1. The Léon L. Dubois World War I Collection GenaChattin CLSC 646 – Spring 2010 The Catholic University of America
2. Who is Léon Dubois? Why is his collection here? A Librarian in the Archives: Clearing the Fog Research – the fun part Processing, Preservation, and Markup Reflections Agenda
3. French priest and chaplain with a troupe of tank soldiers in World War I Mailed these materials to CUA for a museum exhibition ca. 1920, friend of curator and fellow French expat Rev. Dr. RomainButin Not much else is known. Who was Léon Dubois?
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5. Variety of materials: Military intelligence maps, photos, bulletins Postcards Propaganda Realia, memorabilia Why this collection? MA in French (Spring 2009) Collection is in French, German, and English. End Goal: An EAD Finding Aid The Collection
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11. Adjustment to archival collection-based organization (and way of thinking) Used existing finding aids and their EAD markup as examples. Learned as I went along; backtracked, corrected. A Librarian in the Archives: A New Way to Think
12. Hard to find info on who Dubois was. Butin was the key General research on the role of French chaplains in WWI French academic journals Unique situation – secular govt. So close to more info, but only 50 hours… Research: The Fun Part!
13. Small, unprocessed collection Inventoried items more than 30 maps searched for details in maps to illuminate Dubois’s history Organized into series original order lost long ago Photo preservation Badly curled, but no funds, so used what we had: humidity, acid-free paper, and heavy objects Were able to save most enough to put in sleeves! Rest will lay flat in a box, too curled to be scanned Processing, Preservation, & Markup
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16. EAD Finding Aid Currently also taking LSC615: Organization of Internet Resources “NoteTab Light” “EAD Cookbook” (SAA) The Future? WWI collections at CUA Digitization? More on Dubois Processing, Preservation, & Markup
17. Appraisal – Questions Brought Up By Processing Accessioned 90 years ago Boxed and forgotten for most of that Contents less exciting than anyone hoped Still, valuable materials, and French chaplains’ situation in WWI was important in Catholic history Learning more about Dubois would help Reflections
18. A Learning Process Archives vs Library work process, organization Small collection: opportunity to see the whole process Time management: what to spend time on, what to let go Saying goodbye: could do more, but must end the project and move on Reflections
