Curation of the John and Phil Palmquist Archaeological Collection

The 2018 SAA statement encouraging collaboration between archaeologists and “responsible and responsive stewards” included recommendations epitomizing decades of established practice at the University of Iowa Office of the State Archaeologist (OSA), a research center housing the State Archaeological Repository of Iowa. At the time the SAA statement was published, OSA staff were actively implementing a grant supporting transfer to the State Repository of the John and Phil Palmquist Archaeological Collection. This grant was designed to provide hands-on research experience for undergraduate students interested in archaeology and collections management while recording improved site locational data and artifact specific documentation, including on relatively rare (for the area) red pipestone artifacts. Although modest by some standards, the Palmquist Collection includes 860 artifacts from 26 locations recorded through 40 years of surface survey by the family in a portion of Iowa that is rarely the focus of professional archaeologists. This article provides a case study of responsible archaeological practice implementing SAA recommendations, including treating collector-collaborators with respect, encouraging collector assistance in the recording of finds, capturing research data from a private collection, and facilitating curation of privately owned materials. We include brief consideration of the impact of the Palmquist Collection on the understanding of southwestern Iowa archaeology.

Components of a Digital Specimen Architecture for Biological Collections

In 2020, we began developing software components for an Application Programming Interface (API)-based integration architecture (the “Specify Network”) to leverage the global footprint of the Specify 7 collections management platform (www.specifysoftware.org) and the analytical services of the Lifemapper (lifemapper.org) and Biotaphy (biotaphy.org) Projects. The University of Kansas Lifemapper Project is a community gateway for species distribution and macroecological modeling. The Biotaphy Project, an extension of Lifemapper, is the product of a six-year, U.S. National Science Foundation-funded collaboration among researchers at the Universities of Michigan, Florida, and Kansas. Biotaphy's primary scope is to use big data methods and high-performance computing to integrate species occurrence data with phylogenetic and biogeographic data sets for large taxonomic and spatial scale analyses. Our initial integrations between Biotaphy and the Specify Network enable Specify users to easily discover remote information related to the specimens in their collection. The widely-discussed, digital specimen architecture being championed by DiSSCo (Distributed System of Scientific Collections www.dissco.eu) and others (https://bit.ly/3jfsAgz) will change data communications between biodiversity collections and the broader biodiversity data community. Those network interactions will evolve from being predominantly one-way, batch-oriented transfers of information from museums to aggregators, to an n-way communications topology that will make specimen record discovery, updates and usage much easier to accomplish. But museum specimens and their catalogs will no longer be an intellectual endpoint of species documentation. Rather, records in collections management systems will increasingly serve as a point of departure for data synthesis, which takes place outside of institutional data domains, and which will overlay the legacy role of museums as authoritative sources of information about the diversity and distribution of life on Earth. Biological museum institutions will continue to play a vital role as the foundation of a global data infrastructure connecting aggregators, collaborative databases, analysis engines, journal publishers, and data set archives. In this presentation, we will provide an update on the components and capabilities that make up integrations in the Specify Network as an exemplar of the global architecture envisaged by the biodiversity research community.

Reuniting Archaeology and Archives through the Smithsonian Institution’s Ralph S. and Rose L. Solecki Papers and Artifacts Project

The Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History recently conducted a two-year project to process and connect the archives and artifacts of archaeologists Ralph and Rose Solecki, most famous for their work at the sites of Shanidar Cave and Zawi Chemi Shanidar in northern Iraq. Through a collaboration between the archivally-focused National Anthropological Archives and the object-focused Department of Anthropology collections management group, the Ralph S. and Rose L. Solecki Papers and Artifacts Project sought to set an example for archaeological collections and archives stewardship by preserving the association between archaeological specimens and archival records through an integrative methodology of archival processing and specimen cataloging to increase their value to future researchers. Further, the project provides a case study intended to contribute to interdisciplinary conversations about the enduring legacy of archaeologists and their collections within archives and museums through collaborative collections and archives management.

An Actor-Network Perspective on Collections Documentation and Data Practices at Museums

The improvement of digital technology over recent decades has advanced the ability of museums to manage records of their collections and share them online. However, despite the rise of research in the area of digital heritage, less attention has been given to a sociotechnical perspective on such technology. Drawing upon concepts from Actor-Network Theory, this paper presents actors associated with the V&A’s collections management system and its online catalogue. Digital design objects, the museum’s new type of collection, are seen as a driving force for change in collections documentation practices. This paper argues for models of documentation to change from closed to open and participatory in order to (re)present such objects’ materiality in collection records through the voices of multiple actors. This paper, highlighting the agency of data and technology, increases our awareness of the potential consequences of museums’ data practices where the integration of advanced technology (e.g., AI) will be implemented in the future.

Peranan Perpustakaan dalam Meningkatkan Budaya Gemar Membaca Mahasiswa pada Program Studi Ilmu Administrasi Negara Fakultas Ilmu Sosial dan Ilmu Politik Universitas Sang Bumi Ruwa Jurai

This study entitled The Role of Libraries in Improving the Reading Culture of Students in the State Administration Study Program, Faculty of Social and Political Sciences, Sang Bumi Ruwa Jurai University aims to determine the role of libraries which consists of four components, namely librarians, collections, management and spatial management. in improving the reading culture of students in the State Administration Study Program, Faculty of Social and Political Sciences, Sang Bumi Ruwa Jurai University. This research uses a descriptive method. The data collection technique used is by distributing questionnaires, interviews, observations and literature studies. The results of the research can be said that the librarian in the library of the State Administration Study Program, Faculty of Social and Political Sciences, Sang Bumi Ruwa Jurai University has a role in increasing the reading culture of students, collections in the library of the State Administration Study Program, Faculty of Social and Political Sciences, Sang Bumi University. Ruwa Jurai has a role in increasing students' reading culture, library management in the library of the State Administration Science Study Program, Faculty of Social and Political Sciences, Sang Bumi University. Ruwa Jurai has a role in increasing students' reading habit, and the layout of the library in the Administrative Sciences Study Program library. The State Faculty of Social and Political Sciences, University of Sang Bumi Ruwa Jurai has a role in increasing the reading culture of students. Keywords: library, culture, love to read

Photoblogs: the immediate need to document early twenty-first century photography practices

This thesis attempts to suggest ways in which museums might better understand and make informed decisions about acquiring, preserving, and cataloguing photoblogs, which are an early twenty-first century photography practice. Photographers can now use the World Wide Web to show and share their images, because of the advent of digital cameras, camera phones, and cheap, open-source photo-blogging tools available to the general population. This thesis will help museums to better understand and be comfortable in acquiring digital artefacts, such as photoblogs, that will enrich their photographic collections for future generations. Acquisition tools and preservation methods are defined and discussed. The process of cataloguing photoblogs in current collections-management databases is not much different from cataloguing hard-copy photographs. The "People of Walmart" photoblog is used as an example and an illustration to clearly define the difficult technical jargon separating curatorial and collections management departments from information technology departments.

Arrangement, description and presentation of the Fairlie Family collection at the Art Gallery of Ontario: a case study in collections management

This thesis presents the results of an applied project in Collections Management, comprising the intellectual arrangement of the Fairlie Family fonds at the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO), and the creation of a finding aid to facilitate future access and research. This project analyzes twelve Canadian family albums from the AGO’s collection of photography that were compiled by the Fairlie family between the years of 1880 and 1950. This project is comprised of three major parts: (1) an analytical paper, (2) extensive inventories and object-level cataloguing records, and (3) the creation of a finding aid for the family documents and related ephemera. The first part of this thesis consists of an analytical paper discussing the historical context of the albums and what they can tell us about the Fairlie family and the time and place in which they were created. The albums document the family’s exploits in photography, from mining in northern Ontario, various travel destinations, summer camping in Temagami, and life in upper-middle-class Toronto during the first half of the twentieth century. The practical component of this project includes genealogical research; detailed inventories for each of the twelve albums; the intellectual arrangement, rehousing, and creation of a finding aid for the textual records and related ephemera; and updated cataloguing records linking the albums with the Fairlie Family fonds in The Museum System database (TMS) so that both the photographic collection and contextual information are more accessible.

The Arthur H. Flint collection : preserving photographic objects for a private collection

This paper describes an applied project relating to a small private collection of fine art photographs created by the little-known American Pictoralist photographer Arthur H. Flint (1864-1943). After suffering years of neglect, the collection was acquired in 2007 by Toronto-based photographer, collector and dealer Steven Evans. Over the course of eight months, I worked with Mr. Evans on the physical and intellectual arrangement of this collection. In addition, I researched the life of Arthur H. Flint and his significance in context to the Pictoralist movement in the USA. This project provides a biography of photographer Arthur H. Flint; an outline of the preservation and collections management process for the Arthur H. Flint photographic collection, and includes a CD containing 234 catalogue records of the Flint collection.

The Arnold Newman Collection of Photographs at the Art Gallery of Ontario finding aid.

The Arnold Newman Collection of Photographs consists of 4820 photographs taken by photographer Arnold Newman between the years 1938 and 2004. This thesis acts as a research project investigating the collection and making it accessible to researchers and collections management at the Art Gallery of Ontario. The project includes research on the sitting subjects, an overview of the physical photographs, an annotated bibliography and the organization and housing of the collection for permanent accession into the Art Gallery of Ontario's photography collection. The paper consists of an analytical portion which outlines the methodology of creating the finding aid. The finding aid acts as a standalone paper designed to assist researchers navigating the collection.

Photographic storage Solutions In Collections Management : The Edward Burtynsky Archive

The paper, "The Edward Burtynsky Archive" is part of the thesis project submitted by Paul Sergeant in the partial fulfillment of the Master's Degree in Photographic Preservation and Collections Management at Ryerson University in Toronto, Ontario and George Eastman House International Museum of Photography and Film in Rochester, NY, in 2010. The author proposes the creation of a personal archive/repository of photographic prints for Canadian photographer Edward Burtynsky. This guide will describe archival methods for the storage of 1000-1500 large format colour photographs ranging in size from 27" x 34" to 60" x 70". The goal of this project is to produce a resource for present and future researchers concerned with the preservation of colour photography. Through research on the preservation of colour photography and archival storage standards, I will locate a viable space, design a model for storage, source materials, and construct the archive/repository by September 1, 2010.