#records management

[lrgcarter]

Newest episode of Trek opens with Kirk saying "Stardate ... what is the star date? They all blur together?"

Now, obviously this is just a poetic device, and obviously the recording will be automatically tagged with appropriate metadata, the voicing of the date being for convenience of listeners; be they real-world viewers or the hypothetical in-world person piecing together a montage of clipped and garbled recordings should events take a turn for the worse in the speaking characters' near future ...

But at the same time,

I am reminded of a plan drawing in my old archive where, in the Site Code box, someone had written "Can't remember". The Site Code being the identifying key that ties the individual document into the full matrix that is the archaeological record. Decades later, we were unable to tell where this came from. However long the person took drawing the plan, it was wasted time of their only life. Because their labours were for nothing. This plan, unfettered from its context, is now useless. All for the sake of checking with the rest of the records as they handed in their drawing and finishing the job properly.

Be kind to yourself. Don't skimp on your record management hygiene.

Anyway, just a few seconds in and this episode has already made me feel more than any others this series. Kind of finding SNW a bit meh at the mo.

[mikaistudies]

wanna study in the library ;;

[archivyrep]

Is Peridot an unintentional archivist, records manager, or something else entirely? [Part 1]

Peridot, shown in her debut episode "Warp Tour," making a log of her trip to Earth and what she saw while she was there.

So, I recently began rewatching Steven Universe, starting at season 1, and I realized even more archival themes than what I had previously concluded, beginning with one of the characters, Peridot. Some readers may remember I wrote about Steven Universe before, at the beginning of this year, noting the presence of VCRs, their preservation, other records within the series, the special library of Buddy Buddwick, and archival records used in defense of Steven at his trial, to name a few aspects.

Reprinted from my Wading Through the Cultural Stacks WordPress blog. Originally published on Dec. 2, 2021.

However, I was mainly relying on memory in writing that post, and its different once you begin watching a series again. As such, this post will be focused on one specific character, Peridot, and whether she is an unintentional archivist, records manager, or something else entirely in the series as a whole. Warning here that this post will give spoilers for part of the show.

In episodes within seasons 1 and 2 of Steven Universe, Peridot often records her progress with Gem experimentation and the cluster on her "finger screens." She is first shown making logs in her debut episode [Warp Tour] and makes another log in the episode "Keeping it Together," before Steven, and his friends, the Crystal Gems, chase her across the Prime Kindergarten. [1] Unfortunately, her screens and limb enhancements are thrown into the water in the episode "Catch and Release" by Amethyst. In the following episode, "When it Rains," she tells Steven she doesn't know anything without her screen and tells him that all her logs up to a certain date are backed up in the Prime Kindergarten. She also tells Steven she read over a few hundred years of reports and displays her records which show many attempts at artificial fusion, prototypes for an artificial fusion that would have destroyed the Earth, the Cluster.

Following this, she gets an audio tape recorder, making logs for her life on Earth, her experiences, her attempts to get along with the Crystal Gems (Amethyst, Garnet, and Pearl), and more. [2] This until the episode "Barn Mates" when Lapis destroys it after Peridot gifts it to her in hopes of becoming friends with her. The audio tape recorder becomes an important part of her character development as she adapts to living on Earth rather than living on Homeworld. In the process, you could say that the recordings that Peridot does are archival records.

As I noted in my previous post about Steven Universe on this blog, Peridot notes that she had backed up her logs before, finding information on  Gem fragments from reports. In the episode "It Could've Been Great" she goes through an old Gem computer system to find information about the cluster, Gem locations, and the planned Earth colony. The question remains, is Peridot an archivist, albeit unintentionally? That is what I want to answer in the rest of this post, divided into two parts. The second part will be published tomorrow.

© 2022 Burkely Hermann. All rights reserved.

Notes

[1] Peri is using communication devices in "Friend Ship" as well.

[2] This shown in the episodes "Log Date 7 5 12" and "Barn Mates" for instance.

[todaysdocument]

“ . . . the Director of Records in the Offices of the Adjutant General has conducted continuous studies in order to identify individual blank forms, decimal correspondence files and groups of records which may be dispensed with throughout the service.” 12/30/1942.

Record Group 156: Records of the Office of the Chief of Ordnance

Series: Reports

Transcription:

SPRINGFIELD ARMORY

314/ 117

Jan 13 9 16 AM 1945

WAR DEPARTMENT

The Adjutant General's Office

AG 313.6 (12-30-42) DZ Washington

December 30, 1942

SUBJECT: Disposal of records.

TO: Commanding General, First Service Command, Boston, Mass.

1. With the publication of AR 345-10 (December 5, 1941), there was established a simple and efficient system for ridding the Army of its great accumulation of obsolete records. The custodian is in the best position to judge whether his working space is obstructed by the storage of records, and to determine what papers may reasonably be dispensed with. The primary duty of making report to the War Department belongs to him. To extend the benefits of the law as widely as possible, however, the Director of Records in the Offices of the Adjutant General has conducted continuous studies in order to identify individual blank forms, decimal correspondence files and groups of records which may be dispensed with throughout the service. When authority to dispose of any of these has been secured, notice is published to take them out of his files and dispose of them, without making individual application to the War Department and without even the necessity, at present, of reporting action taken. It is known that some officers have been making good use of the opportunity. One has stated that he cleared 83,00 pounds of paper, being items found on those circulars in a period of five months. It is also known that some custodians of records are ignorant of the very existence of published lists, to say nothing of taking any advantage of them.

2. General disposition lists cannot cover everything. Even if all items on such lists are eliminated, there will remain in most places a con-siderable quantity of useless papers. These should be reported by the custodian in the manner provided in Army regulations. Final action on such a request is now ordinarily take by Congress within three months of its receipt by the adjutant general. Such local lists not only clear space for the office making the report, but also frequently furnish occasion for extending the authority to the rest of the office. It is becoming increas-ingly difficult for the Director of Records to prepare general lists unaided by suggestions outside his office. Lists submitted by posts were never numerous and practically none have been received in the past three months.

3. This office has made persistent effort to extend the scope of the system for the disposition of records. No means will suffice by itself. It will, therefore, be appreciated if you will take every occasion to disseminate among the posts under your command an knowledge of the exis-tence of these general disposition lists, to urge commanders to make full use of the authority published, and to impress upon them the importance of their reporting any residue of useless papers which may remain in their possession.

By order of the Secretary of War:

/s/ T. M. SPAULDING

Adjutant General.

Reproduced Hq 1 SC

3Jun42 hcg

[curatorsday]

Thursday, June 2, 2022

I had several requests for grave locations today (a regular daily occurrence) so I thought I’d show off our filling system. In the upper row of filing cabinets there are 6 1/2 double drawers filled with 3”x5” interment cards of all the people who have been buried here. In the lower rows are 9 drawers with 9”x11” cards of every lot in the cemetery. We have a volunteer steadily entering all the information into a digital database but there’s still a lot to go. And I personally like the physical cards.

[archivespace]

Going on a tour of the auxiliary library facility today as part of the film preservation class, then I have to finish a paper on the historical significance of the collection I’m preserving for that class

[riversidearchives]

Archives Technician Aaron Cleans His Telework Desk and Virtual Desktop 

Since I have been working from home since the end of March, I decided to take some time to clean my computer files and do some organization. I cleaned up my work email and created some new email labels for records management. I also cleaned out my download file and deleted some files which I did not need anymore. 

As I was cleaning up my computer files, I figured since I was sitting here for six months at a dining table doing the work for the National Archives, it got a bit messy. As you can see, things started to get out of hand with papers and my notes of significant Los Angeles District Court cases. 

Now that I cleaned out the pile of papers my telework desk is now spic and span. I am now ready for doing the work of the National Archives from home in a well-organized manner. I am truly blessed to do the work from home of the National Archives and Records Administration without touching documents.