Journal articles on the topic 'Genealogical libraries'

Janice Lindgren Schultz had a distinguished career at one of the most well-known genealogical libraries in the United States. Her years at the Midwest Genealogy Center in Independence, Kansas, more than prepared her to write Helping Patrons Find Their Roots: A Genealogy Handbook for Librarians. Schultz focuses on all areas of genealogy research and her coverage is exhaustive. She begins with the purposes and methods of research, followed by a detailed consideration of all kinds of records useful to genealogists. She ably explains the importance of the proof and reliability of resources standards used by expert genealogists.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to describe and evaluate the role played by digital libraries in Polish society, particularly in relation to users who are not in education or professionally engaged in academic work. Design/methodology/approach – Results are presented from a survey of non-academic users, identified as one of the key groups of digital library users in an exploratory survey in 2008-2009. The targeted survey was carried out by sending e-mails to persons who had supplied their addresses in the first survey or had set up accounts with the Digital Library of Wielkopolska. Analysis was also made of e-mail correspondence between digital library users and librarians, and data from digital library server logs, during 2008-2013. Findings – The research provided three interesting results. The first is that the creation of digital libraries in Poland has caused a significant number of people to pursue an interest in genealogical or local historical research. The second result is that the evaluations of digital libraries made by non-academics do not differ significantly from those made by students and academics. The third is the fact that at present, approximately 50 per cent of digital library users in the non-academic category are over 50 years of age. Originality/value – This is the first comprehensive study on the use of digital libraries in Poland by non-academic users. It shows what role digital libraries play, and to what extent, in the stimulation of cultural activity in Polish society.

Archival records now in the custody of Australian State and Federal Archives were created by public servants in the normal course of their work. For the most part it was not envisaged that these records would continue to be used by future researchers. This paper looks at how indexing is a means of opening up greater access to archival records, and the challenges that archival indexing poses to both archives and libraries, and private individuals and genealogical societies who publish indexes for researchers.

The popularity of genealogical research is linked to the growth of online genealogy services such as Ancestry.com, which, as of 2020, has over three million paid subscribers. Another 18 million people have taken genetic ancestry tests through the company’s subsidiary, AncestryDNA. This article interrogates how Ancestry presents information on race and ethnicity to users, asking if it is possible for researchers to build a critical racial identity using Ancestry’s services. Applying an understanding of whiteness that comes from critical race studies, the article examines the way race, and whiteness in particular, is presented in the business’s marketing, web features, and products such as AncestryDNA. These examinations reveal a company selling customers family history narratives that comport with the mythology of American egalitarianism, while at the same time essentializing race and ethnicity. The implications of these findings are significant for information professionals because Ancestry relies on partnerships with libraries and archives to supply material for the website’s research database. These partnerships compel archivists and librarians to scrutinize Ancestry’s information ethics. The article calls for further discussion and research into how information professionals can be agents for change in how race and ethnicity are treated in online genealogy spaces.

The article analyzes the possibilities of using information systems and databases in auxiliary historical disciplines teaching. Particular attention is paid to paleography and genealogy internet resources which were created by Russian archives and libraries. The most important method of research applied in this study is the historical and comparative method, which identifies the most successful digital resources in auxiliary history disciplines in terms of scholarly execution and pedagogical use. Digitization of monuments of Russian writing of the XI-XVIII centuries generated a number of resources prepared by the National Library of Russia. The project “Russian autographs. Russian writing monuments in the collections of the Russian National Library Manuscripts Department” is of great importance for students on paleography as a source of additional information. Electronic copies of some monuments with their scientific description, transcription and translation can be used in practical classes, independent study and students' knowledge and skills testing. Russian archives create databases which permit the search for files related to genealogical issues and provide access to electronic images of historical sources. Such resources allow to form the skills of information search in databases and research family history. However, there are currently no internet resources with fully developed methodological tools.

The purpose of the article is to identify and structure the source base of genealogical research on the history of science and to clarify the role of information and communication technologies in the development of the digitalization of scientific research. Research methods. The analysis, characterization and classification of the representative source base of the outlined topic of scientific research based on the use of a conglomerate of general scientific and specific research methods, which together ensured the holistic nature of the study of the scientific problem. The main tools of the research methodology include the following methods: historical and comparative, problematic and chronological, historical and typological, historical and systematic; the method of diachronic analysis and generalization, analogy, synthesis, analysis, and formal logic. The involvement of methodological tools in the scientific study of the problem stated the fixation of the content vectors of the study, which were carried out on the principles of historicism, objectivity, systematicity, and comprehensiveness. The choice of a research strategy or the theoretical and methodological basis of the scientific problem, which were involved and implemented in the process of scientific cognition, made it possible to achieve the goal of scientific research. The use of several general scientific and specific historical methods of scientific research contributed to obtaining new results in the disclosure of this topic. The methodology of oral history, particularly the method of interviewing, has proven to be a valuable tool for scientific research in the context of genealogical research. This approach aims to generalize the testimonies and memories of people who participated in the events directly. The interview method makes it possible to record historical events and their perception from the perspective of specific individuals. Memories are the product of personal thoughts, emotions, and reflections on past events. This individual experience contributes significantly to the understanding and personalization of history. It also enhances the depth and reliability of genealogical studies, adding individual testimonies and personal experiences that enrich the research. The scientific novelty of the study lies in the fact that it is for the first time that an attempt has been made to structure information sources on genealogy, which made it possible to form a representative source base for research on the history of science, to determine the effectiveness of Ukrainian scientists, and to substantiate the significance of scientific achievements. Conclusions. The article deals with the algorithm for forming the representativeness of the source base of genealogical research in the history of science. The importance of involving family and personal archives, materials from the museum and scientific library collections, genealogical reference publications, and statistical collections of various kinds in the source base of the information search is stated. The necessity of using interview memoirs as a significant part of the source base of genealogical research on the history of science is substantiated. The use of oral history makes it possible to identify a new layer of sources in the reproduction of interpersonal relations, creative interests, and everyday life. It has been found that the use of information and communication technologies is one of the significant components of scientific activity in the twenty-first century. The necessity of expanding the range of electronic services in archival, library and museum institutions is argued. Digitalization of archives and libraries is an important factor in ensuring the sustainable development of these research centres. The introduction of electronic information services provides access to resources and enables the preservation of scientific heritage.

The Brazilian Merganser (Mergus octosetaceus) is one of the rarest birds in South America, and it is a critically endangered Anatidae species with an estimated population of less than 250 adult individuals in the Brazilian Cerrado. A captive population was established a few years ago at Zooparque Itatiba (São Paulo state) where 46 individuals were kept, and the founding population (progenitors derived from nature) was composed of 19 of the ex situ birds, derived from the four remaining localities with wild populations in Brazil. To characterize the genetic diversity and the genealogical relationships of the captive population, it is essential to conduct appropriate ex situ management and to assist future reintroduction projects. Thus, we have identified 425 SNPs by massively parallel sequencing of ddRAD libraries that allowed us to genotype individuals of the captive population. We observed a close relatedness between 70% of the captive population and founding individuals of Jalapão and Alto Paranaiba localities, indicating the need for supplementation with individuals from other areas of Canastra and Veadeiros. Even though many captives present a high level of inbreeding, we have identified some individuals with a high genetic value (less inbred) that can be selected for the breeding program to generate individuals for a future pilot reintroduction project.

The Pelibuey sheep (Ovis aries) is an indigenous breed distributed in the tropical regions of Mexico. The prolificacy of this sheep is on average from 1 to 1.5 lambs, being an important breeding characteristic that owners seek to increase with the purpose of economic improvements. New-generation RNA sequencing technology has been used to identify the genes that are expressed in the ovarian tissue of sheep that have two or more lambs per parturition, as well as to elucidate the metabolic pathways that are affected by the expression of these genes, with the purpose of better understanding the prolificacy in the sheep. In the present study, the transcriptional expression of multiparous and uniparous sheep was compared using RNA sequencing. Multiparous (M group) and uniparous (U group) sheep that had a genealogical record for three generations (M, n = 5 and U, n = 5) were selected. RNA was extracted from ovarian tissue and subsequently used to prepare the libraries that were sequenced using the Illumina NextSeq500 platform. A total of 31,575 genes were detected from the transcriptomic analysis of which 4908 were significantly expressed (p-value ≤ 0.001) in the ovary of sheep. Subsequently, a second filter was carried out to evaluate the false discovery rate (FDR) and select those genes with p-values ≤ 0.05 and values of expression ≥ 1 (log2), obtaining 354 differential expressed genes (DEG): 120 genes up-regulated and 234 genes down-regulated in the group M with respect to the group U. Through Gene Ontology (GO) and metabolic analysis, we obtained information on the function of differentially expressed genes, and its importance in the reproduction of multiparous sheep. This result suggest that genes identified in the present study participate in the development of the final stages of follicles.

The paper deals with the search and study of the manuscripts from the medieval library of the princes Romodanovsky, preserved in parts in various libraries and archives of Russia. The purpose of this research is to identify and attribute the materials from the collection of the princes Romodanovsky in the holdings of the scientific-research Department of manuscripts of the Library of the Russian Academy of Sciences (BAN). Russian historians M.E. Bychkova, A.L. Khoroshkevich and Y.V. Ankhimyuk made the assumptions that separate manuscripts (the genealogical book of M.G. Romodanovsky, the historical digest “The book of cases”, etc.) belonged to the library of princes Romodanovsky. However, until now, these sources in historiography were not considered in the complex, and there was no idea about the existence of the significant volume of books of ancestral library. Within the scope of investigation, the author reviewed and analysed the best part of manuscript collections of count M.G. Golovkin, count A.I. Osterman and other courtiers, seized in 1741—1742 in the result of the charges of treason. Based on the materials from the BAN holdings in the St. Petersburg branch of the Archives of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the author restored the circumstances of transfer of the manuscript books from the Confiscation Commission to the Russian Academy of Sciences. The article describes that the great part of the manuscript collection of M.G. Golovkin library is made up of the medieval library of princes Romodanovsky, got there as a heritage of Ekaterina Ivanovna, the wife of count M.G. Golovkin and daughter of I.F. Romodanovsky. The study of the collections of other convicts showed that the Commission made serious mistakes in the description of the books. As a result, the significant part of the collection of M. Golovkin was attributed to the books of Osterman. Thus, in the scientific-research Department of manuscripts of the Library of the Russian Academy of Sciences the author identified and attributed more than 15 manuscripts of 17th — beginning of 18th century, which constituted the core of the ancestral library of princes Romodanovsky. The obtained results demonstrate the manuscript tradition of the ruling elite and its book culture in the new way. The paper used such methods as historical, comparative-historical, prosopographic, as well as a number of methods of auxiliary historical disciplines: source studies, historical bibliography, archival heuristics, archeography, palaeography and codicology.

In 1992, Judaica Librarianship featured an article by Zachary Baker, entitled “What We Owe the Genealogists: Genealogy and the Judaica Reference Librarian.” He followed it up in 2003 with an article in Slavic & East European Information Resources entitled “Resources on the Genealogy of Eastern European Jews.” The present article provides an update on the resources available to Jewish genealogists today, with particular emphasis on print and online resources that are recommended for the smaller Judaica library. It lists some of the sources in Baker’s article that have been updated and some that have gone online. It describes JewishGen, Routes to Roots, the Ackman & Ziff Family Genealogy Institute, the Family History Library, the International Tracing Service, and PERSI, the comprehensive index to genealogical serials. It emphasizes the importance of local genealogi- cal societies and their newsletters.

In 2013 the Dr. William M. Scholl Center for American History and Culture at the Newberry Library in Chicago undertook an initiative to expand the use of its collection of church and synagogue records through a new digital project titled Faith in the City: Chicago's Religious Diversity in the Era of the World's Fair. Though recent scholarship in the study of religion has highlighted the importance of such documents in understanding the contours of American religious life, the collection's origins as a genealogical resource have long shaped its use. By locating curated portions of the library's church histories on a digital map of the city alongside nearly two dozen essays on Chicago's religious history, Faith in the City aims to publicize the collection to new communities of users while also enhancing how local and family historians engage with the material. The following case study provides an overview of Faith in the City's development, the interventions it hopes to make, as well as challenges the platform faced. It concludes by briefly considering the potential of map-based presentations of cultural heritage collections.

This paper explores the benefits and value of college students’ conducting critical family history (CFH) projects, which may serve as curricular material to expand students’ understanding of complex aspects of history and immigration. This article unpacks how one student came to see herself and others from a deeper perspective, particularly through the lens of someone who chose to continue digging into her enslaved ancestors’ roots. Using narrative inquiry, a college instructor and former student collaboratively reflect on the lessons learned from using a CFH project in a college-level class primarily for preservice teachers. A unique aspect of this paper is that it gives voice to a former student in the class, which provides a way of seeing the complexities and dehumanizing components of the lives of enslaved Africans in the U.S.—often sanitized out of history books. In addition, a university librarian suggests approaches to genealogical research, by focusing more on the lived experiences of ancestors that go beyond dates and locations. The perspectives from both a former student and the college instructor add multiple dimensions on lessons learned from a critical family history project, which uses students’ family histories as funds of knowledge as the primary curriculum.

The article is another step in the research of the scientific creativity of Bukovyna priest, historian, ethnologist, corresponding member of the Romanian Academy of Sciences Dimitriy Dan (1856–1927). The fact of international recognition of his works is undeniable, not to mention the use of his creative heritage in Ukrainian and Romanian historiography. But, unfortunately, today there are no special bibliographic studies, a complete list of printed scientific and scientific journalistic works of the tireless scientist. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to compile a bibliographic index of D. Dan's printed works on the basis of source materials. Since this topic is new in modern scientific circulation, in connection with the indisputable actualization of D. Dan's personality and creativity recently, we consider it timely and relevant. It is necessary to state the fact that there is currently no complete list of D. Dan's printed works. The scientist's scientific works (books, articles, including partial bibliographic lists of his works) are scattered on the pages of various journals, magazines and books, directories located in libraries and museum institutions of Ukraine, Romania, Austria and other European countries. Conclusions. The purpose of the research, namely, compilation of the bibliographic index of D. Dan's printed works, was achieved by: 1. Detailed study of previous attempts to compile partial bibliographic lists (D. Dan's letter to the Romanian researcher A. Horovei (1898), L. Bodnerescu's bibliographic work "Romanian Authors of Bukovyna. Repertory" (1903); D. Dan's book is dedicated to the study of the role of Bukovyna clergy in the preservation of Romanianism (1925); 2. Research of the periodical press of that time: the leading Austrian and Romanian magazines on history and ethnology ("Zeitschrift fur osterreichische Volkskunde" (Wien), "Familia" (Buda-Pesta), "Analele academiei Romane", "Buletinul Comisiunii Monumentelor Istorice" (București), "Ion Creangă", "Făt-Frumos" (Bvrlad), "Arhiva Genealogică " (Iași), "Şezătoarea" (Fălticeni), Bukovina newspapers and magazines: "Bukowinaer Nachrichten", "Bukow. Rundschau", "Cernowitzer Allgemeine Zeitung", "Gazeta Bucovinei", "Glasul Bucovinei", "Junimea Literară", etc. .; 3. Study of the main books and brochures of the scientist, which are kept in libraries and funds of museum institutions, archives, libraries of Chernivtsi (Ukraine), Suceava (Romania). An important factor in the effective finding of the necessary facts was the use of special information and search systems on the Internet, which allowed the use of online archives of Austrian, German and Bukovina magazines and newspapers. The conducted research made it possible to restore the full titles of the scientist's printed works, the years of publication, bibliographic data on magazines and newspapers in which D. Dan's works were printed. The bibliographic index of the printed works of D. Dan (1875–1927) is printed for the first time in the appendices – 154 items; handwritten materials (9 items); republished works of the scientist after his death (4 items). The titles of all D. Dan's works have been translated into Ukrainian.

This article examines the development and the contents of the library of Ignacy Oginski, appointed elder of the Darsūniškis and Vaiguva communities; his collection of books is discussed with an emphasis on how the sense of self as well as geneological and religious identity are expressed. The library of I.Oginski is discussed within the context of the history of his family and closest relatives as well as his connections with the Bernardines of Trakai. The bibliographical and provenance analysis is founded on I. Oginski’s books, which are stored in Vilnius University Library (10 specimens); also published at the end of this paper is a list of books bestowed by I. Oginski to the Trakai Bernardine Monastery, which itself was added into the 1787 catalogue of the monastery’s library. It was determined that I. Oginski belonged to the third order of the Franciscan tertiaries and was a financial affairs trustee (i.e., a syndic, Lat. Sindicus Apostolicus) of the Trakai Bernardine Monastery, which he, together with his mother Antonina Oginska, had amply sponsored and to which he bequeathed upon death a sum of 7 thousand Lithuanian Zloty. I. Oginski bestowed his personal library, which consisted of 201 volume, to the Bernardines on March 29, 1786 based on a testament written in Kruonis. It contained not only the more traditional printed materials but also some sheet music characteristic of courtly culture, ledgers, and silva rerum manuscripts. Noteworthy is the prayer “On the Appeal for a Fulfilling Life” (Pol. O uproszenie stanu życia przyzwoitego), handwritten by I. Oginski himself. A large part of the library consisted of ascetic lectures, spiritual exercises, and sermons typical of the Bernardine monks, but the collection was not limited in this aspect, as it also had some secular French works from the Enlightenment period and textbooks printed by the publishing house of the Vilnius Piarists. The considerable number of historical works and books containing dedications with references to the merits of the Oginskis to the state and the Church shows that I. Oginski was particularly attentive of his family history. Generally, the library demonstrates quite clearly a promotional-religious aspect of I. Oginski’s genealogical sense of self and identity. And here, too, the ascetic literature supplements the data from other sources regarding I. Oginski’s piety and his belonging to the tertiary community. The carried out study of I. Oginski’s identity and his personal library’s development and the relevant associations confirms the available possibilities of using the approaches and methodologies of cultural anthropology and social communication in book science studies.

This article examines the development and the contents of the library of Ignacy Oginski, appointed elder of the Darsūniškis and Vaiguva communities; his collection of books is discussed with an emphasis on how the sense of self as well as geneological and religious identity are expressed. The library of I.Oginski is discussed within the context of the history of his family and closest relatives as well as his connections with the Bernardines of Trakai. The bibliographical and provenance analysis is founded on I. Oginski’s books, which are stored in Vilnius University Library (10 specimens); also published at the end of this paper is a list of books bestowed by I. Oginski to the Trakai Bernardine Monastery, which itself was added into the 1787 catalogue of the monastery’s library. It was determined that I. Oginski belonged to the third order of the Franciscan tertiaries and was a financial affairs trustee (i.e., a syndic, Lat. Sindicus Apostolicus) of the Trakai Bernardine Monastery, which he, together with his mother Antonina Oginska, had amply sponsored and to which he bequeathed upon death a sum of 7 thousand Lithuanian Zloty. I. Oginski bestowed his personal library, which consisted of 201 volume, to the Bernardines on March 29, 1786 based on a testament written in Kruonis. It contained not only the more traditional printed materials but also some sheet music characteristic of courtly culture, ledgers, and silva rerum manuscripts. Noteworthy is the prayer “On the Appeal for a Fulfilling Life” (Pol. O uproszenie stanu życia przyzwoitego), handwritten by I. Oginski himself. A large part of the library consisted of ascetic lectures, spiritual exercises, and sermons typical of the Bernardine monks, but the collection was not limited in this aspect, as it also had some secular French works from the Enlightenment period and textbooks printed by the publishing house of the Vilnius Piarists. The considerable number of historical works and books containing dedications with references to the merits of the Oginskis to the state and the Church shows that I. Oginski was particularly attentive of his family history. Generally, the library demonstrates quite clearly a promotional-religious aspect of I. Oginski’s genealogical sense of self and identity. And here, too, the ascetic literature supplements the data from other sources regarding I. Oginski’s piety and his belonging to the tertiary community. The carried out study of I. Oginski’s identity and his personal library’s development and the relevant associations confirms the available possibilities of using the approaches and methodologies of cultural anthropology and social communication in book science studies.

In this article, the author analyzes works on genealogy published in the periodical literature of the Ukrainian diaspora in the mid-to-late 20th – early 21st centuries. Genealogy is a specialized history subject addressing an issue of reconstitution of the past of ancestry, designation of family connections. During the Soviet period, genealogy as science did not develop, although Ukrainian genealogy studies continued thanks to scientists working in emigration. In 1963, they established Ukrainian Genealogical and Heraldry Society. Such scientists as Oleksander Ohloblyn, Viacheslav Seniutovych-Berezhnyi, Antin Kushchynskyi, Luibomyr Vynar worked on problems of Ukrainian genealogy in emigration. Their scientific work was not studied in the Soviet historiography because these scientists were considered “Ukrainian non-Soviet nationalists”. Now, the times have changed, and their scientific heritage draws more and more attention from modern researchers, but the question of the contribution of the Ukrainian diaspora periodic literature to the development of genealogy isn’t covered enough in the historiography. Ukrainian emigrated scientists published the results of their studies in such journals of the Ukrainian diaspora as Ukrainskyi Istoryk, Vyzvolnyi Shliakh, Suchasnist. On the pages of these journals, one can find genealogical explorations, historical and biography projects, autobiographical materials, dedicated to the life and work of various political persons and cultural figures. Such explorations included date and place of birth, names and surnames of parents, parents origin, and all information about the person in the article, as well as information about their spouse and children. The author believes that such interest in genealogical information by emigrated scientists could be explained, firstly, by the desire to preserve the generational bridge and memory about their origin. Secondly, researchers understood that genealogical information often shed ligh upon deeds and views of the influential personalities of that period. Moreover, genealogy can provide materials helping to find out the role and meaning of family connections and relations in the process of personality development. Comparing the publications of diaspora journals dedicated to various outstanding people to the publications in the Soviet periodical literature, we can make the following conclusions. Diaspora scientists paid more attention to the lineage of a person and tried to bring to the reader’s attention all information. At the same time, it was improper to talk about this in the Soviet Union, as it could result in negative consequences. Having analyzed the genealogical materials, published in the various periodical literature of the Ukrainian diaspora mid-to-late 20th century, the author has made the following conclusions. Ukrainian genealogical research continued thanks to scientists who worked in emigration. In their explorations, they paid attention to the lineage of a person and tried to bring all the information to the attention of the readers. Nevertheless, diaspora scientists weren’t able to conduct profound genealogical studies, because they were distanced from genealogical sources kept in the Soviet archives. For sure, it made the basis of their studies much narrower and that is why these scientists had to process the materials they brought with them or to look for new ones in the local archives and libraries.

In August 2002 the Library of Virginia and the Huntington Library of San Marino, California, signed a much-anticipated agreement. Since combining resources, the two research libraries have been hard at work microfilming the Huntington's immense collection of Virginia manuscripts collected a century ago by noted historian, antiquarian, and collector Robert Alonzo Brock (1839–1914). Purchased by Henry Edwards Huntington in 1922, the Brock Collection ranges from the colonial period through the end of the 19th century, with the bulk of the materials dating to the middle years of the 1800s. The collection includes letters, diaries, military and business records, governmental records, church and other organizational records, genealogical research, and Civil War–related materials of every sort, as well as much of Brock's own correspondence as he assembled this amazing assortment of resources.

Nearly four in ten public libraries in the US are located in rural communities and serve more than 30 million Americans, and one-third of public library buildings serve populations of 2,500 people or fewer (Swan, Grimes, & Owens, 2013 https://www.imls.gov/sites/default/files/publications/documents/ brief201305.pdf ). Yet, training for practitioners across LIS and best practices often do not scale to these smaller memory institutions. This project advocates for a reorientation of curricula that centers community memory and recognizes small and rural libraries. Co-PI’s Bateman and Mattock observed these challenges during partnerships with rural public libraries in Iowa: untouched boxes of photographs, cabinets brimming with yellowing newspapers, whole basements of genealogical documents and burial records in storage. Stewarding these untouched collections are overworked library directors, rightly more concerned with immediate patron needs such as computer access. Being the only memory institutions within large radii, rural libraries become presumed repositories for community memory records, donated by well-meaning citizens cleaning out the family attic or by the local organizations producing such documents. Describing this phenomenon to librarians doesn’t take many words; to them, it’s self-evident. “I know exactly the problem you’re talking about,” a rural librarian from Vermont responded to us. But getting to the root of the problem is harder, and finding solutions is harder still. The IMLS-sponsored project “Activating Archives in Remote Communities” evolved in response to the challenges that we have observed. Over the past year, the project has convened a diverse group of community-engaged practitioners with the aim of understanding how MLIS programs can respond to the needs of these rural archival spaces through curricular interventions and open educational resources that can help prepare rural public librarians to engage with archival materials and become aware of the cultural pluralities that constitute the vast service areas of small libraries. Representing practitioners from across the United States, “Activating Archives” includes the perspectives of the LIS professionals who are tasked with preserving community memory as collaborators in the development of a curriculum that serves their needs and increases their capacity. Together we aim to provide an adaptable model for community memory and engagement that is directly applicable to the most remote communities. The “Activating Archives” advisory panel includes community-based and rural practitioners from across the United States: Joshua Burford, Director of Outreach and Lead Archivist for the Invisible Histories Project; Jerald Crook, Founder and Executive Director of Alabama’s Higher Ground Society; Jessica Ieremia, director of Alaska’s Sitka Public Library; Doris Malkmus, archivist and oral historian; Allie Parrsmith, director of the Iowa’s West Liberty Public Library; Verónica Reyes-Escudero, University of Arizona ‘s Katherine B. Willcock Head of Special Collections; Monique Tyndall an independent expert with experience in tribal archives and cultural affairs; and, Jessamyn West, librarian and community technologist in rural Vermont. The panel addressed many of the known challenges in small and rural collections, the lack of resources (time, funding, staff), and the reliance on volunteers. The group also stressed the necessity of collaboration, the politics of building and navigating partnerships, the challenges to building trust across heterogeneous communities, and the ethics of reparative archival work. As we concluded our conversations, the panel offered their perspectives on pedagogical interventions within LIS curricula and provided insight into how open educational resources can support training within MLIS programs and support the work of practitioners already in place in rural institutions. During this session, project PIs, MLIS student collaborators, and community-engaged archivist Aiden Bettine will present the initial findings from the advisory panel and invite the session attendees to add their perspectives to the already rich conversation, further informing the resulting training modules and educational resources produced by the grant. The presenters will ask the audience to work together to share their perspectives and invite feedback from our initial findings, further informing the project deliverables that include training modules and open education resources to support LIS training at all levels. Overall, this project aims to strengthen rural-community resilience, belonging, and well-being by encouraging collaborations that will help communities maintain their own cultural heritage sustainably. Our research reflects memory practices that de-center white, Western archival methods and instead reflect the numerous and mixed methods by which diverse community constituencies self-represent. The project has recruited an advisory panel that represents region-specific and culturally situated memory practices. We also hope that our research and curriculum will be used widely to help include non-dominant populations in library engagement as well as to include their voices in community histories. Finally, we view small and rural libraries as underrepresented organizations in LIS training and literature that nevertheless serve millions of diverse US patrons. Our focus on small and rural libraries includes particular attention to the populations who are likewise discounted in LIS discourse, such as rural Black library users.

Joyce, Gare. Northern Dancer: King of the Racetrack. Markham, ON: Fitzhenry & Whiteside, 2012. Print.It is not often that you find a biography of an animal, but in this case, the animal was a national icon. According to Gare Joyce, Northern Dancer, the great racehorse “made more money as an accomplished racehorse and sire than any Canadian athlete in history – even more than Wayne Gretzky ”. The book begins with a genealogical chart that shows that of the 19 horses starting in the 2011 Kentucky Derby, 18 were descended from Northern Dancer.This book chronicles Northern Dancer from his birth through to his wins and standing at stud until his death at age 29. Through his story, the reader also learns about the world of North American thoroughbred racing. We meet the great jockeys: Ron Turcotte, Willie Shoemaker and Bill Hardtack who all rode Northern Dancer to victories. We learn about the development of racehorses and the major races: The Preakness, The Belmont, The Kentucky Derby and the Queen’s Plate. Joyce writes informally and conversationally, as though he is telling one long story. For example, he tells us that Northern Dancer “became unruly around his stall…At least once he ripped the shirt off his trainer.” Later we are told that a trainer inadvertently let Northern Dancer run hard the day before a race and people thought that no thoroughbred could “run the equivalent of two races on two consecutive days. As it turned out, the only ones hurting after the Florida Derby were those who hadn’t bet on the heavily favoured Northern Dancer.” The text is accompanied by many photos of Northern Dancer, including archival images of horse and jockey in races, at the wire and in the winners’ circle. Overall, this is an enjoyable story of a remarkable horse. Northern Dancer: King of the Racetrack is highly recommended for junior high school libraries and public libraries everywhere. Highly recommended: 4 stars out of 4Reviewer: Sandy CampbellSandy is a Health Sciences Librarian at the University of Alberta, who has written hundreds of book reviews across many disciplines. Sandy thinks that sharing books with children is one of the greatest gifts anyone can give.

My obsession with collecting cookbooks for the Library of Virginia began after a very savvy book dealer offered me a collection of Virginia cookbooks of “genealogical significance and import.” The fellow is a very good salesman and made a convincing argument, but his prices were more than I wanted to pay. He did, however, inspire me to begin looking for cookbooks in the aforementioned thrift stores and estate sales, where I usually pay from fifty cents to a couple of dollars for a book. Once in a while I am tempted to pay retail for a particularly good regional cookbook or a very unusual collective work. But usually I spend no more than $5. I seldom spend Library funds for cookbooks, but there are exceptions. For example, a few months ago a rare book dealer “offered” the Library a copy of the 1921 Hampton Institute cookbook, A Book of Recipes for the Cooking School, by Carrie Alberta Lyford, for about $275. However, after a bit of research I discovered that very edition still available at the Hampton Museum for $40. I’m sure the dealer’s copy has character, but the Library was able to acquire a pristine example for a very reasonable price. Considering fewer than 25 OCLC libraries hold the book, it can be considered scarce (though perhaps not rare).

NB: Artiklen er på dansk, kun resuméet er på engelsk. Jesper Nielsen: Worm’s Mexican hieroglyphs. About a copy of a Mixtec manuscript in The Royal Library. Among The Royal Library’s collection of manuscripts is a piece (NKS 2064 fol.) titled Hieroglyphica Mexicana quae in sui Recordationem Reliquit J. Ludolphus. The piece is a handwritten copy of a small part of the pre-Columbian Mixtec screen-fold book known as Codex Vindobonensis Mexicanus 1. Firstly, this article provides an account of the copy’s genesis and its historic value and research value, subsequently, it de­scribes the historic and genealogic information contained in the copy. Hieroglyphica Mexicana is derived from Ole Worm’s (1588-1654) famous natural and cultural histori­cal collection, but was originally exported by the German orientalist Hiob Ludolph (1624-1704) while visiting Duke William of Sachsen-Weimar-Eisenach in 1650, who had the codex in his cabinet. In 1651, Ludolph gave Ole Worm the copy while visiting Copenhagen. The copy is a drawing of the backside of Codex Vindobonensis, which tells about the Mixtec city of Tilantongos (Oaxaca, Mexico), three dynasties and covers the period from the 900s and up to the mid-1400s. The part which Ludolph chose to copy originated from the lower part of page XII of the codex and is about the second dynasty in the mid-1300s, including the marriage of ♀ 3 Rabbit, Spiderweb Stone and ♂ 9 House, Mexican Jaguar from the neighbouring state Teozacualco in the year 5 Reed (1355 A.D.) Ludolph’s original copy is far more precise than the print, which was published in Museum Wormanium, the catalogue on Worm’s collection, in 1655, and which has often been depicted when referring to Ludolph’s copy. In relation to our understanding of the original Codex Vindobonensis, it is possible that the copy shows details which have disappeared from the original since 1650.

The Digital TurnMuch of the 19th century disappeared from public view during the 20th century. Historians recovered what they could from archives and libraries, with the easy pickings-the famous and the fortunate-coming first. Latterly, social and political historians of different hues determinedly sought out the more hidden, forgotten, and marginalised. However, there were always limitations to resources-time, money, location, as well as purpose, opportunity, and permission. 'History' was principally a professionalised and privileged activity dominated by academics who had preferential access to, and significant control over, the resources, technologies and skills required, as well as the social, economic and cultural framework within which history was recovered, interpreted, approved and disseminated.Digitisation and the broader development of new communication technologies has, however, transformed historical research processes and practice dramatically, removing many constraints, opening up many opportunities, and allowing many others than the professional historian to trace and track what would have remained hidden, forgotten, or difficult to find, as well as verify (or otherwise), what has already been claimed and concluded. In the 21st century, the SEARCH button has become a dominant tool of research. This, along with other technological and media developments, has altered the practice of historians-professional or 'public'-who can now range deep and wide in the collection, portrayal and dissemination of historical information, in and out of the confines of the traditional institutional walls of retained information, academia, location, and national boundaries.This incorporation of digital technologies into academic historical practice generally, has raised, as Cohen and Rosenzweig, in their book Digital History, identified a decade ago, not just promises, but perils. For the historian, there has been the move, through digitisation, from the relative scarcity and inaccessibility of historical material to its (over) abundance, but also the emerging acceptance that, out of both necessity and preference, a hybridity of sources will be the foreseeable way forward. There has also been a significant shift, as De Groot notes in his book Consuming History, in the often conflicted relationship between popular/public history and academic history, and the professional and the 'amateur' historian. This has brought a potentially beneficial democratization of historical practice but also an associated set of concerns around the loss of control of both practice and product of the professional historian. Additionally, the development of digital tools for the collection and dissemination of 'history' has raised fears around the commercialised development of the subject's brand, products and commodities. This article considers the significance and implications of some of these changes through one protracted act of recovery and reclamation in which the digital made the difference: the life of a notorious 19th century professional agitator on both sides of the Atlantic, John De Morgan. A man thought lost, but now found."Who Is John De Morgan?" The search began in 1981, linked to the study of contemporary "race riots" in South East London. The initial purpose was to determine whether there was a history of rioting in the area. In the Local History Library, a calm and dusty backwater, an early find was a fading, but evocative and puzzling, photograph of "The Plumstead Common Riots" of 1876. It showed a group of men and women, posing for the photographer on a hillside-the technology required stillness, even in the middle of a riot-spades in hand, filling in a Mr. Jacob's sandpits, illegally dug from what was supposed to be common land. The leader of this, and other similar riots around England, was John De Morgan. A local journalist who covered the riots commented: "Of Mr. De Morgan little is known before or since the period in which he flashed meteorlike through our section of the atmosphere, but he was indisputably a remarkable man" (Vincent 588). Thus began a trek, much interrupted, sometimes unmapped and haphazard, to discover more about this 'remarkable man'. "Who is John De Morgan" was a question frequently asked by his many contemporary antagonists, and by subsequent historians, and one to which De Morgan deliberately gave few answers. The obvious place to start the search was the British Museum Reading Room, resplendent in its Victorian grandeur, the huge card catalogue still in the 1980s the dominating technology. Together with the Library's newspaper branch at Colindale, this was likely to be the repository of all that might then easily be known about De Morgan.From 1869, at the age of 21, it appeared that De Morgan had embarked on a life of radical politics that took him through the UK, made him notorious, lead to accusations of treasonable activities, sent him to jail twice, before he departed unexpectedly to the USA in 1880. During that period, he was involved with virtually every imaginable radical cause, at various times a temperance advocate, a spiritualist, a First Internationalist, a Republican, a Tichbornite, a Commoner, an anti-vaccinator, an advanced Liberal, a parliamentary candidate, a Home Ruler. As a radical, he, like many radicals of the period, "zigzagged nomadically through the mayhem of nineteenth century politics fighting various foes in the press, the clubs, the halls, the pulpit and on the street" (Kazin 202). He promoted himself as the "People's Advocate, Champion and Friend" (Allen). Never a joiner or follower, he established a variety of organizations, became a professional agitator and orator, and supported himself and his politics through lecturing and journalism. Able to attract huge crowds to "monster meetings", he achieved fame, or more correctly notoriety. And then, in 1880, broke and in despair, he disappeared from public view by emigrating to the USA.LostThe view of De Morgan as a "flashing meteor" was held by many in the 1870s. Historians of the 20th century took a similar position and, while considering him intriguing and culturally interesting, normally dispatched him to the footnotes. By the latter part of the 20th century, he was described as "one of the most notorious radicals of the 1870s yet remains a shadowy figure" and was generally dismissed as "a swashbuckling demagogue," a "democratic messiah," and" if not a bandit … at least an adventurer" (Allen 684). His politics were deemed to be reactionary, peripheral, and, worst of all, populist. He was certainly not of sufficient interest to pursue across the Atlantic. In this dismissal, he fell foul of the highly politicised professional culture of mid-to-late 20th-century academic historians. In particular, the lack of any significant direct linkage to the story of the rise of a working class, and specifically the British Labour party, left individuals like De Morgan in the margins and footnotes. However, in terms of historical practice, it was also the case that his mysterious entry into public life, his rapid rise to brief notability and notoriety, and his sudden disappearance, made the investigation of his career too technically difficult to be worthwhile.The footprints of the forgotten may occasionally turn up in the archived papers of the important, or in distant public archives and records, but the primary sources are the newspapers of the time. De Morgan was a regular, almost daily, visitor to the pages of the multitude of newspapers, local and national, that were published in Victorian Britain and Gilded Age USA. He also published his own, usually short-lived and sometimes eponymous, newspapers: De Morgan's Monthly and De Morgan's Weekly as well as the splendidly titled People's Advocate and National Vindicator of Right versus Wrong and the deceptively titled, highly radical, House and Home. He was highly mobile: he noted, without too much hyperbole, that in the 404 days between his English prison sentences in the mid-1870s, he had 465 meetings, travelled 32,000 miles, and addressed 500,000 people. Thus the newspapers of the time are littered with often detailed and vibrant accounts of his speeches, demonstrations, and riots.Nonetheless, the 20th-century technologies of access and retrieval continued to limit discovery. The white gloves, cradles, pencils and paper of the library or archive, sometimes supplemented by the century-old 'new' technology of the microfilm, all enveloped in a culture of hallowed (and pleasurable) silence, restricted the researcher looking to move into the lesser known and certainly the unknown. The fact that most of De Morgan's life was spent, it was thought, outside of England, and outside the purview of the British Library, only exacerbated the problem. At a time when a historian had to travel to the sources and then work directly on them, pencil in hand, it needed more than curiosity to keep searching. Even as many historians in the late part of the century shifted their centre of gravity from the known to the unknown and from the great to the ordinary, in any form of intellectual or resource cost-benefit analysis, De Morgan was a non-starter.UnknownOn the subject of his early life, De Morgan was tantalisingly and deliberately vague. In his speeches and newspapers, he often leaked his personal and emotional struggles as well as his political battles. However, when it came to his biographical story, he veered between the untruthful, the denial, and the obscure. To the twentieth century observer, his life began in 1869 at the age of 21 and ended at the age of 32. His various political campaign "biographies" gave some hints, but what little he did give away was often vague, coy and/or unlikely. His name was actually John Francis Morgan, but he never formally acknowledged it. He claimed, and was very proud, to be Irish and to have been educated in London and at Cambridge University (possible but untrue), and also to have been "for the first twenty years of his life directly or indirectly a railway servant," and to have been a "boy orator" from the age of ten (unlikely but true). He promised that "Some day-nay any day-that the public desire it, I am ready to tell the story of my strange life from earliest recollection to the present time" (St. Clair 4). He never did and the 20th century could unearth little evidence in relation to any of his claims.The blend of the vague, the unlikely and the unverifiable-combined with an inclination to self-glorification and hyperbole-surrounded De Morgan with an aura, for historians as well as contemporaries, of the self-seeking, untrustworthy charlatan with something to hide and little to say. Therefore, as the 20th century moved to closure, the search for John De Morgan did so as well. Though interesting, he gave most value in contextualising the lives of Victorian radicals more generally. He headed back to the footnotes.Now FoundMeanwhile, the technologies underpinning academic practice generally, and history specifically, had changed. The photocopier, personal computer, Internet, and mobile device, had arrived. They formed the basis for both resistance and revolution in academic practices. For a while, the analytical skills of the academic community were concentrated on the perils as much as the promises of a "digital history" (Cohen and Rosenzweig Digital).But as the Millennium turned, and the academic community itself spawned, inter alia, Google, the practical advantages of digitisation for history forced themselves on people. Google enabled the confident searching from a neutral place for things known and unknown; information moved to the user more easily in both time and space. The culture and technologies of gathering, retrieval, analysis, presentation and preservation altered dramatically and, as a result, the traditional powers of gatekeepers, institutions and professional historians was redistributed (De Groot). Access and abundance, arguably over-abundance, became the platform for the management of historical information. For the search for De Morgan, the door reopened. The increased global electronic access to extensive databases, catalogues, archives, and public records, as well as people who knew, or wanted to know, something, opened up opportunities that have been rapidly utilised and expanded over the last decade. Both professional and "amateur" historians moved into a space that made the previously difficult to know or unknowable now accessible.Inevitably, the development of digital newspaper archives was particularly crucial to seeking and finding John De Morgan. After some faulty starts in the early 2000s, characterised as a "wild west" and a "gold rush" (Fyfe 566), comprehensive digitised newspaper archives became available. While still not perfect, in terms of coverage and quality, it is a transforming technology. In the UK, the British Newspaper Archive (BNA)-in pursuit of the goal of the digitising of all UK newspapers-now has over 20 million pages. Each month presents some more of De Morgan. Similarly, in the US, Fulton History, a free newspaper archive run by retired computer engineer Tom Tryniski, now has nearly 40 million pages of New York newspapers. The almost daily footprints of De Morgan's radical life can now be seen, and the lives of the social networks within which he worked on both sides of the Atlantic, come easily into view even from a desk in New Zealand.The Internet also allows connections between researchers, both academic and 'public', bringing into reach resources not otherwise knowable: a Scottish genealogist with a mass of data on De Morgan's family; a Californian with the historian's pot of gold, a collection of over 200 letters received by De Morgan over a 50 year period; a Leeds Public Library blogger uncovering spectacular, but rarely seen, Victorian electoral cartoons which explain De Morgan's precipitate departure to the USA. These discoveries would not have happened without the infrastructure of the Internet, web site, blog, and e-mail. Just how different searching is can be seen in the following recent scenario, one of many now occurring. An addition in 2017 to the BNA shows a Master J.F. Morgan, aged 13, giving lectures on temperance in Ledbury in 1861, luckily a census year. A check of the census through Ancestry shows that Master Morgan was born in Lincolnshire in England, and a quick look at the 1851 census shows him living on an isolated blustery hill in Yorkshire in a railway encampment, along with 250 navvies, as his father, James, works on the construction of a tunnel. Suddenly, literally within the hour, the 20-year search for the childhood of John De Morgan, the supposedly Irish-born "gentleman who repudiated his class," has taken a significant turn.At the end of the 20th century, despite many efforts, John De Morgan was therefore a partial character bounded by what he said and didn't say, what others believed, and the intellectual and historiographical priorities, technologies, tools and processes of that century. In effect, he "lived" historically for a less than a quarter of his life. Without digitisation, much would have remained hidden; with it there has been, and will still be, much to find. De Morgan hid himself and the 20th century forgot him. But as the technologies have changed, and with it the structures of historical practice, the question that even De Morgan himself posed – "Who is John De Morgan?" – can now be addressed.SearchingDigitisation brings undoubted benefits, but its impact goes a long way beyond the improved search and detection capabilities, into a range of technological developments of communication and media that impact on practice, practitioners, institutions, and 'history' itself. A dominant issue for the academic community is the control of "history." De Groot, in his book Consuming History, considers how history now works in contemporary popular culture and, in particular, examines the development of the sometimes conflicted relationship between popular/public history and academic history, and the professional and the 'amateur' historian.The traditional legitimacy of professional historians has, many argue, been eroded by shifts in technology and access with the power of traditional cultural gatekeepers being undermined, bypassing the established control of institutions and professional historian. While most academics now embrace the primary tools of so-called "digital history," they remain, De Groot argues, worried that "history" is in danger of becoming part of a discourse of leisure, not a professionalized arena (18). An additional concern is the role of the global capitalist market, which is developing, or even taking over, 'history' as a brand, product and commodity with overt fiscal value. Here the huge impact of newspaper archives and genealogical software (sometimes owned in tandem) is of particular concern.There is also the new challenge of "navigating the chaos of abundance in online resources" (De Groot 68). By 2005, it had become clear that:the digital era seems likely to confront historians-who were more likely in the past to worry about the scarcity of surviving evidence from the past-with a new 'problem' of abundance. A much deeper and denser historical record, especially one in digital form seems like an incredible opportunity and a gift. But its overwhelming size means that we will have to spend a lot of time looking at this particular gift horse in mouth. (Cohen and Rosenzweig, Web).This easily accessible abundance imposes much higher standards of evidence on the historian. The acceptance within the traditional model that much could simply not be done or known with the resources available meant that there was a greater allowance for not knowing. But with a search button and public access, democratizing the process, the consumer as well as the producer can see, and find, for themselves.Taking on some of these challenges, Zaagsma, having reminded us that the history of digital humanities goes back at least 60 years, notes the need to get rid of the "myth that historical practice can be uncoupled from technological, and thus methodological developments, and that going digital is a choice, which, I cannot emphasis strongly enough, it is not" (14). There is no longer a digital history which is separate from history, and with digital technologies that are now ubiquitous and pervasive, historians have accepted or must quickly face a fundamental break with past practices. However, also noting that the great majority of archival material is not digitised and is unlikely to be so, Zaagsma concludes that hybridity will be the "new normal," combining "traditional/analogue and new/digital practices at least in information gathering" (17).ConclusionA decade on from Cohen and Rozenzweig's "Perils and Promises," the digital is a given. Both historical practice and historians have changed, though it is a work in progress. An early pioneer of the use of computers in the humanities, Robert Busa wrote in 1980 that "the principal aim is the enhancement of the quality, depth and extension of research and not merely the lessening of human effort and time" (89). Twenty years later, as Google was launched, Jordanov, taking on those who would dismiss public history as "mere" popularization, entertainment or propaganda, argued for the "need to develop coherent positions on the relationships between academic history, the media, institutions…and popular culture" (149). As the digital turn continues, and the SEARCH button is just one part of that, all historians-professional or "amateur"-will take advantage of opportunities that technologies have opened up. Looking across the whole range of transformations in recent decades, De Groot concludes: "Increasingly users of history are accessing the past through complex and innovative media and this is reconfiguring their sense of themselves, the world they live in and what history itself might be about" (310). ReferencesAllen, Rob. "'The People's Advocate, Champion and Friend': The Transatlantic Career of Citizen John De Morgan (1848-1926)." Historical Research 86.234 (2013): 684-711.Busa, Roberto. "The Annals of Humanities Computing: The Index Thomisticus." Computers and the Humanities 14.2 (1980): 83-90.Cohen, Daniel J., and Roy Rosenzweig. Digital History: A Guide to Gathering, Preserving, and Presenting the Past on the Web. Philadelphia, PA: U Pennsylvania P, 2005.———. "Web of Lies? Historical Knowledge on the Internet." First Monday 10.12 (2005).De Groot, Jerome. Consuming History: Historians and Heritage in Contemporary Popular Culture. 2nd ed. Abingdon: Routledge, 2016.De Morgan, John. Who Is John De Morgan? A Few Words of Explanation, with Portrait. By a Free and Independent Elector of Leicester. London, 1877.Fyfe, Paul. "An Archaeology of Victorian Newspapers." Victorian Periodicals Review 49.4 (2016): 546-77."Interchange: The Promise of Digital History." Journal of American History 95.2 (2008): 452-91.Johnston, Leslie. "Before You Were Born, We Were Digitizing Texts." The Signal 9 Dec. 2012, Library of Congress. <https://blogs.loc.gov/thesignal/292/12/before-you-were-born-we-were-digitizing-texts>.Jordanova, Ludmilla. History in Practice. 2nd ed. London: Arnold, 2000.Kazin, Michael. A Godly Hero: The Life of William Jennings Bryan. New York: Anchor Books, 2006.Saint-Clair, Sylvester. Sketch of the Life and Labours of J. De Morgan, Elocutionist, and Tribune of the People. Leeds: De Morgan & Co., 1880.Vincent, William T. The Records of the Woolwich District, Vol. II. Woolwich: J.P. Jackson, 1890.Zaagsma, Gerban. "On Digital History." BMGN-Low Countries Historical Review 128.4 (2013): 3-29.