The Radical Archives of Philadelphia collects and preserves the material history of progressive organizations and events in the area. The document outlines the process of email capture for archival purposes, including steps for identification, preservation, and access of email communications. It provides practical guidance on using email management tools, converting files, and sharing archived messages with researchers.

1. Email Capture
at the
Radical Archives of Philadelphia

2. Introduction
(To the Radical Archives of Philadelphia)
• Collect the material history of progressive
organizations, activists and events in Philadelphia
• Housed at the Wooden Shoe Bookstore & Info
Shop
• Collections Include: RNC Protest Material; Philly
National Lawyers Guild Papers; Books Through
Bars Records
• Works with organizations to promote causes of
both the organization and the RAP
• Works with other independent collections to pool
resources: Community Archives Consortium

3. Introduction To Email Capture
(In General)
• Identification
• Preservation
• Access

4. Introduction To Email Capture
(at the RAP)
• Identification
– Listserv ; Mailing list of organization
– Outward – pointing communication
• Preservation
– Messages downloaded and reformatted
• Access
– Saved copies for us and dispersal

5. Today’s Examples:
RAP Emails

6. Specific Steps: Identification
• Download Mozilla Thunderbird
• Link to an email account
– In our case, radicalarchivesofphila@gmail.com
– Use IMAP (This creates an open portal to the
Gmail server. There might be benefits to using
POP, buy me a drink to hear more)
• Use this email address to sign up for mailing
lists
– Create appropriate labels for each
organization/mailing list

7. Specific Steps: Preservation
• Find the location of your locally saved email
messages
– Note: it will look something like this:
“C:Users[username]AppDataRoamingThunderbirdProfiles[name].de
faultImapMail”
• Labels/folders created in gmail account will be
represented here:

8. Specific Steps: Preservation
• Find the location of your locally saved email
messages
– Note: it will look something like this:
“C:Users[username]AppDataRoamingThunderbirdProfiles[name].de
faultImapMail”
• Labels/folders created in gmail account will be
represented here:

9. Specific Steps: Preservation
• Download Mbox2xml
– http://tools.elit.nl/mbox2xml.php
• Convert mbox files to xml
– Simple interface, can make decisions about what
to include.
– Includes style sheets so that messages can be
viewed in browser of choice.

10. Mbox2xml

11. Viewed in Browser: Index

12. Viewed in Browser: Messages

13. Specific Steps: Access
• XML messages are saved on thumb drives
• Researchers are invited to use
messages, viewed through browser
• In terms of out-ward pointing
communication, researchers are welcome to
have copies of messages. We copy messages
to their drive.

14. Issues & Considerations
• RAP, to date, does not have an electronic
workstation (please make checks out to me)
• Message fixity
– One option to simply show messages through
Thunderbird (skip several steps).
– This would allow the researcher to make changes
to the messages.
– Having the messages available through a browser
keeps researchers from making changes.

15. Radical Archives Contact
• Website: www.philllyradicalarchives.org
• Email: info@phillyradicalarchives.org
• Contact me: scott@phillyradicalarchives.org