# Project STAND research https://standarchives.com ## SAVE Methodology https://standarchives.com/s-a-v-e-methodology/ ## [Archiving Student Activism Toolkit](https://standarchives.com/project-stand-toolkit/) > Created by Annalise Berdini, Rich Bernier, Valencia Johnson, Maggie McNeely, and Lydia Tang on behalf of Project STAND, November 2019. > This resource seeks to compile information on documenting, collecting, and providing access to student activism collections in archives, however it is not exhaustive. Feedback and suggestions are welcome, please contact Valencia Johnson at vj2@princeton.edu with the subject line “Activism Toolkit.” Love this "Questions to Ask the Archivist" Questions to ask the archivist Start with a general question about how the archives works with activist donors and materials. Hopefully they will touch on the questions below, but if not, these are some suggested questions: ● Could you describe the collecting focus of your repository, and how my materials will compliment them? ● Can I/we have a tour of your facility and meet other staff members? ● What student records/material do the archives currently collect? ● What types of documentation is the archives interested in? What content and format (analog or digital)? ● How will copyright, privacy, and restrictions be handled for this collection, and how do those impact me/us as the creator/s of this material? ● What access will I have over the materials once I donate them to the archives? ● What are your methods of preservation? ● How will your archive contextualize this material for researchers, and who decides how it will be arranged and described for potential users? [See Arrangement and Description section] ● What is the expected timeline and method for making these materials available? ● In what ways will researchers be able to access this collection? If you are ready to move ahead with a donation, it is helpful to know what to expect. If you have not already discussed these with the archivist, you will need to address the following: ● Establish rules of ownership, permissions, privacy, and consent between activist partners and the archivist ● Examine, discuss, and sign a Deed of Gift, or a similar legal document ● Establish whether a single or an iterative donation works best for your needs ● Develop a plan for the transfer of both analog and digital materials ### Participatory method https://plateauportal.libraries.wsu.edu/about https://mukurtu.org ### Post-custodial model As the name implies, is where the archives advises on the preservation and maintenance of the collection but the physical collection is still under the custody of the creator, with the archives providing access to digital surrogates. Digital materials present their own set of challenges in preservation, but they also offer opportunities to bypass problematic aspects of mainstream archiving such as sole custody, ownership, and authority. Questions to address with the donor ● Ask the contact person whether they have informed their group that the material will be archived and establish permissions to archive documentation that covers the activity of groups of people. ● Ask what is most important to them about the event/movement and what documentation might exist on those aspects. Consider sharing the selection of materials (appraisal) with the donor or community. ● Ask if the donors have any special requirements about how the materials can be utilized now and in the future. ● Discuss the various models and modes of ownership and intellectual property, and their implications. ● Create a plan outlining how you will make the materials available and visible to the communities which would benefit the most. ### Oral History This section provides guidance in conducting oral history interviews with activists or members of marginalized communities. It is not meant to be a comprehensive guide to conducting oral history interviews. Other manuals such as "Doing Oral History" by Donald A. Ritchie should be consulted for that. Although this section does touch upon some basic oral history methods, emphasis is placed on providing information that is specific to the above mentioned groups. Defining an Oral History Project All oral history projects must have a clear purpose statement which defines the overall scope and purpose of the interviews. A copy of this statement should be given to each interviewee before the interview starts and should be attached to the final product of each interview. There are two main reasons for this. 1) This statement provides important context that will be helpful to future researchers. 2) Interviewees should understand that the interview is being conducted to preserve history as a primary goal and to advance their activist position as a secondary goal. Understanding this distinction can have a profound effect on what the interviewee talks about. Legal Issues Interviewees retain copyright for anything they said during an interview for 70 years after they die. If a repository or a researcher publishes excerpts of an interview beyond what is deemed “fair use” without a contract that stipulates such use, the interviewee may sue for copyright infringement. Therefore, it is imperative that the interviewee sign a deed of gift or a release form (hereafter referred to as "release form") at the time of the interview or before the interview is made available to the public. Ideally, the release form should transfer copyright to the interviewer, the repository, the public domain, or a Creative Commons license. Interviewees may request that their interview be closed for a period of time, but this practice should be discouraged and only used if the interviewee insists on it. The interviewer should also sign the release form, agreeing to the stipulations contained in it. The release form should be created through consultation with your institution's legal counsel. Some sample release forms can be found at The American Folklife Center of the Library of Congress https://www.loc.gov/folklife/edresources/edcenter_files/samplereleaseforms.pdf If an interviewee makes extremely negative statements against someone living, something that is not publicly known or published about the individual, the interviewer or the repository holding the interview may be sued for libel or defamation in addition to or apart from the interviewee who made the statement. The interview should be restricted until after the possibly defamed individual has died since the dead cannot sue for defamation. Any potential legal concerns, such as libel or defamation, should be directed toward your legal counsel. Preparing for the Interview Doing your homework ahead of time is time consuming but one of the most important parts of conducting an oral history interview. Knowing about the interviewee and what they have done, plus knowing the subject material, not only informs you on what questions to ask, but is also helpful to build rapport when conducting the interview. When interviewing activists or members of a marginalized community, trust can make the difference between a successful and an unsuccessful interview. As with any oral history interview, the first step in gaining trust is through communicating the purpose and scope of the interview to the interviewee. This can be done by providing them with a copy of your purpose statement but also briefly talking about it. Second, demonstrating your knowledge shows that you have invested time and energy into learning about them and the topic. Doing your homework is also helpful in preparing your questions. When preparing interview questions, it is always better to have too many than not enough. Depending on the brevity of the answers provided, or lack of, you can decide which questions to ask as the interview proceeds. Construct broad, open-ended questions that allow the interviewee to tell a narrative and talk about what they feel is important. Each broad question should have a series of possible follow-up questions that you will choose to ask based on their answer to your question. Differences between race, gender, ethnicity or age between the interviewer and interviewee may influence the answers given to questions. The potential roadblock of demographic differences can be mitigated by finding commonality and helping the interviewee feel more comfortable with you. This can be done by telling the interviewee a little about yourself and your background and focusing on areas of commonality before the interview begins. This will help them develop a better feel for who you are. It is also helpful to have fully researched the topic, being familiar with names, dates, and other important events. Illustrating your shared knowledge and interest in the topic can go a long way in cutting across demographic differences. Questioning flow Since gaining trust is so important, it is best to not jump right in with pointed questions about their activist activities. Always start with warm-up questions that allow them to provide some background information about themselves and some organizations in which they were involved. This not only adds historical context, but it helps the interviewee become more comfortable, relaxed and make them more open to providing forthright answers later. This helps with developing the necessary rapport needed for a meaningful conversation. Using open ended questions also allows the interviewee to talk about what they think is important. You can use follow-up questions to fill in the gaps or to steer the interview in other directions. The framing of questions is important as well. Do not ask loaded questions and avoid asking questions that are designed to fill in holes to your research. Interviewees may pick up on that and give you an answer that they think you want to hear. Questions should encourage the interviewee to provide alternative narratives that challenge collective memory. They should understand that this is their story and they are free to challenge existing accounts reported. That being said, it is crucial to respect any topical boundaries that the interviewee may have. These boundaries may have been established before the interview started, or they may arise during the interview. Do not pressure an interviewee to answer a question, but also try to discourage their requests to turn off the recording device so they can speak off the record. Not much is gained by speaking off the record. It is best to encourage them to say what they are comfortable saying. Often times, after they have had time to talk more and think, they may decide to revisit a topic and talk about it in a way that they were not comfortable with earlier. Choosing an Interviewer Who is involved in the interview process can drastically influence the interview outcome. Interviewers may be insiders or outsiders to a community. Both have their advantages and disadvantages. Insiders to a community may have more insider knowledge about a topic and may be presumed to be more credible and trustworthy to those they interview. Conversely, they may be too close to a topic and assume that what what they already know is common knowledge and fail to ask important follow-up or clarification questions. Outsiders, on the other hand, may have less preconceived notions about what they will discover and can come to the interview with a fresh perspective of a topic, which could add value to the interview process. However, outsiders may be viewed by interviewees as transient without any real interest in the community or commitment to the project. Even if inaccurate, this perception could affect how the interviewees react, making them cautious and guarded. If an oral history project has more than one person is responsible for conducting interviews, the interviewer should be selected based on who would be best suited for each particular interviewee. Technology Technology used for oral history projects is always changing and oral historians must adjust to this new technology. These changes may require changes to workflows. For example, digital audio recorders have advantages over tape recorders, such as eliminating the need to digitize the audio later. However, the project’s workflow needs to incorporate a digital preservation plan whereby audio is transferred to a digital preservation system as soon as possible after the interview. Equipment used should be of the highest quality within your given budget. Your cell phone, or more sophisticated recording equipment such as a Zoom recorder are options. Whether using tape or digital, audio or video, it is important that there is enough recording time available. Although you may want to break an interview up into different sessions, you want to be prepared for sessions that may go longer than expected. You should record the interview in an environment that is as free of extraneous noise as possible. This can be mitigated ahead of time by talking with the interviewee about the importance of creating a quiet environment for the interview. The placement of the recording device’s microphone should be close to the interviewee and interviewer and a test should be conducted before the interview begins to assure that both parties can be heard clearly. You can use the StoryCorps mobile phone app on your cell phone. The advantages to using the StoryCorps app is that you can add and upload the interview and metadata directly from your phone into their repository, but it requires you to agree with all terms of their app for copyright and access. You can also keep your recording private, saving it to your device to share with whomever you choose. For accessibility compliance and researcher ease of use, oral histories should be transcribed within a reasonable amount of time. Equipment created specifically for transcription should be used. For analog tapes, there are special playback devices with foot pedals that control the tape. Digital files can be transcribed in a similar way in which a foot pedal would work in conjunction software that plays back the audio. Resources: Neuenschwander, John A., “A Guide to Oral History and the Law,” Oxford University Press, 2009 Quinlan, Mary Kay, Nancy MacKay, and Barbara W. Sommer, Community Oral History Toolkit, Volume 1: Introduction to Community Oral History. Ritchie, Donald A. 1995. Doing Oral History. Twayne's Oral History Series, No. 15. New York: Twayne. ### Arrangement and Description Arrangement and description are two of the most central aspects of archival processing, and have a significant impact on how materials are discovered, contextualized, and interpreted by patrons. These areas are highly impacted by personal biases of the archivist, the institution, and the predominant culture. These issues have consequences in each of the areas covered below. Theory and practice Provenance A foundational theory of Western archives is the concept of provenance, which determines what constitutes how a collection is named and contextualized. While the intent of provenance is to document the context of how records were created and maintained, traditional archival practices in this area can be problematic. For example,if a faculty member collects student activism materials from campus and donates these materials after years of using them for his own research, it is likely that the collection will be named for the faculty member and that the faculty member’s name and biography will appear first in a finding aid. This implies a hierarchical relationship which can obscure the fact that the faculty member had little involvement in the movement. Original order and imposed arrangement The arrangement of the collection may be based on the concept of original order (maintaining it or restoring it to the order in which it was kept) or by the archivist imposing an arrangement with the intent of facilitating researcher use of the collection. Arrangement created by the archivist relies on an often subjective interpretation of the material and on theoretical concepts about what constitutes proper order, for example, alphabetical, chronological, and hierarchical orders. Decisions on order and arrangement impact how a user finds and uses the material, and according to some critics, is equivalent to the archivist creating the narrative of the collection. Finding aids Finding aids are the standard format of archival description. Traditionally, finding aids are hierarchical, with description from the collection-level implicit throughout the subsequent series, files, and items. The goal of a finding aid is to preserve and provide context for the archival collection, both in how it arrived in the archives, how it was created, maintained, and how the parts relate to the whole. Archival description choices can highly influence perception of a collection in problematic ways. Archival practice asks that a collection be arranged and described along a hierarchical model, which implies specific relationships between materials that may not be accurate. Part of the task of the archivist is to choose how detailed a collection description will be. This choice can vary between a savvy way to efficiently describe large collections at aggregate levels, or a choice to enhance access terms for collections which need more granular levels of description. Part of the challenge of describing archival collections is that it is rarely possible to describe everything at an item level, meaning that the archivist has a very subjective task of devising groupings for describing at the aggregate levels. This can make it easier to approximately find relevant materials, but also not completely identify all relevant items by a keyword search. Archivists can zoom their descriptive “microscope” in or out, which can be helpful when balancing privacy issues with useful description for discovery. For example, an archivist may choose to describe correspondence at a series level to avoid listing actual names. Descriptive language Descriptive standards do not keep up with the complexity of our language and how people identify themselves in the world. This can be seen in the list of accepted subject terms for the Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH), which are terms used worldwide. Historical terminology can be harmful, and it is helpful to remember that LCSH were established by a white- and cis-gendered- dominant society. Legacy descriptions may or may not have adhered to standards of the time, but may include terminology which is still painful and harmful about African-Americans, gay people, people with disabilities, and others. For example “illegal aliens” is a Library of Congress Subject Heading however most media has moved away from using this term and similar terms to describe people. Decisions about including historic terminology involve considerations to help with user discovery of linked historic terms, or terms which appear in the actual item, but it is a good idea to offer additional culturally-aware terminologies, and to provide a disclaimer about historic terminologies. You can also submit suggestions to LCSH by submitting a proposal through The Subject Authority Cooperative Program (SACO).