By
Frank Boles
March
has been an extraordinary month for almost everyone, not the least of which has
been the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the operations of the Clarke Historical
Library. Working first under Governor Whitmer’s executive order closing places
of public accommodation (which included libraries) and then dealing with her
subsequent order to “Stay Home, Stay Safe, Save Lives” has caused the library
staff to respond with ingenuity and flexibility.
Like
the rest of the library staff, I am working from home “for the duration.” What
that means is, in addition to the resources always available online, the library’s work
continues, with one important exception, reference. Unfortunately, to answer
most reference questions that come to the library we need access to the
material in the collection. I trust that people who are still sending us
reference requests will understand that while we are monitoring email and
messages left on the telephone, we can only create a log of inquiries to be
dealt with as soon as we can return to the library itself, on campus.
But
aside from reference, a tremendous amount of work, some typically done every
day and some often postponed, is being undertaken. Marian Matyn, the library’s
archivist, is spending time preparing finding aids to be eventually uploaded
onto the internet, making collections more accessible, as well as documenting
CMU’s response to COVID-19 for the University Archives. In Cataloging, records
are being created for uploading into the catalog, making material discoverable
in the future.
Although
the Microfilm and Digitization Project cannot photograph newspaper pages onto
microfilm or scan new material, the unit’s staff continues to manage
digitization projects with customers throughout the state, communicate with
contracted vendors in three countries as well as with the Library of Congress,
while also conducting quality control work, remotely, on existing scans. One
example of this work will be over 70,000 newspapers pages from Paw Paw coming
online at the library’s newspaper portal later this month.
One
of the underappreciated aspects of the program is the tremendous amount of
quality control that goes into making sure the raw scans from a project like
the Paw Paw paper meet user expectations when they are made available for
online use. Users find searchable online newspapers the next best thing to
magic. Put a name or a term into the search box and very quickly a hopefully
short list of pages to read appears. Those of us who remember “the old days”
recall spending hours sitting in a darkened room, head more or less inserted
into an old Kodak microfilm reader (aka “the tin can”) looking patiently for
that same information which is now so effortlessly delivered. But making that
effortless search happen takes a very large commitment of “back room” time and
energy. It may be magic, but like any good magician, there is a lot of hard
work performed by those who prepare the files that underlies the illusion of
“effortlessness.” It may be a point I make too often, but it is a point too
often forgotten by online users.
Bryan
Whitledge is busy continuing his work on University electronic records and
records management. He is also bringing a few seconds of delight everyday with
videos of pop-up books on the Clarke’s social media channels.
While
reference librarian John Fierst cannot do much reference, he is working on a
long-discussed project to transcribe and place online some of the John
Greenleaf Whittier letters in the library’s collection. Whittier was a strident
activist opposing slavery and well-known nineteenth century poet. Beginning in
the 1830s, Whitter published widely about the abolitionist causes, editing
several abolitionist newspapers, while unceasingly badgering the New England
members of Congress to adopt pro-abolitionist positions. He would work to end
slavery, until it was legally abolished in 1865.
At
the same time as he worked towards abolition, Whittier wrote and published
poetry. After the Civil War, Whittier exclusively wrote poems. His most
enduring work, “Snow-Bound,” was published in 1866. After 30 years of writing
poetry, he was surprised that “Snow-Bound” actually made him money. Whittier is
also remembered for championing women writers, in an era when female authors
were not taken seriously.
The
Whittier papers in the Clarke, while both extensive and interesting, are
something of an accident. A now-deceased CMU professor gathered the material
together, and eventually gifted it the Clarke Historical Library. Because they
reside in a midwestern college, separated from their New England home, they
have largely been ignored. John’s work, we hope, will make the collection
better known and share some of this important resource online through scans and
transcriptions of selected letters.
As
for myself, there are grants to be written, letters to compose, material about
the current exhibit that can be drafted for eventual use on the website, and
similar tasks to be done.
In
these stressful times, I like to remind people of the great pandemic of 1918,
which caused campus to close and left two members of the Central community
dead. It was very, very bad, but it eventually ended. So, too will the COVID-19
pandemic we are currently enduring.
