April 27, 2019
All: all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, I arrived slightly early for my first Saturday of reference duty. It was before 9am, but I had a book to read and the sunlight was just right for reading (though it was just a bit breezy). So I settled in to read and await the door opening at 9am.
A student arrived at 9am on the dot. We chatted about the impossibility, it seem, of shaking CP time (y’all know what that means, I am sure), even at The Mecca. Before security arrived, five more students, our scheduled researcher, and two prospective student groups hoping for a peak inside Founders Library arrived.
A campus security guy finally arrived at 9:23. When I told him he was late and that the posted sign says we open at 9am, he gave me that stupid look I used to get from my neighbors in Angola when I would knock on their door and tell them, in impeccable continental Portuguese, that their music was too loud. He said, “What you mean?” I said, “we are supposed to open at 9am and you are 23 minutes late.” He responded, in a huff, “23 minutes late by your watch, now get outta my face.”
We really should find a way to make sure the place opens on time. I don’t know anybody else to complain to right now. But I have a high IQ and I might just figure it out by 2pm.
Respectfully submitted,
Raymond (the Saturday duty guy)
May 13, 2019
I found this 1974 op-ed tucked away in Cobb’s papers. Almost prophetic for today. Washington Times Op-Ed, May 12, 1974.
Raymond
June 7, 2019
A side note: if we don’t change the Obama posters in the lobby soon, folks (visitors) will begin to think we are living in the historical past. Not saying we need to put up Trump pictures, but Obama’s time has come and gone. Nostalgia has a place, but everything has its limits.
Raymond
July 1, 2019
Pursuant to your earlier email request, I pulled up links to the four universities listed below. Of the four listed, Catholic has the most decentralized structure, with separate archives and separate special collections. American, where I worked previously, just recently moved their Archives out of the main library and to the Spring Valley location, but university archives and special collections are maintained by one unified staff under the general jurisdiction of the Library Director. Georgetown’s University Archives dates back to the early 1800 and in fact predates their special collections, though the two are collocated. GW’s University archives also predates their special collections as it contains archives for the forerunner institution, but it is subsumed under special collections. Historically, our university archives was organized and chartered much later than Moorland Spingarn, and by the aforementioned examples, should probably sit within the MSRC administrative structure. And since we are collocated, all the more reason why there should be a more unified operation, IMHO. Of course, Moorland Spingarn is very unique compared to the special collections of our near competitors, as the Moorland Spingarn collection covers the history and achievements of an entire ethnic and diasporic group, a claim that none of the others can come close to making.
Of course, the only institution that comes close to Moorland Spingarn in that regard is Schomburg, but as a mere branch of NYPL, it doesn’t come close to having the same heft and significance.
I am immersed in Cobb and couldn’t spend much time on this today. But I did want to answer the mail.
American University: https://www.american.edu/library/archives/
Georgetown: https://www.library.georgetown.edu/special-collections/about
George Washington University: https://library.gwu.edu/scrc
Catholic U: http://archives.lib.cua.edu/
https://libraries.catholic.edu/special-collections/index.html
Ray
July 3, 2019
All: It seems to me we need to change our thinking about the “new reality” and “limited funds” and a generally un-improving financial situation. The folks at Ralph Bunche Center have convinced me that outside funding sources are available to help us do the things we need to do to project Moorland’s riches but we have to know how to tap it. Repeating over and over again that the money situation is dire is not the way forward.
I took an elective course at CUA during my MSLIS, Marketing for Information Centers. In it, we briefly covered a DC entity, The Foundation Center, that trains and provides resources to institutions seeking to tap the philanthropic market. Here is their link: https://foundationcenter.org/improve-your-skills/fundraising
I personally think it’s an avenue worth exploring to reverse to current funding trend, as opposed to giving in to the negative trend as if it is our only alternative. The Foundation Center has a 3-day Proposal Writing Boot Camp coming up in September, and I would think funding a couple people to take that would be an excellent and worthwhile investment with excellent long-term dividends. https://grantspace.org/training/courses/proposal-writing-boot-camp/. But I already know the answer. No money. I am willing to self-fund it, if I can convince my domestic finance minister, no mean feat. Of course, it would be better for me to have it funded, and better for the institution to insure the moral obligation to use those skills here.
Raymond
July 11, 2019
Sounds like a golden opportunity for us.
We applied for this grant when I was at DC Archives. We didn’t get it.
Here are some lessons learned:
- Proposal should be focused, specific, and attainable in the time allotted.
- Don’t ask for funding for positions that may require recurrent funding in off years without a concrete plan for such funding.
- Don’t propose broad project improvements that spill over into subsequent year programming requirements.
- Don’t assume that the grant reviewers/deciders know your institution’s history, reputation (good or bad), or holdings. They are just people, sitting at table, or more than likely, reading proposals remotely.
- Stand out from the crowd, break away from the pack. Don’t be shy.
That’s what I remember.
We should bring in Sonja, and Meaghan, Lopez, and even Richard, heck, the whole team, and brainstorm ideas about the best candidate among our collection, but the final decision should be made by a small group.
We have several ”hidden” collections. And we have Digital Howard, which, as far as I can see, lacks a true content management system (I could be wrong on that. Still learning.).
Ray
July 16, 2019
how do we get this guy (link below) to come to Moorland Spingarn? And are we even ready for such a visit?
I did some old fashioned straightening up of shelves Saturday. I found several books very old and damp and moldy. Hope those spores didn’t get in my nose!
Also found some interesting work E Franklin Frazier did on Brazil, right in time for a Brazilian researcher who came in looking for stuff.
All in a day’s work.
You may hear more from me over the next two weeks with Joellen out for vacation. Sorry about that.
Raymond
July 22, 2019
I'd like to propose, in advance of our meeting, that we think about a series of meetings, and that we focus our energies on strategic planning, for one year out, for three years out, for five years out.
Ideally, we should come up with a planning document similar to the attached strategic plan within a six month time frame, then use that "map" to steer and navigate our efforts and our progress.
I am the new guy and I don't want to make more waves than I already have (smile!), so I am sending this to you alone. But I hope you will see it as a good idea and I am certainly willing to help with it.
Thanks.
Ray
p.s. meanwhile, I'll search for other examples of strategic plans for special collections and university archives. More is better!
August 28, 2019
quick note.
I received an email this morning from the widow of the former U.S. Ambassador to Guinea-Bissau (where I served as a young pup many moons ago), who was also the unsung architect of the peace accords in Namibia. She has two boxes of books covering his work in Guinea-Bissau, Angola, Namibia and Mozambique that have survived the flood of time intact, many original publications from the countries themselves. Might one of the entities under your supervision be interested in taking possession of two boxes of said books?
Let’s get them before the Ralph Bunche folks say yes!
p.s. If you are looking for a good read, I am just finishing Robert Vitalis’ White World Order, Black Power Politics. His notes are chocked full of MSRC cites and he lays out the framework for a Howard School of IR Theory that nobody ever told me about, not at FAMU, not at SOAS, not at MIT, and not at the Army War College, all the places where I studied IR theory. Foreign Affairs did a very negative review, which tells you Vitalis is on to something that they’d rather keep hidden. https://www.foreignaffairs.com/reviews/capsule-review/2016-02-16/white-world-order-black-power-politics-birth-american
Ray
September 2, 2019
I would add a discussion about warehouse operations. Quiet as it's kept, I think the warehouse/storeroom/Iron Mountain situation is something that affects us behind the scenes on a regular basis. Are there collections in the storeroom that should be in the warehouse, and vice versa? Are we getting the best use of increasingly valuable dollars with Iron Mountain? Based on frequency, are there collections at Iron Mountain that need to be transferred back to a closer and less costly storage location? Are there other storage solutions, perhaps on campus, that can save us money? Is the processing room becoming a storage annex by default (as i see it, collections that remain in the processing room and are not being processed are by default in a storage state).
Another subject is the library. The library gets neglected, it seems, because time is constantly triaged (is that a word?) across other priorities. Yet the books are the core of Moorland Spingarn, it seems to me, at least historically. We neglect them at our peril.
I had a conversation with Gail Hansberry that broke my heart. When I asked her about getting her father's papers to Moorland-Spingarn, she told me we have a bad reputation for not getting collections processed. I know she has good stuff, and we refer researchers to her home. Still, it is heartbreaking. My heart was broken again reading what Robert Vitalis wrote in his book regarding the Merz Tate collection. He wrote in "White World Order, Black Power Politics," "Forty years after the Moorland-Spingarn Research Center began to receive her papers and fifteen years after her death, her archive, including all her unpublished manuscripts, was still unprocessed when I consulted it, a jumble of papers in a mass of boxes stored off site." The good news is Merz Tate is now processed and heavily used by researchers. The bad news is which unprocessed collection that perhaps should be a candidate for processing is not and is going to bite us next? I know, and I have heard it a million times, all archives have backlogs. But the heartbreak still hurts.
I mentioned earlier my thoughts on our bifurcated organization and its inefficiencies and it pretty much got shouted down, so I won't beat a dead horse on it (or with it). But it remains hovering over us.
Finally, given our "financial situation," perhaps we need to do some strategic collective thinking about fundraising. I know, I've been told that thinking about fundraising is not my job. But the truth is, it doesn't seem to be getting done and talking about how bad the funding situation is does not move us forward. At the same time, it's been proven time and again that that organizational units with operating costs cannot do more with less, they can only do less with less. It is dishonest and perhaps disingenuous to think otherwise. So we need a wake up call to think about ways out of our current debacle that somehow include asking people for money to support our operations. Otherwise all we can really expect is a continued downward spiral. As an aside, Lopez has some ideas about reducing reference room hours. The librarian in me hates the idea of restricting access, but as they say, desperate situations require desperate measures.
On a happier note (one should end on a happy note!), I just passed my sixth month mark. Despite my allergies and their complications, I am still thrilled to be here working with you all.
Raymond
September 12, 2019
A inquiry by a researcher led me to 326.06 and the original Moorland collection of anti-abolition organization material from the 1830’s onward.
This stuff is at an advance state of deterioration. I know we have other priorities, but this sub-collection is really screaming for some type of preservation. Again, Original Moorland collection, including his autograph.
Would love to show you if you have a minute.
Ray
p.s. from subject line, AAAS is American Anti-Slavery Society. Some of this stuff is available online, but there are gaps and we have hardcopies that fill the gaps.
September 25, 2019
Let’s see what survives the mold remediation. Very little optimism down here, but I guess we get what we ask for.
For digitization, I would vote for the following:
- Moorland collection of abolition pamphlets
- Locke collection
- Logan collection
- Tate collection
- Frazier collection
- Daniel Murray book collection (might also qualify for “hidden collections” grant money.
- Robeson collection (Paul and Eslanda)
- Baraka collection
- Grimke collections (all of them, very high demand)
- OG collection (interesting mix, stuff we have a monopoly on)
September 28, 2019
One of the ideas brought up by the University Archivist at Georgetown and more or less seconded by their director was that of a special collections working group at WRLC. I've been in contact with folks I know at GW and Catholic about forming a "community of practice" among processing archivists at DC universities and I think there is an appetite for such a gathering, though I really hadn't given any consideration to WRLC since I am not a part of their deliberations and don't even get invited to their meetings. Seems Lopez has the monopoly there.
At any rate, I will continue my very low key reaching out, expanding to other universities and institutions that do this work. Maybe there is a "there" there, as they say.
Ray
#SaturdayLibrarian
October 3, 2019
I think this is a very good article and I agree that empathy has a significant place. But I also think that we have to judge each candidate by a common standard and anything new coming into the process could potentially disadvantage any candidates who have already been interviewed. That said, I think it is worth assessing the first candidate on this empathy standard if we are going to use it as a determinant going forward. Because we can only do that in retrospect, I think it is a standard that we should only apply after the fact, i.e., after the interview, in order to keep all candidates on an equal footing.
Am I babbling? Blame it on the pumpkin-spiced coffee.
Ray
October 8, 2019
Good morning all. Everybody down here is talking about the van repair adventure and I think you guys should know what is being said. I know I am going out on a limb, but that is the story of my life.
Here are the details. After failing inspection, the Moorland-Spingarn van was sent out to a local mechanic/service station for some work required to get it through the re-inspection. Richard protested vociferously, saying it should have been taken to the Chevy dealer. $600 was spent with the local company, but the repairs were never made. Ultimately, heeding Richard’s advice, the van was taken to the Chevy dealer and the actual work is being done to get it up to emission standards. But the $600 was/is lost.
In a funding environment when we are being told, no money, no money, no money, this $600 lost rises to the level of notice. If this mis-expenditure is due to stupidity and not malfeasance as some are suggesting down here, at a minimum the responsible party should pay back the money. Otherwise these types of mistakes will occur again and again. As an aside, I am paying $255 out of pocket for registration fees and another $300 in hotel fees for the MARAC conference in November. I wish someone would lose $600 on my behalf.
OK, back to work. I have done my duty.
Raymond
November 7, 2019
Just for the record, as a matter of provenance, I think there should be a public acknowledgement of the role of Moorland-Spingarn as the initial repository of the Sterling Brown collection. Otherwise, Williams can make the case that it was they who discovered it and pulled it together. Like Columbus “discovering” America, or more to the point, like “a land without a people for a people without a land.” Both slightly untrue. In a competitive environment, keeping a low profile gets you nothing. We may think we are so special and do not need to compete, but in actuality we are competing, competing for funding, competing for recognition, competing for support. But we are apparently losing at every turn.
I get the argument that there will be a custodial record and that we will also appear in the finding aid, but those things are not what sets the narrative. Public press releases set the narrative.
Again, just for the record. I realize when I have been outvoted. In the long run of things, it may not even be mine to say.
Ray
November 7, 2019
I’m not going to beat a dead horse over this, but that sounds like a cover-up, by omission, not commission, but a coverup nonetheless. And as we are finding out more and more on the national political scene as the days pass, the coverup is worse than the crime. Ask ABC.
Ray
| Maxwell, Raymond D <raymond.maxwell@howard.edu> | Mon, May 18, 3:57 PM |
to me  |
From: Maxwell, Raymond D
Sent: Monday, May 18, 2020 3:52 PM
To: Ballard-Thrower, Rhea <rballard@Howard.edu>; Hackney, Carrie M. <chackney@Howard.edu>
Subject: Random thoughts All: I just finished my last August Wilson session. We did it by Zoom and 15 of the original 20 participants stayed with it to the end. It was a big hit and everybody enjoyed the discussion of each play and the camaraderie. I'm not going to do it again for another year or two. Too time consuming. But that's not why I'm writing this email.
There was a huge gap in black playwriting between Lorraine Hansberry (niece of William Leo Hansberry) in the sixties and the emergence of August Wilson in the mid-80's and it wasn't because of lack of talent. I came across this book by Washington U professor William Maxwell (no kin, but I did spend a year at WashU in an aborted PhD attempt), F.B Eyes: How J. Edgar Hoover's Ghostreaders Framed African American Literature. I bet Founder's has it.
Here is the website. You might want to check it out. http://digital.wustl.edu/fbeyes/
Anyway, the work of the FBI people hounding black writers got so intense in the 60's and 70's (You may know the story about how the FBI guy, William Sullivan, wrote those horrible letters to MLK, pretending the be a black guy), that only the strongest hung around. And the strongest are not always the best. Alain Locke was under FBI investigation throughout his tenure but the story goes that his FBI file (and much of his work) was destroyed in 2004 by an over zealous clerk seeking to fulfill the terms of a records retention schedule. Many Howard names got caught up in the FBI sweep, including E Franklin Frazier, Sterling Brown (especially), and many non-Howard names, such as Amirai Baraka, Lorraine Hansberry, Langston Hughes, Paul Robeson, etc., placing some emphasis on the collections we hold.
Here is the deal. Hoover died in the 70's and the machine he built to read, study and harass black writers died down a bit in the 80's and 90's, allowing for the emergence of many talents, like August Wilson, only to be resurrected in 2001 with 9/11 and the Patriot Act legislation. About the same time, Moorland saw dramatic cuts in budget and staffing. Oh yeah, it's only accidental that we have collections that rivaled the FBI's own holdings.
OK. This email will self destruct in 30 seconds. Good luck, y'all.
Ray
| Maxwell, Raymond D <raymond.maxwell@howard.edu> | Thu, Aug 27, 12:09 PM |
| to Angelique, Alisha, Alliah, Aijewel, Adedoyin, Amy, Celia, Bernard, me, Junious, Evenny |
All: I have shared this message with the Moorland crowd. This version I am sharing with the Founders' folks with whom I have had the honor and the privilege to work directly since starting at Moorland in February, 2019.
I sent my two week notice to Rhea Monday after speaking with her by phone last week. I am resigning my position at Moorland to take a short-term contract archiving websites with a government institution with whom I have a prior association.
Of course there are advantages and disadvantages to having an affiliation to a revered institution like Howard U. And there are advantages and disadvantages to not having such an affiliation. Especially, in all cases, for an information professional. A job confers a certain status and admits one to a specific circle of practitioners. Librarians rule the information world in their own special way. But as Troy says of baseball and life in Fences, "You gotta take the crookeds with the straights."
I depart knowing I have spent a limited time at a special place with special people.
Best regards to all.
Raymond
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