T08:28:00.000-04:00

The first record in my collection was likely Free to Be You and Me, although Father Abraham in Smurfland was probably a close second. Ever since those halcyon days, I've been a fan of vinyl records; they give me warm and fuzzy feelings. Almost enough to make my iPod jealous.

I guess I'm not alone. The Vinyl Preservation Society is a new-ish group of audiophiles who believe that those black vinyl circles are not just historical documents, but also a great way to experience music. CBC recently published this article about them.

So, this has got me thinking: why is it that I own Nirvana's Nevermind on vinyl, cassette, CD and now in MP3 format? Which one sounds the best? They don't sound the same and each is a different experience, evoking a different set of memories and feelings. Why is it that the Beatles never sound as good on CD as they do on vinyl? What is it about the medium that just seems better, more natural? Perhaps this is the context that archivists speak so highly of?

Digitizing Holocaust records: A German archives prepares to scan testimony of survivors

2008-08-01T08:19:00.001-04:00

New York Times reported this morning that the International Tracing Service archives in Bad Arolsen has just purchased 15 custom-made scanners and plans to digitize the bulk of its records documenting stories of displaced persons after the end of WWII. The technology will cost an estimated US$280k and will allow archivists to make thousands of records more accessible to the public. Read more at NY Times here.

ACA Student Chapter FAQ Now Online

2008-07-31T11:00:00.001-04:00

The Association of Canadian Archivists (ACA) is a professional organization for archivists and records managers. Recognizing the diversity of the Canadian archival community and its organizations, the ACA envisions a dynamic, well educated, and well informed information profession, strategically positioned to ensure:

the preservation and accessibility of Canada's information resources and its documentary heritage;
the public's appreciation of those resources and that heritage; and
the role of the Canadian archival community in its preservation and accessibility.

Joining the ACA student chapter at the Toronto ischool is a great way for new and aspiring archivists to get involved in the archival community and learn about the opportunities that exist in the field.

Check out the shiny new FAQ for incoming archivists at the University of Toronto ischool program.

Queer@ischool Google Group Now Launched

2008-07-31T10:55:00.000-04:00

Check out the new Queer@ischool Google Group!

Queer@ischool is a group for queer and trans people in the Faculty of Information at the University of Toronto. We exist to connect queer and trans librarians, archivists and other information professionals, and work to break down barriers in traditional and non-traditional information fields.

For more information about Queer@ischool or to join the group, contact queer.ischool@gmail.com

Attention New iSchooler! Get to know Toronto

2008-07-31T10:42:00.001-04:00

I'll be leading two tours of Toronto neighborhoods for incoming iSchoolers during orientation week. For dates and times, visit the Master of Information Student Council (MISSC) web site here.

The descriptions are below:

CHURCH & WELLESLEY / THE GAY VILLAGE
Home to dance clubs, restaurants and boutiques, Church Street has been the meeting grounds for Toronto’s LGBT community since the early 1970s. Made famous by the Kids in the Hall, the ‘gaybourhood’ has also served as the backdrop for the American TV show Queer as Folk and continues to inspire writers and activists such as RM Vaughan, Ann-Marie MacDonald and Kyle Rae. As we walk along Church Street, we’ll visit Buddies in Bad Times Theatre, chat about the bathhouse raids that triggered Toronto’s gay rights movement and tour the 519 Community Centre. For all of you history buffs, we’ll also visit the statue of Alexander Wood, a former a merchant and magistrate in Upper Canada who was at the centre of a gay sex scandal in 1810. We’ll end off the tour at the Canadian Lesbian and Gay Archives (CLGA) for a quick peak at the collection.

Let’s meet in front of the Wellesley subway station. Please be on time—there is a lot to see!

THE ANNEX/KOREATOWN
Located between Spadina and Bathurst along Bloor, the Annex is a vibrant area where the city’s young urban crowds take in brunch and browse independent book stores, clothing boutiques and health food stores. Local pubs also serve some of the best micro brews in town. Due to its close proximity to campus, the Annex has also become home to many of the university’s students and faculty. What was once known as Annex West has now evolved into Koreatown (K-Town), a lively area serving Toronto’s 50,000+ Korean community. As we walk along Bloor, we will visit a Korean grocery store, try some delicious walnut cake and maybe even learn a little bit of the language.

Let’s meet in the lobby of the Bissell Building. Please be on time—there is a lot to see!