January 2024 Overview

Happy Jubilee Day ... and so another year begins. May we all be happy, healthy, and prosperous in 2024 - in spite of the upcoming Presidential election cycle.  

The BDC hits the ground running in 2024.  We expect a new employee on January 8th - but I am not one to count my chickens before they hatch. Once the person is duly employed, I will share more information with you. 

Because I've decided to stay a bit longer toiling away in the Research Room, I've also decided to continue the "Uniquely BDC" Materials Monday series until further notice. I could probably run it another 4 to 5 years easy-peasy if I were so inclined (but I am not so inclined to work that long). As before, though, I won't make Materials Monday or Black History Note Wednesday posts when the Library is closed or when I am on leave.  

We offer you three opportunities to attend a local history program this month: 

Thursday, January 18, 2023 -- Historically Speaking 5.3 "Tom Austin, Lazarus, and the Resurrection of Sea Island Cotton from Extinction" with Tom Austin. First Presbyterian Church Fellowship Hall, 1201 North Street, 11 AM.  First come; first seated. Door opens 30 minutes ahead of the program start time. 

Wednesday, January 24, 2024 -- "Where Have All the Shrimp Boats Gone" Author Book Talk with Woody Collins. BDC@ Bluffton Branch Library, 120 Palmetto Way, 1 PM. First come; first seated. Door opens 30 minutes ahead of the program start time.

Wednesday, January 31, 2024 -- "Yamasee Homelands" with Hannah Hoover.  BDC@ Beaufort Branch Library, 311 Scott Street, 2 PM. First come; first seated. Door opens 30 minutes ahead of the program start time.

The Library system is closed today, Monday, January 1, 2024. It will also be closed on Monday, January 15, 2024 in honor of Martin Luther King, Jr. 

I hope to soon be able to make a public announcement re: our latest project with the Lowcountry Digital Library.  

How To Credit A Collection

Way back in 2007, Beaufort County Library contributed its first collection, Phosphate, Farms and Family: The Donner Collection to the Lowcountry Digital Library (LCDL). It has since been joined by selections from the Lucille Hasell Culp Collection; images from the Hurricane of 1893; a booklet of survival stories from the Hurricane of 1893; a postcard collection; two collections of stereoscopic photographic images from the Civil War and Reconstruction eras, and a Confederate surgeon's medical record book. 

See all of our contributions to the LCDL thus far, and I hope to get three more up before I retire.   

Librarians, libraries, and other cultural heritage organizations are aware that how information is created, used, and shared in the 21st century is just different than it was in the past. Like most small special collections and archives organizations, the Beaufort District Collection does not make nor sell reproductions of photographs in our collections. We do not have the capability to go into the business of reproducing items from our collections to be purchased by the public.

Because of that limitation (and a few others), we provide access to select items from our holdings through our partnership with the Lowcountry Digital Library. Anyone anywhere with an internet connection is encouraged to look at what we have posted. However, if you show or share images from our holdings on the LCDL, please make it known where you found the digital image and that the original  is from a particular collection online put there by the Beaufort County Library’s special collections unit, the Beaufort District Collection.

For example: 

Here is the credit line we prefer be used for the Lucille Hasell Culp Collection online: “Image courtesy of Beaufort County Library, The Lucille Hasell Culp Collection via the Lowcountry Digital Library.” (where the collection name links back to the image within the collection on the LCDL website.) 

Here is the credit line we prefer be used for the “Phosphate, Farms and Family: The Donner Collection” online: “Image courtesy of Beaufort County Library, Phosphate, Farms and Family: The Donner Collection via the Lowcountry Digital Library.” (where the collection name links back to the image within the collection on the LCDL website.) 

When an image used is credited in this fashion, it increases public awareness of the Beaufort County Library, the Beaufort District Collection, and the Lowcountry Digital Library and perhaps more importantly, the contribution that archival and historical collections throughout this nation make to community life. 

Circumstances Shape Change in Some BDC Services and Programs

Being a librarian and archivist places my work activities well within the GLAM field, short for Galleries, Libraries, Archives and Museums. Among the several e-newsletters, blogs and listservs that I subscribe to is Colleen Dilenschneider's "Know Your Bone" blog in which she researches topics and preferences regarding cultural heritage experiences.  A recent article examines the amount of time that the GLAM community's usual visitors now spend online - and the implications for our community. 

It's a lot ... and growing, not only because of COVID-19 mitigation efforts but as part of a decade long trend more people have adopted towards staying home on the weekend and the advent of widespread streaming capabilities on the technology front. When one thinks about it, the Great Recession did keep a lot of us at home and more focused on making home more comfortable. Implication of the research? It may be harder than ever to attract the folks who attended history-related and arts-related in person events before March 2020 back to in-person programs and exhibits in 2021 and likely into 2022.

-- Which is why the Beaufort County Historical Society and the BDC decided to give local history programming online a try. Our first attempt was Suzie Parker Devoe's presentation about the "Women of Reconstruction." There's still time for you to watch it on the Library's YouTube Channel  https://youtu.be/wmsvv0r3Mlc before it goes away on Tuesday night. Initial reactions were so positive that we already have a date for filming the next lecture in the series.  Dr. Brent Morris will be the presenter for the second lecture. 

 

Given the need to limit access to the Research Room because of staff shortages and the small size of the physical space in this time of COVID-19, I have tried to extend the BDC's online offerings in other ways as well. For example, I'm working with Jan Beaudrie of the County Channel on some more "Beaufort County Moment" videos; there are new topics featured in the BDC's WordPress blog; two docents are working to prepare items in our archives for eventual digitization; and I'm doing my best to create interesting social media posts on a regular and recurrent basis at a level 10 - 25% higher than before COVID-19. 

Looking ahead: The Library will be closed Thursday, November 26th and Friday, November 27th for the Thanksgiving holidays.

Lighthouses and Range Lights Photographs at the National Archives

In honor of  National Lighthouse Day on August 7, I am posting some of the content I received from the National Archives Catalog e-newsletter on 9 July 2020. To see the 213 images of the South Carolina lighthouses and range lights, including some in Beaufort County, use this link: https://catalog.archives.gov/search?q=South%20Carolina&f.ancestorNaIds=513238  You Light Up My Life Lighthouse fans and photography aficionados! Allow us to navigate you to a completely digitized series of Coast Guard lighthouse photographs: 26-LG: Lighthouses, 1855 -1933. Photograph of the Construction of the St. George Reef Light Station in California, 1892. National Archives Identifier 7682787 The photographs, Coast Guard records that were originally taken by the Lighthouse Board and Lighthouse Service, document a fascinating period of U.S. Lighthouse history as well as the development of photographic technology.  Because they were taken between 1855 and 1933, the Albumen, Collodion, Gelatin-Silver Printing Out, and Gelatin-Silver Developing Out photographic processes are all represented in the series. There are also a few Cyanotypes. Most of the photographic prints were mounted, and mounts often contain caption information that was transcribed during the digitization process. Images (Including Cyanotypes) of Esophus Island, New York L: National Archives Identifier 45692947 R: National Archives Identifier 45692951 26-LG: Lighthouses, 1855 -1933 is completely digitized and available to view and download in the National Archives Catalog. The series was arranged by district number with each district corresponding to a geographic area. Within these districts, photos were then arranged in loose alphabetical order according to the name of the lighthouses. This arrangement is reflected in our Catalog, where the file units are listed geographically. To browse for photographs by location, navigate to the 26-LG series description and click on the link: “1125 file unit(s) described in the catalog.” This will take you to a list of file units within the series, grouped by location. When you select the location that interests you, the file unit description will provide you access to the images you wish to see. For example, if you click on “Maine — Egg Rock,” you will see a page that contains specific information about the photos of Egg Rock in Maine. Typically there will be nothing extraordinary here. However, you can see that there are 7 Egg Rock, Maine images described in the Catalog. By clicking on either “7 item(s) described in the catalog” or the “Search within this file unit” button, you will be able to access all 7 Egg Rock, Maine photos at once. Images of Egg Rock, Maine L: National Archives Identifier 18237567 R: National Archives Identifier 18237561 To search the entire series by keyword, begin at the 26-LG series description, and select the “Search within this series” button. This will take you to a page where you can search every image in 26-LG at once using keywords in the search bar. You will see the wildcard symbol *:* is already in the search bar at the top of the page. This is very important – it tells the Catalog to only look at records within the series you have selected. If you know the name of the lighthouse or location you are looking for, remove the wildcard symbols and type the name in the search bar.  For example, if you wish to look for Egg Rock photos, remove the wildcard symbol and type in “Egg Rock”. This will take you to all the photos in 26-LG related to Egg Rock. It is important to notice that your search results using this method will often be different – there is an Egg Rock in Massachusetts as well as in Maine, and using the keyword “Egg Rock” returns photos from both locations. Images of Egg Rock, Massachusetts L: National Archives Identifier 45691499 R: National Archives Identifier 45691501 The digital images from 26-LG were scanned at high resolution and may be downloaded directly from our Catalog. They are not subject to copyright. We hope you enjoy these images as much as we do, and we encourage you to share your favorites with us! Today’s post comes from Kelsey Noel, currently a supervisory archivist in the Accessioning and Basic Processing Section at the National Archives. Read the full post on the Unwritten Record blog. Up for some coloring? Try our Lighthouses Coloring book! You can learn more about these incredible photographs in a Know Your Records presentation by Kelsey Noel, former processing archivist in the National Archives Still Picture Branch.

Celebrate National Library Week 2020 from the Comfort of Your Home

National Library Week (April 19- 25, 2020) is a time to celebrate the contributions of our nation's libraries and library workers and to promote library use and support. I always look forward to advocating for my industry of choice and employment during the celebration. However this year, I feel even more passionately that we lovers of libraries must speak out - and perhaps more forcefully than ever - as cutbacks are sure to come in the wake of all the death and economic disruption caused by worldwide attempts to "flatten the curve" of this dreadful pandemic.

Thus, like the rest of our lives as of mid-March, National Library Week 2020 is certainly different this year. Even the logo changed as library after library closed in the wake of all the disruption caused by everyone's attempt to mitigate the effects of the COVID-19 virus.  We cannot have any large gatherings at the moment - and certainly not inside our buildings to mark this annual weeklong occasion.

While most libraries have closed their buildings to protect the public as well as staff members from contracting or spreading the COVID-19 virus, many are open for business online, providing and promoting their virtual services and digital content in new ways. Many like the Beaufort County Library have expanded access to digital content . Many like Beaufort County Library are finding innovative ways to continue programming efforts using technology tools that some have never used before.

As in the past, libraries as community institutions and library staff have proven themselves agile in reacting to circumstances and proactive in thinking of new ways to deliver services that the community needs. Almost overnight libraries transformed from places where staff deliver services to individual customers on a one-to-one basis into organizations of individual workers stationed at home who deliver personal services to other individuals primarily through technology and through our websites. Some of it has been fly-by-the-seats of our pants though Library staff are learning via free webinars how to better position Beaufort County Library to serve you, our community, in these unusual times by repositioning the Library as a trusted second line helper in the public health fight of the new century.

The BDC has long had "Virtual" services through its social media and presence on the Library's website. If you've attended any of our 20 local history programs or outreach efforts this fiscal year, you've heard about at least one or more of those services at each of those interactions with community members. I hope that you're using at least one or more of those portals to get your local history on!

Over the years, the BDC has as many website/virtual customers as it has had inside our physical Research Room. But COVID-19 now means that all our customers are at least temporarily somewhere else. The same is true for the Beaufort County Library as a whole. Library staff have been working hard since our buildings were closed to the public to serve our community in new and enhanced ways. Here are some of the changes:

• Temporary Library Cards
• Temporary Access to Ancestry Library Edition from home! 
• Temporary Suspension of Overdue Material Fines
• You can borrow more items from Hoopla
• Temporary Access to News Reliability database began April 2, 2020
• Library Book Drops Re-open, April 17, 2020
• A newly created Reading Suggestions for Downloadables page

According to reports submitted to the Library Board of Trustees by Library Director Ray McBride, Library staff have completed more than 1500 hours of continuing education and answered hundreds of questions through our home computers, internet connections and smart phones.  Staff have managed new services and promoted our website, databases, and downloadable services such as Hoopla and Cloud Library. Circulation of electronic formats have exploded. Staff received guidelines on how to do online presentations on Wednesday, April 15 so be alert for upcoming virtual programs, including (probably) one from us during May.

I have maintained all the BDC's social media from home during the shutdown. There is at least one Facebook post per day - and sometimes more. Please visit the BDC Facebook page for upcoming posts about these National Library Week events ... and more:

Monday, April 20: The 2020 State of America's Libraries Report is released
Tuesday, April 21: National Library Workers Day
Wednesday, April 22: National Bookmobile Day
Thursday, April 23: Take Action for Libraries Day

To stay in the know, please subscribe to receive e-blasts from the Library system and the Beaufort District Collection. #AloneTogether can't last forever. We will return to our buildings and to serving you with research help inside our facility and through gatherings with others interested in learning more about this wonderful place in which we are currently sheltering-in-place.

R.L. Johnson Medical Journal Now Online!

The BDC recently added its eighth contribution to the Lowcountry Digital Library: R.L. Johnson Medical Journal, 1863-1864, 1867-1883! It posted on February 1, 2019.

R.L. Johnson Medical Journal, [p. 8] (BDC)

Richard Love Johnson (1841 – 1913) served the Confederacy as an Assistant Surgeon with several units, most notably the 3^rd and 15^th South Carolina Infantries. Johnson was stationed at various posts during the Civil War including McPhersonville in Beaufort District. [The necessary Beaufort connection!] His handwritten entries contain the names and units of his patients, notes on their wounds, treatments, surgeries and outcomes from 1863 to 1864. 

Following the Civil War, Johnson and his family resided on Edisto Island for several years where he turned to practicing obstetrics most often at John Wright’s Seaside Plantation and Dr. William M. Bailey’s Maxcy’s Plantation. 

He also documents two veterinary cases: a cat giving birth and the removal of a tumor from a donkey’s eye. 

During his time on Edisto Island he kept accounts relating to managing a small cotton farm with freed African-American laborers. He includes the names and payments to his workers.

Johnson would later practice medicine in Louisiana and Missouri. 

He revised the journal several times adding notes about medical journal articles and updates regarding some of his patients seen in other circumstances. The latest note with a date was done in 1883. Johnson died and was buried in Rolla, Phelps County, Missouri in 1913. 

This journal is significant because Johnson’s depictions give a firsthand view of medical practices during the Civil War and Reconstruction eras when prescribing whiskey, eggs, and opium were standard treatments. The medical cases and farm accounts typically include the names of individuals involved and thus may be useful for genealogical purposes.

Getting a primary source document for its online debut requires a lot of work and oftentimes the skills of several or many people. In the case of the R.L. Johnson Medical Journal,  I must give credit where credit is due.

The bulk of the work fell to the BDC's former Preservation Associate, Amanda Forbes. She did almost all of the digital scans, did most of the transcription, all the coding, and as her last act of employment sent scan and metadata files to Leah Worthington at the Lowcountry Digital Library.
Kristi Spaulding Marshall proofread the transcription several times to make sure that when it left our hands, it would be as perfect as it could be.

Leah Worthington is the Digital Projects Librarian at the College of Charleston who coordinates the Lowcountry Digital History Initiative and the Lowcountry Digital Library. I asked that the Journal go up at some point between January and April 2019. She oversaw the technology applications to get the Medical Journal uploaded and posted to the LCDL website. Leah got everything done so the journal became available for use by anyone anywhere in the whole world with an internet connection to use by closing time on Friday, February 1st.


I picked the project; oversaw its implementation; wrote the collection page introduction for the LCDL website; edited the Finding Aid; and posted the Finding Aid into our BDC WordPress blog.

Way back in 2007, Beaufort County Library contributed its first collection, Phosphate, Farms and Family: The Donner Collection to the LCDL. It has since been joined by selections from the Lucille Hasell Culp Collection; images from the Hurricane of 1893; a booklet of survival stories from the Hurricane of 1893; a postcard collection; and two collections of stereoscopic photographic images from the Civil War and Reconstruction eras.See all of our contributions to the LCDL at http://lcdl.library.cofc.edu/contributing-institution/beaufort-county-library.