NoClone: Identifying and deleting duplicated records

June 28th, 2009

My records management class, although now over a month completed, has still got me thinking in the ways of my personal file management.  My computer has about 180GB of memory in its harddrive.  While at the time–2006– it seemed like it would last forever, the advent of larger and larger files such as MP3’s and Photoshop documents have already brought me to about 50%. I finally decided to look for a program to help with the process.  Searching “duplicate files” in Google lead me to NoClone 2007, which advertises itself with the following capabilities

Downloading the 30-day trial, I decided to use it on the music files first.  I inherited the music library of one of my friends, so the content is mostly unknown and I have noticed duplicates.  My first pass resulted in 22 files to be deleted.  This freed up approximately 60MB of space, over half a GB. I was impressed.  I then sent the program in the direction of the My Documents folder, which ends up being where I put files when I’m done wth them. The trial version only lets you delete 30 files at a time and I had selected over 150 when I realized that I would have to do this in stages.

Activities such as moving files from one computer to another, using a flashdrive and editing and creating drafts are main causes of the duplicate files on my system.  Creating folders that have similar uses, different names and the same files is another.  This program shows you the name, location, file size and file type of each of the files that it believes are duplicates.   I found the file location to be most helpful, especially when choosing which of the 2 or 4 files did not need to be present. In some cases, all 4 copies were kept.  Identifying the files can be, and probably needs to be, an automated process, but the decision on what to be kept or deleted needs to be a human-made choice.

noclone_filelist

What I’ve found from this is not only do I have duplicate files, but I have duplicate folder types.  Folders I created with similar purposes, similar documents, but they don’t need to be two separate entities.  I like how simple this is. It keeps track of cumulative statistics and so far I’ve deleted over 220 MB or 2.2 GB of dulplicate files.

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The Purpose of an Archive

May 14th, 2009

I have finished most all of my requirements for graduate school.  My final archives research paper was on visual literacy and I discussed important angles to consider win the process and the context when looking at visual materials.  There was a section where I was able to include a type of personal statement.  It flowed from what I was writing and is the lens I look through when considering what to do and how to process a collection. The following section was included as an explanation of how I viewed the purpose or responsibility of an archive.

I look at all aspects of archival work as pointing to an end goal of getting people interested in what the institutions hold and secondly a certain degree of customer satisfaction. In order for interest to be created—in a collection, in an institution, in anything—they need to it exists. This step in awareness is extremely important and it seems that is it often viewed as cursory or even completely overlooked. As Joyce Gardella has stated, “Being a ‘Good Thing’ is not the protection it once was.[1]” Although she was referring to museums, it is true for all cultural institutions. Providing unique materials, creating exhibits and programs that offer experiences that are irreplaceable are only useful to the sustainability of the institution if people know about it. While this may sound childishly simple and obvious, much of the available literature seems to focus on theory and technique. By no means am I saying that there is no more room for theory in archives, but I am wondering where the practical information resources are. Where and how do people find out about your institution? Where is advertisement, or, if that term is too commercial for the cultural institution, where are the awareness materials located to showcase your events? I recently had to register my car with the state and receive my stickers from the Department of Transportation that get placed on my rear license plate. Included with my sticker was a one-sheet envelope-sized “brochure” from the Wisconsin Historical Foundation, asserting their value in the community and promoting their museum and information about the foundation. Every car owner in the state of Wisconsin was exposed to the mention of the Historical Foundation and what the society and the museum have to offer. Exposure is a first step, wide exposure is a bonus.

Second is access. In regards to access, mostly I have been concerned with improving electronic access versus physical access. Suitable hours of operations and providing a clearly stated use policy to your constituents[2], whether it is a public facility or a restricted access archives, is important and is probably already determined in an established repository. With electronic access, I have encountered so many frustrating sites and databases; I can’t imagine what a novice computer or database user would feel or how they would begin to search. What would be the motivation for returning to the site if they received nothing but frustrations and unhelpful results?

I really do see archives as a “customer service” type profession, however the commercial idea that “the customer is always right” should never apply to archives. (As a personal note, I have seen “the customer is always right” mentality abused many, many times and I am quite jaded towards it.)  Unlike a specific brand of cereal that is not on the shelf the last day of a sale, one cannot give a raincheck for archival materials. They might simply never have existed in the first place, were destroyed and never made it to the archives, or perhaps they are restricted.  Restrictions are particularly frustrating when it come to that commercial attitude.  If we have it, why aren’t we letting people see it?  Protecting other people’s rights and wishes–not only the donor’s, but anyone else who may be referenced in the collection–is of utmost importnace.  If we desire our archives to be of lasting value, than lasting ethics should be attached to the institution to maintain its integrity.

[1] Gardella, Joyce. “Surviving the Perfect Storm: Branding, Positioning and Differentition.” History News. Summer 2003. Page 22.

[2] I use the term “the public” to refer to the specific users of a repository, whether is actually the public or a restricted access archives. “Users” and “researchers” may also alternatively be used to refer to the people allowed to request, refer to and use the materials.

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What’s in a name? Silly Musings on a Pencil and “Knowledge”

April 15th, 2009

Consider these well-known adages

“The pen is mightier than the sword.”

and

“Knowledge is power.”

I find it amusing and appropriate that the pencil I’m using (or used to write the first draft of this) is called Mirado Black Warrior.  “Mirado” mean “look,” as a noun, in Spanish. (i.e. “She’s got the look.”)  The Black Warrior seems to imply that this black pencil is to fight.  While “warrior” does not have a code of ethics associated with it like “samurai” does, “warrior” also seems to emit the ideals of honor, integrity and fighting for the truth.  This requires strength, conjures images of swords and glorious battles, the gain of ruling power.

Often, written and saved content is seen as researchable, a document or record where one gain gain knowledge.  With this pencil, you could create knowledge.  I wonder if the these ideas were all concocted in the advertising/marketing room of the Papermate company.

So, putting all of this together, the message on the pencil seems to say

“Look! I’m powerful!”

and additionally implies that

“Wielding me, you can create and become powerful!”

—— —— ——

In searching for an image to include in this post (which I will hopefully supply my own at a later date), I came across someone else blogging about the Black Warrior pencil.  I was unaware that pencil blogging occurred, but then again, I’m sure not many people know about archive blogging.  This is a fascinating entry and short blog on the components and comparisons of different pencils. Enjoy!

Pencil Grinder’s Weblog: For the love of a wooden pencil…

And apparently my interpretation of “mirado” is incorrect.  A bit of history on this pencil can be found at Pencils.com, at the specific link below.

Mirado Pencils…Rich in History, from Eagle, Berol, Sanford and now Papermate

One final thought…

While reading the Pencil Grinder’s About section, it makes me wonder how many places keep archives of pencils? Aside from the pencil creators and the specifications of the types of wood and lead to use, who keeps examples? Is there a pencil musuem? An archive of past pencils?  They have been around for decades and still are necessary in education settings for any Scantron-based test.

Oh yeah, and archivsits use them all the time.

For a funny and even sillier interpretation of the pencil, or anything else, the Uncyclopedia has some articles to make anyone smile and nod.

Pencil: The Uncyclopedia

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Blizzard’s April Fool’s for Archivists

April 3rd, 2009

I fell for it. Fully and completely. And I’m sad that it isn’t a playable class, I was ready to purchase the game at that second.

Diablo 3’s new character class was announced on Wednesday April 1, 2009 as the archivist.

Diablo 3 Archivist

The character description can be found here, as long as Blizzard decides to keep it up: Archivist character class

The narrative from someone discovering the Archivist is as follows:

In my writings, I have recounted stories of the barbarians and their endless battles with the demons of the frozen north, and devoted pages to the wizards of Caldeum who harness the primal forces of reality. But the might of these heroes is nothing compared to the power of the archivists of Westmarch. These brave souls wade into battle wielding tome and quill, armored not in ensorcelled plate or links of chain, but in the knowledge of generations past. These archivists fight not only for our future, but for our past as well.

I first encountered an archivist in the ruins of the great city of Travincal. While exploring one of the long-abandoned temples, I was drawn by the flickering of faint torchlight through a distant doorway, and then, as I crept nearer, by the sound of a voice. There was a feeling in the air of danger near at hand, an electricity that made the hairs on my neck rise. I inched forward, breath caught in my throat, grateful for the safety of the hallway’s long shadows. Then I saw him.

He was surrounded, the looming shapes of his foes bearing down upon him. His hair was unkempt and frazzled, his calloused hands cut and stained. But he had an air of supreme confidence, of a submerged violence that threatened to explode into being. He leapt forward, his hands grabbing for the leather bindings of his nearest enemy.

The archivist’s eyes searched for an opening, a weakness. His hands wrenched suddenly about his adversary and a sickening crack pierced the still air. Its spine broken, the book lay unmoving in the archivist’s now gentle grip. As he lifted its lifeless form into the dim light, the pages of the ancient tome fell open, the secrets of the text laid bare. I remember the words he read, the religious fervor of his voice: “Here begins the first chronicle of the life of holy Akarat, prophet of Zakarum….” And on the shelves that stood all around him, tome after tome waited.

I have the utmost respect for the archivists, these warriors of myth and legend. We know their names: Alimet Two Quills, master of illumination with both left and right hand; Morienne the Scrivener, a midwife whose poetry stole the hearts of kings and brought tyrants to tears; and Salazar Cid, the Master Transcriber of Gea Kul, whose bombastic penmanship is known in all the lands of the Twin Seas and beyond. But these are only a chosen few. The members of their honored fraternity are many, and their numbers grow every day.

In the dark days that I fear are yet to come, much will be decided by sword and axe, with steel and spell, but I believe that in scroll and tome our survival lies.

Some of the spells and abilities that the Archivist would have are:

Lorenado (like Tornado).
Quest Bolt. The video on the site shows the Archivist throwing “!” (the symbol for a quest giver) at enemies, turning them from a hostile target into a quest-giving, neutral NPC.
Shush. This calls forth a voice from the past to cause the ears (and bodies) of enemies to explode.
Book Vision. Highlights the books and bits of lore in the room the character is in.

This even sparked conversation on the Society of American Archivist’s Archives & Archivists listserv.

Congratulations, Blizzard.

(Also posted on www.meplayinggames.com)

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“The Art and Science of Seeing: Applying Visual Literacy Interpretation in Natural History Museums” by Johanna Jones

March 18th, 2009

I have altered my topic for my final term paper on “value” to be more geared towards visual literacy, which is what I was trying to express in the first place, but the term was eluding me.  The “value” topic was becoming so massive and what I was trying to cover was becoming more and more expansive that I just couldn’t handle it.  I will be including my reading on value when talking about visual literacy, but the paper will be split into to parts. The first part will be analyzing the applicability of the following theories from textual to visual collections: Schellenberg’s infomational and evidential values, Greene’s MPLP and post-modern thoughts. The second half of the paper will be exploring visual literacy, its impact on archives (how it could be used as outreach, perhaps?), and how archivists can learn to read visual materials (VM).

In looking at the art database and the available literature there, I was surprised to find aritcles dealing with museums and curation, mostly because in the seminar course, we are using the Museum Strategy and Marketing text by Kotler and Kotler and I would have thought that library, archival and museum literature would be in the same same database for searching. I digress.

This particular article is from the Curator magazine, issue 45, no. 4 from October of 2002.  While this looks like a promising article, I was sorely disappointed in its execution.  The author continues to pose questions which she doesn’t follow up with answers or suggestions.  The best feature about the article is the section with the definition of “visual literacy” and the providing link to Educational Resources Information Center (ERIC). I was hoping from such a title that this would be more than just a call to action.  It seems as if the author is promoting visual literacy as a cheerleader helps its team to victory.  There are few examples of visual literacy awareness in various musuems, but then the author seems to belittle their use in other locations:

How can visual literacy be applied to the interpretation in natural history museums? In the past, discovery rooms, hands-on carts and other staffed programming somewhat addressed these questions [...] On the practical side, many small institutions financially cannot afford adequate staff to conduct the programs or manage floor staff.  Even large institutions that have many offerings still do not reach the majority of vistors with programming but rather through exhibits. What are some ways for large numbers of visitors to experience visual analysis methods?

The beginning question is fine, it is answered, but then she seems to undercut the answer she just gave with mentions of impracticality and another question which she poses no answer to.  This leaves me with a feeling of hopelessness and some frustration.  I would have liked to see more on “the art and science of seeing.” While it is a catchy title, it is very misleading.  For promoting visual literacy, this article would need to explain on a more broad level what visual literacy is OR go into more detail on a few of the examples of what the program was and what technique was used to make visitors aware of the clues from the item itself. The author seems to be hovering between these two versions and neither is expressed clearly.

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NARA and Anthony Clark, articles to reference.

February 25th, 2009

Why is it so hard to get documents from the National Archives about the National Archives?
by Anthony Clark, posted on the History Network News

prezlibs
Anthony Clark’s blog

Archival Agitators and Advocates: Anthony Clark
Lecture Series at the iSchool at the University of Pittsburg

This has sparked many articles and entries in the records community regarding NARA, public access to public records and presidential libraries.

presidentiallibrarylogo

NARA’s Management of Presidential Library Records: Revelations and Results
Kate Theimer, The Records Manager. November 2008.

NARA and Anthony Clark; What NARA Can’t Do, What NARA Must Do and What NARA Should Do.
Posted by Kate T., ArchivesNext

NARA, SAA and Anthony Clark
Posted by Richard Cox, Reading Archives

Public access to presidential records
Posted by Gordon, The Posterity Project

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Hot linking images, e-archiving and other archival concepts

February 11th, 2009

Hot linking to a photo is much like tagging it for your own use.  It may prevent copyright/citation issues, but it create other problems. Think about this:

  • It could allow someone to track the usage to you.
    While this may be negative or positive, it is something to consider.  There is a link between their photo and their site and your site, even if it is a one-way link.  Improper use of an image and your link could create issues for you.
  • What if the admin of the site changes the photo, but uses the same location name?
    Your purpose for linking might not make sense with the image that now appears.  The new image may be wholly inappropriate or controversial.
  • Bandwidth
    While hot-linking in itself does not take up a lot of bandwidth, many people doing it to the same place does.  The host of the site ends up hosting the image on the many other sites that connect to it and that can cause traffic issues, as well as incur costs to the hosting entity.  In general, it is poor etiquette from one site creator to another.

What is my solution on this site?
I save images to my hard drive and then give credit to the image if I haven’t provided a link to the site or to the individual image.  One reason I have embraced this practice with more earnest is due to limitations in some locations about viewing.  Companies with certain restrictions on websites cannot view the images which appear through a hot link only. Having the image hosted by my site ensures that if they can view the site they can view the images posted with it.

What e-archival implications does this have? Why am I tagging this with electronic records?
This again stems from the DIRKS project and my records management class.  As part of my file structure, one could see My Pictures–>Not Mine–>Archives Blog.  I save the images to this folder to upload to the sire.  The questions of copyright and image credit do concern me, especially having artistic photos of my own, and I prefer to give credit where credit is due.

The archival-or perhaps this falls more under records management-issue is that of origination.  Where did it come from?  Who created it? Is it safe?  Looking through the picture folder, I right-click on the images and some have a warning: “This file came from another computer and may be blocked to protect your computer.”  I haven’t seen that before, so it helps with security, but it does not tell us the author or purpose for its creation.  Just because its on my hard drive does not mean that I’m the creator, but it is definitely evidence of my activities as a blogger.

Me, as a blogger. I also realized that my file structure is flawed. With the Archives Blog photos also in the Not Mine folder does not account for photos that ARE mine that I wish to put in the blog. Slightly semantic, though.

Me, as a blogger. I also realized that my file structure is flawed. With the Archives Blog photos also in the Not Mine folder does not account for photos that ARE mine that I wish to put in the blog. Slightly semantic, though.

Afterthought:  I think this is the first example where I really, truly grasp the meaning of evidential value.  The previous entry includes an image of the PARADIGM logo.  It is not my creation, but I use it was illustration in my blog and it is evidence of that activity. Yay!

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PARADIGM and personal organizational structure

February 9th, 2009

For the DIRKS project for the Records Management class, it was suggested that we run a command on the C:\ which would list out the directory structure in tree form.  This is a really neat thing to see! Instructions can be found here on the PARADIGM site (or click logo).

paradigm

As they say, doing the entire C drive can take a long time.  It also results in files that are completely unnecessary.  After the file created itself, I spent a solid 10 minutes checking out my files and noticing some redundancies that can be eliminated. I then spent the next HALF HOUR deleting the program files so that I wouldn’t send a freaking huge .txt file to my group mates.  Even after that, it is still a 3+ MB text file.

Its quite a cool trick to know, but there is a caveat: This is invasive, as it shows you everything down to the file level.  Knowledge is power and archivists and records managers have access to tons of it.

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Before the Archive: Managing records; student files

February 8th, 2009

I recently obtained a position as a student office worker and my first task was to help “prepare student files for archiving.”  As an archives student, I was very interested as to what the office of origination considered to be pertinent and lasting information and what was discarded.  My instructions are quite flexible and fairly simple.

If there is a picture of the student in the file, keep it. Keep form that says they officially completed the degree. Discard course authorization forms, if they earned the degree, they most likely were allowed in the class and passed it.  Discard lists of classes complete. Discard final grades.  This information is held in the university system, not by the individual departments.  Keep any correspondence that deal with disputes of any kind-grades, class completion, etc.  Keep the initial application for admission.  Discard (shred) the transcripts that were included from other schools.  That information should be sought from those institutions.  If there is something questionable, make an educated decision.

An educated decision…some of the questionable items that I’ve found include student thesis.  I’ve left those in the file.  Slips of paper with just an address.  I discard those, there is no date nor indication of who the address belongs to.  Another really interesting item I found was a postcard with the picture of the former student at her then-current job with a note on what she’s doing and when would be good dates to visit.

What am I learning from this?

The information, like grades and classes, personal notes from professors (that are not there), which I would find most interesting as a student wanting to see my record, are not kept.  The department is a business and evidence of the business transactions are retained.  The application, possible issues that may have arose, and certification that all classes required were completed and the degree was earned: these are the lasting documentation that is retained.

The university is a business.

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DIRKS and personal records

January 29th, 2009

The main assignment for the records management class involves us to get very familiar with DIRKS.  DIRKS (Designing and Implementing a Records Keeping System) was developed by the National Archives of Australia.  This system allows an organization to take an intense look at the current record keeping practices and flow of documents and then restructure and make suggestions for a more efficient method of conducting business.

Although DIRKS was created for organizations, the assignment has us looking at personal records.  I have volunteered to allow my records to be used for this project.  In this case, we specifically looking at only our electronic records.  As students at UW Madison, this makes sense because almost all of our class material is online through the Learn @ UW interface.  I am looking at my personal electronic records and online presence and this is the short summary I posted for potential group members:

Hi I’m Rachel and I’ve volunteered to have my records DIRKS’d. I don’t know what you want to know about me to know if we’d work well together, but here’s an overview of my digital presence both on my computer and on the internet:

Internet presence:  I have 8+ email accounts, 3 blogs, I have online gaming accounts with 4+ websites, I belong to 6+ social networking sites, 1 active wiki user account, I have accounts for online purchasing with 3+ websites and I bank/have credit cards with 4 companies.

My personal computer: I have school work from 7 years of post-secondary education, about 15 gigs (over 13,000 files) of digital images, various versions of resumes and job descriptions, letters to friends and job cover letters, games and game notes, program files, medical expenses spreadsheet as well as power point slides, MS Access tinkering and the random stuff that one finds and plays with on a computer. Some random video and songs, too, but I’m not a big collector of that kind of media.

I am excited to see what kind of suggestions will be made.  There are 4 other people in my group and I know that there are certain areas of my “filing” that could use some help.  While DIRKS was created with organizations in mind, this assignment not only lets us get hands-on experience with analyzing a set of previously organized records, but it forces us to fully understand how the template is supposed to function because we have to adapt it to this way of using it.  I think that the assignment is a creative one and I think our professor has done a great job of breaking it down into manageable sections.

The DIRKS manual is online, created and published by the National Archives of Australia.

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