Subject: Re: Subject File Categories From: Sara Steele <smsteele@wisc.edu> Message-id: <99bdb44f-3706-9f6d-3d70-75045c70bc5a@wisc.edu> Date: Sun, 18 Feb 2018 20:19:49 -0600
Hi Paul
I'm going to mount a soap box as I respond to your question. Bottom
Line: If your Society has defined what aspects of local history it
gives priority, then your files headings should occur naturally from the
decision of what subjects you give priority to in your collecting. Ours
hasn't made those decisions. WE do not have an agreed upon framework..
*Our categorization keeps growing*
When I began wanting to find photos in our photo collection, I began
organizing a listing of those photos based on the subjects of the
photos as they came in. I think the first two categories were horses
and weddings. So our category of image content simply grew with no
direction or restrictions. Until lately no checking for what is
missing. I was a bit surprised to realize that we had more photos of
the horses that had lived in this township than of the elected
officials. Our categories within the main topic of government were
added recently and I have been working harder to preserve images in
those categories.
As I have continued to work with and use the images (we now are
approaching 10,000 images), I added a category for each five or so
similar photos that came in. We now have an outline of about 20 main
topics with sub topics under several. (See the attached). For example,
our business category is now divided into several categories as you can
see on the attached sheets. One of them is retail. Retail is then
divided into subcategories--stores, taverns and restaurants, filling
stations, dentists, etc.
Each of our images are numbered and are listed under the appropriate
category by number and a brief phrase. The people who appear in an image
are listed by name and number alphabetically in the people index.So it
is fairly easy to locate and use a photo.
Now I work only with images. However, I followed something somewhat
similar when I was text archives and set up our clipping files.
Although we ran into soft issues like whether obits should be filed
alphabetically or by date.
*What are the most important parts of a local community's history?
*
Our HS has never decided or even discussed what subjects we think should
be included and/or prioritized *. *Now for the soap box encouraging the
thoughtful discussion and development of a framework of what constitutes
the main elements of a community's history.. How do we define what
local history includes? One view would be that it is primarily those
things which involve or affect *several people*: elected bodies and
their departments , organizations, businesses and employers, schools,
churches, etc. Another view would be like the one that the museum
section of our organization has taken. It focuses on things which have
been used by *local people *regardless of whether they relate to a
larger part of the community. Part of our image collection, including
pets and clothing and some of the images of real objects, follows that
line of thinking.
And then there is the question of the extent we should focus only on man
made history, or if we should also develop a branch which preserves
images and information about the natural history of the area? I'm
currently taking photos of our drumlins and whats on them. After
listening to the weather forecast I pulled out a couple of Icy photos
from 1976 for our Facebook page post tomorrow..
Yes, each local group needs to adjust priorities to both fit its
community and the interests of those workers who are willing to work on
collections, but it might help to have a suggested set of community
history components to work from. But not something as complex and
binding as the library system (Word perfect or whatever it is called)
that was encouraged a few years ago.
*Clippings*
Speaking of clippings, which societies are considering building
electronic rather than paper clipping files? Such files certainly may
be easier to deal and will take a lot less space than physical ones
are. However, because they are easier to deal with, some kind of
organization system becomes even more important. So Paul we are back
where we started from.
Thanks for raising the question.
Sara from CGAHS
.
On 2/16/2018 9:32 PM, Paul Wolter wrote:
> Hello everyone,
>
> I am wondering how different historical societies and research centers
> have their files organized. We have subject files for various
> newspaper clippings and documents on a number of subjects but they are
> in need of some order. For example instead of a section titled
> "Restaurants", each restaurant is filed under its own name. We would
> like to create macro categories but are wondering what they might
> be..."businesses" seems too broad and yet "appliance stores" seems too
> detailed. Do you use "car dealers" or "automobile dealerships"? Does
> anyone have a list of their subject file categories?
>
> Thanks,
>
> Paul Wolter
>
> Sauk County Historical Society
>
>
>