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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2007 Meeting with Cushing Library Staff 4.18.2007 REPORT TO: HISTORIC PRESERVATION COMMITTEE FROM: Anne Boykin RE: MEETING WITH CUSHING LIBRARY STAFF TAMU DATE: April 18, 2007 PRESENT: Rebecca Hankins, Certified Archivist Assistant Professor, Africana Studies Librarian Curator, TAMU Miguel Juarez, MLS Curator for Hispanic /Latino Studies Collections Valerie Davis, Reading Room, Cushing Mary Hamlin, Oral History volunteer, Project HOLD Anne Boykin, Project HOLD staff BACKGROUND: Earlier in the year, Rebecca Hankins approached me about collaborating with Cushing Library on coordinating our web sites and efforts in oral histories. Those discussions led to our placing a link on the Project HOLD home page to the Cushing Library Archives. Further discussions with Rebecca led to the meeting yesterday. WEB SITE DIFFERENCES: Cushing online archives: Listings and descriptions of their holdings. Project HOLD: Actual documents and photographs. WEB SITE COMMON ISSUES: Cushing: Search difficulties Project HOLD: Search difficulties CUSHING WEB SITE FEATURES: Novell /Groupwise software Canned searches — These are searches that have already been prepared and are listed within the links on the search page Listed with TARO — Texas Archival Resources Online; This is a paid site. We might reap some benefits indirectly from their listing. However, I will look into a listing for us. ORAL HISTORY DISCUSSIONS: Rebecca and Miguel are very interested in working with us to coordinate our lists of oral history interviews. Three areas of focus are evident: African American, Hispanic and "everyone else ". In the coming months, we will most likely concentrate on the first two groups with the exception of placing those who are elderly as a top priority. Cushing will obviously be more interested in those with A &M backgrounds where our interest is more in the community. This makes for a perfect coordination. WEB SITE DISCUSSIONS: We all agreed that both sites have difficulty with searches. The Cushing site is a bit more difficult to navigate. The information templates on Project HOLD are self - explanatory but do not necessarily follow a standardized library template. However, considering our clientele, the templates we use are good for all ages and levels of expertise. Cushing uses a standard form similar to Library of Congress cataloging. Most university students and personnel are familiar with this form. The Cushing folks liked our folders and the way they are classified. They were very complimentary of the site and asked if there are other websites out there like ours. We are not aware of any. DIRECT BENEFITS OF MEETING: • Miguel stated that they use student interns to transcribe all of their oral history interviews. He told us that they would be glad to put our cassettes (possibly our digitals, as well) in the works to be transcribed. • Rebecca has placed a link to Project HOLD within the text of her Africana Studies web page. She will do the same on Miguel's Hispanic /Latino Studies page. • Miguel suggested that they participate in providing speakers for our Exploring History Lunch Lectures. He has agreed to speak sometime in the future on his "Siempre" exhibit concerning local Hispanic community members. ♦ Oral History Team member, Mary Hamlin, will be meeting with Miguel today, April 23, to further prepare their list of interview candidates.