Stanford Libraries’ Department of Special Collections and University Archives has published a Statement on Potentially Harmful Language in Cataloging and Archival Description. The statement was developed by staff across the department over the past two months, with additional input from staff in Stanford Libraries’ Metadata Development Unit...
Welcome to Part 3 of our blog post series, Metal, paper, glass.
Welcome to Part 2 of our blog post series, Metal, paper, glass. As Elizabeth Ryan noted in her blog post, subtitled Perspectives on a stained glass panel and other objects in Stanford Libraries Special Collections, we were inspired by this striking stained-glass object to explore how we each interact with a variety of unusual materials in our collections, and to share our different perspectives.
Left, Buckminster Fuller bronze life mask by Ruth Asawa, circa 1992, M1823; Center, [Die ghetijden van onser lieuer vrouwe[n] : fragment]. Paris: Widow of Thielman Kerver, 1533?]; Right, Leaded stained glass plate of St. Eustache, late 19th or early 20th century, M2336
Buckminster Fuller has loomed large over the Stanford Media Preservation Lab ever since his archives were fully processed and described in the mid-2000s. Over the past eight years we've been slowly reformatting the extensive media component of this collection, but there was one media format that remained elusive: wire.
This guest blog was written by Natasha Porfirenko, PhD. Natasha is a long-standing and valued contributor to Stanford’s Special Collections for her expertise in Slavic and Eastern European materials. Her work in Special Collections has included processing a large volume of Slavic and Eastern European letters, postcards, objects, and ephemera preserved in Stanford’s archives of material from the committee to free Angela Davis. She is currently hard at work delving into the descriptive metadata of tapes depicting works of famous Soviet choreographer, Leonid Yakobson.
Prior to the institution of shelter-in-place, I had been working on processing the records for the Chinese American Citizens Alliance, a national organization founded in 1895 in California to promote Chinese American rights and community. Physical work has been put on hold during this time.
![Title card from "Stealing America: Vote by Vote," reading "Who Counts?"](/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/screenshot_from_2020-08-10_12-01-36.png?itok=ZpadSXmC "Title card from "Stealing America: Vote by Vote," reading "Who Counts?" -- Courtesy of the Department of Special Collections.")