Saving Historically Significant Records for the City of Austin

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Saving Historically Significant Records for the
City of Austin

• Susan K. Soy

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What is the Austin History Center?

• City of Austin, Austin Public Library
• Official repository for the City
• Photographic images, oral histories, city reports
  and documents, video tape, cemetery ledgers, and
  more!

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Credibility and trustworthiness

• Security of the archives
• Integrity of the archives

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Significance of the archives

• History is happening every day
• We are part of history
• What we determine to keep and the care given to
  keeping it is a deliberate choice that determines
  future interpretations of society

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http//www.cityofaustin.org/ library/ahc

• Click to view the video

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Downtown location

• 810 Guadalupe Street
• Next to the Central Library Building
• 512-974-7480
• Ahc_reference_at_ci.austin.tx.us

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Archival appraisal

• The process of determining the value and thus the
  disposition of records based upon their current
  administrative, legal, and fiscal use their
  evidential and informational value their
  arrangement and condition, their enduring
  value,and their relationship to other records

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City staff performs critical first step

• Systematic record keeping
• Documentation strategies (Samuels)

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Goals

• Avoid wholesale destruction
• Recognize when to consult with the archivist
• Add to the communitys collective memory

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Historical significance

• Unique and unavailable elsewhere
• Documents a side of a controversial issue
• Is legible
• Documents the early years of Austins history
• Pertains to a unique event in our community
• Is an official publication for the City of Austin

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Historical significance

• Biographical information about officials, staff,
  local celebrities
• Topic that is under documented at the AHC
• Map that indicates boundaries - precincts, city,
  school districts, watersheds

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How do we find this material?

• Employees alert us
• Customers alert us

Pre-1910 Congress 6th Street PICA 19984,
Austin History Center, Austin Public Library
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Examples

• APD - Whitman Papers
• PARD - Cemetery ledgers
• Health and Human Services - Vital Records
• Families - Pease Family Papers McCallum Family
  Papers
• Individuals - Poster artists

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Care of materials

• Call with questions
• People
• Light
• Dust
• Pests
• Temperature Control

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Discussion

• We are everything
• Austin, Texas

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Staff

• Photo Curator -- Margaret Schlankey
• 
  4-7386
• Video -- Tim Hamblin 4-7305
• Print -- Virginia Kniesner 4-7346
• Maps -- Eric Travis 4-7392
• Sue Soy -- Archivist 4-7388

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Thanks to you

• We will preserve our citys history