LILRC Announces the recipients of the 2021 Digitization Grant! By Nicole Menchise The latest round of grant proposals have been reviewed and four organizations have been chosen to receive funds from the Regional Bibliographic Data Bases and Interlibrary Resources Sharing Program. This year's projects are more diverse than ever. Hicksville Library applied for funding to, "purchase a new microfilm machine [that] would allow the Hicksville Library Archive staff to digitize their reels onsite....The viewer would allow the archives to digitize future microfilmed newspapers as they become available, access Continued on page 4
Upcoming Workshops: Ask An Archivist: Scrapbook Preservation March 30, 10:00 AM - 12:00 PM Scrapbooking is the art of decorating pages with mementos, hand written and printed materials, and ephemera from the events that have touched our lives. Unfortunately, your collection's scrapbooks might be at risk due to the types of materials used or from improper storage. This workshop will discuss common materials found in scrapbooks and options for long term preservation. Register: https://lilrc.org/event-4098897 6 Documents Every Archive Needs: Incoming & Outgoing Loan Paperwork - April 16 Emergency/Disaster Plan - May 14 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM (both) Having policies in place allow archives professionals guidelines for collections , future acquisitions, lending archives to other organizations for exhibition, assessing preservation needs and planning for emergencies. Who should attend: librarians serving local history rooms, directors and employees/volunteers of historical societies, house museums or other cultural institutions. Register: https://lilrc.org/event-4095374 (April 16) Register: https://lilrc.org/event-4095375 (May 14) Directing the Genealogical Reference Interview June 3, 10:00 AM-11:30 AM Do you dread genealogy questions at the reference desk? Overwhelmed by the seasoned genealogist's details? April Earle will walk us through answering some of the most common and daunting genealogy reference questions using FamilySearch and other free websites. Our instructor, April Earle, teaches a course in Genealogical Resources and Services through St. John's University's Division of Library and Information Science, and is a Genealogy Consultant at Mastic-Moriches-Shirley Community Library. Register: https://lilrc.org/event-4125247
Save the Date! 26th Annual Archives Conference October 18th 2021
Long island Archives
March/April 2021 Volume 28 Issue 2
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Copyright and Unpublished Material Best practices and sound advice from SAA (part 2) An Introduction for Users of Archives and Manuscript Collections This text is intended to answer questions you may have about archives and manuscript collections that may be protected by copyright. Because copyright law is constantly evolving, this text is provided for introductory and educational purposes only. It is not intended to be a complete discussion of the subject and is not a substitute for qualified legal advice. Other countries have different rules; this document applies only to U.S. law. More Frequently Asked Questions Can the archives or manuscript repository give me permission to publish an unpublished work? The fact that the archives or repository holds the physical document does not mean it also owns the copyright. Many donors or sellers, when they transfer collections, retain the creative rights to the material for which they are the rights holder. (Archives that serve as the repository of record for materials created by a parent organization will be able to communicate the organization’s procedures for managing copyright permission requests.) Only when rights holders assign the copyright in the work to a repository can the latter (and only it) give you permission to publish. But even when copyrights are transferred along with a collection, the repository may not receive copyright in all of the material, whether analog or born-digital. This is because rights holders can transfer only the copyrights they own, and in most cases donors will own copyright only in material they created. For example, donors would generally own copyright in photographs they took or in letters they wrote to others; however, they may not own (and therefore could not transfer) copyrights in photographs taken of them by someone else or letters they received written by others. The original rights holders may also have transferred copyright to a third party, such as a publisher, and thus no longer own the rights to works they originally made. Note that the repository that owns the item you wish to publish may charge fees for publication (even if it may not own copyright in the work) in addition to any fees a rights holder might charge. Any such stipulation is separate from copyright permission and is determined by a repository’s use policies. Why can you give me a copy of an unpublished work but not give me permission to publish it? Sections 107 and 108 of copyright law provide archives and libraries with a limited authority to make copies of copyrighted material without permission under certain conditions, such as when the copy is to be used for private study, scholarship, or research. What if I cannot determine who owns the copyright or if I am unable to locate a known copyright holder? The Society of American Archivists’ Intellectual Property Working Group has produced a document that is designed to provide guidance on this dilemma—commonly known as the Orphan Works problem—and that suggests search strategies for identifying the creator of a work, identifying the work’s copyright holder, and for locating the copyright holder. More to come in the next issues of Long Island Archives. From Copyright and Unpublished Material, accessed January 5, 2021 at https://www2.archivists.org/publications/brochures/copyright-and-unpublished-material. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Republished with permission.
The Long Ago Literary Corner Recently released and upcoming books about Long Island history
Latest offerings about L. I. History!
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World War II Long Island: The Homefront in Nassau and Suffolk - by Christopher Verga Available now at Amazon or Arcadia Publishing "Long Island was transformed from a pastoral rural community to a modern suburban behemoth by playing an integral role in the homefront of World War II. Dozens of Nazi spies infiltrated industry throughout the island and communicated industrial secrets back to Germany as the FBI chased them down. Long Island held the record for producing the most fighter planes in the country with the rapid rebirth of its aviation sector. Five Medal of Honor recipients called the region home. At the close of the war, the United Nations established itself in a weapons factory in Lake Success. Author Christopher Verga charts the rise of Long Island and its role in World War II." (Amazon.com) Patchogue - By Steven M. Lucas Available March 15 - pre-order with Arcadia Publishing "Beginning with its origins in the 18th century as a sparsely populated farming community, Patchogue has had to reinvent itself many times. Farming, milling, boatbuilding, commercial fishing, large industry, tourism and recreation, small retail, and restaurants have all played major roles in the history and development of Patchogue. As an officer and trustee of the Greater Patchogue Historical Society for over 20 years, author Steven M. Lucas was given access to the society’s archives to gather the images contained within this publication." (Arcadiapublishing.com) Long Island Migrant Labor Camps: Dust for Blood - By Mark A. Torres Available March 22 - preorder with Amazon "During World War II, a group of potato farmers opened the first migrant labor camp in Suffolk County to house farm workers from Jamaica. Over the next twenty years, more than one hundred camps of various sizes would be built throughout the region. Thousands of migrant workers lured by promises of good wages and decent housing flocked to Eastern Long Island, where they were often cheated out of pay and housed in deadly slum-like conditions. Preyed on by corrupt camp operators and entrapped in a feudal system that left them mired in debt, laborers struggled and, in some cases, perished in the shadow of New York's affluence. Author Mark A. Torres reveals the dreadful history of Long Island's migrant labor camps from their inception to their peak in 1960 and their steady decline in the following decades." (Amazon.com)
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microfilm that is either interloaned or brought on site by researchers from other institutions, and access to slides and digitally develop film currently inaccessible in the archive collection." The Whaling Museum and Education Center at Cold Spring Harbor will receive funds to digitize the Mrs. Phoebe Elizabeth Hewlett Willets Memorial Collection, known informally as the Custom House records. "These records which the Museum houses are largely the only surviving records of its kind. The Custom House records contain locally historically significant information but are essentially unknown because the records have no online presence at all. (The Hewlett-Jones Collection, which has been digitized, contains only a few customs documents.) The New York Public Library also has 1 box of records pertaining to the Cold Spring Harbor Custom House, but it isn't digitized, and its finding guide is strongly lacking." When asked to comment, Collections and Exhibits Coordinator, Elizabeth Marriott, had this to say: "I’m really excited to be digitizing these records! The Cold Spring Custom House had a huge impact on Cold Spring Harbor and the surrounding area in the 19th century, but in my research I haven’t been able to find many records other than the ones in our collection. So it will be wonderful to give the Custom House an accessible, online presence. Plus some of the paperwork, like the manifests, give valuable information about what goods were moving in and out of the area by sea. And of course, this collection is full of local names, mostly business owners with partial interests in the trading vessels, so it will also be helpful to researchers who are interested in local families or individuals." The Henry Waldinger Memorial Library in Valley Stream sought funding to digitize the library’s microfilm collection of The Valley Stream Maileader and the Valley Stream Herald, the two local newspapers. The application writer states that, “these newspapers, spanning from February 1926 to 2010, provide continuous coverage of community news, events, businesses, etc. for Valley Stream since its establishment...With the digitization of almost 80 years of local newspapers and addition of the digitized newspapers (plus those from 2010 to the present) to New York State Historic Newspapers, researchers will have access to this extensive collection of newspapers that document the history of a community." A final award went to Great Neck Library for funding the digitization outsourcing of the Nassau Alphabetical (New York City Telephone Directory). With twenty-five rolls of microfilm dating from January 1913 through December 1974, the directories offer "a snapshot of who lived where, confirming residency at a specific time." Per the application narrative, "requests for phone listings are steadily increasing and are sometimes as frequent as three per week and have come from insurance agents, realtors, previous homeowners, genealogists and biographers, from across the entire country." Christy Orquera, Local Historian at Great Neck Library, explained why this project was so important: "Digitizing these primary sources and making them widely accessible will ensure preservation of a small fraction of the island’s local history. The interest in this collection reaches beyond county borders, giving a snapshot of a growing population, the characteristics of a community, head of households and more." Congratulation to the recipients. We look forward to seeing these digitization projects online.
Check out the recent additions to New York Heritage Digital Collections! https://nyheritage.org/
From the Port Washington Public Library: Edwin A. and Mary Hopper Hopkins Family Papers The collection contains correspondence, recipes, diaries, business records and manumissions. Most impressive is the "Abby Hopper Gibbons Personal Diary". Also... A new interview added to the PWPL Oral History Collection: Sandra Lindsay, critical care nurse at L.I.J. and first American to receive the COVID-19 vaccine!
From the Merrick Library: Al Liederman Cartoon Collection Drawings by editorial cartoonist Al Liederman for the "Merrick Life" newspaper.
Ask An Archivist.... I was assisting a patron [who] has an old document that she believes to be on linen. It is an old marriage record that she believes to be from 1895 and East London, England. So it is definitely irreplaceable. She said it looks to her as if it was folded into a fan at one point and it has dried with the folds. Do you know of any local restoration places that can be trusted with a linen document? I don't have a name off the top of my head, but a paper/document conservator should be able to help. Early documents were printed on cotton and linen rag, and a paper conservator should have experience working with and restoring them. When I went to "Find a Conservator" on the The American Institute for Conservation website, it led me to several professionals that appear to focus on all paper types: "Materials: Modern/Contemporary, Paper, Parchment/Vellum" I don't believe that a document printed on linen will be something unusual for an experienced conservator. It's worth giving a call to a conservator to begin the process of getting a quote and a conservation treatment plan. If you have questions, feel free to contact Nicole Menchise, Digitization and Archives Coordinator at nmenchise@lilrc.org or call 631-675-1570 x2004.
Long Island Archives - March/April 2021 Editor: Nicole Menchise, Digitization and Archives Coordinator LILRC - 627 N. Sunrise Service Rd., Bellport, NY 11713, www.lilrc.org.
From the Cradle of Aviation Museum: Curtiss Images of aviation pioneer Glenn Curtiss, Curtiss aircraft & Curtiss Engineering Corp., Garden City, Long Island.