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Archives are not straightforward repositories of history. Instead, they authorize which stories are remembered. In this article we apply the insights of cultural geographers and other influential scholars of archives to analyze the political dimensions of archiving activist histories. A small group of antiprison activists produced a personal archive during the 1990s and 2000s documenting brutality behind bars and efforts to dismantle solitary confinement in California prisons. After being deemed too dangerous to be opened to the public by university archivists, and without a permanent home, the papers were at risk of being lost to history. By presenting our work building this archive, we analyze the limitations of institutional libraries and the vital role played by individuals and independent institutions willing to preserve dangerous papers, and we show how preserving histories of state violence and opposition can become a deeply personal and risky endeavor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents information about the Urban Archives Center at California State University at Northridge, California. The Center was established in 1979 through the efforts of university faculty and concerned community organizations and leaders. The primary purpose of the Center has been to collect the historically significant records of voluntary associations and prominent citizens who have directed growth in Los Angeles County and influenced government and public thinking since the beginning of the 20th century. Major subject areas developed during the Center's first 10 years of operation include, trade, tourism, and urban development; education; minority and ethnic organizations; politics; social services; women of Los Angeles; and recreation, sports and leisure studies. The center sent out 800 questionnaires inquiring about materials being stored in union halls and administrative offices. The responses revealed the existence of a wealth of untapped historical documents as well as the willingness of many labor organizations to participate in an archival program.

Labor history sources at the Southern California Library for Social Studies and Research in Los Angeles are part of a larger collection on 20th century social and political history developed by Library founder Emil Freed. When Freed opened the Library in 1963, he brought into being an institution that would house much of the material he had collected during a lifetime on the Left and in the labor movement. The idea of a Library to preserve the history of labor and the Left took firm hold in Freed's mind in the 1950s, when Freed rescued the personal libraries of friends who, vulnerable to the repression of the Cold War era, were on the verge of destroying their political books and pamphlets. To these collections Freed added his own accumulation of documents from various struggles in which he had been closely involved: the Unemployed Councils of the 1930s, the Hollywood studio strikes of the 1940s, and the Civil Rights Congress of the late 1940s and early 1950s. Beyond the 25,000 volume book collection, of which U.S. labor history is a particular emphasis, the Library's 20,000 item pamphlet collection is a rich source for labor research.

This article provides a brief introduction to the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC), discusses the origins of the SLAC Archives and History Office, its present-day operations, and the present and future challenges it faces in attempting to preserve an accurate historical record of SLAC's activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Labor Archives and Research Center was established in 1985 as part of the library system of San Francisco State University. Previously, despite San Francisco's reputation as a labor town, no archival repository in Northern California had actively collected the records relating to working people and their organizations even though there was a substantial body of published scholarship on the labor history of the San Francisco Bay Area. The founding of the Center stems from the activities of three interested parties, each with a vital stake in its establishment and each essential to the effort. First, there was a dedicated group of labor leaders whose garages and closets held files, photographs, banners, and other historical material documenting their lives and local labor's past. Second, there was at San Francisco State University, a president, Paul F. Romberg, who with his close advisors recognized the importance of labor history. The third component involved the financial backing for the proposed center. A compromise has also been worked out in which the six counties surrounding San Francisco are specified in the collecting policy, and nothing from Northern California is explicitly excluded.

The article offers information on several articles published in different periodicals related to medicine. Topics in the articles include hospital library-sponsored health information fairs for awareness of library services; professional development; and essentials of workshop development related to logistics, advertising, and assessment.

This section offers news briefs of relevance to serials librarians as of August 2016. Topics mentioned include the launch of Taylor & Francis' online hub for scholars TandFChina.com, the 2017 UKSG annual conference to be held on April 10-12 in Harrogate, England, and academic publisher Adam Matthew's partnership with the National WWII Museum in New Orleans, Louisiana.

In the earlier years of the Web, libraries focused on moving services online and building digital collections, but in recent years, libraries have emerged as key players in the world of digital publishing. Librarians possess all of the necessary skills to act as digital publishers; they join the ranks of many others who have discovered the barriers around digital publishing are lower than ever. Library-based digital publishing solutions have matured to a point that the act of digital publishing could—and should—become a new core competency for the library profession. To explore this hypothesis, the researchers offer a working definition of digital publishing and assess the key roles that traditional publishers have historically offered over time. They find that librarians already possess the requisite skills to become digital publishers, and the collaborative culture of the library profession is a strength for this new role. Examples of digital publishing from two libraries at the University of California-Berkeley offer a proof of concept. Services at these libraries include the conceptualization of overall Web site strategies, a content plan that emphasizes distinctive and original material, and special projects that promote digital publishing at the local level, even as they take advantage of campus- or system-level services. Researchers find that offering library-based Web publishing services can reinforce overall information management programs and also advance the status of libraries within their respective host organizations. The comparative ease of digital publishing has opened an opportunity for librarians to follow the user as they use the Web in creative ways. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article describes a year-long application of critical information literacy theory for social-science-related library workshops. Each of these workshops had a customized section that included working with special collections and university archives. The students who participated ranged from incoming freshman to seniors at Stanford University. The curriculum development method for these workshops is based on principles of collaborative co-design. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Describes image, text and experience with the Center for Land Use Interpretation (CLUI) based in Los Angeles, California. Background on CLUI; Information on archives held by CLUI; Details on the Web site of CLUI.

The Henry E. Huntington Library contains a famous collection of books, manuscripts, and art objects which cover many aspects of American and European culture. This article considers in particular its importance to visiting British scholars, notably A. L. Rowse. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]