Sierra Club’s Colby Library

SJSU SAASC welcomed spring with our April event, which highlighted the Special Collections at the Sierra Club’s William E. Colby Library. Archivist Joanna Black shared her wealth of knowledge regarding the historic club that was founded in the Bay Area in 1892. In 1901, a member named William E. Colby initiated yearly club camp outings. This successfully brought in a high number of new members, igniting a fire for recreation and collaboration. In the early ’50s, David Brower became the first executive chief of the Sierra Club. His coffee table photography book series, advertisements, and collectible coupons brought about attention from people unfamiliar with the club. The nature appreciation brought by Colby and the activist energy brought by Brower both remain to this day.

In 1958, a collaboration was made between the Sierra Club and UC Berkeley. The Sierra Club Archives is at Berkeley’s Bancroft Library, and houses archival materials and records that are too large for the Colby Library to store. The Colby Library’s collections include magazine publications, photographs, slideshows, oral histories, artwork, scrapbooks, and videos. Since its origin, the Sierra Club actually had a small library for members to research mountaineering, skiing, and hiking. However, the library’s purpose has shifted in the last 30 years. The preservation of existing collections and the usage of reference services to learn about the library’s history have replaced recreational topics.

Archivist Joanna Black was hired in 2018 and has accomplished an extensive amount of work with Colby Library’s non-bibliographic work, specifically their Special Collections. Here is a link to one of their most valuable pieces that became fully digitized: https://www.sierraclub.org/library/1928-high-trip-photo-album. This rare photography book showcases gorgeous pictures of the Canadian Rockies, and was a gift from photographer Ansel Adams to William Colby. Colby donated it to the library to preserve for future generations to enjoy. Digitization is a huge part of Black’s job, and she is working on making many unique photographs available for the public to view online.

Another prominent Colby Library project is “Voices of Environmental Justice”. The goal of this project is to to uplift non-white stories that were previously ignored. It was clear to see that Colby Library’s vast collection of historical artifacts is being presented and shared in a respectful manner, and that the library is serious about combating systematic racism. Black’s meeting conclusion about the Colby Library’s goal to “celebrate the accomplishments of people” is hopeful and reassuring. Her drive to continually improve the Colby Library’s impact on the world was both exciting and inspiring to witness.

UCLA Film and Television Archive

SJSU SAASC’s March event was kindly presented by archivists Mark Quigley and Todd Wiener from the UCLA Film and Television Archive. The UCLA Film and Television Archive is the second largest public repository of moving images in the United States (the first being the Library of Congress). With its impressive title, the UCLA Film and Television Archive has over 450,000 moving image holdings from motion pictures, television, and newsreels. Their presentation showcased independent collections that hope to “illuminate the art, culture, history, and work of people of color, women, and LGBTQ+ people.” Social justice and equitable representation are two chief topics that the UCLA Film and Television Archive focuses on, which was such a wonderful statement given by this prolific organization.

Since “most of the collections held at UCLA contain intellectual property that is owned by someone else, rights restrictions often do limit” what can be shown to the public and shared with documentarians and filmmakers. The archive’s media licensing division works directly with media makers to legally clear rights and consequently, provide archival footage to people who want to access it. 120 state-of-the-art vaults (some are even underground to protect nitrate film!) in Santa Clarita hold the treasures of the UCLA Film and Television Archive. The archive became part of UCLA’s library in 2019, which allowed students and community members to learn more about their meaningful work. Pre-Covid, the archive hosted public programming, screenings, symposia, and discussions at the Hammer Museum’s Billy Wilder Theater. During the pandemic, the UCLA Film and Television Archive is releasing virtual screening rooms. Their most recent online programs highlighted Asian American and Pacific Islander communities, LGBTQ+ families, and the suffrage movement. Check out www.cinema.ucla.edu if you’re interested, or if you want to access other free screenings.

The presenters also divulged staggering statistics: “50% of all films produced in the United States prior to 1950 are lost. Equally daunting, much surviving historic television now exists only on aging kinescopes and obsolete video formats.” The team therefore spends much time, energy, and resources to preserve analog films. Digital techniques are labor-intensive (frame-by-frame editing) and expensive (sometimes up to several hundred thousand dollars), yet they restore damaged and grainy moving images beautifully. Generous funding is provided by various foundations and grant agencies. Like many other archives, the UCLA Film and Television Archive is pursuing the strenuous, yet important task of preserving their collections for current and future generations to enjoy. Meeting attendees were able to watch rare clips of stories, outtakes, and trims from historically underrepresented voices.

It was clear throughout the presentation that Quigley and Wiener are passionate about their work. Their enthusiasm for uplifting groups that are often ignored was fantastic to experience. The valuable information they provided about their archive was truly a joy to learn about. SJSU SAASC uploads all of our Zoom meetings to our YouTube channel, so browse through to access this or previous presentations: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6puQeiFF-J6KuRc6_2WQcQ.

Image Attribution: A kinescope at the Canada Museum of Science & Technology in Ottawa. Peter Lindell, Canada Science and Technology Museum, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

A4BliP: Archivists for Black Lives in Philadelphia

In 2013, the Black Lives Matter organization was established to bring to the forefront the excruciating injustices Black people around the world repeatedly experience. Eight years later, there has simultaneously been both wonderful progress, and a desperate need for continual education and empathy. On February 22nd, 2021, two members of A4BLiP, whose acronym stands for: Archives for Black Lives in Philadelphia, discussed their ongoing efforts for the Black Lives Matter movement.

A4BLiP was born in 2017, and their mission is to stop the erasure and systematic oppression of Black lives within American archives. They are a volunteer-run group of information professionals fighting against racist systems and descriptions within archival work. Archivists Beaudry Allen (Villanova University) and Faith Charlton (Princeton University) gave SJSU students an important presentation, in hopes of spreading awareness, and advocating for better documentation and preservation of Black stories.

SAA (Society of American Archivists) surveys from 2004 and 2017 reveal that 90% of the archival profession is white. Allen explained that A4BLiP “largely seek[s] to push white archivists to deconstruct white supremacy in the archives and within the profession.” A4BLiP’s values statement, mission statement, and call to action can be found here: https://github.com/a4blip/A4BLiP. Their three core pillars involve collecting, supporting, and lifting up Black history narratives, working to make the archival space more inclusive, and increasing knowledge about police records.

To address issues in metadata, A4BLiP has created the Anti-Racist Description Resources document: https://archivesforblacklives.files.wordpress.com/2020/11/ardr_202010.pdf. As part of the resource development, the group sought out feedback from Black archivists, and compensated them for their work and time by raising funds through a GoFundMe campaign. Their recommendations include unlearning a “neutral” tone, expanding to a larger, more diverse audience, citing the correct names for records creators, making clear distinctions between the institution’s/archivist’s voice and the voice of the original records creator, avoiding terms that are harmful to the people they describe, and in general, being more transparent, honest, and compassionate when encountering Black records.

One does not have to be living in Philadelphia to participate in A4BLiP! As MLIS students and information professionals, we can all do more to elevate the often unacknowledged Black contributions in historical records, in addition to the contributions from other silenced and underrepresented groups. SJSU SAASC truly thanks Beaudry Allen and Faith Charlton for their edifying and informative discussion. Please check out this incredible team’s website at https://archivesforblacklives.wordpress.com/.

You can watch the presentation on our Event and Recordings Archive or on our YouTube channel.

Welcome to Spring!

Spring greetings to all SAASC members and iSchool MLIS & MARA students. The Spring semester is in full swing and we already have plenty to talk about!

We are barely four weeks in and our vice-chair, Samantha Hamilton, has put on two great virtual events! In case you missed it: January’s presentation on the Walt Disney Archives (use the Contact form to request access to the recording) and February’s presentation on A4BLiP – Archives for Black Lives Philadelphia (recording to be posted soon).

And we’ve already scheduled the rest of the events for Spring. Check out our calendar for more info and registration links. Our goal is to bring you first-hand presentations of all types of archival environments: corporate, academic, and non-profit as well as collaborations between archival professionals. On the professional development front, we will be hosting the Academy of Certified Archivists in May to help those of you preparing to take the ACA exam this year.

In other news, we’ve got a new addition to the team, Sara Wang! Sara will be taking over as Blog Editor for the Spring semester. You’ll see her first post soon, and if you would like to work with her on a guest blog post, you can reach her via the Canvas group, or send a message via our Contact form.

If you are new to SAASC or new to iSchool, I recommend watching a couple of the other February meetings: the iSchool Student Group Meet & Greet to learn about all the MLIS/MARA-related student groups and the SAASC Spring Member Update.

We’ve got great things planned for you this semester, but most importantly, we need your help to keep momentum going into the Fall 2021/Spring 2022 term. We will be holding elections for all SAASC board positions in April: Chair, Vice-Chair, Secretary, Social Media Coordinator, Webmaster, Blog Editor, and a new role, Membership Director. Stay tuned for more information on each role, the nomination process, and key dates for nominations and voting.

Joining a student group like SAASC in a leadership role is a great way to build meaningful relationships with your fellow students, learn more about your profession, develop collaboration and presentation skills, and create evidence for your ePortfolio. I can’t recommend it enough based on my own experiences as SAASC Chair. Again, you can reach out to us in the Contact form if you can’t wait for more info to be posted and you want to nominate yourself now.

Good luck to everyone this semester, whether you are just starting or deep into your ePortfolio or somewhere in between. The SAASC team looks forward to assisting you in any way we can and making your semester enjoyable.

Alison Quirion, 2020/2021 Chair