Today's post is written by Emily Somach, a recent graduate of the College of Information Studies at College Park. Emily has been working in Special Collections this year as part of an NHPRC funded grant project; you can read more about her work with EAD-XML in a previous post. As part of this project she also wrote descriptive records for collections that had not previously been described. This blog post was inspired by Collection 156. Thank you, Emily!

Looking at cute pictures of cats is not a new pastime. The advent of the internet has certainly made it a more widespread form of entertainment, but far before the World Wide Web people were finding ways to satisfy their desire for cute kitten pictures. Most people do not realize that the most popular and effective method for admiring representations of felines was once the scrapbook, a hobby that appeared in the early 19th century and that many Victorian women greatly enjoyed.

According to Collectors Weekly, “In response to the scrapbooking trend, 19th-century bookmakers designed blank albums with elaborate, tooled-leather covers, gilt paper edgings, and engraved clasps” and materials were “explicitly produced as die-cut ‘scrap’ for decorating homemade albums.” With access to abundant scraps as well as blank-paged books, it is no wonder that the practice of scrapbooking grew so quickly in popularity. An excellent example of a scrapbook from this time period is the one seen below, from the shelves of UMBC’s Special Collections. As you can tell from the photographs, the hobby was truly a serious pursuit.

This particular album from Special Collections is a very standard example of a scrapbook from the 1800s. It is chock full of playful kittens and cats of all colors and sizes, as well as some anthropomorphized felines performing human activities (such as eating cake at a table). The images vary from the cat memes and gifs with which our modern eyes are now accustomed, but they seem to fill the same niche.

Elspeth Rountree, the co-founder of the Know Your Meme website, explains, “They're the perfect distraction from our hectic lives. You don't need any explanation or prior knowledge to understand the slapstick humor that animals provide. Cat videos and images are a quick hit of pure, unfettered 'cute.' They're also entertainment in easily digestible doses.” Who wouldn’t smile after looking at a tangle of playful kittens chasing a ball, or popping out of a snare drum?

Ben Huh, CEO of The Cheezburger Network, elaborates on the appeal of cat pictures when he states, “Cats have very expressive facial and body expressions, so they are a perfect canvas for human emotion.” This reason helps to clarify why humans used to, and still do, portray animals in clothing or place animals in human situations. After viewing scrapbooks from previous centuries, it becomes undeniable that the desire to gaze on adorable, furry felines has long been a part of human culture. The desire transcends time and space, and persists in spite of new technologies and trends.

Cited sources:

"The Million Dollar Question: Why Does the Internet Love Cats?" Mashable, accessed August 27, 2015, http://mashable.com/2010/10/21/why-does-the-web-love-cats/.

"Scrapbooks and Paper Die-Cuts," Collector's Weekly, accessed August 27, 2015, http://www.collectorsweekly.com/paper/scrapbooks.

Hi! I’m Emily Somach, a graduate student at University of Maryland’s College of Information Studies. I am working towards my Master of Library Science degree, specializing in Archives, Records, and Information Management, and work as a Graduate Assistant in the UMBC Special Collections.

For the past six months, I have been working on an exciting project to create Encoded Archival Description (EAD) for Special Collections’ archives. The project is funded by the National Historical Publications & Records Commission (NHPRC) through the grant opportunity entitled “Documenting Democracy: Access to Historical Records Projects.”

What is EAD?

Well, the short answer is that EAD is a standard; it is used to encode data and information about personal papers or corporate records (i.e. archival materials). EAD is also an XML schema called EAD-XML, which means that an EAD record is written using the markup language XML (which is very similar in structure to the more familiar HTML). Lastly, an EAD record is also a type of finding aid.

And what, you may ask, is a finding aid? A finding aid is the archival term for an index or guide to a collection. It is useful to both archivists and researchers; it helps the former gain intellectual and physical control over collections, and allows the latter to find and use materials relevant to their work.

Essentially, EAD allows archivists to create platform independent records (or finding aids, the two are synonymous when discussing EAD) that are more dynamic and versatile than a word document or content management system record. EAD finding aids are easy to represent online and share between systems; they allow the public to find and access information about archival collections through online catalogs or discovery tools. Ultimately, collections represented in EAD become far more accessible and easy to locate and use.

How to Create EAD

EAD can be created by hand or through automated processes, but manually creating an entire record from scratch in XML is very time consuming and cumbersome. Luckily, for this project, we did not have to start from scratch or do everything by hand. Instead, we opted to repurpose the data we already had in PastPerfect, the content management system used by Special Collections. We developed a workflow that allows us to extract this data from PastPerfect and convert it into EAD-XML. While some post-processing and manual edits are required, the large majority of the workflow is automated.

PastPerfect records and data can be exported in a variety of formats, including PastPerfect’s own flavor of XML. For the purposes of our project, we decided to export records in this PastPerfect-XML format, which meant that we would eventually be transforming one type of XML into another, i.e. PastPerfect-XML into EAD-XML. We decided that such a transformation would be easier and more straightforward than any other, as it only requires one transformation and one language.

The Workflow

Stylesheet Creation

Upon starting the project, I worked closely with Dmitri Rudnitsky, an Information Systems undergraduate student at UMBC skilled in computer programming. Dmitri and I learned as much about EAD, XML, and XSLT as we could in two weeks, then set to work on the most technical aspect of the project: the XSLT stylesheet. XSLT (Extensible Stylesheet Language Transformations) is a language that is used to transform one XML file into another XML file. Not to get too technical, but we used this language to write functions that would take data from the PastPerfect-XML and rewrite it in the form appropriate to EAD-XML. Since Dmitri had to leave at the end of April, we wanted to utilize his expertise on this part of the project prior to his departure. By the time he left the project, I hoped to have learned enough to carry on with the rest of the work myself.

Fortunately, we had a working version of the stylesheet by the time Dmitri left. By this time, I also felt comfortable tweaking, streamlining, and editing the stylesheet on my own as the work progressed and I learned more about XSLT. This stylesheet is available on the project's GitHub space: https://github.com/UMBC-Library/EAD-XML/blob/master/stylesheets/PPtoEAD_withComments.xsl. A few months later I was able to create two more stylesheets for the project: one that splits a batch file into individual files and one that transforms the EAD-XML into HTML for web display. 

Data Cleanup

Once we completed the initial version of the stylesheet, I shifted gears and started focusing on the data export from PastPerfect. Before we could extract any data, we had to ensure that it was as standardized and error-free as possible. Using the descriptive rules outlined in the Society of American Archivists’ Describing Archives: A Content Standards (DACS), we developed our own set of guidelines and standard forms for each field in PastPerfect. We then checked and edited each field in each record to adhere to the guidelines and ensure a uniform output.

Occasionally, in order to correctly fill in a field, I had to physically locate a collection and identify or verify certain features. Most frequently this meant counting the number of boxes and calculating the equivalent linear footage, or checking to see what condition the collection was in and if it required conservation. Other times, it meant checking accession paperwork and describing how, when, or from whom we had acquired a collection.

Prioritization of Records

After the records were cleaned up, we prioritized all of them (about 150) into three groups: high, medium, and low. Prioritization was based on how complete they were or how much further editing they required. We added all of this information into a spreadsheet to track each record’s priority ranking, required edits, data cleanup status, and export status.

Export

Fortunately, after much brainstorming, trial, and error, I was able to create a batch processing tool that not only transforms one PastPerfect-XML file into EAD-XML but also splits it into multiple files. The result is a folder of files: one EAD-XML finding aid per record. Once I had the batch tool working, I exported all records from PastPerfect classified as highest priority into a batch file.

Transformation and Post-Processing

After export, I ran the batch tool on the PastPerfect-XML batch file which contained records for 38 collections. After about one second, a folder appeared containing 38 EAD finding aids.

As discussed earlier, it was not possible (or within the scope of my expertise) to automate every aspect of the EAD creation. This meant that a few aspects of each EAD file needed some manual edits. Most notably, the source and classification of subject terms and people names had to be added (i.e. if it was a Library of Congress subject heading or a local term, if a subject was a geographic location or a genre, etc.). Samples of these records are available on Github.

HTML for Web Display

The final step was to make the now complete EAD finding aids displayable on the internet. This meant using another stylesheet to transform the EAD-XML into HTML. To do this, I ran all of the new EAD-XML files through another batch tool, resulting in 38 HTML files. I then created a cascading stylesheet (CSS) to style the HTML, ensuring consistency with the new UMBC Special Collections website. While not complete, the final product will be an individual webpage for each collection that displays EAD data in a readable way and also links to the raw XML file as well as a printable PDF version of the EAD finding aid. The current templates for both of these processes are available through Github. Here is an example of how the EAD finding aid might display online:

Thank you for this thorough description, Emily! Although Emily is leaving UMBC very soon, the EAD project will continue into 2016. Have questions? Contact Lindsey Loeper, Special Collections Archivist, at lindseyloeper@umbc.edu or 410-455-6290.

This post was written by Special Collections student assistant Jen Wachtel. Thank you, Jen!

The Retriever Weekly, our university’s proud student newspaper, began publishing as UMBC News in 1966. Special Collections and the University Archives maintain the print copies of all issues of the Retriever, and a large section of the issues (1966-1981 and 2002 to the present) are available online in UMBC's Digital Collections. With monetary support from UMBC's Office of Institutional Advancement, students and staff have been preparing to send the remaining issues to Creekside Digital, a digitization vendor located a short drive away in Glen Arm, MD. This project is a part of the Lyrasis Digitization Collaborative.

I conducted an inventory of the issues of the Retriever dating from January 1983 to May 1997, totaling over four hundred newspapers. Along the way, I found insights into some of UMBC’s hot-button topics of the 1980s and 1990s, including contentious construction projects and students’ demands for increased parking spaces (ed. note - complaining about parking is a long-standing UMBC tradition!). I particularly enjoyed following the timeline of the university administration, including the appointment of one Freeman A. Hrabowski III to Vice Provost at UMBC and his later position as Interim President for a “full academic year and possibly longer.” Of course, no inventory of The Retriever would be complete without the satirical Deceiver. Published annually on the week of April 1^st, the Deceiver  featured such choice headlines as “Giant Terrapin attacks UMBC” (referring to College Park’s mascot) and “SCHPORTZ” (1993).

Jen Wachtel working in Special Collections.

I also noticed some strange anomalies in The Retriever’s numbering system. From miswritten Roman numerals (XXVIV for 29 and IXX for 24) to a startling continuity error, the Retriever always had special surprises in store. The most bizarre circumstance was that in the academic year 1995-96, the Retriever accidentally published two separate versions of Volume 31 – one for fall, and one for spring, before continuing with Volumes 32 and 33 in 1996-97. This means that since spring 1996, every volume of The Retriever has been one number short!

Special Collections is located on the first floor of the library behind the gallery. We are open Monday through Friday from 1-4pm, on Thursdays from 1-8pm, and by appointment.

This post was written by Special Collections Graduate Assistant Nichole Zang. Thank you, Nichole!

UMBC Special Collections is pleased to announce that the Office of Institutional Advancement records are now open to researchers! This collection contains newspaper clippings, press releases, Office of Arts and Management publications, and information on UMBC faculty and departments from the 1960s through 2009. This collection is useful tool for any researcher looking into the university’s exciting past.

The first series of the collection is composed of about forty years of newspaper clippings relating to UMBC. The many clippings in these files share parallels for what we may see around campus today. In August of 1975, for example, construction on the Library Pond began as a flood control dam, creating a scene not unlike the one students walk past on their way to class every day. Come see what other exciting news stories were written about UMBC over the past 50 years!

For anyone looking for the university’s statements on university events between 1963 and 1991, this is also the collection to choose! Series II of the collection contains press releases from those years, arranged by date. The Office of University Relations created the releases for the media in order to inform them of commencements, awards ceremonies, campus events, and other university news. One of these releases describes the festivities of the Fine Arts Building’s open house in November 1975. The newly constructed building was intended to house the visual and performing arts concentrations, as well as art exhibits and performances.

Are you interested in past UMBC art, dance, or gallery events? The Office of Arts Management series of the collection includes publications and photographs printed for advertisement of various shows throughout campus, including Shakespeare on Wheels, theatre and dance performances.

The collections also consists a select number of records regarding university faculty, departments, and other campus events from the mid-1970s to late-2000s. Topics of these files include the proposed UMBC and UMB merger, commencement ceremonies, faculty member CVs and correspondence, and the education department.

A finding aid is available on the Special Collections website.

Special Collections has a new music collection available for you to come and explore! Whether you’re a musician-in-training or simply a lover of the classics, you now have access to an impressive collection of noted concert violinist and conductor Robert Gerle’s personal, marked scores. At UMBC, Gerle is perhaps best known for beginning the orchestral program here and remaining its conductor for nearly two decades. In addition to conducting the UMBC Orchestra, Gerle also taught at the Peabody Institute in Baltimore, The Catholic University of America in Washington, DC, and the Mannes College of Music in New York.

In 1972, when the first concert was planned, UMBC’s music major was actually in jeopardy of being removed from the school by the Maryland Council on Higher Education. The council cited that there were other, similar programs offered by nearby University of Maryland institutions and therefore did not need to be repeated. Despite this threat, the UMBC Orchestra’s inaugural concert remained slated to take place on December 11, 1972. To read all of the details, be sure to check out the Retriever article in our Digital Collections (hint: take a look at pages 1 and 5)! Scores from several of the pieces played at this concert can be found in the collection, including Richard Wagner’s “Overture to Die Meistersinger,” Wagner’s only comic opera.

Robert Gerle was born in 1924 to Jewish Hungarian parents. According to a New York Times article [1] published in 1958, during World War II Gerle and 26 other Hungarian Jews were caught and arrested by a group of Soviet soldiers while they were hiding in the crawl space above a music professor’s house. The Soviet soldiers suspected them of being snipers. As Gerle was brought before the firing squad, the officer in charge noticed his violin case and demanded that he play a work by Tschaikovsky. A student of the Franz Liszt Academy of Music and the Hungarian National Conservatory of Music, Gerle’s technique impressed the officer. He was convinced that Gerle was a musician, not a soldier. Gerle’s technique, which would be coined as “flawless” later in his career, supposedly saved not only his life, but the lives of the 26 other individuals with him.

When the war ended, Gerle began to play concert engagements in both New York and London, becoming best known for his performances of Back’s Chaconne for solo violin and Heinrich Biber’s violin sonatas. He and his wife, Marilyn Neely - also a UMBC professor - even won an Emmy for the video presentation of the complete Beethoven violin and piano sonatas.

The Gerle collection was transferred from College Park last year. It contains a wide variety of musical scores and compositions, ranging from full orchestral pieces to solo violin pieces. The collection contains not only classics such as Beethoven’s 9th Symphony and Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, but also a host of lesser known treasures to explore. My personal favorite is Vivaldi’s Violin-Konzert, Ops. 3, No. 6. This score, just one of Gerle’s many personal marked scores, is available for you to come in and take a look at. Check out our finding aid for more information!

[1] MEYER BERGER. "About New York." New York Times (1923-Current File), Oct 20, 1958. http://search.proquest.com/docview/114511079?accountid=14577.

This post was written by Special Collections Graduate Assistant Jessi Deane. Thank you, Jessi!

The Special Collections department of the Albin O. Kuhn Library, in partnership with the History department and the Center for Digital History Education, is happy to announce that the Joseph L. Arnold papers are now open for research use. Dr. Arnold’s vast collection of research papers include two manuscripts on the history of Baltimore: one organized chronologically and another, thematically by ethnic and social groups. Making up the bulk of the collection, however, are files on more than 350 distinct topics in Baltimore history. Each file contains up to 150 newspaper articles (mostly from the Baltimore Sun), in addition to pamphlets, chapters from books, and Dr. Arnold’s hand-written notes, on a specific topic. These files, arranged into 14 categories, cover the economic, social and political history of Baltimore and focus mainly on the period between the Civil War and World War I. Topics range from annexation to abattoirs, from baseball to the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, from marriage to manufacturing, and from streetcars to sewage. We are still processing additional records, including Dr. Arnold’s teaching materials, so be sure to check back as new items are added to the collection.

Dr. Arnold’s manuscripts, in Series I and II of the collection, represent the culmination of more than thirty years of research on Baltimore history. Although it was never completed for print publication, the Special Collections staff has been working with his widow Mary Jane Arnold, University of Baltimore historian Dr. Elizabeth Nix, and UMBC alumna Theresa Donnelly to prepare the manuscript for online publication. We envision free, open access for this invaluable resource. Once the material is online, it will be readily searchable and accessible to anyone with an interest in Baltimore history—both within and outside of the UMBC community. We anticipate that the manuscript will be online this fall.

As I have been handling these files over the course of the academic year—placing the contents of each file into new, acid-free folders to ensure that the papers last as long as possible—I have enjoyed picking up bits and pieces of what life was like for previous generations of Baltimoreans. To my surprise, I have been struck by how much has not changed over the past two centuries. I ran across so many headlines that seem like they could be from today: reporting on last night’s Orioles game, a new stall opening at Lexington Market, construction on Charles Street, the weather causing difficulties for commuters, upcoming graduation celebrations at Western High School, vacationers flocking to the Eastern Shore, heated debates among members of the City Council, family reunions at Druid Hill Park. The advertisements also provide a window into Baltimore of yesteryear.

Joseph Larkin Arnold (1937-2004) was a prominent urban historian and a key leader at UMBC for most of his career. Dr. Arnold joined the faculty of UMBC—then a very young institution—in 1968 after earning a PhD in social history at the Ohio State University. In his three and a half decades here Dr. Arnold fulfilled a variety of campus leadership roles, including a term as Acting Librarian in 1979-1980. He taught undergraduate and graduate courses on American cities, Baltimore history, historical research methods, and comparative urban history, among other topics. In his field he became known as “the dean of Baltimore historians” for his extensive research on Charm City’s transition from a colonial tobacco port to a modern metropolis. The author of six books and over 60 articles, chapters, and reviews, Dr. Arnold was in the final stages of writing a comprehensive history of Baltimore at the time of his death in January 2004.

Auni Gelles has been working with the Joseph L. Arnold papers and manuscript this year. Auni is graduate student in the History department and Graduate Assistant for the Center for Digital History Education and the Special Collections department in the AOK Library. She will continue her work with the Arnold papers next year. Thank you, Auni!

Interested researchers can learn more about the Joseph L. Arnold papers from the online finding aid or by contacting the Special Collections department at speccoll@umbc.edu or (410) 455-2353.

Did you know that art played a pivotal role in Poland’s 1989 Solidarity Movement?  Solidarity was a broad anti-bureaucratic, workers-rights movement in 1980s Poland that eventually became a powerful political force. In addition to publishing over 500 newspapers and broadcasting their message via pirate radio stations, the Solidarity movement used art, particularly posters, to communicate their revolutionary message,  and even created a new school of art—The Polish Poster School—along the way.  Special Collections has a treasure trove of hundreds of posters, handouts, and newspapers. There are copies of the iconic work of graphic designer Jerzy Janiszewski (who created a style of writing known as Solidaric)  as well as Tomasz Sarnecki’s well-known poster that features an image of Gary Cooper from the 1952 film “High Noon.”

View the finding aid for this collection, now available online, for more information about the Solidarity movement and the Solidarity materials held in the Library: http://aok2.lib.umbc.edu/specoll/Solidarity/index.php.

Want to come look at the records yourself? Contact Special Collections to set up an appointment at x52353 or speccoll@umbc.edu. We also hold open research hours on Monday through Friday, 1pm to 4pm, with additional hours from 4pm to 8pm Thursday nights.

This post was written by Theresa Donnelly