Strategic Plan progress report

Download our annual report (PDF)

Foreword

It’s been a year since our last check-in on the Archives’ strategic plan. It’s been a year of getting back on an even keel, focusing on building out our backend capabilities, and figuring out the extent of our capacities in various areas.

We had some challenges over the past 13 months—having aligned our reporting schedule to the fiscal year—and some opportunities.

Challenges included:

• The loss of data center services provided by the Washington Research Library Consortium (WRLC);
• The departure of a team member in mid-Spring;
• A number of environmental problems in the off-site storage facility leased by Gallaudet;
• And the sudden reduction of our budget to zero in late Spring.

But opportunities presented themselves, including:

• The revitalization of the MLC building renovation process;
• A presentation at the National Archives and Records Administration that has enabled some collaboration;
• A conversation with the United States Department of State about deaf diplomacy;
• An ongoing collaboration with a movie studio on a major documentary project;
• The approval of our digital repository, Interdisciplinary Digital Academics at Gallaudet, or IDA@Gallaudet, and the associated migration process

In all, our 2023-2024 reporting year was a busy one, focused on returning to a sustainable state of affairs and resuming our daily operations in line with our strategic plan. As a reminder, the five-year plan through June 2026 includes four goals:

1. Use various strategies to support and provide broad and continuing access to the Archives’ resources to an ever-growing community of Deaf, hard-of-hearing, and signing past, current, and future researchers both on campus and off.
2. Manage, develop, and preserve Archive collections in accordance with best practices in collaboration with related units and experts within the Deaf community to assure historical value and continuity.
3. Undertake a transformative digitization initiative that supports the previous two goals while offering access to the multifaceted histories of deaf communities around the world.
4. Assure the highest standard of research assistance and support to researchers of signed languages, Deaf histories, and Deaf cultures of communities both in the United States and around the world.

These goals break down further into several objectives, which we’ll examine further in the following sections.

As always, thank you for reading and for following along with our progress as a team and as an institution.

James McCarthy

Manager, Archives

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Our Mission and Our Vision

Our Mission

The Gallaudet University Archives is responsible for the institutional memory of the University and also strives to preserve the memory of the global Deaf Community.

Background

Given the nature of the University’s mission, the Gallaudet University Library Deaf Collections and Archives works diligently to build, maintain and organize the world’s largest collection of materials related to the Deaf Community, as well as the home to Gallaudet University’s institutional records and the records of the Gallaudet family. Included in the collection are artifacts, photographs, films, papers, periodicals, books, and other items. While maintaining a comprehensive collection, the importance of preserving the records of the global Deaf Community and collaborating with other repositories to ensure the longevity of items is essential.

Our Vision

The Archives recognizes that it is one of the world’s leading centers of preservation, conservation, research, and access to the cultural memory of the global Deaf community. It supports Gallaudet University’s mission of bilingualism, diversity, and the intellectual and professional advancement of deaf and hard of hearing individuals in a rapidly-changing world.

To that end, the Archives will 1) Use various strategies to support and provide broad and continuing access to its resources to an ever-growing community of Deaf, hard-of-hearing, and signing past, current, and future researchers both on campus and off; 2) Manage, develop, and preserve its collections in accordance with best practices in collaboration with related units and experts within Deaf communities to assure historical value and continuity; 3) Undertake a transformative digitization initiative that supports the previous two goals while offering access to the multifaceted histories of deaf communities around the world; and 4) Assure the highest standard of research assistance and support to researchers of signed languages, Deaf histories, and Deaf cultures of communities both in the United States and around the world.

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Progress Report

Introduction

The status of each objective will be evaluated on a continuum as follows:

Objectives

By June 2026, the Archives will…

Increase curricular integration with participation in active courses numbering at least four per semester.

Some progress has been made. We worked closely with a Black Deaf history class in the Fall and Spring semesters to provide research support to students, and provided ongoing support to students in graduate programs in Linguistics and Deaf Studies. The goal has not been met, but compared to the previous year, progress is visible.

Additionally, we have been invited to support the digitization of certain collections to support an interdisciplinary doctoral curriculum (see Objective 3 below).

Develop partnerships with at least two on-campus research centers.

The Archives continued to partner with the Schuchman Deaf Documentary Center on the Archiving Alumni project, which seeks to capture oral histories by alumni who are celebrating their 50^th anniversary reunion.

We also began consulting with the Center on Black Deaf Studies on archival preservation of historical materials in their possession, or which they were asked to examine on behalf of community members.

Seek and find at least two external funding opportunities to bring Archives collections to the public.

Progress has been made; although the National Digital Newspaper Program was not a good fit for the project we had envisioned, we were asked to participate in an award from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) supporting humanities initiative at colleges and universities. This award will enable us to support the digitization of collections supporting an interdisciplinary doctoral-level curriculum. We have also identified a grant from the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR) that is a good candidate for the Little Paper Family.

Additionally, we continue to be interested in the Sustaining Cultural Heritage Collections funding opportunity from NEH, which could support the installation or upgrade of high-density shelving in a future Archives space after the renovation of the MLC is complete.

Establish a pipeline of future librarians/archivists, with at least one undergraduate student on course to enroll in and obtain an MLIS, using the following methods:

• Project-based internship opportunities

• Student employment

• Graduate assistants

Budget constraints continue to make meeting this goal difficult, though the Archives occasionally get inquiries about volunteer opportunities. Archives staff also provided mentoring and feedback to at least two deaf individuals considering careers in library and archival sciences.

Update website to recenter Gallaudet-specific digital collections, increasing usage by at least 10%.

With IDA’s introduction, it’s safe to say that interest in our digital collections has soared. Additionally, the migration of our finding aids to ArchivesSpace, an open-source digital solution for collections management, has made it much easier for researchers to locate and request undigitized materials for research. Significant progress has been made in this area.

 

Integrate public-facing work with the Library and Museum in support of the goals of each unit, successfully completing at least two projects in conjunction with each unit.

Collaboration with the Library and Museum are continuing. The Library and Archives shared space during BisonFest, an annual resource fair for students at the beginning of the fall semester, for example, and both units collaborate on a regular basis to answer reference questions. Additionally, the Library and Archives are currently undertaking a joint study of the disaster plan that has been in place since the early 2000s and developing a plan to update it.

The Museum’s current Indigenous Deaf Art exhibition has also proven to be a source of collaborative efforts due to the need to clear Chapel Hall of Archives-owned materials as well as contribute Archives-owned artwork for ongoing display.

Objectives

By 2026, the Archives will…

Leverage the relocation and renovation processes to:

• Assess the condition of Archives holdings

• Develop criteria for future deaccessioning and acquisitions, potentially in conjunction with expert guidance (e.g., deaf historians assisting in evaluating cultural or historical value of specific collections)

• Collect information about the extent, nature, and distribution of the holdings

• Update or expand finding aids as necessary

Work continues on deaccessioning large artifacts with little historical, economic, or aesthetic value, reducing the collection’s footprint by approximately 7%. Preservation assessments were developed, but have not been integrated into donation intake workflows due to the emergence of other priorities, such as the launch of IDA.

Finally, the transition to ArchivesSpace is complete, and other workflows are being actively migrated to the platform; this was accomplished while also migrating the active instance from WRLC’s data center services to a server controlled by Gallaudet’s Technology Services. In all, progress continues.

Develop an advisory board including Deaf historians, librarians, archivists, and other experts in culturally-related fields to advise on collection development, outreach opportunities, and research synergies.

Due to the past year’s focus on returning to a sustainable pace of operations more in line with our past capabilities, work related to the advisory board has been temporarily suspended.

 

 

Objectives

By 2026, the Archives will…

Achieve the following percentages digitized of the collection:

• Film/video: 25%

• Artwork: 75%

• Gallaudet periodicals: 30%

• Photographs: 10%

In the past year, we were able to complete digitization of the National Fraternal Society for the Deaf’s The Frat, a 100-year-long publication that exhaustively documented activities in the American deaf community among NFSD members.

We also completed the Deaf African-American Vertical Files, the Edward Miner Gallaudet Presidential Correspondence, the Henry Winter Syle Papers, and migrated the entirety of our digital photo collections from Islandora to IDA; the number of files migrated from Islandora currently stands at around 20,000. The Portraits collection has also been digitized, and will be updated in the coming year.

Altogether, we have exceeded this goal ahead of schedule except for one set of materials: Videos. It is our hope that we will be able to find funding to support the digitization of further materials.

Begin a campaign to collect, organize, process, and preserve materials from communities underrepresented in the Archives, ranging from marginalized groups (DeafBlind and others) to POC communities.

In the winter of 2023-2024, the Archives sent an open letter to the leaders of the National Black Deaf Advocates (NBDA), clarifying our understanding of the situation surrounding their historical materials in our possession and requesting further dialogue to further formalize the arrangement. That conversation is ongoing.

Investigate and create an institutional repository for Gallaudet-produced IP (e.g., white papers, policy position papers).

Currently implemented and adding new material daily as of this writing.

Evaluate and identify high-use MSS and SMSS for future digitization via a third party.

Continues to be complete.

Collect, evaluate, and identify born-digital objects, texts, images, and videos produced as Gallaudet-owned IP to be archived.

Continues; extant collections of materials are still being identified, but a repository to store them in is complete.

Identify all on-campus units possessing their own “library” or “archive” and develop plans for either transitioning responsibility or providing limited support.

Ongoing. No significant progress since the last report; also no regression.

Objectives

By 2026, the Archives will…

Streamline and codify all policies and procedures for:

• Patron support

• Fee structures

• Staff responsibilities, redundancy, and support

• Communication expectations along the following lines:

  Archive staff → Patron

  Archive staff → Archive staff

  Archive staff → Collaborator

  Archive staff → Library staff

• Acquisitions

• Rights and usage

• Inventory control

• Collection management

• Emergency/inclement weather planning

Policies are continuing to be revised and updated, along with staff responsibilities and job descriptions. Emergency planning has now become a joint venture with the Library. The Archives continues to record appointments and Reading Room visitors in order to better understand real-world use of our services and revising policies accordingly.

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Conclusion

	GOAL #1	GOAL #2	GOAL #3	GOAL #4
OBJECTIVE #1	+
OBJECTIVE #2		–
OBJECTIVE #3	–		+
OBJECTIVE #4	+
OBJECTIVE #5	+		+
OBJECTIVE #6			–

Over the past year, progress has continued, albeit along somewhat different lines than in the previous report. Some lines of progress in the last report have slowed (the fields marked by “-” in the chart above, indicating a downward change compared to the previous year, while others that had not shown signs of improvement have started to pick up speed (marked by “+” in the chart above).

The overall trend is positive; we anticipate that the same will be true in the next reporting year, which will be the penultimate year under the current strategic plan. 

Until then,

James McCarthy

Director, Gallaudet University Archives