Fall 2019 - Cataloging, Metadata and Processing Projects Underway in SRWC (Part 2)

Part Two – Term and Soft-Funded Staff in Collection Services

Gurudarshan Khalsa, who has worked for various departments within Stanford Libraries since 2014, completed two physical collections recently. The first is the Chiapas Photography Project collection, 1992-2016 (CPP - El Proyecto Fotográfico de Chiapas) which was founded by Carlota Duarte in 1992. Copyright is held by each photographer. While the physical collection has been processed, there are four 4-TB hard drives (with over 250,000 files) that are closed until processed. Finding Aid available. 

The second collection is the Renato Rosaldo papers. Rosaldo is a cultural anthropologist who has done work primarily with the Ilongots of the Philippines. Rosaldo taught at Stanford from 1970 to 2003 and served as the director of the Stanford Center for Chicano Research as well as Chair of the Stanford Department of Anthropology. The collection consists of field notes, journals, notebooks, field maps, correspondence, drawings, phonologies and word lists, genealogical charts, newspaper clippings, photographs, contact sheets, negatives, slides, audio cassettes of field recordings, publications, texts, manuscripts, index cards, and other materials.  Finding Aid available. 

Gurudarshan has just begun processing the papers of Dorothy Fadiman/Concentric Media; they will be closed while the collection is being processed. Dorothy Fadiman is the founder of Concentric Media, and has been producing films for 40 years. Dorothy moved to California to pursue graduate work in communication studies at Stanford University. Concentric Media is an independent media production company, creating films that document the stories of individuals and communities working toward social justice, human rights and personal growth. 

A longer term project is the Joseph Strauss bridge plans. There are 96 rolls of plans that need to be flattened before they can be rehoused into map folders and described in a new Finding Aid. The collection is closed while this work is underway. There are 146 plans that were digitized in the last few years and these are available online. 

Brian Bethel puts in some extra hours as a manuscripts processor. He has just completed the Gary D. and Myrna R. Lowe collection relating to the Big Tree of California which was begun before the relocation. The "Big Tree" of California was a giant sequoia in Calaveras County, California, which was cut down in 1853. Gary D. Lowe and Myrna R. Lowe are collectors of material related to this tree and other giant sequoias in California. A local historian, Gary has written a number of books having to do with the Big Tree. Some of the larger works in the collection have already been digitized and are available online. A Finding Aid will post soon. 

Brian is just starting to process the papers of Philip P. Choy. Choy is an architect and historian of Chinese American studies and the author of San Francisco’s Chinatown: A Guide to Its History & Architecture, among other titles. He died in 2017. This collection will be closed until processing is complete. 

Alyssa Tou was hired recently to process the records of the Chinese American Citizens Alliance, which is a nonprofit based in San Francisco, California. The organization began in 1895 as the fraternal order of the Native Sons of the Golden State, and by 1920 had a number of lodges nationally and was headquartered in San Francisco. The organization's mission is to work for equal rights for Americans of Chinese ancestry. Materials consist of documents related to the work of the Chinese American Citizens Alliance, including convention proceedings, national board minutes, new member applications, correspondence, event flyers and invitations, original publications, original tracts and position papers, booklets, photographs, ledger, rosters, copies of invoices and receipts, and more. Some specific collection areas include the administration of the national death benefits insurance program, board minutes, and dissolution proceedings of the Chinese Times Newspaper Corporation. The collection is closed while work is underway. 

Hourly employees

Lucayo Casillas, a recent graduate of Dartmouth College, is nearly done processing the papers of Elisabeth Kubler-Ross. Dr. Kubler-Ross devoted her life to the study of death and dying, has been instrumental in de-stigmatizing dying and drawing attention to the treatment of the terminally ill. Some of the videos have been digitized and will be made available when their description is complete. A Finding Aid will be published as soon as the work is completed and the collection made available to research. 

Hannah Waleh, who began as an intern at the beginning of last summer, is working on a small but complex collection - the papers of artist Clinton Hill. Please see earlier article by D. Vanessa Kam, Head Librarian of the Bowes Art and Architecture Library. The collection will remain closed until processed. There are plans to digitize some of Hill’s works.