The Art of Acting Hostess

It seems to me, that hosting any gathering (no, we're not talking hostess in the airline or twinkie sense) has become a more complex affair in recent years. As fad diets, new eating preferences, and new food allergies emerge, today's hostess is challenged to be more aware of the needs and wants of her guests than ever before. If she wants to be successful, that is.

[An aside: Yes, this is a gendered post . . .no, I'm not saying that men can't host gatherings. I was inspired to write this post by this little book from the early 1900's offering up some guidelines for proper hostessing, and the book itself was, interestingly, written by a man named Paul Pierce :  http://www.gutenberg.org/catalog/world/readfile?fk_files=1859388]

While the hostess of yesterday was concerned with producing an endless flow of dishes that would "occupy in part the attention of the guests and tend to promote the success of her favorite dish by allowing her to proceed in its preparation undisturbed by haste or excitement," today's hostess has to worry about what sort of bloating, rash, physical discomfort, or ultimately gruesome death she may potentially be inflicting upon her guests. 

Mr. Pierce ridicules those who are anxious in the kitchen, jesting "why there should be so much excitement over the cooking of an ordinary rarebit, a creamed chicken, a souffle of oysters or all this terrible excitement about a lobster Newberg or a simple cheese fondue is beyond comprehension." Arguably, today's hostess experiences the same sort of anxiety in deciding upon something as simple as which cookie to bake -- should it be gluten free, low in fat, vegan safe, sans nuts, and diabetic friendly? 

I know, I know, we give credit to the woman of the past for her ability to pull off elegant and complex dishes in multiple courses over the duration of a long night without a dollop of gravy on her frock. But really, what the modern woman does, or attempts to do when she entertains is just as impressive. Not only are we attempting to bring together in a social manner a group of people who have become unused to social interaction unmediated by a touch screen, but we are attempting to do it on our one day off of a week of working. Shopping for quality ingredients, prepwork, actual cooking, and of course the weekend ritual of cleaning house (something the old "American aristocrat" of Pierce's time didn't have to do) can eat up an entire day before anything resembling actual eating even begins. Any woman who does all this, even if her dinner isn't as complex and has a few less courses than those described by Pierce, should be proud of her work.  And it IS work, as anyone who as ever tried to cook more than three things at once can attest to.

It is comforting to know, however, that we do share some of the same aspirations and concerns as our century-separated counterpart. Themed dinners were as popular a hundred years a go as they are now (and presumably just as fun to put on). Pierce poignantly explains the difficulties of a young woman wanting to entertain in a small space (a section of his book I might need to go back and look over more thoroughly -_-u) saying: "there are some people to whose distorted vision the tiniest molehills are magnified into veritable chains of mountains, rugged and insurmountable; and if, in addition to their other woes, they happen to be unfortunate enough to dwell in a flat, their desolation is complete." The same is very much true today. There is something isolating about living in a small space by oneself--a problem which grows as more and more people resolve to spend their lives alone in the modern day. 

I could go on and on comparing this witty little book to our present day entertainments, but I suppose instead I will leave you with these compelling words from Pierce: some women " have a perfectly inexplicable talent for making life livable" and " bring[ing] forth into the bright sunshine the many opportunities which everyone's life contains." I think that this is something we should all strive for--be it by having friends over for an evening of good food and company, fixing our boyfriend's car, or just smiling at a random stranger. 

The Haunted Vicarage

 

Dug this up. What are your feelings on old stories like this one?
from "The Bush Advocate" in 1892.
more info: http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&cl=CL1.BA

At Work: Historical Images of Labour in Saskatchewan

Is it self-serving if I do a review of one of the sites my archive has developed? How about if it is from before I worked there?

The University of Saskatchewan Archives and Special Collections has long held it a mandate to make available online interesting or valuable elements of their collection. They take digitization of archival materials, and the production of topic-focused websites very seriously. The idea is to digitally synthesize holdings so that they can be viewed from new or different perspectives. The value of this practice as an outreach tool is obvious, and while sites such as this may be of less use to the experienced researcher, they are a good way of making archival materials available, accessible, and easily understandable to the public at large.

One example I stumbled across today:

At Work: Historical Images of Labour in Saskatchewan

So, lets talk about this little gem. It was created in 2010, and so (yeah yeah, just three years old) is slightly outdated. Splash pages are outdated, but I like the image they chose here. The project was conducted in combination with the efforts of a number of other local archives. The introductory page is well written, explaining the purpose of the digital collection as showing that we do, in fact, do more in Saskatchewan than agriculture. The scope of the project covered those labourers paid a wage for their work, which was of a manual or non-professional nature. Determining the scope of a project like this is often the hardest part, I'll add. Its easy to say "I want to digitize every picture of a woman in a dress within this archive" but its much less easy to actually DO it.

The first point of access to the actual galleries is through the "Themes", which are an array of subject headings, each with its own explanation, and a link to the gallery in full. Personally, I am not a huge fan of this approach, as it reads too much like a book and too little like a website -- not to mention being an affront to the three click rule for those wanting to get at the meat of the site: the gallery. Nevertheless, the topics listed and information attached make for interesting browsing, and therefore may be of use to the casual explorer rather than the determined researcher.

The second point of access is through the "Search all images" function. The only thing I would change here would be to make the search more dominant and friendly to those young "scholars" growing up in the "Google age".  Obviously, the search feature is nowhere near as advanced as Google, but is quite functional and easy to use (and useful) for what it is. Its easy to forget that developing an uber-search-algorithm is something libraries and archives just don't have the resources for, and this can be a source of frustration for researchers who are used to the cleverly ranked and sorted results they get through a Google search engine.

Another point of access targeted at casual browsers is the random image feature, which pulls up fifteen or so random images from the collection for the user to look at. I LOVE this feature. I think its playful and clever and fun, and a good way to figure out what in the collection might interest you without limiting yourself to a theme right off the bat.

There is a separate page for video clips, which is always impressive: film is neither easy nor cheap to digitize. The only issue here is that the videos aren't searchable through the search page. Of course, this is maybe not an issue at all, because there aren't that many videos to begin with, and so are easy to browse.

The site then goes on to provide educational resources, including book suggestions in excerpts related to labour in Saskatchewan, a brief historical survey of labour in Saskatchewan (listed as a resource for teachers, but really a solid background resource for pretty much anyone), and most importantly, an extensive bibliography to spur further study. Copyright and contact information for all of the participating archives is also provided, as well as a list of acknowledgements, and the (little-used, but still helpful) site map.

All in all, this is a compact, well targeted site. Visually, I think it has its own charm although it isn't the prettiest archival site out there. I especially like the moving sidebar which prevents over-scrolling. The gallery is easy to use, and the metadata on the photos is magnificent.

K, I'll quit patting my office on the back now. . .

Controlled Climate

Let me introduce you to my archenemy:

Mr. Breezy

Dun dun daaah: the ventilation system. When I first started work at the archives, this dude was constantly blasting cold air at our backs.

After weeks and weeks of suffering through this, we finally got up the gumption to play with our thermostat (not always the best idea in an archive/special collections office, but we were desperate, and tired of wearing jackets in July):

The room began to warm up! and for a time, things were good :). But . . .the warming trend did not stop. The working room got hotter . . .and hotter . . .

AND HOTTER

. . . until sweaty-handed me couldn't do my work properly without sweating all over archival documents and rare books. No bueno. So they got me this!

And once again, for a brief time, everything was good. That is, until the maintenance guy arrived. Well meaning, he told us the thermostat was broken, and that was the cause of our overheating distress. The fix? 

no thermostat

Proudly, the maintenance fellow announced that our heat problems were solved. . .we were now on full cool! Which, of course meant that my friend

Mr. Breezy

was back. 

 

The joys of library living! I have yet to set foot in one whose temperature is just right. Until then,

Chillily yours

What I do

What do archivists and special collections librarians do? Here's a (not totally accurate, but hopefully amusing) idea based on my Friday:

Just So Stories

Oddly, this mildly offensive little piece by Rudyard Kipling, one of his "Just So Stories" ,was one of my favorites as a child. I know we had a version of it in an old children's book, belonging to someone around my dad's age, on my dad's side of the family, but I have no idea which book that was, or what happened to it.

As to it being mildly offensive. I can't even quite put my finger on *why* its offensive, apart from a general sort of racial insensitivity. However, I feel like this is somewhat forgivable, given that it was originally published in 1902, and Kipling was very much a product of his time.

Anyway, should you want some children's stories to brighten your dreary Wednesday (and it is dreary, in Montreal, at least), here are some more:

Just So Stories

John By

The unfortunately-named for the Google era, Lt. Colonel John By was a British military engineer who lived from 1779 to 1836. He was the big mind behind the Richleau Canal, and although somewhat underappreciated at the time, he is still recognized as an important figure in the development of Eastern Canada.

BUT! I'm not here to talk about John By. Nope, I am simply using him for an example (its ok guys, he's used to it). Searching for information on By this morning (which, as I said, is difficult thanks to his last name . . . you get everything from "Little John by the river" to "the long John by the bathtub") I stumbled across this:   http://www.mccord-museum.qc.ca/en/collection/artifacts/M386

This is a sketch by By (lol) from 1826. I rawther like it. BUT! I'm not here to talk about the image either.

I am here to talk about the way it is presented. Obviously, the McCord Museum has taken steps to ensure that this image cannot be easily stolen from the website (ignoring the potential for screencaps, as frequently happens). This is a good thing to do, especially when an image is copyrighted (this is beyond copyright, however). At the very least, it is a way to force people to come to your facility if they want to lay eyes upon the real deal (if it is in the sort of condition where laying eyes upon it will not dissolve it into a pile of ash). So I suppose you could say that this concern for security, while still allowing users to view, and become intrigued by elements of McCord's collection is what they are doing right here. I also like the consistency of the presentation here with the rest of the site, although having the picture a bit closer to the middle might make it more of a focal point on the page.

But what are they doing wrong? My big issue with the way this image is presented is that it is not accompanied by a detailed enough description. Do we know why By drew this? Did he draw many of them? Where are we, exactly? And who the heck is John By anyway?

I know, I know, I've worked on digitization projects. I know how tight on time and money these things can be. Stopping to describe each image in detail besides the credit line and generic caption might be a nightmare. But at the same time, if we aren't helping people to learn, then what the hell are we, as the keepers of history, doing? I know the page allows for tagging and for commenting by users, which is all well and good, and which may indeed lead to some more pertinent information making it onto the page. But the archivist is able to see the original within a context that is lost to online viewers. This context (ie. the role of such sketches within By's collection) should also be shared with those users. I would argue that the inclusion of such information, rather than the simple showing of an image, makes the contents of an archive or a museum seem more approachable to the general public, rather than remaining within the realm of the academic.

Benjamin Britten

On the tail of the Feynman post, let me introduce to you Benjamin Britten: a man who worked to bring orchestra and opera back to the people. The video says it better than I do, and the second video of him and Pears almost brought me to tears.

Session 9

Was in the mood for a scary movie tonight, so Scott suggested Session 9, a psychological horror flick centered on a team of (interestingly) asbestos removers as they work in an abandoned insane asylum. First off, major props for making asbestos part of a horror film in an abandoned building. Realism ftw. The building they were working in was pretty damn cool too. It sorta set my inner archivist alive with the desire to salvage mental patient records (which could never be opened to the  public anyway, but meh). Municipal archives were also mentioned in the movie. So, props for that too. 

The main character was inexplicably Irish (?). His best friend was named Phil, this guy: 

Session 9

Who you may better recognize as this guy: 

CSI Miami

I know, I know, CSI to asbestos remover is a hard mental leap to make, but if you squint real hard, you can almost see the similarities between the two characters.

Moving on, the movie had a number of elements which make psychological horror one of my favorite genres. The cinematography was great, the setting suitably eerie, the characters just realistic enough (I especially loved mullet kid), the subplots twisty and leaving you hungry for more,  the background music just subtle enough to keep you on edge, and a nice slow buildup. 

However, the movie was also lacking a major element which I think is in some ways essential to pulling off good psych horror (she says pedantically). That is the potential for a supernatural alternative, to keep the audience guessing. It was made quite clear throughout the film that nothing supernatural could possibly be happening in the abandoned mental institution. I mean, for gossakes, when the lights flickered and the power went out, we were shown the generator running out of gas. No mystery there. I think it is important that psych horror have some *potential* for the supernatural to be there. . .bizarre hallucinations, tales of hauntings, weird reflections in mirrors as a red herring for the audience. Without that, the only challenge is in figuring out who's psyche we are inside of (in the case of Session 9, we are given ample and obvious clues, so even that mystery is taken from us), and once that has been discovered, all that is left is to lay money down on who will be the first and the last to die, and how the deaths will occur. Once again, props to Session 9 for the murder method, very cool. 

Given that the two biggest "mysteries" of psych horror were given away fairly early on (the reality of the situation, and whodunit), the subplots took precedence, as with the unraveling of the story of one of the former inmates of the asylum, or the bizarre love triangle between Phil, Hank, and Amy. I would almost like to see the story of the former inmate as its own movie. Shit was creepy. The slow tension buildup was well done, though the payoff in terms of gore at the end was a little disappointing. However, overall, I liked the way the movie dealt with psychotic meltdown, and how it is perceived both by the one undergoing it, and those around him. That part was very well done, and it seemed fairly well researched by the writer. 

Another interesting note: Women are completely absent in the real time of this film. They exist only as flashbacks, on the other end of the phone, or in conversation. I'm sure there's some sort of deeper meaning in there, but I'm not sure what it is. 

So, overall, not the best psych horror I've seen in terms of scare factor, but if you're going for realism in setting, story, and mental illness, this might be a good place to look.  

Peaceful

I was going to construct a little art project from plant matter today after work, but found myself too tired to function after a day of REDACTION. So, I satisfied my need for some bonding time with nature by stopping in at the conservatory at the WPL (again). Its such a peaceful little space. Apparently the local wildlife thinks so too, as today I was visited by a very inquisitive squirrel as I sat and enjoyed the flowers.

 
 
 
 
 

Monsieur Lazhar

I had the opportunity to go to a free showing of Monsieur Lazhar at the Westmount Public Library (This library is amazing, and puts on a ton of interesting events).

This film, no word of a lie, helped me to understand why french-canadian filmmakers are considered the top in the country. It is a french language film, set in Montreal, but was happily subtitled in English. It centers on the suicide of a young female teacher at an elementary school, the struggle of the students to cope with her demise, and the new teacher, Monsieur Lazhar, who comes on the scene to teach them in their time of grief.

Lazhar himself, a refugee from Algeria, has been through some hard times as well, and is deeply familiar with coping with grief. An unlikely teacher, who lied his way into the position, Lazhar winds up helping the students more than any well-meaning attempts at counselling or treating the suicide as taboo do.

The movie is also visually quite stunning, having a sort of crisp and unpretentious clarity that screams "this is life". From what I could tell (though my knowledge of french is so limited that I could not catch all of the inflections properly) the film was also very well acted, featuring some truly impressive child actors. Lazhar himself was well done, his grief deep and subtle, his love of the children equally so. The script was amazing, dialogue fluid, and the characters and their psychoses very believable.

On a different note, it was also a lot of fun to sit in a crowd of nature french speakers watching a french language movie and be able to laugh with them at little jokes, like Montreal being referred to as the slush city. It made me feel like I belonged here, in a way I haven't really until now.

Apparently the Westmount Public Library does this every month. I think I should make a habit of attending!

METAPOST

Recently, I've been making a number of changes in my life. Not anything vast or external. Nothing earth shattering. Just trying to screw my own head on a little straighter, see a little clearer, and live with a little more passion, and a lot less stress. Unexpectedly, blogging has been helping me through this transition. I am going to take a few minutes today to explore why this might be.

I'm going to start my exploration of what I get out of blogging by touching on what I don't get out of it. I'm not trying to change lives here. I'm not trying to reach a massive audience. I don't want to make waves. It doesn't matter to me if my voice "matters". I don't live for a high hit count (though I'll admit I do feel pretty happy when I get feedback on any of my posts). I'm not trying to make a living through advertisements. I have made a total of fifty cents, and that is more than I'd anticipated.

So why am I doing this? 

I have posted more in the past two months than I did in the entire year prior, but I have also been more mentally, physically, and socially active in the past two months than I was in the several months previous. That isn't to say that I am just going out to find things to blog about. Quite the opposite. The blog (like the old school scrapbook diary I used to keep prior) serves as a mooring point in a world where I am otherwise so inundated by activities and information that I can't tell up from down. Condensing a targeted daily experience into a blog post allows me to impose some sort of mental structure on my day, and makes the whole world seem more manageable and less terrifying. Blogging anchors me, keeps me grounded, and serves a double purpose of letting family and friends have a little window into my world. 

Blogging can also help with some of the information overload I find myself experiencing. Apart from the regular stimulus of human interaction, the modern individual is now adrift in an endless sea of text messages, advertisements, music, videos and memes. Things are no longer interesting, they're Pinteresting. People no longer talk, they tweet. Images Flickr by, and our Faces are an open Book for all to read. (ok, ok, I'll stop). Keeping a blog, for me, can be a means of organizing some of the information I am being inundated with, and sharing it in a more structured way that makes sense to me, personally. The downside of this, of course, is that in the very act of adding to the information milieu, I am furthering the problem of information overload for others.  

Is keeping a blog as a means of anchoring one's own experiences in a chaotic and often confusing world a good idea, or an exercise in futility? I don't know, but for now, I will continue to enjoy putting my thoughts, feelings, activities, projects, and creative moments down here, to keep them straight for me, and to share with anyone who may have an interest. 

New Windows Onto Old Traditions

In the early hours of this morning I stumbled across the notion of the "trousseau tea". In this Victorian wedding tradition (they had so many!) the bride basically holds something of an open house to display the contents of her trousseau, as well as to show off her shower gifts. Tea, coffee, champagne, and dainties are served, and everyone oohs and aahhs their little hearts out. This tradition carried on in some areas right up to the second world war, and indeed, is still common among some of the older or more moneyed families in the south.

Quaint, yes? Not something I'd want for myself a) because its showing off b) because I don't really have anything worth showing off c) because I generally view cramming a house full of women who are potentially jealous of your acquisitions to be similar to this bullshit. SNAKES ON A PLANE!

Anyway. . .

After looking up some images associated with "trousseau tea", I have to admit, I was drooling a little. Its probably my inner history nerd popping out to say hi, but the richness, the lushness, the refined elegance, and the absolute unnecessary extravagance of these images really appeal to me:

from: here

from: here

from: here

But it wasn't until I came across a 1939 clipping from the Pickering-Ajax Digital Archive (PADA), that I really understood or grasped the feel of the trousseau tea. But before I show you the clipping, I would like to describe the PADA, and, through that give those of you still wondering some insight into some of what I will (hopefully) be doing as an archivist.

The Pickering-Ajax Digital Archive, in their own words :

". . .is designed to create an Internet accessible digital archive and research database containing detailed information about the unique history and issues of the Pickering and Ajax communities.

The Pickering and Ajax areas have a long history of settlement beginning in the early nineteenth century. The geographic boundaries between Pickering and Ajax have shifted over the years, resulting in an overlap of interests. Much of the area currently identified as Ajax, was originally part of Pickering Township and Pickering Village. Collections relating to the history of both communities have become divided over time, which has resulted in much frustration among researchers. The PADA project amalgamates these collections in one convenient digital archive."

The movement towards online accessibility is one that is increasingly significant for archives. Users come more and more to expect that any information they could find at a public institution such as a library or archives will also be available to them free online. Digital collections such as that made available by PADA serve a double-edged purpose of meeting user needs, while at the same time raising awareness of the types of resources the archive has available to researchers. 

For a project such as this, a number of things must be taken into consideration: quality of scan must be ensured, but balanced with the amount of space needed to store all of the scans; strong metadata (or information about the document itself) must be provided both for search purposes, and for technical reasons; any potential copyright or privacy issues pertaining to the document must be assessed and accounted for. PADA's resources are all beyond copyright at this point, and so may be copied with appropriate acknowledgement to their institution.

So, without further ado, from PADA's collection, the trousseau tea: 

Seeing the trousseau described in the language of the time gives you a feel for the event in a way that modern descriptions or representations cannot. Note the attention given to the floral arrangements, the decorations, the gowns. Things which we may, in our current time, ignore as mere trappings to the capital "E" Event, in 1939, following the Great Depression, carried an entirely different meaning. This is the value of the archival record: that those of us, living in a different time and place, can intellectually or emotionally grasp the thoughts and feelings of those who came before us by viewing firsthand the records they've left behind. Or sometimes, even more significantly, realize that we cannot grasp their thoughts and feelings at all, and come to know through that gap what we have lost. This is also the value of the digital collection, as it acknowledges the technology-shackled nature of the modern user, while at the same time providing a window into a world before the notion of the "digital" even existed. 

What I won't be doing. . .

Since I have begun my Masters of Library and Information Studies degree, with a focus in Archival studies, I have frequently been asked:

"So, what exactly is it that you are going to do?"

Tough question. I'm not going to answer it here today. I would need to be in a far more rant-y mood to do it justice. Instead, I am going to show y'all something that I will not be doing: Conservation.

Conservators, within the context of document and book preservation, work with records that are in danger of decaying entirely and becoming lost to us. Their aim is to nullify or at least slow that rate of decay. They will do things like mend tears, treat pages to make them less acidic, or rebind a material in a less harmful format. Conservators frequently have a specialized background in conservation, as well as some knowledge of chemistry and laboratory procedures. Archivists do not have any of this knowledge, and therefore tend to outsource their conservation work to these professionals.

The rule of thumb for conservators, and for archivists, is "if it can't be reversed, don't attempt it". For Archivists, this is a hard and fast rule, for conservationists, who have more knowledge of what can be done to preserve a work, this is a little foggier.

Either way, the conservator must justify any changes they are making, weighing the benefits of preventing further damage to the record against altering the nature of that original record itself. An interesting example of this can be seen in the restoration of Thomas Jefferson's bible, a text which consists of re-ordered and select clippings the man himself put together in order to re-tell the story of Christ's life and teachings chronologically, and without supernatural elements. 

The articles following recount this conservation project: 

1. A peek inside the conservation of the Jefferson Bible

2. What can we learn from the gutter of Jefferson's bible?

3. Unlocking the mysteries of Jefferson's bible with high-tech analysis and microscopic testing

4. Unbinding the Jefferson Bible

5. Treating the Jefferson Bible

Finally, pictures of the pages of the bible were taken, and a facsimile was made: http://www.smithsonianstore.com/books-media/historical-books/the-jefferson-bible-10511.html 

Pied Piper

The International Children's Digital Library is a fascinating project, whose intent is to make accessible to children from all over the world samples of children's literature. Thousands of children's books have been digitized and posted to their website in this way.

What is even more interesting about this website, is the fact that extensive studies and workshops were conducted in its design, in which researchers worked closely with young children to determine an interface that best suited a child's particular interests and searching needs.

For example, many children reported that they liked picking books based on the color of the cover, or whether the content could be named "happy" or "sad", and so these are filtering options available to browsers of the website.

As an example of what goes on at the International Children's Digital Library, I give you a classic tale: The Pied Piper, as written by Robert Browning. Obviously a digital copy of a very old version of the book.

http://www.childrenslibrary.org/icdl/BookPage?bookid=bropied_00150050&pnum1=52&twoPage=false&route=simple_0_0_Rat_English_0&size=0&fullscreen=false&lang=English&ilang=English