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G2S Project Code: 2018-NV-82006
State: Nevada
Fiscal Year: 2018

Grantee
University of Nevada, Reno

Project Director
Director Name: Kimberly Anderson
Director Phone: kda@unr.edu
Director Email: 775-682-5614

General Information
Title: Creating Access to Paul Laxalt's Senatorial Papers
State Project Code: 18-14
Start Date: 07/01/2018
End Date: 08/31/2019
Abstract: The intent of this project was to complete the processing of the Paul Laxalt U. S. Senatorial Papers in order to provide better access for the public and to enhance the discoverability of primary sources on public lands and natural resources in the West. In order to do so, we hired a Project Archivist and two student assistants. We also sent audio and visual materials out for digitization as preservation to ensure that the content could be preserved and accessed. Other activities involved the arrangement of the collection into a total of nine series, the creation of a detailed finding aid, and project promotion. We were able to process the collection in more detail than originally anticipated, resulting in folder level descriptions for nearly all of the collection. The finding aid is currently our ninth most popular collection out of the 2071 collections we currently have in our manuscripts finding aids database.

State Goal: Goal 3: Nevada libraries will provide responsive and accessible learning environments that meet the needs of all Nevada residents

Budget Information

LSTA

MATCH-State

MATCH-Other

Total

$90,717.00

$0.00

$9,094.00

$99,811.00

Intent(s)
Improve users’ ability to discover information resources.
Government
History

Activities
Activity Details
Title: Laxalt Papers Finding Aid
Narrative: We created a full finding aid for the Paul Laxalt U.S. Senatorial Papers. Prior to this grant, only Series 1 (Ronald Reagan) was included in the finding aid. After fully processing the collection, we now have an accessible online finding aid with 9 series that is compliant with DACS Multilevel Optimum requirements for collection descriptions. The collection also has an updated MARC record. https://archive.library.unr.edu/public/repositories/2/resources/481.

Intent: Improve users’ ability to discover information resources.

Activity: Content
Mode: Creation
Format: Digital

Quantity
Number of items digitized: 0
Number of items digitized and available to the public: 0
Number of physical items: 0
Number of open-source applications/software/systems: 0
Number of proprietary applications/software/systems: 0
Number of learning resources (e.g. toolkits, guides): 0
Number of plans/frameworks: 1

Partner Information

Organization Type of Partner Organization(s):
Libraries: No
Historical Societies or Organizations: No
Museums: No
Archives: No
Cultural Heritage Organization Multi-type: No
Preschools: No
Schools: No
Adult Education: No
Human Service Organizations: No
Other: No

Legal Type of Partner Organization(s):
Federal Government: No
State Government: No
Local Government (excluding school districts): No
School District: No
Non-Profit: No
Private Sector: No
Tribe/Native Hawaiian Organization: No

Beneficiaries
Is the activity directed at the library workforce: No
For a targeted group or for the general population: General

Locale
Is the activity state-wide: No
Specific Locations: Yes
Name: University of Nevada, Reno
Address: 1664 North Virginia Street
City: Reno
State: NV
Zip: 89557

Activity Details
Title: Laxalt Papers Multimedia Digitization
Narrative: We worked with George Blood, L.P. to digitize 410 audiovisual materials from a variety of original magnetic formats, including U-Matic, Beta, Quad, 16mm, 8mm, audiocassette, videocassette, and miscellaneous 1" films. The resulting digital files are being stored in a RAID (Redundant Array of Independent Disks) that can feed into our existing digital preservation framework.

Being able to digitize the A/V material served as a preservation purpose for the collection. Many of the records are on magnetic tape, which was in danger of deterioration. Digital preservation of these materials will help maintain this collection as a resource for the people of Nevada and anyone interested in the history of politics and public policy in the U.S.
Intent: Improve users’ ability to discover information resources.

Activity: Content
Mode: Preservation
Format: Combined physical & digital

Quantity
Number of items conserved, relocated to protective storage, rehoused, or for which other preservation-appropriate physical action was taken: 0
Number of items reformatted, migrated, or for which other digital preservation-appropriate action was taken: 410
Number of preservation plans/frameworks produced/updated (i.e. preservation readiness plans, data management plans): 0

Partner Information

Activity Details
Title: Digital Files Infrastructure
Narrative: We digitally preserved fragile audiovisual materials from the Laxalt collection and purchased a Synology RackStation (RS2818RP+) and accompanying SeaGate NAS hard drives to enable us to store these new files.
Intent: Improve users’ ability to discover information resources.

Activity: Content
Mode: Other
Format: Physical
Other: Server and technology to support this project

Quantity

Partner Information

Activity Details
Title: Laxalt Papers Inventory
Narrative: We conducted a folder level inventory of the Paul Laxalt Collection, created a series and sub-series arrangement, revised the prior scope and content note and biographical history, and created scope and content notes for each series and sub-series.The resulting finding aid is DACS-compliant. We also updated our MARC cataloging record.
https://archive.library.unr.edu/public/repositories/2/resources/481

We processed over 600 cubic feet, which resulted in approximately 11,900 folders and 820 audiovisual items (410 items on magnetic media and their digital surrogates). The number of items contained in an archival folder varies widely. A folder may contain a single bound report or it may contain 60 individual letters or other correspondence. At a minimum, we have made over 12,310 individual items discoverable. If we assume a folder contains an average of 15 items (single documents of varying page lengths), then our estimate is 178,910 items [(11,900 X 15) + 410].

Intent: Improve users’ ability to discover information resources.

Activity: Content
Mode: Description
Format: Physical

Quantity
Number of items made discoverable to the public: 12,310
Number of collections made discoverable to the public: 1
Number of metadata plans/frameworks produced/updated: 1

Partner Information

Project Outcomes
Project Outcomes
List any important outcomes or findings not previously reported:
OUTCOMES AND FINDINGS Through the assessment, evaluation, and organization of the collections thus far, we now a much better understanding of the contents and areas of possible value to researchers and students. We have gained control of the inventory (identifying some previously missing materials) We have an out of state researcher visiting at the beginning of October to conduct research in the newly opened collection. She is specifically interested in materials on the Sagebrush Rebellion, one of the topics we anticipated would see increased research use once the collection was processed. We learned how to use new software in order to complete this project. We had two unexpected personnel changes that affected our activities and timeline. We ended up disposing of a large swath of material (constituent correspondence and position requests) that was duplicative.
Please briefly describe the importance of these outcomes and findings for future program planning:
We are hopeful that more researchers will discover this material now that it has been fully described and is easily findable on google, ArchiveGrid, and in our ArchivesSpace instance. The technical team learned how to use OpenRefine in order to rapidly sort spreadsheets into series and sub-series, and for name and date standardization. We had previously relied on manual Excel sorting, which doesn’t allow for facets or easy data clean-up. We have already begun to use this tool with other projects, such as our digital collections workflow. We had to shift gears to reallocate efforts and funds due to the loss of the orignal PI and the Project Archivist. Without this project we would not have known about the duplication. This freed up badly-needed space in our storage area. We ended up securely disposing of about 155 feet of material. The public's understanding of the inner workings of government is often absent in contemporary society. Since many of our selected environmental topics under discussion are still highly relevant today, we believe that by creating more access to Laxalt's materials, especially in regards to public lands issues, we have created some needed transparency and understanding for the general public into the federal government's decision-making process.
Explain one or two of the most significant lessons learned for others wanting to adopt any facets of this project:
ADDITIONAL PLANNING and DOCUMENTATION Due to the major personnel shifts we had, we had some difficulty with continuity and spent extra time on understanding what work had been done, how goals or plans had changed, and in understanding the notes left behind. Future grant activities should employ a project management framework wherein tasks are spelled out in advance and in some detail, so that if we have unexpected personnel changes, we are not relying on reviewing deliverables and tasks in order to continue the work. A project management framework would have also enabled us to better understand task dependencies, to ensure that we are budgeting our time wisely, and to ensure that the personnel needed at different stages are prepared for those stages when they occur. We exceeded the goals in the first part of the project, but then had to work at a much more rapid pace at the end of the grant in order to meet the remaining goals and we had to bring on additional student workers and departmental staff to assist in the last month or so. We would also better account for the hardware needs of storing digitized media. Our initial idea was to receive DVDs back with the digitized media, but we assumed that if we had the items returned via a loaner hard drive, that they would be ingestable into our digital preservation system. The returned files were much too large to manage with our existing local storage, so we had to procure a RAID in order to store and manage the returned files.
Do you anticipate continuing this project after the current reporting period ends:
Yes
Do you anticipate any change in level of effort in managing this project:
Yes
Explain:
The collection is fully described, but we are having student workers continue to physically number folders and consolidate boxes. We also have some audiovisual material that we could not afford to digitize through grant monies. These additional items are currently with the vendor and will be paid with other funds. We opted to digitize these as well so that the entire run of audiovisual material from the collection will be preserved.
Do you anticipate changing the types of activities and objectives addressed by the project:
No
Explain:

Was an evaluation conducted for this project:
No
Was a final written evaluation report produced:
No
Can the final written evaluation report be shared publicly on the IMLS website:
No
Was the evaluation conducted by project staff (either SLAA or local library) or by a third-party evaluator:
Third-Party
What data collection tools were used for any report outcomes and outputs:
Did you collect any media for the data:
What types of methods were used to analyze collected data:
Other:
How were participants (or items) selected:
What type of research design did you use to compare the value for any reported output or outcome:

Exemplary: No
Exemplary Narrative

Project Tags: