Image for the title page, "Holiday Door Contest," courtesy of the Merrick Library. This image can be found in the Merrick Historical Photographs digital collection on New York Heritage Digital Collections website. Accessed 10-28-24: https://nyheritage.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p16694coll72/id/2334/rec/128
From our sister council...Archival Education Series Free for LILRC members. Register for all classes here: https://nnyln.org/2024/08/30/36816/ Preparing for Digitization - November 7, 11:00 am, online webinar The power is in the planning! This webinar will focus on components to include in a digitization plan for your institution to ensure consistency and accuracy for your digitization program whether you do one project or many, do the work yourself or with a vendor. Participants will learn how to assess their own capabilities, make informed decisions about their digitization specifications, and prepare their physical materials for digitization. Digital Imaging - November 21, 2024, 11:00 am, online webinar Lights, camera, action! This webinar will walk participants through the process of digitizing their selected materials to create a digital surrogate. Topics to be addressed include handling material for digitization, applying desired digitization specifications, and establishing digitization workflows for different types of archival materials, including tips and tricks to get a great image. Processing Digitized Materials - December 5, 2024, 11:00 am, online webinar I have digitized materials, so now what? Creating digital files is just the beginning of the road for these new electronic records. This webinar will focus on turning your digitized files into a final product that aligns with your quality standards to be found and used. Topics include post-production (cropping, file naming, file creation), quality control measures, controlled vocabularies, and metadata creation. Storing & Maintaining Digitized Materials - December 19, 2024, 11:00 am, online webinar Digital files require ongoing maintenance to be preserved and used in the future. This webinar will focus on introducing the basics of digital preservation. Furthermore, it will take a hands-on approach to introduce resources to evaluate your resources and storage options to find a solution that will work best for your institution.
Upcoming Workshops
Long island Archives
Transcending Barriers: Opening Archives, Opening Minds
Patents, Trademarks and Where to Search: A Brief Tour of the USPTO’s New Databases Thursday, November 21st, 10:30 AM - 11:45 AM Zoom meeting: Register online at LILRC.org/events or HERE Got a great idea for an invention? Does the library patron in front of you have one? Will Salas from Smithtown Library will show you how to direct patrons to the United States Patent and Trademark Office’s new online databases, and how to get started with a patent search. Learn about the different types of intellectual property protection available and watch as Will demonstrates how to navigate the USPTO’s new databases for information. Will Salas is a United States Patent and Trademark Office USPTO accredited Patent and Trademark Resource Center PTRC Representative working out of The Smithtown Library. Basically, he helps inventors and entrepreneurs and at the last count about 1,300 of them since 2013. Free for ESLN/LILRC members; $10 for non-members, .1 CEU for attendees
November/December 2024 Volume 31 Issue 6
Long Island Archives - November/December 2024 - p. 2
Hurricane and Severe Weather Recovery Resources To link directly to the resources, open this newsletter in your browser.
For Immediate Advice or Assistance: Contact the National Heritage Responders at 202-661-8068. They are a team of trained conservators and collections care professionals administered by the Foundation of the American Institute for Conservation, and are available 24/7 to provide advice. Also, see the Northeast Document Conservation Center's Emergency Resources or contact NEDCC's 24/7 Emergency Hotline at 855-245-8303. Disaster Response and Recovery Guides - FOUNDATION FOR ADVANCEMENT IN CONSERVATION (FAIC) https://www.culturalheritage.org/resources/emergencies/disaster-response-recovery Contracting Records Recovery Services - NATIONAL ARCHIVES AND RECORDS ADMINISTRATION (NARA) https://www.archives.gov/preservation/records-emergency/contracting Members of the public with questions about saving family heirlooms can contact the National Heritage Responders at https://www.culturalheritage.org/resources/emergencies/national-heritage-responders PREPARATION Track the storm via the National Hurricane Center. Gather your staff and review your disaster plan today. No disaster plan? Put that at the top of the to-do list. If you have a disaster plan, make sure everyone has a printed copy to take home. An electronic version may be useless if you lose power. Make sure staff, volunteer, and board contact lists are up to date. Determine how you will communicate with one another before, during, and after the storm. Make sure your insurance and disaster recovery vendor contact information is readily available. Back up electronic records and store the back-ups off-site or in the cloud. Move collections that are in areas vulnerable to flooding (i.e., the floor, the basement) or susceptible to rain (near windows or under roofs) out of harm’s way. RECOVERY Download the FEMA mobile app for disaster resources, weather alerts, and safety tips. The app (available in English and Spanish) provides a customizable checklist of emergency supplies, maps of open shelters and recovery centers, disaster survival tips, and weather alerts from the National Weather Service. The app also enables users to receive push notifications reminding them to take important steps to prepare their homes and families for disasters. For tips on what to do before, during, and after a hurricane, go to https://www.ready.gov/hurricanes. Familiarize yourself with the disaster declaration process in case one is declared for your state. Download the FEMA fact sheets, "After the Flood: Advice for Salvaging Damaged Family Treasures" and "Salvaging Water-Damaged Family Valuables and Heirlooms," which offer tips and resources on salvaging different types of objects, from photos to fabric to furniture, and more. (Available in multiple languages.) SAA Foundation National Disaster Recovery Fund for Archives. In the event of a natural disaster impacting your repository, the SAA Foundation's National Disaster Recovery Fund for Archives (NDRFA) stands ready to provide critical assistance. With grants of up to $5,000 available for immediate recovery efforts, the NDRFA offers a lifeline to help you navigate the challenging aftermath of a disaster. Applications are processed quickly, with grants typically awarded within 7–10 business days. Don't hesitate to seek help: review the guidelines and submit your application to access the support you need to restore and preserve your valuable collections.
Long Island Archives - November/December 2024 - p. 3
The National Park Service is now accepting applications for the Save America's Treasures grant program, a collaboration with the IMLS, NEH and NEA. Grants are available to fund two type of projects: "Collections" and "Preservation." Collections projects can fund the treatment, housing, and/or digitization of artifacts, documents, photographs, and works of art of national significance. Preservation projects fund "brick and mortar" preservation/conservation work on historic buildings and structures. Grants range from $25,000 to $750,000 and requires dollar-for-dollar matching funds. CCAHA has participated in over 40 Save America’s Treasures projects over the years, and we can advise and assist you in crafting a strong application for funding in the Collections category. Deadline: Thursday, December 12 Click here: https://www.imls.gov/grants/available/save-americas-treasures
Long Island Archives - November/December 2024 - p. 4
REGIONAL SCAN CENTER Digitization Project? Get an extra hand at LILRC. Whether using our Digitization Services or reserving the equipment for yourself, we're here to help! at the Regional Scan Center!
The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) has recently released information about upcoming grant opportunities. The Preservation Assistance Grants for Smaller Institutions provide up to $10,000 and can fund a variety of projects that help with collections care such as needs and risk assessments, developing emergency plans, collection surveys by conservators, and training and workshops for staff and volunteers – all services that the Center for Conservation of Art and Historic Artifacts (CCAHA) can provide. The Sustaining Cultural Heritage Collections Grants come in three levels of funding and are designed to help institutions with humanities collections to plan for and implement environmentally sustainable projects that reduce energy consumption and costs and/or increase resiliency in the face of climate change. Past funded projects include upgrades to lighting, new HVAC systems, and renovations to collections storage spaces. Grants at the Planning level require multidisciplinary teams to develop innovative solutions, including Preservation Specialists like our team at CCAHA. Deadline: Thursday, January 9 Click here for more information on Preservation Assistance Grants. https://www.neh.gov/grants/preservation/preservation-assistance-grants-smaller-institutions Deadline: Optional draft due December 5; Final applications due January 10 Click here for more information on Sustaining Cultural Heritage Collections Grants. https://www.neh.gov/grants/preservation/sustaining-cultural-heritage-collections
Long Island Archives - November/December 2024 - p. 5
Long Island Archives - November/December 2024 - p. 6
29th Long Island Archives Conference Connecting To Commuities
Thank you to the speakers, staff, and attendees for another memorable Long Island Archives Conference! Clockwise from top right: Attendees gather at our meeting space on the SUNY Old Westbury campus; Master of Ceremonies Regina Feeney poses with LILRC's Nicole Menchise and keynote speaker Tom Ruller; Tom Ruller talks about partnerships with the New York State Archives; LILRC's Robert Anen recaps his project work since last year; centerpieces are a prize containing archival supplies; Allison Sobel promotes the Long Island History Day; panelists from Oakdale Historical Society, Town of Islip, and Friends of Connetquot River State Park Preserve speak about Living History Day; academic librarians and archivists share their work collecting and engaging students and alumni. See you at the 30th!
Hello again everyone, Since my last column here in the newsletter, I worked with two more organizations as part of the Accessing Archives Program, the Friends of Connetquot River State Park Preserve (FoC) and the Town of Huntington Jo-Ann Raia Archives. The project with FoC was an abbreviated project compared to our normal six weeks. Nonetheless, it allowed FoC to have its first digital collection on the New York Heritage website. The goal of this project was to digitize ledgers and photo albums that document the history of the South Side Sportsmen’s Club. The ledgers are now available here: South Side Sportsmen’s Club Archive | New York Heritage These ledgers document the various types of animals that were hunted across the Connetquot River State Park Preserve from 1884 to 1944 by the members and hunting guides of the South Side Sportsmen’s Club. Nicole Menchise assisted me in rehousing the albums and scrapbook. FoC was very pleased with how the ledgers appear on New York Heritage and have also agreed to allow me to add the photos from the photo albums to New York Heritage as well. As I write this column, I am currently finishing up my work on an oral history collection for the Town of Huntington Jo-Ann Raia Archives. In 1996, Councilman Steve Israel embarked on this project with the purpose of recording personal recollections of Huntington veterans who served our country in the wars and conflicts of the 20th century. The Town of Huntington produced three booklets that told the stories of these veterans, but now for the first time, these oral histories are being made public and can now be found on New York Heritage here: Town of Huntington, New York - Veterans Oral History Project | New York Heritage. That being said, no oral history collection is ever straightforward. On this project I learned about a new tape format that I previously did not know about. Most of the time when digitizing an oral history collection, the recordings exist on audio cassette tapes, the format most of us grew up using and creating mixtapes with. However, on rare occasions, I’ll find an oral history recorded on a micro-cassette. These are the types of tapes from our answering machines in the 1980s and 1990s. These tapes were also designed for pocket-sized handheld tape recorders that you could carry around with you. I was unaware of the existence of an even older tape format called the mini-cassette. This is a slightly larger version of the micro-cassette that preceded it by several years and is 3/16 of an inch larger than a micro-cassette. This oral history collection contained two mini-cassettes which rendered all of my tape decks useless. Since I never give up on a tape, to eBay I went. This is a good lesson in obsolescence. To play any audio tape, no matter what the format, you must have the correct tape deck for it. Thankfully I found a working tape recorder for the mini-cassettes rather quickly, the tapes were digitized, and now live on New York Heritage. You can see the tape recorder and the original box here on the left. These could have been manufactured as early as 1969, but it’s unclear when mini-cassette players stopped being manufactured. I hope you enjoyed this column. See you next time!
Long Island Archives - November/December 2024 - p. 7
LATEST FROM THE ACCESSING ARCHIVES PROGRAM By Robert Anen
Long Island Archives - November/December 2024 - p. 8
Designed by Freepik
Welcome the LILRC's GOVERNMENT RESOURCES AND RECORDS MANAGEMENT COMMITTEE page. Sharing online portals and forums for government agency and publication information.
FBI Records: The Vault Records from the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Freedom of Information Act Library If your personal or research interests include searching through FBI files, you will want to check out this resource. Using "The Vault" you can search a particular person, topic or event using several search options available on the website: https://vault.fbi.gov/ The main page offers general categories that you can browse like Organized Crime, Public Corruption, Fugitives and Unexplained Phenomenon. Per the website, The Vault contains "6,700 documents and other media that have been scanned from paper into digital copies so you can read them in the comfort of your home or office. Included here are many FBI files that have been released to the public but never added to this website; dozens of records previously posted on our site but removed as requests diminished; files from our previous FOIA Library, and, previously unreleased files." Many of the file have sensitive information redacted, but it is interesting to see the original files all the same. Below I show the FBI file on actor and comedian Charlie Chaplin. There are facets to view the pages singularly or as a group, the ability to zoom in and out, and share what you found on social media. In the instance of Charlie Chaplin's file there are hundreds of pages of reports, transcripts, newspaper clippings and more. Chaplin was investigated for having ties to the Communist Party in the 1920s and 1940s, and summaries written by the FBI including transcripts are available on this website. Some of the images are blurry and not all of the pages are completely scanned as it appears that the digital files came from microfilmed originals. Regardless, this is a great resource for locating primary source material.
Long Island Archives - November/December 2024 - p. 9
Long Island Archives - November/December 2024 Editor: Nicole Menchise, Digitization and Archives Coordinator LILRC - 627 N. Sunrise Service Rd., Bellport, NY 11713, www.lilrc.org.