David Staniunas

@boxreceiver.bsky.social

501 Followers 285 Following

archivist at PresbyHistory, menasky-adjacent, obligated to say positions are mine, not PC(USA)'s

Me looking tired and confused on a mountain
Widget named "visually similar by AI" at bottom of display for a page from a history of the world from Timurid Afghanistan, at the Cleveland Museum of Art. All the images are pages from books
Emblem of the SSR of Gilan (1920-1921)
Rolla Hoffman of Mashhad, writing in October 1920
Just speaking truth
After a number of amendments failed to pass, including an attempt to include our call for a full trade embargo on Israel using language from RIW-05 and an amendment steeped in Christian Zionism that attempted to tell the church that they would be cursed if they "curse Israel", an amendment was proposed by commissioner Elizabeth Wiley to add a point to the overture that states, the PC(USA) will "condemn unequivocally the Israeli military's targeting of Palestinian children in Gaza, East Jerusalem, and the West Bank."
The collection consists of over 1,000 items, including vintage photos, posters, autographs, musical equipment, ephemera and personal effects of blues musicians. The owner of the collection is utilizing a collections management software platform to photograph, annotate and itemize each item to build a database. The eventual goal is to provide online access to the database, using functionalities of the collections management software program. While this is a paid temporary position, the job could serve as a graduate program capstone project f
Step 3: Determine if the Work has Archival Value If his research and essays are extensive, do not throw them away just yet. They might belong in an archive. • Look for a natural home: Did he graduate from or teach at a specific university? Was his research focused on a local town, a specific historical event, or a specialized scientific field? • Contact institutions: Reach out to university libraries, local historical societies, or specialized museums. Ask for the Archivist or Special Collections Curator. • What to tell them: Briefly describe who your uncle was, the scope of his papers (e.g., "three boxes of research notes on 1950s architecture"), and ask if they would be interested in a donation. ⚠️ A Note on Copyright: As executor, you need to determine who inherits the intellectual property (IP) rights to his unpublished essays and research. Check the will. If the will doesn't specify, the IP usually passes to his residuary beneficiaries. If you donate the papers to an archive, the family can choose to retain the copyright or transfer it to the institution.
. Appraising and Navigating "Private Archives" Personal items like unpublished essays, correspondence, and diaries are treated by institutions as "private archives" (Harlan, 1929). When evaluating these materials for donation, repositories must navigate complex ethical boundaries, balances of public access, and the privacy rights of third parties mentioned within those personal letters (Hamer, n.d.; Harlan, 1929). Curators use professional frameworks to review large collections efficiently, separating historically rich professional manuscripts from redundant or un-foldered everyday materials (Bachli, 0; Greene & Meissner, 2005).
Academic and Professional Framework 1. Fiduciary Duties and Legal/Financial Separation As an executor, your primary legal duty is to wind down the decedent's affairs, settle estate liabilities, and protect assets for the designated beneficiaries (Weisbord, n.d.). Isolating the financial and legal paperwork from personal effects is required because an executor faces strict personal liability if estate assets or necessary legal proofs are mismanaged or neglected (Weisbord, n.d.).
 In addition to learning about the unique challenges of born-digital archives, the Intern will study and utilize fundamental archival principles of appraisal, provenance and original order, authenticity, preservation and reliability, and legal issues related to copyright, privacy and access. Under the supervision of staff, the Intern will: ​Appraise and review digital files for archival value in accordance with SCUA’s collecting policy and curatorial guidance. ​Perform forensic review of digital files for bit-level integrity, technical metadata, sensitivity, and personally identifiable information. ​Troubleshoot, research, and solve technical issues to ensure that necessary content, metadata, and functionality of the digital files is preserved.
Blessed Pride to all who celebrate. Miller's interview: Speaker 2: [00:22:13] I was in charge of the exhibits at General assembly. And I remember one of the booths that the gay lesbian group had at the assembly. And I saw, I would check at nights and so forth to make sure things were okay when everyone had gone. I remember stopping at their table and I just was totally disgusted with some of the material they had. That was there for distribution, not under the counter, just there for distribution reading material. I raised this concern with the stated clerk I mentioned I was on the senior staff and I remember his telling me that's the church's job to decide what is distributed and what isn't distributed at General Assembly. But, and he was right, you know, it was just a personal opinion, [00:23:25][72.0]
Outgoing Moderator Rhonda giving a word, inside colonial style sanctuary, white and pale blue, with US and Xtian flags
Volume of late 19th c minutes, spine held on with duct tape, string holding volume together
John Calvin lol
Triangle chart of soil texture only it's about being mixes of realism, institutionalism, and open-heartedness
As with other kinds of documentation, things you keep should be for the ongoing life and witness of the church - archives are meant to be used, and if the congregation can't see a path toward using sermons of the past, you should dispense with most of them. Plenty of congregations keep every weekly bulletin and newsletter, or video recordings from every livestream, but for most churches most of the time, you will want to sample the collection for things to keep. Consider selecting in to your ongoing holdings sermons from important events - anniversaries, Christmases, Easters, mortgage-burnings. Think about sermons on evocative topics in the life of the denomination and in society - on abortion, peacemaking, prisons, poverty. Look for sermons by any prominent visitors - moderators of presbytery, moderators of the General Assembly, special guests. And look for sermons surrounding specific events - the first sermon after September 11, 2001; the first sermon during the 1991 Persian Gulf War, for example.
Paul Klee, Angelus Novus
Stuff I helped write: An archives that aims for human liberation must recognize and lift up ordinary people as archival agents
Archive room with donations
Publications from Church of the Master (New York, N.Y.)
1960s hoop in Punjab, before modern movement-based offenses were introduced
Scrapbook, latest date 1962, with (by the smell) cellulose acetate sleeves that have now curled the contents
Russian poem on ducklings: machine translation to English: Look here, my friend, at the green shore. You see, the grey ducklings are gathering in a circle. Next to them is the mother duck; And off to the side, the father duck, Near the tall reeds, watches over the babies. A mother explains to her children how to look for worms in the soil: “A worm is a nutritious dish. You have to understand this!” But the ducklings are eager to get into the water - They are allowed to dive in good weather and in bad - it doesn't matter. They feel good by the pond, Because there is water here, Because their mother duck Always swims with them. By order of the Central Directorate of the Main Directorate of the Specialized Trade Organization, Published by HOM PC and O "Krasnaya Presnya" Artist V. Lazarevskaya. Lyrics by N. Gradova. Literary editor M. Mikhailov. A24853 Typo-lithography of Gosplanizdat. Circulation 10000 Order 137.
Nowruz celebration at Damavand College, north Tehran, 1972, https://digital.history.pcusa.org/islandora/37613