For the rest of my readings I read some different chapters out of An American Political Archives Reader. This book is composed of chapters written by a number of political papers archivist on a wide range of issues that come up with Congressional Collections.
Chapter 9: Oral History as a Documentation Strategy for Political Collections
Oral Histories can be an extremely valuable piece of information that can supplement a Congressional collection. While the paper and electronic records can show which issues and pieces of legislation a politician was interested in, we may not know why they were so interested or how they went about researching and working with other politicians. One way of doing that would be to gather oral histories of the donor as well as staff member, campaign workers, or even journalists. The oral histories can give insight and more depth to things that might have played a major role or influence during the politician’s time of service. It can also give a context to past experiences that may have shaped the views of the politician and why they developed the type of stance that they did on an issue.
Oral histories can provide insight into areas other than that of a politician’s career. If a politician work at another capacity that is not included in the collection an oral history can provide researcher information as what the politician’s thoughts were when they were serving in this other capacity. Oral histories can also provide information that is not included in a collection. Meeting or conversations are rarely if ever documented and they can hold valuable information as to how something was discussed or debated. By getting oral histories of the participants or their aids we can gather valuable information that would have been lost to the ether of time. Oral histories can also provide a valuable amount of information if a collection is limited in the amount of materials that were left after a politician has retired.
To work on an oral history project the institution needs to do some back work prior to conduction the interviews. A good idea of what is wanted to be accomplished in the sessions should be worked out, i.e. knowing certain subjects or events that are to be discussed. The person doing the interview needs to do background research to be knowledgeable on the subjects and events that will be discussed. Funding also needs to be arranged for this type of work, especially if the archivist is going to be going to offsite places to conduct the interviews. After the interview is completed time must be committed to creating transcripts for the interview, because in the end a researcher would prefer to use the transcripts, which the researcher can scan rather having to listen to two hours of audio.
Chapter 10: Electronic Record Systems on Capitol Hill – Finding and Obtaining What You Want
Dealing with electronic records from a Congressional office can be quite extensive and troublesome. There are many types of electronic record systems used on Capitol Hill; Correspondence Management Systems, Legislative Information Systems, Local Area Networks, Legislative Databases, Members Schedule, Home Pages, and email. When it comes to these types of systems the archivist needs to work with the staff to see what types of materials are being stored in them. Once this is established, the materials that are relevant can be requested and summaries can be produced using some of the different systems. It need to be established how the records are going to be preserved in the repository and how they will be transferred to the repository. This need to be done with the staff, IT, and archivist all working together so that material and metadata is not lost or corrupted. The archivist also needs to find out what type of software has been used in the past, what is currently being used and how the office set up the system, because no two offices have the exact same set up.
The management and preservation of electronic records is a collaborative effort, much of which happens long before an archivist will have any contact with these materials. An office needs to have a plan on how they are going to organize and store the files. This leads to the staff members need to be aware of how to classify and store the materials so that the proper files are being saved and they are being saved in the right place. By having a well organize plan it will make it easier for the staff to find materials that they may end up wanting at a later date, as well as providing a well organized system for when the records will be transferred to a repository.
Chapter 17: Taking a Byte out of the Senate – Reconsidering the Research Use of Correspondence and Casework Files
Correspondence and casework files can contain some valuable information for researchers. The problem that surfaces though is how to find information in this type of mail. The old paper based system of filing correspondences was usually topic based, but the vast amount of information to search through made this also difficult. With the development of automated systems and electronic mail a whole new type of problem evolved. Electronic mail allowed for mass amounts of mail to be sent by constituents and lobbyists.
These automated constituent correspondence systems are well suited for aggregate, quantitative research. They provide good access tools and an index of the information that is contained in the system. The systems can be used as a finding aid for the correspondence records and to sample or weed the files. It can also be used to purge confidential information, which can result in opening up the correspondences to researchers more quickly. The information in these systems has more than likely been coded topically and demographically, meaning the systems can be used as database that can easily be searched.
These systems though promise more than they can deliver. Any errors that may have occurred when the correspondences were categorized can cause issues for researchers. A miss spelling would not bring up materials that a researcher was searching for. The repository must know how that the staff used the system so as to help the researcher. This whole system can be confusing to the archivist and researcher. No two Congressional Offices file materials in the same way. This can result in not knowing the different terms or issues that something might be filed under. Another problem with correspondence mail is that most of the pieces of mail do not focus on one single issue, meaning that they often have more than one issue brought up in the letter. This is an area can get confusing, because staff members often file the letter under one of the issues, which they thought was the most pertinent. For a researcher this can mean lost information.
To be able to properly use the system files, repositories need to spend time with staff members to know how they filed correspondences in the system. This whole process can get expensive with the amount of time that needs to be spent with the staff members. There is also going to be money that needs to be invested in reformatting the data into smaller files as well as to migrate and refresh the data to keep the data available to researchers. Although these systems can be advantageous in data manipulation and quantitative analysis, in the end the materials in the system can be as archivist Margery Sly feared, “an unholy mess”.
Chapter 20: Classified – What to Do If National Security Officials Visit
When dealing with Congressional collections there is a possibility that they might contain classified or sensitive materials. These materials can come from a number of different places (constituents, committee files, research materials, reports, and findings) but all must be taken seriously. These materials need to be looked at more closely because they can have information that can be sensitive to constituents (SSN), the US government, and the process of contracts or how investigations take place. If these types of materials are discover in a collection then they should be reflected in the collection and then removed for further review. The review process will be conducted by a agency that will have the best knowledge of the subject or issue.
There are a few different resources that archivist can contact to find out who would be the best agency to contact to review the materials. The National Archives and Records Administration can be a helpful entity as well as the Center for Legislative Archives. These entities will have the best idea as to which agency should be contacted to take a closer look at the document/s in question. Once the document is reviewed it can either be considered declassified and be reintegrated into the collection or if it is considered classified then the document/s need to be stored in a classified storage facility until it has been declassified. Some repositories may have this onsite, but if they do not then a regional NARA facility, Presidential library, or some other classified storage unit can hold these original documents.
No comments:
Post a Comment