Archiving: Writing to Preserve Writing
Have you ever wondered where you could find gardening tips from the 1490s? Or where you might learn how people pruned roses in the 1800s? Odds are, you probably have not, unless you happen to be a fanatic gardener. Nevertheless, this information may be found at the Eleanor Squire Library. This library, housed by the Cleveland Botanical Gardens, is a special library containing over 17,000 volumes of written information regarding horticulture. (http://www.cbgarden.org/Learn/Library.html) With such an extensive collection on this topic, one might wonder how the books are organized and kept track of. This is where the resident librarian, Mr. Gary Esmonde, steps in. Along with the support of the Botanical Garden staff, Mr. Esmonde manages the collection. He has also been working to update the archive, deciding what to preserve and why, while simultaneously “weeding out” unnecessary materials. How does he accomplish this task? Writing plays a critical role in the process. Writing preserves the meaning of the works by making them “accessible” both literally and metaphorically, helping to secure their places in the historical and educational realms.
In order to understand how people archive, it is important to examine why people archive. Archiving serves two main purposes: to provide a historical record of events related to a specific topic or institution, and to create a store of information to be used for research and educational purposes. The Cleveland Orchestra, for example, keeps track of agendas from past meetings, financial records, and other institutional documents that might need to be privately referenced (according to a special presentation given on Monday for some of the SAGES students). Similarly, the Cleveland Botanical Gardens has decided to create an archive which would include documents regarding the founding of their institution. Archiving provides a collective written history which may be learned from, allowing past actions to be examined and to influence future decision-making.
In a more general sense, archiving also extends the life of past writings, by making these writings available for future audiences to view. According to Graff and Birkenstein in They Say/I Say, all writing is part of an ongoing conversation. Without an audience to read a piece of writing, however, the author is carrying on a conversation with himself. After all, in order for a piece of writing to be read, it must be located. Archivists help to ensure that written works are not forgotten by labeling and storing them so that they may be located by interested readers. Thus, archiving is essential in helping to maintain the meaning of a work, allowing it to be accessed and evaluated for years to come.
Perhaps the importance of archiving can best be seen by examining what happens when writing is mismanaged. Without carefully labeled and maintained records of collections, artifacts may be lost or impossible to find. In other cases, without the proper paperwork, the caretaker may not know what the collections contain. When artifacts are stored in boxes, no one can view them, and thus they lose their value as a teaching tool for others. One example of this occurred at the Botanical Gardens, when workers sorting through boxes came across a series of pictures of Victorian rose gardens. According to Mr. Edmonde, although one professor at Case inquired about these pictures, they cannot be used for public display without first being properly classified and accounted for. Art and composition are meant to enlighten an audience, but a cardboard box is not a good audience!
Consequently, writing is essential in maintaining an effective archive. One of the most obvious ways that it is used is to create labels for archived materials. The archivist at the Botanical Gardens mentioned that he must create “signage” that instructs browsers as to the books that may be found on each shelf, as well as stickers for individual boxes housing old magazines. Furthermore, the Eleanor Squire Library utilizes the Library of Congress system to categorize books, based on the topic of the work. Converting from the old cataloguing system to this one has required a great deal of writing, as the books must be individually re-labeled and accounted for within the database. (This project is a lengthy one, and has been taking place since December 2003!) These labels are examples of writing that helps to distinguish between materials as one physically navigates the collection.
Writing is also used to create ways for one to navigate the collection on paper. A “pathfinder,” for example, explains the organization of the materials in writing. It serves as a sort of map to the archives, allowing one to identify the location of the specific book that they are looking for, without having to blindly hunt it down. Additionally, online databases including a written description of each book’s title, author, and subject, providing assistance as individuals attempt to search for these works. At the Botanical Gardens, Mr. Edmonde also stated that databases connecting libraries through writing are “great resources,” which make written works more accessible to a larger audience. Thus, writing helps archivists to more efficiently organize and keep track of the materials in the collection, while aiding those who would read them. Written descriptions of the collections help to explain artifacts and to put them in context, presenting them in a user-friendly way to be viewed and understood by the audiences of today.
The writing done by archivists thus plays a crucial role in helping artifacts to maintain their value, while allowing them to be utilized for years to come – which is, after all, one’s hope in saving anything. Right?
Link for Kelvin Smith Library's collections: an online database serving as a virtual "archive" which describes the written works stored there http://library.case.edu/ksl/collections/
*Many thanks to the professionals of the surrounding University Circle Institutions for their assistance with this entry
*Pictures courtesy of:
http://www.mooseyscountrygarden.com/gardening-books/gardening-books.jpg and http://www.nurserysite.com/clubs/peninsular/bauer/ images/Tournament_of_Roses_JPG.jpg
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