Save the Bits!

Today, 1010, has been designated by the Council of State Archivists as Electronic Records Day to raise awareness about the challenges in preserving our digital resources. This gives me the opportunity to share with you some information from my professional life that can be useful if you are trying to preserve your own digital memories.

Image from the Library of Congress' National Digital Preservation Program.

How to Preserve Your Own Digital Materials: http://www.digitalpreservation.gov/personalarchiving/
Handouts from the North Carolina State Archives: http://ncrecords.wordpress.com/2012/10/10/happy-electronic-records-day/
Born Digital for Those Born Analog: http://hangingtogether.org/?p=2158
Personal Digital Archives: http://personaldigitalarchives.blogspot.com/
The Practical Archivist: http://practicalarchivist.com/ 
Caring for your Family Archives: http://www.archives.gov/preservation/family-archives/

Check in with the Day of Digital Archives (10/12, this year): http://dayofdigitalarchives.blogspot.com/

If you are an archivist, librarian, or dedicated family historian and want to explore digital archives further, you can check out the Archivists and Records Managers Blog links provided by L'Archivista (scroll down).

And just for fun: a video of the earliest surviving copyrighted motion picture, the Edison Kinetoscopic Record of Fred Ott's Sneeze

Gettysburg Address

148 years ago, Abraham Lincoln stood at the cemetery at Gettysburg and gave his most famous speech. 13 years ago, I took my first professional job as an archivist. Among the many experiences I've had, being able to hold this copy of the Gettysburg Address in my hands and share it with visitors to the archives ranks at the top.

I am thankful to be in my profession, which is endlessly fascinating.

On Libraries

Two articles about libraries came to my attention today. The first brings some joy.

4 Reasons Why the Library Should Affect Your College Choice

The second makes me see red and purple.

Libraries fading as school budget crisis deepens

The second is particularly maddening since public libraries are also suffering deep cuts in staff and hours, making access to information and resources even more difficult. Grr.

National Library Week

This week is the ALA sponsored National Library Week. In honor of this, Booking Through Thursday, a weekly meme about books and reading, asks: How often do you use your public library and how do you use it? Has the coffeehouse/bookstore replaced the library? Did you go to the library as a child? Do you have any particular memories of the library? Do you like sleek, modern, active libraries or the older, darker, quiet, cozy libraries?

Unfortunately, I don't use the public library as often as I should. Mostly I use it to check out books on tape or to stock up on light reading when I'm going on vacation. The last time I used it, I checked out some baby name books.

I don't believe the coffeehouse or bookstore has replaced the library. They offer different services than libraries do. Most coffeehouses don't offer books, for instance. I've seen articles recently showing that usage of public libraries is up due to the economy. As people continue to look for ways to cut costs, I think being able to obtain books and access to the Internet for free will continue to draw patrons into their local libraries.

As a child I used my school library a lot. I don't think I went to a public library regularly until I was in middle school. Once I conquered reading and really began zooming through books, my local public library became my favorite place to go. I used it a lot through middle and high school.

I prefer well-lit traditional libraries, with comfy chairs and all of that. I'm not one who ever really studied in the library, unless I was doing something with a group, so I also don't think that they need to be as quiet as a tomb, either. I'm really excited about this project at my alma mater and hope that they will obtain the funds needed to complete the transformation from stark office space back to cozy reading room, especially since the existing "reading room" is now used almost exclusively as a lecture space.

Finally, as someone who is trained as a librarian, I'd like to mention the librarians who influenced me over the years. I think meeting Mrs. Miller, the school librarian, when I was in 4th grade put me on course to going to library school many years later. She probably more than anyone else influenced me to become a reader. She was followed by Ms. Blair in middle school and Mrs. K. (Kelter? Keltzer?) in high school. Nearly everyone remembers Bruce at my alma mater, the most amazing reference librarian I've ever met. And then Margery, the college archivist who hired me one summer. I worked for her for 3.5 years and then went off eventually to library school so I could follow in her footsteps.

How have libraries and librarians influenced your life?