21638 - April 2011 Milepost.indd - Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania

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with physical and intellectual access to the museum and its resources.” 7 with physical and intellectual access With this standard in mind, the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania has always striven to make its collections accessible to anyone interested. The process of making collections accessible begins by establishing intellectual and physical control—simply put, determining where each collection came from, what each entails and where each is located within the Museum—and then developing paper or computerized fi nding aids that can point users to these collections. The Museum’s efforts to make archival collections accessible began in 1986 when volunteers started building databases for archival collections using an Apple IIe computer. In the interest of building upon this work, the Friends of the 6 April 2011 Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania began converting large batches of this data to PC format in 1997. It was also at this time that the Commission and the Friends began to formulate plans for a more comprehensive archives database which they would call “LADRS,” the Library And Archives Data Retrieval System. LADRS was a creation of several individuals including former Museum director David Dunn and FRM volunteers Jim Alexander, George Burbage, Robert Donecker and the late Earle Compton. They recognized that the Museum needed more than simple fi nding aids. It required a more complex management system that would meet the needs of both the using public—with a special understanding of railroad history and nomenclature—and of the institutional standards of modern museums. Fortunately, critical skill sets came together as staff and volunteers contributed to the general management and planning, while applying their collective knowledge of computer technology and historical documentation standards. After reviewing several commercial systems, the Museum decided to build LADRS using a database application called Inmagic DB Textworks, which staff and volunteers initially populated with pre-existing data from older databases. The completion of LADRS gave the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania an excellent tool for establishing intellectual and physical control over its archival collection, and a successful model for presenting this information to users, but the PHMC/FRM partnership continued to recognize the need for growth and enhanced public access. The North American Railway Foundation provided several years of critical funding that augmented the Friends’ efforts to underwrite the computer infrastructure necessary to support LADRS. With their support, the Museum acquired new hardware, software and the temporary staff assistance needed to scan images and documents. By capturing highresolution electronic images of paper and fi lm items, the Museum has reduced the need to handle delicate original items while providing thumbnail images which are easily accessible to researchers through LADRS. While initial search capabilities into this database were only available internally, the Museum partnered with Andornot Information Management Solutions to make the data in LADRS Photo above: Pictured here is a poster advertising the Penn Central Auction of 1972. By purchasing 248 lots at this auction, the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania’s founders acquired a strong foundation upon which the library and archives could grow. (RR2008.5.2, Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania, PHMC)
available to on line researchers who can now browse the database from the comfort of their own home. The Museum uploads new data to the host site twice per year, and the Friends of the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania pays the annual hosting fees of $5,000 while also funding and managing the operations of the local computer network. As FRM technology manager Jim Alexander noted, “We had to look very hard to fi nd a computer system that could meet both internal and user needs, have the ability to grow, meet professional archives management standards and be affordable. Inmagic’s programs turned out to be an ideal choice but, what made it really feasible was, the ability of the Andornot team to listen to the practical needs of railroad researchers to make this a responsive, properly tuned tool.” 8 The Friends of the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania has contributed tens of thousands of volunteer hours toward the LADRS endeavor since 1997. As of March 1, 2011, the LADRS catalogue contained 154,825 archival catalogue records and 6,973 library catalogue records, with these numbers increasing every week. LADRS currently contains 25,052 thumbnail images accessible to the public. During the process of cataloguing collections into LADRS, staff and volunteers are fi nding duplication of documents, ephemera and books. Not having had full inventories in the past, it was impossible for any one individual to know the collection well enough to prevent duplicate items from fi ltering in. Staff members Photo above: This letter, written by Andrew Carnegie in 1865, is one of the many signifi cant documents preserved in the Museum’s archives. While Carnegie is best known as a successful steel tycoon, he wrote this letter while he was employed by the Pennsylvania Railroad. (RR98.36, MG199, Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania, PHMC) now check every potential donation against LADRS in an effort to avoid unnecessary duplicate copies from slipping into our holdings. Duplicates that are found are being removed from the collection, offered to other museums and, if no suitable home can be found, sold through a special deaccession auction. This sale raises funds to help preserve existing collections or purchase new collections. Due to the premium on space at the Museum, this is both a necessary and benefi cial process. Norfolk Southern Foundation Grant Despite the success in bringing the Museum’s archival collections to the public, the capacity of LADRS and our library and archives had been limited by the shortcomings of the present April 2011 7
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Page 3 and 4: Photo at Right: By creating the arc
Page 5: from the Wilkes-Barre-based Vulcan
Page 9: images housed on this server, staff

21638 - April 2011 Milepost.indd - Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania

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