Washington, D.C.-area archivists are opening their doors to DC 2010 attendees on Tuesday, August 10, and Wednesday, August 11—and they have got sights for you to see! Arrive early for the conference and take a walk in the basilica, the largest Roman Catholic Church in the United States. Stroll through the Eliot Elisofon Photographic Archives collections of stereographs and lantern slides. Or tour the Library of Congress’ new state-of-the-art Collections Recovery Room. For a complete list of scheduled repository tours and open houses, see below. Transportation is on your own. Please contact the facilities directly for scheduling and for answers to your questions.
Address: Ford House Office Building
2nd/3rd & D Streets SW
Washington, DC
When: August 10, 10 a.m.
Details: Tour; 10 people maximum; pre-registration required
About: The Architect of the Capitol’s Records Management Branch preserves and provides access to the historical records of its agency. The AOC Archives is the repository for 19th-century manuscript records and non-current 20th and 21st-century construction, renovation, and administrative files. Records date largely from the 1850s to present, and include such national treasures as Thomas U. Walter’s original plans for the existing Capitol Dome and the Frederick Law Olmsted designs for the Capitol Grounds. The repository holds more than 150,000 architectural drawings and more than 5,000 linear feet of textual records.
Contact: Andria Field, www.aoc.gov
Address: 101 Aquinas Hall
620 Michigan Ave., NE
Washington, DC 20064
When: August 10, 9:00 a.m. to Noon
Details: Tour; 12 people per group; pre-registration required
About: The Catholic University Archives will host a tour of its reading room and closed stacks, followed by a trip to the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception where a trained guide will give a tour of the basilica, the largest Roman Catholic Church in the United States.
Contact: Maria Mazzenga, http://libraries.cua.edu/achrcua/index.html
Address: 201 East Capitol St., SE
Washington, DC 20003
When: August 10, 10:00 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. and August 11, 10:00 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.
Details: Tour; 15 people per group; pre-registration not required
About: Stop by to view archival materials associated with the David Garrick Collection (1717-1779). Garrick was the premier tragic actor in 18th-century England and the first promoter of Shakespeare as a theatrical icon. The Folger is home to hundreds of items related to Garrick and his career, including promptbooks, letters, original scripts, porcelain figurines, and art work.
Contact: Georgianna Ziegler, www.folger.edu
Address: Thomas Jefferson Building, LJ-G49
101 Independence Ave, SE
Washington, DC 20540
When: August 10, 3:00 p.m. and 4:00 p.m.
Details: Tour; 25 people per group; register in advance
About: The 20th century has been called the age of documentation, and folklorists and other ethnographers then and now have taken advantage of each succeeding technology, from Thomas Edison's wax-cylinder recording machine, invented in 1877, to the latest digital audio equipment in order to record the voices and music of many regional, ethnic, and cultural groups worldwide. Much of this documentation has been assembled and preserved in the Archive of Folk Culture, created in 1928.
Contact: folklife@loc.gov, www.loc.gov/folklife
Address: James Madison Memorial Building, Rm. 109
101 Independence Ave., SE
Washington, DC 20540
When: August 10, 3:30 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.
Details: Open house; up to 25 people; pre-registration not required
About: The nation’s largest oral history project, the Veterans History Project (VHP), holds 68,000 first-hand accounts of veterans from World War I through Iraq and Afghanistan. Created by Congress in 2000, VHP resides within the Library’s American Folklife Center, and works with folklorists, community organizations, members of Congress, and volunteers to collect the oral histories, letters, photographs, artwork, and home movie footage of veterans. See collections, meet members of the processing and acquisitions teams, and watch excerpts of oral history.
Contact: vohp@loc.gov, www.loc.gov/vets
Address: Jefferson Building, LJ-150
101 Independence Ave., SE
Washington, DC 20540
When: August 10, 8:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m., and August 11, 8:00 a.m. to Noon
Details: Tour; 25 people per group; pre-registration not required
About: With collections of more than one million volumes, the Asian Division at the Library of Congress is the largest repository of Asian vernacular language materials outside of Asia. These materials reflect a broad range of subjects and include titles from East, South, and Southeast Asia, as well as Asian American and Pacific Islander materials.
Contact: Peter Young, www.loc.gov/rr/asian
Address: James Madison Building, LM 102
101 Independence Ave., SE
Washington, DC 20540
When: August 10, 3:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. and 4:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.
Details: Tour; 10 people per tour; register in advance
About: Visit the Manuscript Division for a behind-the-scenes look at its facilities and operations. The division is home to the papers of 23 presidents, as well as the repository of personal papers and records of notable Americans and organizations from the country’s founding to the present. Take a look at its work areas and Reading Room for a first-hand account of how these treasures are acquired, processed, and made available to the public.
Contact: Allan Teichroew, www.loc.gov/rr/mss
Address: Madison Building, LMG-38 (Blue Corridor)
101 Independence Ave., SE
Washington, DC 20540
(Capitol South subway stop)
When: August 10, 10:00 a.m.; 1:30 p.m.; 3:00 p.m.
Details: Tour; 15 people per group (total of 45); pre-registration required
About: This tour provides an overview of a full range of services undertaken by the LC Preservation Directorate, with special focus on its Conservation and Research Divisions’ dozen scientists and 47 conservation technicians and conservators who protect the Library’s 144 million items including 66 million manuscripts and 14 million photographs. Services include evaluations and condition assessments, custom housing, treatments, preparations so the collections may be moved to offsite high density storage, stabilization for exhibits and for digitization, emergency salvage and recovery, building specification analysis, and research. Visitors will see hands-on treatments of rare collections items, problem solving, and many significant preventive actions from monitoring and analyzing Library storage and exhibit environments to the steps involved in planning building renovations and new buildings. Visitors will also view the Library’s new Collections Recovery Room, used to recover items that have experienced collections emergencies such as leaks or mold, as well as the Library's new science laboratories.
Contact: Diane Vogt-O’Connor, www.loc.gov/preserv
Address: Madison Building, LM 337
101 Independence Ave., SE
Washington, DC 20540
When: August 11, 10:00 a.m. to Noon
Details: Open house; no limit on attendance
About: The open house will focus on a display of visual materials (photographs, cartoons, posters, fine art prints, and architectural drawings) that represent creative solutions for both researcher access and preservation. The Library of Congress Prints & Photographs Division is the national picture collection for the United States. The collections number more than 14 million items. Its scope is international, with a special emphasis on the lives, interests, and achievements of the American people.
Contact: Helena Zinkham, www.loc.gov/rr/print
Address: James Madison Building, LM-113
101 Independence Ave., SE
Washington, DC 20540
When: August 11, 10:00 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.
Details: Tour; 30 people per group (tours split into two groups of 15); register in advance
About: The Performing Arts Reading Room is the access point for the vast and diverse collections in the custody of the Music Division at the Library of Congress, with approximately 20.5 million items that span more than 1,000 years of Western music history and practice. Holdings include the classified music and book collections, music and literary manuscripts, periodicals, musical instruments, published and unpublished copyright deposits, and close to 500 special collections in music, theater, and dance. The Recorded Sound Reference Center provides access to the nation’s largest public collection of sound recordings containing music, spoken word, and radio broadcasts, nearly 3 million recordings in all. More than 110 years of sound recording history is represented in nearly every audio format, from cylinders to CDs, covering a wide range of subjects and genres. The holdings complement the field recordings of the American Folklife Center and the moving image collections served in the Motion Picture and Television Reading Room.
Contact: Karen Fishman, Dee Gallo, www.loc.gov/rr/perform, www.loc.gov/rr/record
Address: 300 E St, SW, Washington, DC
When: August 10
1st tour: 1 p.m.
2nd tour: 2 p.m.
Details: Tour; 10 people per group; pre-registration required
Foreign nationals must register two weeks in advance to gain entry to this government building. Everyone must bring picture ID. Allow for extra time in advance of the tour because of security checks entering the building. All visitors must pass through a metal detector and have their belongings screened by an x‑ray machine.
About: The NASA History Program has had strong support since the establishment of the space agency in 1958. The Headquarters History Office maintains a nearly 2000 cubic foot archive collection, has a strong publications program, and hosts an occasional historical conference. The archive collection consists of subject files, biographical files, and a small audiovisual collection documenting NASA’s rich history.
Contact: Jane H. Odom, http://history.nasa.gov
Address: One Physics Ellipse
College Park, MD 20740
When: August 11, 3:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.
Details: Tour; pre-registration not required
About: The Library & Archives serves as an international clearinghouse for information and an advocate for preserving the history of physics, astronomy, geophysics, and allied fields. In-house holdings include a collection of textbooks, monographs, biographies, and related publications, dating mostly from ca. 1850 to 1950. Also available are more than 30,000 photographs and other images; ca. 1,500 oral histories; and archival records of AIP and its member societies.
Contact: nbl@aip.org, www.aip.org/history
Address: Research and Scholars Center
750 Ninth Street, NW, Suite 3100
Washington, DC 20001
When: August 10, 3:00 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Details: Open house; 25-person limit; register in advance
About: Come see selections from the museum’s extensive Photograph Archives, comprising more than one-half million images documenting American art and the American art scene from Colonial to Contemporary times. Highlights from the Peter A. Juley and Son Collection, the National Endowment for the Arts Visual Artists Archive, and the American Sculpture Study Collection will be on display. Learn about our efforts to document America’s cultural heritage through the Inventories of American Painting and Sculpture databases and Save Outdoor Sculpture project. Get tips from our knowledgeable Ask Joan of Art reference staff for researching art works in your own collections.
Contact: Christine Hennessey, www.americanart.si.edu/research
Foundational courses focus on the essential skills that archivists need to manage digital archives. They focus primarily, but not exclusively, on the needs of practitioners (i.e., archivists who are or will be working directly with electronic records). These courses present information that an archivist might implement in the next year.
| Courses | Format | Archivist Audiences | Other Audiences |
| Appraisal of Digital Records | 1-day | Practitioner | Records Manager |
| Arrangement and Description of Digital Records: Part 1 | 1-day | Practitioner, Manager, Administrator | Librarian; Museum Professional |
| Basics of Managing Digital Records | Web | Practitioner, Manager | Librarian, Museum Professional, Legal Professional, Records Manager |
| Digital Curation: Fundamentals for Success | 1-day | Practitioner, Manager, Administrator | Librarian; Museum Professional |
| Digital Forensics: Fundamentals | 1-day | Practitioner, Manager, Administrator | Librarian, Museum Professional, Legal Professional, Records Manager |
| Digital Preservation of Audio and Video: Fundamentals | Web | Practitioner, Manager | Librarian, Museum Professional |
| Introduction to Email Preservation | Web | Practitioner | Records Manager |
| Introduction to Processing Digital Records and Manuscripts | Web | Practitioner, Manager | Librarian, Museum Professional, Records Manager |
| Metadata Overview for Archivists | Web | Practitioner | Librarian, Museum Professional, Records Manager |
| Standards for Digital Archives | Web | Practitioner, Manager, Administrator | IT Professional, Legal Professional |
| Thinking Digital | Web | Practitioner, Manager | Librarian, Museum Professional, Records Manager |
| Web Archiving Fundamentals | Web | Practitioner, Manager | Librarian, Museum Professional, Records Manager, IT Professional |
Address: 600 Maryland Ave., SW, Suite 3000
Washington, DC 20024
When: August 10, 10:00 a.m. to 11:30 a.m., or 1:00 p.m. to 2:30 p.m.
Details: Tour; 10 people per tour; register in advance
About: See highlights from the SIA collections, including James Smithson's will, architectural drawings, images, correspondence, and others that document Smithsonian's history. Attendees will tour SIA's state-of-the-art collections storage facility and its preservation and conservation labs.
Contact: Tammy Peters, http://siarchives.si.edu
Tactical and Strategic Courses focus on the skills that archivists need to make significant changes in their organizations so that they can develop a digital archives and work seriously on managing electronic records. They focus primarily, but not exclusively, on the needs of managers (i.e., those archivists who manage other professionals and who oversee programmatic operations). These courses present information that an archivist might implement in the next five years.
| Courses | Format | Archivist Audiences | Other Audiences |
| Accessioning and Ingest of Digital Records | 1-day | Practitioner, Manager | Librarian, IT Professional |
| Arrangement and Description of Digital Records: Part 2 | 1-day | Practitioner, Manager | Librarian, Museum Professional, Records Manager |
| Building Advocacy and Support for Digital Archives | 1-day | Manager | Librarian, Museum Professional, Records Manager |
| Copyright Issues for Digital Archives | 1-day | Practitioner, Manager, Administrator | IT Professional, Records Manager |
| Developing Specifications and RFPs | 1-day | Manager | IT Professional, Legal Professional, Records Manager |
| Digital Archives and Libraries | 1-day | Manager | Librarian; Museum Professional |
| Digital Records—The Next Step | Web | Practitioner, Manager | Librarian, Museum Professional, Records Manager |
| Digital Repositories | 1-day | Practitioner, Manager | |
| Preserving Digital Archives | 1-day | Practitioner, Manager | Librarian, Museum Professional, IT Professional, Records Manager |
| Privacy and Confidentiality Issues in Digital Archives | 1-day | Practitioner, Manager, Administrator | IT Professional, Records Manager |
| Providing Access to Digital Archives | Web/half-day | Practitioner, Manager | Librarian, Museum Professional |
Tools & Services courses focus on specific tools and services that archivists need to use for their work with digital archives. They are practical courses focused on specific software products and other tools and they focus primarily, but not exclusively, on the needs of practitioner archivists. These courses present information that an archivist could implement immediately.
| Courses | Format | Archivist Audiences | Other Audiences |
| Archival Collections Management Systems | Web | Practitioner | IT Professional, Librarian, Records Manager |
| Command Line Interface | 1-day | Practitioner, Manager | Museum Professional, Records Manager |
| Crosswalking Metadata | 1-day | Practitioner, Manager | Librarian, Museum Professional, |
| Digital Forensics: Advanced | 2-day | Administrator | IT Professional, Legal Professional, Records Manager, Librarian |
| Fundamentals of Research Data Curation | Web | Practictioner, Manager | |
| Preservation Formats in the Context of PDF | Web | Practitioner, Manager | Librarian, Museum Professional, Records |
| Tool Selection and Management | 1-day | Practitioner, Manager | IT Professional |
Transformational courses focus on the skills that archivists need to change their working lives dramatically and transform their institutions into full-fledged digital archives. They focus primarily, but not exclusively, on the needs of administrators (i.e., those archivists with oversight over the entire archival enterprise of an institution). These courses present information that an archivist might implement over the course of the next 10 years.
| Courses | Format | Archivist Audiences | Other Audiences |
| Assessment and Certification of Digital Repositories | Web | Administrator, Manager | IT Professional |
| Digital Curation Planning and Sustainable Futures | 1-day | Administrator | IT Professional, Librarian, Museum Professional, Records Manager |
| Managing Digital Records in Archives and Special Collections | 1-day | Manager | |
| Tool Integration: From Pre-SIP to DIP | 1-day | Practitioner, Manager | |
| User Experience Design and Digital Archives | Web | Practitioner, Manager | Librarian, IT Professional |
Address: 750 9th Street, NW
Washington, DC 20560
When: August 10, 2:00 p.m. to 3:30 p.m.
Details: Tour; 20-person limit; pre-registration not required
About: Join a tour and discussion of the Archives of American Art’s Collections Online—a web interface that provides user-friendly and contextual access to fully digitized archival collections. Using an archival approach rather than a curatorial approach, the Archives has been able to digitize 100 individual collections represented in more than 500 linear feet and totaling circa one million digital files as part of its Terra Foundation for American Art Digitization Program. The interface provides users with a virtual reading room experience by presenting the collection online in the same order as it is physically and intellectually arranged. It takes advantage of the descriptive information found in EAD finding aids and repurposes that data to create file directories, descriptive metadata, and online contextual navigation. The tour will cover workflow and scanning efficiencies, technical infrastructure, equipment, and the building of the online interface.
Contact: Barbara Aikens, www.aaa.si.edu
Address: Sackler Gallery Ground Entrance
1050 Independence Ave., SW
Washington, DC 20013
When: August 10, 10:30 a.m. to 11:20 a.m.
Details: Tour; 12 people per group; pre-registration required
About: The tour offers an in-depth look at the Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives, the Smithsonian’s museums of Asian art. Highlights include projects that have conservation and 3D digital components. Visitors can view collections of archaeologists, collectors, and scholars of Asian art, and take part in an informal discussion on the trials and successes as part of a museum that is part of a larger institution.
Contact: Rachael Cristine Woody, www.asia.si.edu/visitor/archives.htm
Address: National Museum of African Art, Rm. 2140
950 Independence Ave., SW
Washington, DC 20560
When: August 10, 2:00 p.m. to 3:30 p.m.
Details: Tour; 15 to 20 people per group; register in advance
About: The Eliot Elisofon Photographic Archives, National Museum of African Art, is a research and reference center devoted to the collection, preservation, and dissemination of visual materials that support the study of the arts, cultures, and history of Africa. The archives collections contain approximately 300,000 items, including rare collections of glass plate negatives, lantern slides, stereographs, postcards, maps, and engravings.
Contact: Amy Staples, http://africa.si.edu/research/archives.html, http://sirismm.si.edu/siris/eepatop.htm
Address: 1400 Constitution Ave. NW
Washington, DC 20227
When: August 13, 7:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. (During the All-Attendee Reception)
Details: Open house; pre-registration not required
About: The Reference and Conference Room will be open to view highlighted collections. Staff will be available to provide information on the collections and answer questions.
Contact: Marisa Kritikson
Address: Victor Building
750 9th St., NW, Concourse Level, C700
Washington, DC 20001
When: August 10, 3:00 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Details: Open House; 50 people per group; pre-registration not required
About: The Center for Electronic Research and Outreach Services (CEROS) comprises reference and online programs for the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery (NPG). Services available for the public include the NPG Collections Information System, the Catalog of American Portraits (CAP), an archives documenting nearly 200,000 portraits in the United States and abroad, and the NPG website collection search program for NPG/CAP collections. A variety of portrait archival materials and photographs will be on display.
Contact: Linda Thrift, www.npg.si.edu
Address: 3450 Massachusetts Ave. NW
Washington, DC 20392
When: August 11, 10 a.m. Allow for extra time in advance of the tour because of security checks entering the grounds.
Details: Tour; 25 people per group; pre-registration required
About: The James M. Gilliss library staff will host a tour of its reading room and a visit to a telescope. The library is the largest astronomy library in the United States.
Contact: Sally Bosken, www.usno.navy.mil/USNO/library