Starting today the Museum Security Network mailinglist will be closed
in it’s present form. From now on this list will be restricted to
security related information. The Museum Security Network website will stay on line. A new list has been set up: the Cultural Property
Protection Net mailinglist. This list will be aimed at all non-security related information, most of which did already reach you the past six years via the Museum Security Network Mailinglist. A new
domain has been registered: http://www.cpprot.net/
Kategorie: English Corner
United Kingdom: The National Archives
On April 2 2003, the Public Record Office (PRO) and the Historical Manuscripts Commission (HMC) joined together to form a new organisation: The National Archives. Both PRO and HMC already provide advice to records managers in central and local government and archivists in public and private archives on a wide range of archival issues. The combined expertise of PRO and HMC will provide a central
body of advice and expertise on important archival issues, in particular, electronic records management, conservation and digital preservation. [Information Law Weblog]
Misssionary Collections in the UK
The Mundus Gateway is a web-based guide to more than four hundred collections of overseas missionary materials
held in the United Kingdom. These materials, comprising the archives of British missionary societies, collections of personal papers, printed matter, photographs, other visual materials and artefacts, are held in a large number of
libraries, record offices and other institutions in England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. The Mundus Gateway makes it easier for researchers to locate these collections and obtain sufficient information about their contents to enable effective planning of research visits. With a helpful link list. [via Ethno::log]
Feedster – a great RSS Feed Search Engine
Feedster is a search engine for what is called an “RSS Feed”. An RSS Feed is an XML tagged file which allows a website, news site or blog (actually any site) to provide to the world a list of its current contents. RSS feeds can contain all kinds of information from news to blog / weblog posts to stock quotes and more.
An RSS feed is generally not read in a web browser like a web page. Instead a special piece of software called a “News Aggregator” like Net News Wire or AmphetaDesk or Newsgator is used. What these products do is enable viewing of multiple RSS feeds in an easy fashion. If you read a lot of information on the web or like to keep up with things, you should definitely look into a News Aggregator. (About Feedster)
LISFeeds – Library ‘Blogs
Library ‘Blogs – Blake Carver and Steven M. Cohen have teamed up to provide LISFeeds. This is a one-stop-site for library related RSS feeds. There are about 25 sites so far. Just click on the ‘blog title in the left hand pane and read postings in the right.
[via IuW Darmstadt – Die etwas anderen Nachrichten aus Mittelerde]
The Proceedings of the Old Bailey London 1674 to 1834
A fully searchable online edition of the largest body of texts detailing the lives of non-elite people ever published, containing accounts
of over 100,000 criminal trials held at London’s central criminal court. Now available: 22,000 trials, from December 1714 to December 1759. [via Handakte Weblawg]
Core metalist of open access eprint archives
The Noam Chomsky Archive
This archive is hosted by ZNet, the web site of Z Magazine. It contains the full text to many of Chomsky’s major works, the complete audio to several important lectures, and numerous articles, interviews and speeches. ZNet also has its own article archive with over 750 articles from Z plus an extensive forum system where you can discuss issues with Chomsky, Howard Zinn, Barbara Ehrenreich, Michael Albert, and thousands of others. (Noam usually responds within a few days.)
Archiving the Medical Web
In March 2002, the Wellcome Trust and the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) awarded a contract to UKOLN to undertake a feasibility study into web archiving. Read more about this project here. Very important seems the report (79 pp. – PDF File) about “Legal issues relating to the archiving of Internet resources in the UK, EU, US and Australia” by Andrew Charlesworth, University of Bristol, Centre for IT and Law
(Version 1.0 – 25 February 2003).
Recording military history can be a challenge
A U.S. propaganda leaflet, a Baath Party armband, a military meal pouch, a battered road sign en route to Baghdad – at first glance, they may look like the ordinary debris of war, but they are also artifacts of history in the making. From the U.S. Central Command in Qatar to tank units fighting their way toward Baghdad, all the services have deployed historians to record oral histories, gather artifacts, take photographs and help
preserve significant records of Persian Gulf War II. The role of the military historian is at once strategic and
inspirational, academic and bureaucratic. The oral histories – recorded interviews – are perhaps their most important mission.
An article at Knoxnews.com. (I prefer the independent press …)
Iraq – The cradle of civilization at risk
H MUSEUM’s current focus looks from a cultural and historical perspective at present developments concerning the military conflict in Iraq.
Bibliography on archive buildings and equipment
This bibliography was compiled largely by Arnold den Teuling, with substantial contributions by
French, Hispanic and Chinese colleagues. The work formed one of the tasks set for itself by the ICA-
CBQ during the period 1996-2000. It is online available (PDF-File). A very helpful resource!
Archives and Mold: Related Web Sites and Readings
A useful webpage by the NARA. Another link list can be found here.
NB: German internet resources are provided by another entry of this weblog.
State Archive of Rome – IMAGO II Project
Online maps and images of early real property maps and other documents
of Rome. The Imago II Project in 1997-2000 scanned original documents in
the State Archive of Rome. Among the series available are: Alessandrino
Cadastre, Urban Roman Cadastre, a selection of the Gregoriano Cadastre
including the 600 most important towns of Papal State, the cartography
of the old rural Cadastre, Roman parchments, abstracts (“regesti”). Also
includes alphabetic registers of roman notaries, ancient registers of
the Tesorerie provinciali, and some precious items as the illuminated
manuscript of Liber Regulae. 5,000 digital color images of maps and
manuscripts, 25,000 of ancient maps and parchments, 100,000 greyscale
images cadastre and notarial registers. Images in jpeg format have been
masterized in about 500 CD-R while copies of images, in a MrSID format,
are on the website. Most explanatory pages in Italian. Requires one-time
free and simple registration.
[INFOMINE Alert Service]
Ohio Memory Celebrates Ohio History
In March 2003 Ohio celebrates 200 years of statehood. In celebration of the Bicentennial, the Ohio Memory Project has been working to create the Ohio Memory Online Scrapbook, available at: http://www.ohiomemory.org
Nearly 20,000 images are now available, representing 2200 collections from archives, museums, historical societies, and libraries throughout Ohio.
Materials include photographs, documents, natural history specimens, prehistoric artifacts and three-dimensional objects from 320 cultural institutions. The collections document important milestones in Ohio’s history, such as the signing of the Treaty of Greenville and the Wright Brothers’ first flight, and document the lives of Ohioans such as Thomas Edison and Annie Oakley. Other collections, such as prehistoric artifacts, handmade quilts and family letters offer glimpses into the everyday lives of
past generations of Ohioans. Ohio Memory acts as a single point of access to diverse collections, bringing together items such as the 1803 Constitution (Ohio Historical Society) and the table upon which it was signed (Ross County Historical Society).
Users can search or browse by institution name, resource type, title, subject, creator, or place. A noteworthy feature of the Ohio Memory web site is “My Scrapbook,” which allows users to store favorite items and add captions or notes, and then share with others. Featured scrapbooks on women’s history, Ohio Presidents and Business and Labor are available at: http://www.ohiomemory.org/featured.html
Administered by the Ohio Historical Society, project partners include the Ohio Public Library Information Network (OPLIN), State Library of Ohio through an Institute of Museum and Library Services LSTA grant, the Ohio Bicentennial Commission, OhioLINK, Ohio Library Council, and INFOhio.
[aus diglib-l]
Working life in England
English Heritage has introduced an online digital archive of more than 300
years of working life
(BBC News). The BBC choice of 10 pictures can be found here.
Ad fontes
Dear friends in North America,
You folks don’t need this anymore, but here’s a great website to pass on to students or other scholars on their way to their first
archival visit in the Old World. It’s a prize-winning programmed
learning project giving one practice in the use of an archive and the interpretation of sources:
http://www.adfontes.unizh.ch/
Greetings,
Steve Buckwalter (H-German)
I can highly recommend this Swiss resource on the Stiftsarchiv Einsiedeln, but it is only in German!
Collections of the Month March 2003: Iraq
Visit the UK Archives Hub to find out more about Iraq related collections in universities and colleges. The Gertrude Bell Project has digitised a lot of Iraq photographs from the beginning XXth. century.
Florida State Library – Update
See the News Digest by P. Kurilecz from March 2 (ARCHIVES Listserv) and Google News. Main entry in this weblog on the affair can be found here.
The Saddam Papers
Saddam soon will be history, writes Martin Kramer in his Weblog about the Middle East. It’s important that the United States collect and preserve as much of it as possible. I refer to the vast archives of the various arms of the Iraqi regime: the presidency of the republic, the Baath Party, the Republican Guard, the intelligence and security organizations, the ministries of foreign affairs and information, and more. If the United States establishes a military authority to run the country, it should do what the Western allies did in occupied Germany: collect and collate the archives of the enemy.
Access to Archival Databases (US)
A German State in Texas?
NEW BRAUNFELS — The German nobles who helped finance early German settlements in Texas had a secret plan to establish a foothold and then break free of the Republic of Texas, according to a German prince […]. Prince Johannes von Sachsen-Altenburg, Duke of Saxony, discovered the plan to create a German state in Texas among documents in family archives in Germany, Russia and France.
(MySanAntonio)
British Columbia Historical Photographs Online
British Columbia Historical Photographs Online contains annotated links to online historical photograph databases and galleries mounted on archival web sites in British Columbia (Canada).
ERPANET Workshop Bern: Long-term Preservation of Databases
It will be held 9-11 April. The schedule can be found here.
The workshop will cover the entire process of database preservation: selection, appraisal, preservation, description, and access. Technical solutions will occupy an important place in the workshop and archival requirements will also be addressed.
Archives and Copyright (US)
Excerpt of an answer to a question about copyright in archival practice (from the Archives Listserv):
Some suggestions:
Michael Les Benedict, “Historians and the Continuing
Controversy over Fair Use of Unpublished Manuscript
Materials,” The American Historical Review, 91 (1986),
859-881.
Kenneth D. Crews, “Fair Use of Unpublished Works:
Burdens of Proof and the Integrity of Copyright,”
Arizona State Law Journal, 31 (1999), 2-93 (the notes
in this article are very useful)
Tomas A. Lipinski, ed., Libraries, Museums, and
Archives: Legal Issues and Ethical Challenges in the
New Information Era (Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press,
2002). There is an article by Crews, and several
others that might be helpful.
I can add an important online resource which has disappeared from the net but is still in the Google cache: Peter Hirtle, Unpublished materials, new technologies, and copyright: facilitating scholarly use.
Show your solidarity and sign the Online Petition for Saving the FSL!
HURRY UP! The Online Petition about the State Library of Florida closing ends February, 28! Read more about the case here.
H-Museum News Digest
The mailing list H-MUSEUM offers a very useful weekly news digest – very interesting not only for museum professionals. From the latest US&UK-issue I give an excerpt concerning archival topics.
— February, 21
Top historian slams Vatican on archives
Israel-based Holocaust historian Robert Wistrich this week criticised the
Vatican for failing to open all its archives relating to the Second World
War conduct of Pope Pius XII, who has been accused of turning a blind eye to Nazi genocide
(Jewish Chronicle)
http://www.jchron.co.uk/
—
Historian says leaders must avoid sanitising story of communal life
The biographer of the late Sir Sidney Hamburger revealed that the communal leader had once tried to destroy papers showing what he deemed to be the less desirable aspects of Manchester Jewry
(Jewish Chronicle)
http://www.jchron.co.uk
Canadian Archival Information Network
The CAIN offers a link list of Virtual Exhibits created by archives across Canada.
The GDR in German Archives: A New Reference Guide
The German Historical Institute in Washington D.C. has just published its new up to date reference guide ‘The GDR in German Archives’. Featuring central, state, church and specialized archives as well as information on major research institutions and libraries, this publication provides a helpful first orientation and overview on sources pertaining to the history of the Soviet Zone of Occupation and the German Democratic Republic. (Download as PDF file)
Archives in Germany: An Introductory Guide to Institutions and Sources
This reference guide serves as an introduction to the German archival system and is intended as a basic orientation for a complicated field. As a basic reference tool, the guide is divided into seven main parts: state archives; church archives; business and economic archives; media archives; parliamentary, party, and association archives; university archives; and other archives. […] Each entry contains contact information, including address, phone, fax, e-mail and Web sites where applicable, business hours, names of contacts, and a brief description of holdings and further references. Very helpful for foreign visitors!