Archives in Pop Culture: ParaNorman

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Archives, Outreach

One of the toughest questions for those charged with archival outreach is: how do you get through to your potential audience when they have never heard of your product? Archives, and therefore Archivists, have a visibility problem and that problem is a giant barrier.

There are a few bright cracks in that barrier, however. One of them is a movie called ParaNorman (2012). This movie, intended for children but with plenty of content for adults, does a fantastic job of introducing archives to its audience. Here is a quick list of how ParaNorman gets it right (spoilers ahead!):

• When Norman needs to find out where an old grave is located, a friend instructs him to look for that information at the Town Archives. Later, at the archives, the audience sees Norman looking through a stack of death certificates to find the location of the grave.

Why is this awesome?

The movie both introduces the Archives as a place to go to find useful information and demonstrates the practical use of primary sources.

• When Norman first gets to the Town Archives, one of his friends makes a remark about the “library.”

Why is this awesome?

It’s true! Many people, even if they have heard of archives, don’t know that the archives are not the same as a library, and are apt to get confused about where to go to find different kinds of information.

• When the movie needs to add a sense of urgency and terror, a mob of townspeople set fire to the Town Hall (which puts Norman, his friends, and the archives in danger).

Why is this awesome?

I appreciate a well-done terror scene, and this one really worked on me. Not because of the danger that the fire posed to Norman and his friends, but because of the danger the fire posed to the archives; the materials are irreplaceable!

• Finally, despite their best efforts, Norman and his friends don’t actually find the information they need (the location of the grave).

Why is this awesome?

Although the movie doesn’t spell it out, Norman & his friends failed to find any information on the location of the grave because they didn’t have an archivist to help them (an unfortunate consequence of breaking into the Town Archives after hours). I think that ParaNorman effectively conveys the fact that there is a lot of information in an archives, but that you need help in order to find what you need.

Outside of the specific plot points above, I love ParaNorman because it shows that the writers have a working knowledge of archives (which means that past archival outreach efforts were successful), and that they found an appropriate way to use that knowledge in the movie’s plot.

As a child, I was exposed to all sorts of new professions, historically significant places, and social commentary via movies. In the same way, ParaNorman’s primary audience has been exposed not only to the concept of archives, but have also seen a practical use of archival material (rather, an attempt at practical use). ParaNorman does a great job of raising the visibility of archives and helping us overcome that barrier to effective outreach.

Announcing Museopunks - a new podcasting project

Reblogged from museum geek:

One of the themes that emerged in day one of Museums and the Web was a question of how museums can work at web scale; how their practice has to shift in order to curate the digital world or to deal with the rare becoming commonplace. It's a super interesting question, and one that I've been lucky enough to delve into a little deeper in recent weeks in some conversations with Mike Edson (Director of Web and New Media Strategy at the Smithsonian Institution) and Paul Rowe (CEO of Vernon Systems).

Read more… 242 more words

This is a great new podcast about museums; GLAM folks will doubtless also be interested!

Top 5 Archives Accounts on Pinterest

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Archives, internet, Outreach, Pinterest, Social Media

A good outreach program for any organization includes an initiative to meet your audience where they are. Many Archival outreach programs include Facebook and Twitter profiles, and a growing number are appearing on Pinterest. Unfortunately, many Archives Pinterest accounts fail to inspire much interest.

In Archives nothing can be said to be certain, except shrinking budgets and multiplying responsibilities. Pinterest, like other social media platforms, is free of charge but time consuming. It’s no surprise, then, that so many are struggling to find a following.

In an effort to learn from the best, I’ve put together a list of the top 5 Archives Pinterest accounts. These Archives are getting it right; what can we learn from their success?

5. The Kansas Historical Society

The Kansas Historical Society is hitting Pinterest where it counts, with multiple Pin Boards for holidays and multiple Pin Boards for women’s fashions (popular Pinterest categories). My favorite board is “Historic Wedding Dresses from Kansas.” They have attracted a respectable 132 followers.

4. Mount Holyoke College Archives and Special Collections

The Mount Holyoke College Archives and Special Collections is capitalizing on Pinners’ interests with multiple fashion Pin Boards, and they are capturing their primary audience (Holyoke students) by maintaining Pin Boards on specific sports and other aspects of student life. With 266 followers, Mount Holyoke is doing great!

3. The Jewish Historical Society of Greater Washington

The Jewish Historical Society of Greater Washington is doing a great job with its 26 Pin Boards. In addition to capitalizing on Pinners’ interests with its “Weddings” and  ”Food: Eat up!” Pin Boards, this group is showcasing its unique holdings. My favorite Board is “Buttons with Purpose.”

2. The Minnesota Historical Society

Most of the Minnesota Historical Society’s 24 Pin Boards capitalize on popular Pinterest categories, including “Food,” “Home Decorating Ideas,” and “Decades of Fashion.” Whomever is moderating this account did their homework on what the Pinterest community wants, and is doing an excellent job of giving it to them. At 736 followers, They are definitely getting noticed!

1. Archives of American Art (Smithsonian)

At 5,025 followers, the Archives of American Art has the biggest following on this list. Art is the third most popular type of Pin Board, which indicates a large artist community on Pinterest (my favorite Pin Board is “Dear Diary“). This platform is a perfect fit for the Archives of American Art.

So, what can we learn from these Archives Pinners?

• Each Archives maintains at least 2 dozen Pin Boards
• Each Pin Board has a narrowly defined topic
• Each Archives dedicates at least one of those Boards to the Pinterest community’s top categories (Food & Drink, Women’s Fashions, Holiday’s & Events, etc.)

This is a short, but valuable list of best practices for Archives on Pinterest. The list illustrates (yet again) the importance of understanding that you need more than just good content (digital or digitized images) and the will to maintain a Pinterest account.

The most successful Archives Pinners have identified and are delivering content that the Pinterest community wants.

What are your favorite Archives on Pinterest? Did my list leave any great ones out?

Pay it Forward

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business, internships

I am appalled by people who refuse to take responsibility for the next generation of professionals. This often shows up in the “that’s not in my job description” attitude and is illustrated when a person has the ability and opportunity to teach tangible skills and/or share their wisdom, but decides not to do it.

Maintaining an internship program is part of the cost of fostering the next generation. It is a cost that should be borne with good humor and patience; few students are equipped with all the knowledge, tools, and network that they will need to succeed, and so an internship is often the first step in the process of building one’s toolbox.

But there are those who complain that interns are too time-consuming, that they don’t always understand the nuances of their tasks, and that they make mistakes. However, there is not a single one of us that didn’t make plenty of mistakes when we were starting a new job or a new career. Our colleagues helped pull us through.

When you refuse to take on an intern, or resent the time commitment that your current intern requires, you are sending a signal to your colleagues that you don’t value your profession enough to teach the next generation. You are signaling that you believe that your day to day work is more important than the work of others. Unless you can work and succeed in a vacuum, those signals will hurt your career.

I love this example of a one-day internship, which was arranged for a seven year old child. It is an example of the kind of people with whom I want to work – people who make it a priority to teach the next generation despite their own heavy workload, who pay it forward to their future colleagues.

Rawr!

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Simmons, THATcamp Libraries

This was the best Post-It note art posted at last week’s THATcamp Libraries, held at Simmons College.

 

 

Outreach

Tags

Archives, internet, Outreach, Social Media, Twitter

I am taking a class in outreach & advocacy this semester, and am loving every minute of it. Whereas so much of the archival program at Simmons has focused on the nuts & bolts of being an archivist, this class focuses on our place in the larger environment (from the archives’ parent institution to the community at large).

Even in a large, well-funded organization, the archives are at best misunderstood and at worst invisible. It’s a classic underdog scenario, and so archivists need to constantly improve and adapt in order for their archives to survive. It is a mandate of the profession that we be bright, beloved, resilient, and adaptable (no mean feat for a group of self-described introverts).

One of the reasons that I love the archives profession is that it takes even more than your best effort to create and sustain a program that not only survives, but thrives. You must exceed your abilities; stretch and grow every day. You must live the inspirational 80s movie montage. This is a huge challenge!

In addition to an individual archivist’s need to advocate for their specific archives, we all share the responsibility of raising general awareness about the profession. There are already efforts underway, notably on Twitter. The hashtags #OverlyHonestArchivists and #ArchivistValentines were particularly good efforts that built on existing memes; because of that, those tweets were both findable and intellectually accessible to the general Twitter population. Have you seen other examples, either on Twitter or elsewhere on the popular web? Or, do you have an idea on a new project to raise awareness? If so, drop me a line or comment on this post.

Peppermint Pig

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business, cultural heritage, economy

The revival of the peppermint pig is another great example of how information from the archives can help a business move forward. In this case, a special order from a local historical society sparked a renewed interest in an almost-forgotten Christmas tradition to the benefit of Saratoga Sweets:

“In 1988, Fitzgerald made a first run of 60 peppermint pigs at the request of the local historical society. He was surprised to see people lining up to buy them, many of them older people who fondly recalled smashing pigs when they were young. He sold out his run and never looked back.”

I particularly like this example because it was a serendipitous win-win. The historical society likely advanced its mission to reach and educate locals about their cultural heritage, and in doing so, accidentally revived a local industry.

Peppermint pigs in the news

Saratoga Sweets 

Living History

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business, cultural heritage, events, history, museum

When I was an undergrad, I resided in a neo-gothic building that was built in 1931, and ate in that dormitory’s dining hall, which is often compared to the Hogwarts Great Hall. I attended classes in historically and architecturally significant buildings. Later, I worked in those same buildings, planning and executing many events where students, faculty, alumni, and members of the community gathered, learned, and celebrated. Eventually, my husband and I married each other in one of those historic buildings. In short, I lived in these buildings. Their historic and architectural significance was in the background for ten years of my life. They continue to be the background for everyone who continues to live and work on that campus.

Frank & me at our wedding

I am baffled, then, by the sentiment expressed in The End of History Museums: What’s Plan B? by Cary Carson, in which the author expresses dismay at the use of historic buildings and house museums as event venues. Carson bemoans the fact that this kind of usage of a building “relegate[s] the centerpiece historic house or site to the background – educationally and often literally.” But why do we preserve these places if not to use and enjoy them? What good does treating a building as an untouchable temple do, other than serve as one method (out of many) of preserving that building? Carson is wrong here; events can help connect the community to their heritage through use of a historic building.

An alumni reunion dinner set at the Oriental Institute

Carson quotes a complaint that house museum offerings are “disconnected both from current issues and from their own communities.” This is a problem that could be solved by inviting the community into the building on their own terms. Why ought not the Emily Dickinson Museum host poetry club meetings or poetry writing workshops? Events such as these would continue the narrative of the historic building and help the community make meaningful connections with the building. To take an extreme example, the White House has not been closed off and turned into a temple of learning. We still put the President of the United States there and expect him to govern from the Oval Office. The current President is continuing the narrative of the White House, and the building is more interesting and more valuable because of it.

Boston promotes these kind of connections effortlessly. Increase Mather is buried in my backyard; I walk through the site of the Boston Massacre at least 3 times a week; the daily cannon shot from Old Ironsides rattles my windows every morning at 8:00 a.m. Bostonians don’t visit their historic sites; they live in them, as I used to live in the buildings on the University of Chicago campus. History and the present day thrive through coexistence.

History museums can thrive, too, if we are willing to let ourselves live in them.

For the Love of Rum

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beer, business, economy, rum

Last summer, my husband and I toured New England’s local breweries. These tours follow a pattern: with varying degrees of enthusiasm, a guide shepherds the tour group across the production floor (or a balcony overlooking the floor) while reciting the history of the brewery and chatting about its current or planned projects. The better tours teach you something; the lesser tours are soon forgotten at the tasting.

Our tour of Rhode Island’s local brewery scene was an easy one; the compact state has “One Airport; One Area Code; One Beer,” so off to the Newport Storm Brewery we went. This is what we learned:

The brewery was founded in 1998 by four college buddies. After nearly a decade of craft brewing, they created a partner company, the Thomas Tew Distillery, and began to distill Thomas Tew rum. Their goal was to recreate the rum that had been famous 250 years ago, when Rhode Island had had a thriving rum industry.

I was nose deep into the souvenir tasting glass when the tour guide explained that the owners visited the archives to research traditional distillation methods and recipes. These beer guys used the archives to make rum?

To find out more, I called the brewery and spoke to Brent Ryan. The interest in rum was not out of the blue; residents of Newport have a general awareness of the city’s historic rum trade. When Mr. Ryan and his colleagues started asking for specific details, though, nobody seemed to know much. Despite this, they decided to pursue the idea anyway; after all, they already had most of the necessary equipment in the brewery. It seemed that the only remaining work was to look up the old recipes and dive right in.

Mr. Ryan and an intern began their research online, intending to research the full extent of Newport’s historic rum trade, but didn’t find much. They then headed to the library, and were soon directed to the Newport Historical Society.

At the historical society, Mr. Ryan expected to find one or two books that described the rum trade and distillation process – perhaps rare volumes that only the librarian knew about. He expected the hard work to comprise tracking down citations and sources.

Instead, he and the intern found that their question was new! Nobody had previously researched Newport’s rum history, much less written a book about it. As a result, they found themselves doing original research. A lot of it.

Current rum lovers will understand why Mr. Ryan persisted throughout a nearly five month research process. Original research is difficult, but for an authentic taste of Newport’s history, there was no other option. Thomas Tew Rum exists today because of the successful relationship that Mr. Ryan developed with one of the librarians at the Newport Historical Society.

At first, he and the intern were disappointed to find that no business records survived to tell the story of Newport’s old distilleries. A lucky break, however, came from the papers of Reverend Samuel Andrew (the second president of Yale University); as it turns out, Rev. Andrew liked to research and write about topics that he personally found interesting. And one of his personal interests was rum distillation. His report was essentially a handy “how-to” manual, made more valuable because it was written from an outside perspective; the report doesn’t assume that the reader has any trade knowledge, which is exactly what Mr. Ryan and his colleagues needed.

Essentially, Thomas Tew Rum was made possible by the archives and the information professionals who helped Mr. Ryan make a meaningful connection with Newport’s history. In this case, that connection led to the recreation of a local industry in the middle of an economic recession.

I would love to hear about more businesses that have used their local (or our national, or even international) archives to expand or otherwise positively impact their company!

***

A big thanks to Brent Ryan at Coastal Extreme Brewing Company/Newport Distilling Company, who was a good sport by answering my questions. Be sure to visit their webpage, check out their brews, and like them on Facebook!

Web of Trust

Tags

information literacy, internet, ratings

When I made plans to attend DragonCon, my thoughts were on a weekend focused Doctor Who and Star Trek, not on my professional interests. Personal and professional interests tend to blur, however, and so I attended several panels focused on the promotion of critical thinking with my fellow Trekkies and Whovians.

During one of these panels, How You Can Make the Internet More Skeptical with one Mouse Click, I learned about a browser plug-in called Web of Trust (WOT). This plug-in allows one to rate the trustworthiness of a website and view the aggregate ratings of other WOT users. It is a simple, easy way for information professionals to help light the way for others, especially those who have little experience in critically evaluating the information they find on the web. Because of this, WOT seems like an ideal browser plug-in for public-use computers at libraries.