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Slide Notes

Presentation given at SAIL Annual Conference 2014 in St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada. Enjoy!

Hello, I am Alyson Gamble from the Arthur Vining Davis Library and Archives at the Mote Marine Laboratory and Aquarium in Sarasota, Florida. This is my first time attending SAIL or any other IAMSLIC meeting. Many of you know my director, Sue Stover, who has been the librarian at Mote for eighteen years, and some of you may know Gail Donovan, the current archivist at Mote who has attended one of your meetings with Sue before. Both of them wish they could be with you today, but they sent me to talk about their work instead. I am grateful for the chance to be here and hope my thoughts will inspire further discussion. I hope you, like Sue, recognize that while I appear to be jumping up and down on this ship, my hands are always on the sail’s ropes, my mind is guided by the compass, and my eyes focus on the horizon.

(Image source: Edward Moran [Public domain or Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons)
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Consilience Between Archives & Library

Published on Nov 19, 2015

Consilience between libraries and archives at Mote Marine Laboratory & Aquarium

PRESENTATION OUTLINE

Consilience Between Archives & Library

Presentation given at SAIL Annual Conference 2014 in St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada. Enjoy!

Hello, I am Alyson Gamble from the Arthur Vining Davis Library and Archives at the Mote Marine Laboratory and Aquarium in Sarasota, Florida. This is my first time attending SAIL or any other IAMSLIC meeting. Many of you know my director, Sue Stover, who has been the librarian at Mote for eighteen years, and some of you may know Gail Donovan, the current archivist at Mote who has attended one of your meetings with Sue before. Both of them wish they could be with you today, but they sent me to talk about their work instead. I am grateful for the chance to be here and hope my thoughts will inspire further discussion. I hope you, like Sue, recognize that while I appear to be jumping up and down on this ship, my hands are always on the sail’s ropes, my mind is guided by the compass, and my eyes focus on the horizon.

(Image source: Edward Moran [Public domain or Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons)

Innovation

Creativity is the key to thriving.
Under Sue’s direction, the theme of Mote’s library, like that of this conference, has been innovation. Sue has built the library from a tiny room into truly functional space, notable for both its geography in the building – across from the director’s office, the first room you see when you exit the elevators on the administrative floor of our building – as well as its collection, which circulates approximately as many of its own materials through inter-library loan as it requests. She has accomplished this feat with creativity and great care. It is an honor to work for her.

Creativity has been her key for thriving.

(Image source: HaikuDeck Creative Commons)

archives

Born from necessity, grown in the library.
Recognizing a need, Sue has developed an archive in Mote’s library and developed a digital repository for archival materials. She has hired archivists to process her organization’s collections and with these professionals, as well as a team of helpful interns and volunteers, continues to expand. The materials in Mote’s archive, like those in the library, would be considered, in a larger institution, as a special collection, and it is in part due to my own familiarity with academic libraries that I have chosen to refer to them as such in this presentation.

(Image source: myself)

consilience

Same answer, any tool you use.
What is being found in this combination of library and archive is consilience, a term you may recognize from the book by E.O. Wilson. The concept of consilience is loosely defined as a unity of knowledge, where different methods for measuring same result lead to the same answer. In other words, it should not be the tools, be they abacuses or calculators, that decide the answer. Sounds a bit like card catalogs and OPACs, right? Different tools, same task, leading (hopefully) to the same result of categorizing materials and making information accessible.

(Image of card catalog and computers source: HaikuDeck Creative Commons)
Photo by prettydaisies

"consilience of inductions"

The idea of consilience comes from William Whewell, a 19th century polymath, philosopher, theologian, scientist and physicist. Whewell was the first person to use the word describe knowledge being unified across different disciplines, which he called a “consilience of inductions.” He perhaps meant this as a way to describe his interdisciplinary scientific focus.

[Image of Whewell source: Popular Science Monthly (7), http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3APSM_V07_D008_William_Whewell.jpg]

"jumping together of knowledge"

As another broad-minded scientist, EO Wilson built on Whewell’s concept. Originally an entomologist and author of The Ants, he is also well-known for the theory of sociobiology, an idea proposing social behavior has resulted from evolution. He’s a big-idea guy, that Wilson, probably because like us librarians he spends a lot of time concentrating on very detailed concepts. Wilson’s 20th century consilience is a “jumping together of knowledge,” a bridge between the sciences, social sciences, and humanities. Like our modern work in the ancient institutions of libraries and archives, it is an expansion, not a redefinition, of the original term.

(Image of E. O. Wilson source: National Portrait Gallery, photo found via Haikudeck)
Photo by stratoz

building bridges

between arts and sciences
That bridge between arts and science can sound like, at best, science fiction and, at worse, heresy to people who have rigid concepts of the roles of disciplines – but it’s really neither fiction nor iconoclasm. Let’s use ourselves as an example.

(Image of Sarasota Bay bridge source: HaikuDeck Creative Commons)
Photo by H.DUNHILL

Sciences background?

How many in this audience of marine science librarians have a sciences background?

(Image source: HaikuDeck Creative Commons)

Humanities background?

What about a humanities background? I do, too – of my three higher degrees that don’t spell anything, two of them are in the humanities. Has having a humanities rather than a scientific background kept you from being a quality marine research librarian?

(Image source: HaikuDeck Creative Commons)
Photo by Michael 1952

Cognitive Consilience

Perhaps controversial ideas, consilience between STEM librarians’ disparate backgrounds, but not overwhelming. In fact, they prove there’s no need to leap entirely off of a boat when you can rock it.


Image on this slide is from Solari SVH and Stoner R (2011) Cognitive consilience: primate non-primary neuroanatomical circuits underlying cognition. Front. Neuroanat. 5:65. doi: 10.3389/fnana.2011.00065

Rocking the boat

begins with understanding the waters
What does rocking the boat require? To put it metaphorically, knowledge of the waters and how far we can tilt before we tip over. In our field, that means we have to understand modern marine researchers as well as the entire information science landscape. Rocking the boat can help us move faster.

(Image source: HaikuDeck Creative Commons)

distinct purposes

same answers from same goals 
When applying the idea of consilience to archives and libraries, it also means we have to find a way to maintain our distinction while not fragmenting our purpose. Your library is focused on fisheries? Okay! You’re an archivist of a collection of field journals? Okay!

(Image source: HaikuDeck Creative Commons. DNA visualization.)
Photo by Ethan Hein

old + new

combination is strength
We have the same aim: to preserve and make accessible the materials and information in our collections. Who knows what foundation for modern research lies in those (hopefully not crumbling) old notebooks?

(Image source: HaikuDeck Creative Commons)
Photo by quinn.anya

revolution

Ideas like these can spirit movements or revolutions. The main difference lies in their impact. Revolutions often consume their own children and are briefly lived, while movements can build community between the old and new while lasting for many years.

(Image source: Jacques-Louis David - Marat assassinated, via WikiCommons)
Photo by defndaines

movement

This latter idea – of being a movement instead of a revolution -- is necessary for us to survive in the modern era. We must maintain attention to our old ways of providing services while finding new ways to best meet the needs of the next generation.

(Image of artwork inspired by suffragette movement from Creative Common .)
Photo by Rich_Lem

don't eat each other....

In order to preserve our species of information professional, we must not feed on ourselves. We can not consume the new generation or feast on the old - otherwise the species perishes –unless there are too many of us (which there aren’t).

(Image source Creativa Commons)
Photo by Total Heliski

...even the goblin sharks.

(Image from Perry Gilbert Collection at Mote Marine Laboratory & Archives Special Collections)

euGenie clark

The Shark Lady
So what’s the practical application of these meandering musings? Concrete examples are found in Mote’s library and archives. I will be exploring them through some of the work history of Eugenie Clark.

(Image from WikiCommons)

bass biological laboratory

the journey begins
Mote has its roots in the Bass Biological Laboratory, based in Englewood Florida. The Bass Lab was the first full-time marine station on the Florida mainland, a premier place for marine science exploration in the Southwest Florida region.

(Photograph from the Mote Marine Laboratory Library & Archives collections. Images were pulled from Erin Mahaney's presentation to the Society of Florida Archvists, available here: http://www.florida-archivists.org/documents/SFABasspresentation.pdf)

female researchers supported

The Lab actively recruited female researchers during a period when there were few women in science.

(Photograph from the Mote Marine Laboratory Library & Archives collections. Images were pulled from Erin Mahaney's presentation to the Society of Florida Archvists, available here: http://www.florida-archivists.org/documents/SFABasspresentation.pdf)

hazardous collection

One of the people who uncovered the Bass Lab archives was not an archivist, but a marine biologist – now senior scientist emeritus – named Dr. Ernest Estevez. With the same driven focus that characterized his interdisciplinary research into studies of water management practices in bays and estuaries, Esevez dug into the sometimes crumbling materials in the Bass collection. What would have happened if Ernie had been barred from gathering the materials because he lacked a certificate from the Society of American Archivists or a MLIS? Or if he did not recognize the value in a laboratory that could no longer be physically used? What might have been lost was saved because a scientist stepped out of the laboratory and off of the boat to gather information.

(Photograph from the Mote Marine Laboratory Library & Archives collections. Images were pulled from Erin Mahaney's presentation to the Society of Florida Archvists, available here: http://www.florida-archivists.org/documents/SFABasspresentation.pdf)

worth the risk

We are all the more fortunate for it. As Mote archivist Erin Mahaney says, “The strength of these collections lies in their duality.” They offer insight into both the scientific and the daily activities of the laboratory and its broader environment.

(Photograph from the Mote Marine Laboratory Library & Archives collections. "Fishing for sharks and rays, c.1933" https://dspace.mote.org/dspace/bitstream/2075/1950/1/bl1394.jpg)

glimpses of scientists' lives



(Photograph from the Mote Marine Laboratory Library & Archives collections. Images were pulled from Erin Mahaney's presentation to the Society of Florida Archvists, available here: http://www.florida-archivists.org/documents/SFABasspresentation.pdf)

cape haze days

Genie's shark research begins
All the while, Eugenie Clark was building her career as a female scientist, in part because she stepped outside of her comfort zone. In 1955, Clark was working at the newly Vanderbilt funded Cape Haze Marine Laboratory, when she received a call from Dr. John Heller, director of the New England Institute for Marine Research, asking if the lab could obtain a shark for him. Clark initially thought of telling Heller her lab lacked the knowledge to catch sharks, but then turned to her assistant, Beryl Chadwick, who informed her he possessed the expertise. Unbeknownst to Clark, Chadwick had worked with Stewart Springer, who would later be recognized as an authority on sharks.

(Photograph from Eugenie Clark's Current research at the Cape Haze Marine Laboratory, and reports for 1955-1961, available via Mote's DSpace at https://dspace.mote.org/dspace/handle/2075/3119)

shark research

If not for risk, it would have never happened.
Would Clark have not rocked the boat, and had Anne Vanderbilt supporting her, Clark’s life and the research world would have followed a decidedly different course. Our collections contain archival materials from Clark and other scientists’ research at Cape Haze as well as books, reports, and journals from the laboratory’s library.

(Photograph from Eugenie Clark's Current research at the Cape Haze Marine Laboratory, and reports for 1955-1961, available via Mote's DSpace at https://dspace.mote.org/dspace/handle/2075/3119)

Making Mote

Mote Marine Laboratory was born after the Cape Haze Lab moved to the southern tip of Siesta Key in Sarasota County, and then to its present location on what is now called City Island. The land for the current lab was donated by a businessman, William R. Mote, who recognized a need and applied his resources to answering it. New research departments were built and Mote grew into the highly regarded institution it is today, with the library and archival collections is currently possesses, all because a lot of people from a wide variety of backgrounds, found the same answer and decided to rock the boat to obtain it.


(Image source: "Perry Gilbert, Sylvia Earle, Eugenie Clark, and William Mote, 1967" from Kumar Mahadevan's November 19, 2010 report Mote Marine Laboratory, Exploring the Secrets of the Sea Since 1955: A Historical Perspective. Available at http://www.mote.org/clientuploads/Documents/MoteMarineLaboratory.pdf)

this boat's headed somewhere...

Likewise, I would not be here speaking to you today had my own little vessel not begun to sway in the waves and me decide to roll the wheel in a different direction. Going to library school was initially a next step toward a humanities doctorate, something to provide me with a position as a research and instruction librarian in an academic setting while I continued reading and writing about intertextuality and comparative literature, also known as tickets to adjunct professorship in the middle of nowhere. Then I took a STEM resources class, where I learned about marine resource libraries, which led to an internship at LUMCON in Cocodrie, Louisiana, where I took three weeks off of my paid job at Tulane University in order to learn as much as John Conover, the librarian there, could teach me and, in return, establish a digital repository for LUMCON’s research. That internship, coupled with recognition from my position at Tulane and fortunate timing, led directly to me applying to a single job: the librarian position at Mote. And here we are: a new librarian, learning about archives and marine research.

(Image of osprey on sailboat source: HaikuDeck Creative Commons)
Photo by A. Drauglis

What's been happening?

Mote’s research today continues to have elements answered by both the archives and the library. In what I like to call Archives 101, co-instructors Sue and Gail have put me to work on the Mote Institutional Collection, which contains, among other items, the archives of Mote directors. These materials include dissertations, photographs of the facility and its people, and correspondence. Value can be found in a variety of ways, some of them unexpected – at least to the untrained eye. (I think Sue knows exactly what she’s doing.) For a person new to the institution and the area, the directors’ materials contain information about Mote as well as its home, Sarasota, that are invaluable for a newbie.

(Source, Mote News 40 (4) in the library's DSpace. You can read the report here: http://hdl.handle.net/2075/3079)

Accelerometers & TED Talks

Mote’s research today is spread over multiple research departments and research stations. Modern research extends beyond the popular notions of marine science. This is Dr. Nick Whitney speaking about the secret lives of wild animals at TEDxSarasota. He learned about these animals' habits using accelerometers, the same as those used inside our smartphones.

Watch it here: http://tedxtalks.ted.com/video/The-Secret-Lives-of-Wild-Animal;Featured-Tal...

Healing wounds with rays

Mote researchers in the Marine Biomedical Program, the Marine Microbiology Program, and the Marine Immunology Program, including Drs. Kim Ritchie, Carl Luer, and Cathy Walsh are working interdepartmentally to heal people's wounds, especially those received in combat, by researching uses for antimicrobial properties of epidermal mucus produced by stingrays. Mote has joined forces with other institutions on this project as well.

Read a little more here: http://www.mote.org/index.php?src=news&refno=461&category=Newsroom

Investigating coral diseases

Dr. Erinn Muller and other Mote researchers are involved in projects related to coral diseases. These studies can help us learn not only about losing coral, a foundation for biologically diverse reefs as well as a carbon dioxide controller, but also about the effects of ocean acidification and climate change.

Read a little more about Dr. Muller here: http://www.mote.org/index.php?src=news&refno=461&category=Newsroom

Saving charismatic megafauna

Mote scientists work to research and save large animal species with widespread popular appeal that can help guide conservation, including dolphins and sea turtles. In a consilience devoted to saving the lives of these animals, education, aquarium, and outreach help support the hospital.

Researcher Jayne Gardiner focuses on sharks' navigation and homing behavior, feeding, and the effects of sensory pollution on these creatures' abilities.

The Sea Turtle Conservation & Research Program monitors sea turtle activity to learn more about the biology and behavior of these species and help reduce human impacts on them.

The Mote Aquarium also operates out of these buildings, showcasing a dolphin, two manatees, and sea turtles.

(Photo from Creative Commons.)

Gliding to find red tide

Mote researchers work to track and understand red tide by collecting samples via underwater gliders. These gliders require minimal staff support and are able to operate 24/7 without being limited by weather or water conditions. These gliders can help us understand what is happening in our aquatic world from the waters closest to the shore to currents flowing through deep water. Information professionals, especially those intrigued by Big Data, may be interested in helping create and manage inter-agency data repositories populated by information gathered by gliders like this one at Mote.

(Image from the Florida Red Tide and other Harmful Algal Blooms (HABs) Facebook page. Explanation of glider capabilities courtesy of Ocean Technology engineering technician Justin Shapiro.)

Digitizing a herbarium

Retired researchers are continuing to keep in the game, including Dr. Estevez, who is working with Gail and me on the NSF ADBC Macroalgae Digitization Project.

(Image from Mote's DSpace. You can read more about the project here: http://www.macroalgae.org/portal/index.php)

Continuing research

Passion knows no age.
Eugenie Clark herself remains active at Mote, keeping office hours and leading dive excursions. From her example, we can learn to remain passionate about what we do and continue our research. Such enthusiasm will win us acclaim, as it did Genie this year when she received the Legend of the Sea Award from Sport Diver, as well as energize the people we serve.

(Image source Times photo: John Pendygraft)

genie's collection

soon to be hidden no more
Our Archives recently obtained a deed of gift to process Genie’s archives. Here you can see her office, with just a smidgen of the important materials she has collected over a lifetime devoted to research she loved.

All of these projects are supported by the library and archives. We provide scientists with the research they need in order to conduct experiments and we keep their papers, chapters, and books in our repository. When allowed, these are available via our digital repository to the entire world. Likewise, our archival materials are hosted online, and many items from the archives and library collections overlap into a special collection unique to Mote and valuable to the global community for various reasons, not all of them scientific in nature. The Mote community utilizes our resources, but they are not the only people we serve. Since beginning my position in February, I have helped everyone from a pair of hyperactive grandchildren to an amateur archaeologist and utilized materials from the archival and library collections.

(Photo of Genie's office by me.)

lab + aquarium

library + archive
This relation of libraries and archives is similar to the relation of our lab and aquarium.

(Photo of Mote seahorses from HaikuDeck's Creative Commons.)
Photo by WalterPro4755

Outreach

Ever heard the one about the octopus?
Outreach is key for both.

[In case you haven't heard it, here's the one about the octopus. At a non-Mote aquarium, fish were disappearing overnight from a tank. Where were they going? In the octopus' mouth! At night, the smart little cephalopod would lift the top of his cage and creep over into a neighboring tank to steal a midnight snack, then shuffle back to his home, closing the lid behind him.]

(Photo of Mote octopus from HaikuDeck's Creative Commons.)
Photo by linniekin

separation

different species, different needs
The Aquarium is often a kind of repository of special animals, and the MML Hospital acts as a recovery space for injured endangered species. Likewise, archive repository of special materials that can’t exist in wider library – can’t circulate. There is a need for separation ...

(Photo of Mote visitors & residents from HaikuDeck's Creative Commons.)

combination

joint purposes + shared resources
...and combination between the aquarium and laboratory, the archives and library. It is important to maintain distinction, just as it is imperative to have biological diversity, but we must also remain part of the same ecosystem, and work toward consilience between our departments.

(Photo of Mote traveling exhibit Sanctuary Reef from HaikuDeck's Creative Commons.)
Photo by seatrekivc

distinction

How do you want to be remembered?
So: what makes you unique? (No, really, it's question time. Tell me about your libraries and archives, your special collections and data repositories.)

(Photo of Mote shark & companions from HaikuDeck's Creative Commons.)
Photo by roger4336

History

"It's in the story of where you came from."
Staying alive and relevant in the modern era relies on a sense of history. We must remember where your library has come from – like the smaller library that greeted Sue – or the little laboratory at Cape Haze - and build upon it when looking to the future. History repeats itself if you let it, for both good and bad purposes. Or as the Kings of Leon* put it in their song Radioactive, "It's in the water, it's in the story, of where you came from."

[*Cee-Lo Green's cover is, imho, better than the original.]

(Photograph from Eugenie Clark's Current research at the Cape Haze Marine Laboratory, and reports for 1955-1961, available via Mote's DSpace at https://dspace.mote.org/dspace/handle/2075/3119)

today

invest in the future
Archives offer us pieces of the past, which we can utilize in modern ways alongside our library collection.

[There's the library & archives in the upper right hand corner of the photo. Wave at us when you come visit the labs.]

(Image from my cell phone on my first day at my new job.)

(more than) survival

thriving in lean periods
From the past we can learn how to not only survive, but thrive in lean periods, or should we have to close, how to pass our research along should our institutions falter and our information centers close.

(Image source from the Bass Biological Lab papers. "Application for service gasoline ration, 1942: rationing papers." http://hdl.handle.net/2075/477)

personal

is powerful.
But in order to survive and thrive, we have to let people know what we are doing. In this case, we can learn from Genie's legacy and let passion be our guide. Outreach is not dependent on large audiences – this is my godsister being reminded of why she became a marine biologist in the first place, something one needs to recall after finishing grad school and not being able to find a job. When we are trying to rock the big boat, don't forget the individuals who are standing on board.

(Image is my own.)

community

consilience as conservation
When you deal with a public, which includes people within the archive and library communities as well as researchers from all walks of life and disciplinary concentrations, who are of all ages and persuasions, and who sometimes have narrow concepts of what archives and libraries do, then you have to understand how to speak to them about what’s happening in our workplaces. As purveyors of consilience, there is necessity for all of us to be broad-minded and see connections between apparently disparate areas and reach out to our wider communities to conserve resources important to our special collections, whether they exist within our facilities or not.

(Image source: My own, from the dedication of a Bass Biological Laboratory Cookie House Charlotte County Historical marker.)

electronic

Marine resource facilities’ libraries are specialized, but lessons from them are applicable to wider world / broader audience. The combination of archival & library creates a well processed & preserved, searchable & relatable collection.

(Image from a Mote DSpace record of Mote's Charlotte Harbor Studies.)

physical

[Some of the library's vast print resources, as gained by Sue Stover.]

(Image courtesy of Library Director Sue Stover.)

library


[Changes in the library include placement of these desks during a digitization project. As you may notice, I am using a card catalog next to a digital scanner, as well as a Mac and a PC. Hardware as consilience.]

(Image is mine.)

Archives

We are professions traditionally reserved for introverts, but networking within our organization as well as our community gives us an understanding of needs as well as of additional collections , a chance to network with similar institutions as well as inspire their workers.

[Here you see a Florida-based Special Collections librarian who's admired Eugenie Clark for a lifetime bringing her passionate intern, curious daughter, and devoted volunteer into Genie's office.]

(Image source: Me.)

Unexpected Connections

Mote, as a noun, means a small piece of matter, such as a dust mote. But in the intellectual world, size does not matter. Great developments can come out of small, overlooked places. Sue Stover built a well-stocked, forward-focused library, mostly on soft money. Just as we can find funding from a variety of places, we can build connections in the most unexpected of locations.

[Here you can see a combination of electronic and physical resources as well as an opportunity for outreach: the man with the physical work is using a Mote brochure as a bookmark. From striking up a conversation with the woman with the Kindle, I learned she is a retired biology teacher and they have a house in Sarasota, but have not yet been to Mote. Hopefully next time they visit, they'll still have my card and come see us at the Mote Library & Archives.]

GROWING TOGETHER

Necessities in Sue's approach in building the Mote special collections are like ours in growing Mote:

-Good communication
-Band with those of like minds as well as those who are different in an effort to reach consilience
-Recognize and harness the power of generational differences and different backgrounds between librarians, archivists, and people who act in both roles
-Keep the traditional roles of our professions, while recognizing that, like all organisms, what adapts to change survives

What is taking place in our resource centers is the natural evolution of information – combination of the old & new – and this material does not come out of a vacuum, but builds upon prior developments and research. The best scientists do their background research and learn from prior accomplishments.

(Drawing of Mote's growth by Dr. Ernest Estevez)

mote.org/library

Likewise, the best information resources are built on previous materials and the best information professionals pay attention to their predecessors. There is always room for improvement & new developments, but it can not be at the expense of what existed previously in our organizations. In other words, we could not have the special collections if we did away with the archival holdings or the library resources, and I could not do my job if it were not for the work done and the assistance given by Sue and Gail. Instead, we are reaching consilience between our library and archives, between our experienced and novice librarians.

Without rocking the boat, without taking a chance, we stay in the same channels and can even potentially leave ourselves run aground. Recognizing consilience between our libraries and our archives is one way to keep our collections thriving, to maintain our course in the waters of marine research despite a rising tide of new ways of doing our work.

(Image from Creative Commons.)
Photo by WalterPro4755

Thank you.
Please share your thoughts.

agamble@mote.org

Thanks to all of y’all for your attention. Thanks also to Sue, Gail, Mote temporary workers, interns, and volunteers. I hope this somewhat meandering speech has stimulated your minds and welcome your questions now.

(Image from

Read more

  • Dpace.mote.org/dspace
  • Erin Mahaney's Special Collections SFA Powerpoint
  • Gail Donovan's Sprecial Collections Prezi
  • Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge (1998)
  • SAA Using Archives guide
Photo by nikoretro