Duke Divinity School Library Orientation Video 2013

Duke Divinity School Library 2013 Orientation Video

Written, directed, and narrated by yours truly.

The Overachieving Archivist Goes to the American Theological Library Association Annual Conference (Watch for the Hints!)

The Duke Divinity School Library Staff attended the American Theological Library Association Annual Conferencee in The Queen City of Charlotte, North Carolina last week. I presented a poster "The Religion in North Carolina Digital Collection: Content, Audience, and Presentation. The presentation featured background about the project planning grant, scope and audience, organizing content and workflow, copyright analysis, incidences of impact, digital output and Black Church identity politics as reflected in meeting minutes and church histories. Everyone wanted to know about the grant! Fellow librarians shared their interest and excitement about the digital collection. A few even asked me to consult on their archival programs. The poster presentation and attendance at the Methodist Librarian's Fellowship meeting gave me the opportunity to share with and learn from a variety of theological libraries accessing their own collections  for mass digitization.  

We are all so engaged!

 I really enjoyed the close knit community ATLA fosters. Though small in size, ATLA is big on personality and on professional development. At the opening night mixer for first time attendees we played a "Bingo" themed game that required us to introduce ourselves to people who could fill our cards. The pre-printed matrix cards featured boxes including "Board Member", "First Time Attendee", "Member of the __ Committee", "Is attending the Diversity Committee Movie Night", and "Attending the Charlotte Knights Baseball Game". I was so happy to met many of the librarians I've been emailing about materials transfers for the project including Chris Anderson from Drew University. The overwhelming majority of people I met were library directors. At one point I just had to take a step back and ask "if everyone a library director here but me?" I asked my new colleagues what they were most excited about experiencing at the conference.
Carisse Berryhill, Administrative Librarian at Abilene Christian University answer to that question sums up the feel of the conference, "Hugging all my friends and meeting new people". I had a blast!

Here's a rundown on my favorite sessions:

1) Librarianship as a Christian Calling by John E. Shaffett, Director of Library Services, The Baptist College of Florida

Shaffett's lecture tied biblical portrayals of hospitality, notions of stewardship, Christian calling and the Master of Library Science into the neat bow I was hoping the talk would when I pre-registered for the session. I don't want to get too personal on this blog but Shaffett's scholarship struck me right at the core. My whole professional career and academic journey has been led by my unanswered faith questions from childhood. Sometimes I look around and really wonder how I got where I am. Is theological librarianship a ministry? Do theological librarians have a particular calling? Yes. Yes. I'll leave it that.

2) Theological Libraries and "The Theology of Hospitality" David R. Stewart, Director of Libraries, Bethel University; Tracy Powell Iwaskow, Head of Public Services and Periodicals Librarian, Pitts Theological Library, Emory University; Anthony Elia, Public Services Librarian, Burke Library, Union Theological Seminary

This panel explored how hospitality is (and has been) practiced in theological communities and their libraries, and how specific practices enrich vocational communities in specific and important ways. I was especially interested in the session due to a big career announcement I will be making in my next post. The take away from this session was that we must be discerning to library patrons as though they are our neighbors, not necessarily our friends when it comes to service delivery and respect.

3) Support for Online Bible Studies Jennifer Bartholomew, E-Services Librarian, Luther Seminary

This session shared tips and tools to support students and ministers engaged in providing online Bible studies for a variety of groups. This session was EXCELLENT! The resources shared were extremely practical (a few other demonstrations were a bit abstract for my taste) and relevant to the design of digital meeting spaces. I hope to replicate this kind of user guide here at the Divinity School Library in the fall (that's a hint!).

I also enjoyed Teaching Analytical Reading Skills and Reading Strategies to Seminary Students, 11 Million Reasons to Become Diverse: How Diverse Populations are Changing Libraries and Society, and Transition to Management: A Conversation for New, Interim, and Aspiring Library Directors.  

Sometimes I laugh at my own jokes 

The closing all conference lunch reception featured a most inspiring and dynamic talk by Joan Frye Williams, noted library consultant titled "From Trend to Task-What do Do about Tomorrow, Today". Williams talk connected the dots between broad external trends and our investment in productive library practices. She definitely lit a fire under our butts and encouraged us to think deeply about what we strategies we are using to provide the best service delivery. Overall the conference was a success and Charlotte is a cool urban city full of young professionals. I felt as my good seminary sister Donna says "In the right place at the appointed time".

 

Two Over Achieving Archivists: Good Times with David Ferriero at Duke University Libraries

Please allow me to tell you a story about that one time I hung out with The Archivist of the United States. So that one time at Duke Libraries in the Gothic Reading Room in the Rubenstein Library on Friday, May 10 around 3:00 p.m. ish I met David S. Ferriero, Archivist of the United States http://www.archives.gov/about/archivist/. We took a picture and I gave him my business card. I thought it would be cleaver and extremely BOLD to give Mr. Ferriero my business card with "Future Archivist of the Untied States" written on the back. Career counselors, faculty, and mentors always tell us to seek out people doing the work we want to do. If I want to be the First African American and Woman Archivist of the United States, who better to than to meet and network with than the man who's job I want one day.

I wrote the forecast on a Duke Divinity School business card noting my position as the Project Coordinator for The Religion in North Carolina Digital Collection before leaving my office in Divinity to head over Rubenstein. I settled into my seat in the Gothic Reading for "A Conversation with David S. Ferriero, Archivist of the United States" and noticed that me and a woman I would later learn was Dianne Vernese Pledger were the only African Americans in attendance. Dianne spoke up during the question and answer period thanking Sir Archivist (Is that an official title?) for allowing the original draft of the Emancipation Proclaimation to be loaned to the North Carolina Museum of History for display. Information on the exhibit can be found here: http://www.ncfmp.org/

After the lecture was over, I joined the line to greet David. Dianne stood behind me. This was the perfect time to network and find out more about her work. I introduced myself and ask if she was working with my former supervisor on the Civil Rights Team during my internship with the museum and current mentor Earl Ijames, Curator. She said yes and we chatted a bit about the exhibit and how the Triangle was such a small world. Dianne then asked me to take a picture of her with the Archivist when her turn came. I could've slapped myself in the face! Grabbing my cell phone before leaving my office for a photo op did not cross my mind! What did cross my mind was writing "Future Archivist of the United States" on a business card. Good enough, right? When my turn in line came I introduced myself, told him how much I enjoyed his presentation, shared a bit about my work in the Divinity School Library after he asked, and then I went in for the kill. I told Mr. Ferriero about my ambitions. He chuckled, took the card and stuck it in his jacket pocket. See my cheesy grin above!

The crazy part about this whole exercise in boldness was that David shared the letter that he wrote to President Kennedy about passing the Civil Rights Act back in the day as a major part of his presentation. This letter became a part of his government profile (they must really keep everything!). I suggested to David that he could keep my business card and it be added to my government file so I can talk about it one day when I am Archivist of the United States.

Dianne emailed me the picture from her Iphone with this short message: You are welcome! I am glad we met. Go for your dreams....

WILL DO!

For All That Was Written: The African American Church Narrative in North Carolina

The North Carolina Central University's Department of History, in association with the Global Studies Program, and the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, hosted the 5th Annual African Diaspora Studies Symposium on March 23. The theme “Documenting and Sustaining Memory in the Diaspora in the 21th Century,” seeks to explore the ways that communities see themselves and the ways that they are perceived by the dominant cultures that surround them.

My talk focused on how to use the African American denominational meeting minutes from the Religion in North Carolina Digital Collection. I showed how these meeting minutes highlight Black Church identity politics in North Carolina and how the written religious record communicates belief about faith, self-identity and country. The subject of my presentation "For Everything that Was Written: The African American Church Narrative in North Carolina" are the functions of narrative, authority and memory in church histories, clergy biographical and conference session meeting minutes represented in The Religion in North Carolina Digital Collection. I also connected Black Church identity politics in North Carolina to the importance of perserving cultural records, through the lens of Romans 15:4, “For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.”

As an up and coming theological librarian with enthusiasm for collections management and Africana History working with a large scale digitization project that seeks to generate interest in and give us the opportunity to talk about our diverse backgrounds and experiences is extremely fulfilling for me. 

The collection aims to document the cultural and religious history of the state from fluffy frozen peanut pie recipes to the church's response to the Civil Rights Movement to the local history of a retirement community.

The pamphlet, Christianity and race relations: messages from the second annual Conference on Human Relations, features addresses given at the second annual Conference on Human Relations, sponsored by the Department of Interracial Cooperation of the Baptist State Conventions of North Carolina. The purpose of these conferences was to bring Baptist Church leadership in North Carolina together annually for individual and group confrontation with what is Christian in the area of race relations. 

Church histories, anniversary booklets and meeting minutes not only document the passage of time and congregational occasions but are opportunities to tell and receive direction for the stories that frame the association’s existence. In these primary materials we see the church’s organization around seasonal and occasional events death, anniversaries, weddings, birth of children, changes in leadership, and the liturgical calendar all of which give structure and momentum to people’s lives.

In “But Who Do You Say That I Am? (Matt 16:15): A Churched Korean American Woman’s Autobiographical Inquiry Jung Ha Kim says “Reflection helps us to see alternative directions in our lives and reframing our stories according to the convictions and values we hold.” In these primary documents produced by African American associations and church bodies we see congregations participating in constructing their own stories and revisiting them throughout the life of the community. 

Another very revealing monograph is the 1926 Meeting Minutes of the Pee Dee Colored Baptist Association, specifically their Report of the committee on the condition of the nation, It reads: 

“Viewing the condition of the country politically, nationally and internationally in our clearest conception, we behold the condition of things with serious regret. We deplore the condition  of things pertaining to political unrest, evolution and crime; easy divorce; the violation of the 18th Amendment, and spiritual wickedness in high places, all of which seems to shake the very foundation of our national government, both church and state.”

“We are glad to note with unspeakable joy and profound gratitude to God and the strong arm of our national and state governments, that the condition of things have changed so very, very much that Lynch Law and mob violence have decreased 75 per cent. May God bless our great country and the Grand Old North State.” 

Are these statistics from the nation or North Carolina? Is the mention  of the18th Amendment and temperance referring to personal piety and alcohol consumption of members or point to the appeal for prohibition and miscegenation going hand in hand because that definitely was an issue black men needed to concern themselves with?

The formation and work of a committee on the condition of the country is an extremely progressive move on the part of this association. It the indicative of self-awareness and a firm grasp on what James Cone calls the difference between American Theology and Black Theology. In Black Theology and Black Power James Cone talks about how American Theology is closely identified with the structures of society. “The church cannot remain aloof from the world because the church is in the world. Theology, then if it is to serve the need of the Church must become ‘worldly theology’. Black Theology as seen in the report of the committee on the condition of the country deliberates on the issues in the larger culture while constructing a theology that is relevant to the life of the people the association serves.

 The overwhelming majority of church histories in this collection are packed with pictures. In Womanist Theology: Black Women’s Voices (1986) Delores S. Williams, encourages us to ask the question where are the women in the church and what are they doing? “The womanist theologian must search for the voices, actions, opinions, experience, and faith of women whose names sometimes slip into the male-centered rendering of black history, but whose actual stories remain remote.” What are contributions of women in the church? How are they highlighted and celebrated?

In the Centennial history of the Woman's Baptist Home and Foreign Missionary Convention of North Carolina, there are faces to match the leadership. This history was especially remarkable because it is an autonomous convention under the executive leadership of Black women dating back to 1884 before Women’s suffrage.


The call for papers for this symposium posed the question: How are academics, archivists, librarians, public intellectuals, and artists creating alternative archives and public memory?

I’ll admit when I submitted by abstract I did not have a concrete idea of what I wanted to write about out or how exactly I wanted to highlight the African American materials in the collection. When I began to prepare and starting scouring through these centennial programs and meeting minutes I thought I’d bit off more than I could chew with my grand statement “I will explore Black Church identity politics in North Carolina and how the written religious record communicates belief about faith, self-identity and country…
What I found myself writing about was my reading these narratives with a judgmental, uncritical eye. I was so ready to find the struggle these congregants in 20th century, black folks in rural North Carolina MUST have been having. I was guilty of reading imagined hardships into the text instead of examining how the stories are written and what can be learned from them as is.

I still have plenty of questions and as a librarian/archivist I have the tools to uncover the validity of my agenda setting. Are the authors Self-censoring or code switching? What else can be said of their connection to white denominations? What is un-published? Church meeting minutes like most business meeting minutes can be DRY. The significance is not what is not here but what is here and what else it points to. Just because stories about interactions with the surrounding white community, the going-ons of other black churches in the area, Jim Crow and clan violence, are not explicitly documented doesn’t mean that there is no evidence somewhere else. It might not seem like the churches put too much in there but was in there is very telling.

Check Out The Religion in North Carolina Blog!

ncreligion.blogspot.com

A Very Necessary Update From the "Working Girl"

Hellooooooo helloooo helllooo. Is anyone out there?!? I haven't made a post since August, today is November 13th. Here is what I've been up to!

Allow me to reintroduce myself, I am Shanee' Yvette Murrain, Project Coordinator of The Religion in North Carolina Digital Collection at the Duke Divinity School Library... or you can just call me "Hov".

I was brought on as the project coordinator September 1, 2012. The Religion in North Carolina Digital Collection is a collaborative project of Duke University, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and Wake Forest University that seeks to bring together, preserve, and provide digital access to the primary materials of religious bodies in North Carolina. This three year grant is made possible through funding from the federal Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by the State Library of North Carolina, a division of the Department of Cultural Resources.

 The project highlights and provides new insights into the religious diversity of North Carolina. As one of the most religious states in the country, North Carolina religion has become increasingly a subject of interest to many people. While particularly home to many Baptists, Methodists, and Catholics, North Carolina has long been home to Quakers and Moravians, Lutherans and Episcopalians, Pentecostals and Congregationalists. Beyond Christianity, Judaism has deep roots in North Carolina while Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, and other religious groups are newer to the state. Whenever possible, we have tried to include materials from every tradition although some traditions do not have as much written documentation (Pentecostals) or are so new to North Carolina, their histories have yet to be written (Hindus).


Here's a brief overlook of what I do at the Divinity School Library (based on the official job vacancy announcement which directly reflects my current job responsibilities:

The Project Coordinator coordinates a program for digitization of library materials for the Religion in North Carolina Digital Collection project in the Divinity School Library. This position is funded for 11 months from August 2012 through June 2013 with the possibility of continued funding through December 31, 2014.

Working with the Project Manager and other project partners, the Project Coordinator:

• Plans, implements, and coordinates digitization procedures and workflows for the LSTA grant-funded project, NC Religion Digital Collection; participates in the physical retrieval, storage, and preparation of library materials for digitization as required to assist overall project goals and timelines
• Establishes a communication system to coordinate the various logistical aspects of the project between Duke Divinity School library staff and project personnel from UNC, Wake Forest University, and other contributing libraries; responds to inquiries about the project according to established policies and procedures
• Directs the shipment and tracking of materials from contributing libraries to the Divinity Library and prepares items and metadata for digitization by Internet Archive staff;
• Develops a memorandum of understanding with contributing libraries regarding shipping or delivery, packing protocols, metadata delivery, and expected loan times;
• Manages and updates the master inventory and picklist for materials  to be digitized; sets standards for metadata,  MARC records and overall project quality control; he/she shares relevant lists with project partners and contributing libraries for retrieval
• Hires and trains student workers who are responsible for retrieval, review, and storage of materials to be digitized by the Divinity School Library’s Internet Archive Scribe
• Reviews the Internet Archive Collection page and populates the page with relevant digitized materials
• Contributes to the project’s ongoing copyright permissions approval plan and appropriately tracks related correspondence
• Assists in drafting reports required by grant agency and submits written progress reports to oversight committee or immediate supervisor as requested.
• Performs other duties as assigned.

Here is the official "Spotlight" on the Divinity School Library webpage announcing my installation http://blogs.library.duke.edu/divinity/2012/08/28/project-coordinator-selected-to-lead-religion-in-north-carolina-digital-collection-initiative/

Here is the project blog: religion.blogspot.com

Here is the link to the Religion in North Carolina Digital Collection on Internet Archive http://archive.org/details/ncreligion

I'll be back later with the complete story of how I secured this position and what a day in the office is like. This is my dream job and I LOVE IT! Stay tuned!

The Overachieving Archivist Goes to ALA!

From June 20th-June 27th I will be in Anaheim, California at the American Library Association Annual Conference. North Carolina Central University School of Library Science IMLS (Institute of Museum and Library Services) 2011-2012 scholarship recipients were awarded travel and expenses by IMLS to attend this wonderful one-of-a-kind educational and professional development experience. I am extremely grateful for the opportunity to meet librarians, authors, and activists from around the world and network with librarians from all walks of life and library specializations. I keep trying to tell people how cool being a librarian/archivist is!

Even though Disney Land is right across the street from the Anaheim Convention Center where the conference is being held, this trip isn't all Mickey Mouse Hats and Fireworks. In addition to the requirement that we attend sessions in eight content areas: Management/Leadership, Reference Services, Technology, Community Engagement/Services, Professional Development, A User Population (children, teens, the elderly, the homeless, international students, etc.), Research, and One Major Area Session (I'm going to hear Sapphire, author of the book "Push" on which the motion picture "Precious" was based), we are to write a 3-5 page report (piece of cake!).

I am most excited about the sessions on increasing diversity (both ethnic and educational background) in academic libraries, meeting other young stereotype-challenging-21st Century librarians, all the free give-a-ways in the exhibit hall, and the bounty of career development workshops. I will be editing this post as the week goes on so please check back for more pictures and updates. Peace In Your Local Library!

Getting Registered

Free Shuttle Service: ALA Knows Hospitality!

Just a Taste of the Conference Offerings

ALA President, Molly Raphael During the Open Session

Exhibit Hall

Look at ALL the Librarians!

Me and the Flirting Robot

Cool Library Technology

Self-Service Library Circulation Kiosk

I Was Too Scared to Get Closer