Week 4

On January 29, 2011 I met with the president of the executive board, Kirsten Larsson-Turley, of the Woman’s Literary Union, at the club house. We discussed copyright concerns. I will ask professional museum curators and archivists about this topic prior to the publication of WLU collection materials.

Some WLU members have discussed the publishing a newsletter to keep the entire membership informed throughout the year of projects that the club is working on or towards.

Another topic discussed was the manner of communicating. Today, there are so many ways of communicating and no one method should be considered better than any other as each method disseminates information about the club. For example, not everyone uses e-mail, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or other social networking sites. That means that the club still needs to use face-to-face meetings, snail mail, print advertising and press releases, and phone calls. All methods of communication are important. I would like to set up a Facebook account for the WLU if everyone is agreeable to that. Select about five members, myself included who will regularly post status updates on the Facebook page. Those five members will be given “administrative privileges” to the Facebook account which simply means that when you post on the WLU’s facebook page, your post will look like a Woman’s Literary Union post and not your personal post.

We also talked about the need to register at grants.gov prior to applying for grants.

Kirsten discussed creating a connection with local museums, particularly Museum L/A, which has exhibits on shoe workers. WLU has a connection to one of the area’s shoe bosses of that era, Horatio G. Foss.

The question as to whether or not WLU has museum status was brought up. Can anyone recall someone from a state agency stating that the WLU does not have museum status about four months ago? This is important to know prior to applying for grants. More grants are available if the club has museum status.

A connection between the club and the local newspaper, Sun Journal, is encouraged as the SJ was, and still is, a proponent of literacy. In the past, the SJ has sponsored writing contests of which WLU members submitted essays that won.

When writing the history of the WLU, the old by-laws will show that the club discriminated by class, race, and gender. This is important to document as well as when the by-laws changed.

If you are using the year 1892 as the club’s year of establishment, then the club is 119 years old. When was the last time the club discussed the merits of the club house being listed in the Historical Registry?

Is the club’s mission statement informing the public of its true purpose? How does the community view the club? This information can be disseminated with the next community service project campaign.

March 26, Maine Garden Day. WLU notecards for sale. Some ideas for club involvement include volunteering at established community gardens which provide food for the gardeners as well as for the local farmers’ markets. Has the club thought of purchasing an Adopt-A-Spot through the Chamber?

I have great news! As you may know, I am hoping to write about what is in the Woman’s Literary Union collection of texts and photos and examine this information in a cultural context. This means that knowing what was going on in the community and in the lives of the club members will enrich an understanding of the collection. On Saturday, I spent about an hour photographing (digital camera) 221 images from one book which happened to be the minutes of the Book Review Club meetings. I think I hit the jackpot in this book as it contains a wealth of knowledge. I randomly selected one account from the book, November 21, 1946.

Here is a brief excerpt from that day’s entry:

“Miss Mabel Eaton, librarian at Bates College, was introduced by Mrs. Berkelman, to speak on the subject, ‘and Reading without Books.’ Miss Eaton described the microfilm which was improved during the war, and which is taking its place in all large libraries. Its main use, in the war, was to preserve the contents of rare editions from bombings and other accidents, and to keep research material intact. In normal use, the microfilm saves space, needing only 2% of the original volume, – it is convenient to handle, the reproduction is perfect and permanent, and because of the enlargement, is extremely easy to read. Many leading newspapers are being photographed for use in libraries.”

The entry included a lot of statistics about book sales, advertising, newspapers, and other information that historians and researchers may find fascinating and important.

I think the WLU has a lot of important information in its collection and everything should be protected. I think the club should implement a “no borrowing” policy immediately that prohibits documents, photos, and other artifacts from being removed from the club house. There are so many unknown factors in what could happen to items removed from the club house. The risk is too great. Eventually, when the collection is professionally housed in acid-free storage containers, its importance will be better recognized.

I hope to visit the club house again next Saturday to continue the digital-photo taking.