Mid-Year Report 2002
This is a menu of the topics on this page (click on any): Accuracy of our Archives Top Ten Archives Catalogue (of paper items to be stored at ISHOF) Digitizing Text Gathering Stories Articulating Policy, Committee Administration & History The Permanent SwimmerID Strategy for Continued Development of our Archives Request for Proposals .
This reports on the most important tasks for the History & Archives Committee during the past six months. This report is on-line with links at: committee/midyear2002.htm .
Accuracy of our Archives
The attention being given to our archives continues to present
us with issues of accuracy. Our policy is that if something
has been published and we wish to correct an innaccuracy, we
request permission to do so from the Executive Committee.
We have identified and are making about 20 corrections during
the first half of this year and this effort will continue
to be important. Affirmation of our archives also continues to
be important. Esther Lyman recently searched through paper
Registration printouts from the 1980's and was able to confirm
that 51 heretofore "unidentified" All-Americans were, in fact,
registered. Three years ago we said we had 2000 "unidentified"
All-Americans; now we have only 349 remaining. The total number
of All-Americans ever named is 3801 persons named a total of 11828
times. The complete list is available at:
tt/aae/index.htm .
Top Ten
We also maintain Top Ten archives (since 1993).
This database includes a total of 123089 swims by 9642 swimmers
of whom we've found 8943 in USMS Registration files.
That means we've not found 699 Top Ten swimmers in the Registration
files. These are not necessarily unregistered Top Ten swimmers,
as name changes and misspellings will account for many. But,
it does affirm the importance of the USMS database project that
has been undertaken by the Executive Committee. The names of
all Top Ten swimmers is available at:
nms/index.htm .
Archives Catalogue (of paper items to be stored at ISHOF)
Jack Geoghegan and Doug Church are leading the negotiation of
our contract with the Henning Library at the International Swimming
Hall of Fame (ISHOF). We expect to meet with ISHOF during Y-Nationals
in late April, 2002. We have already stored approximately 4 large
boxes of material there and have a like amount ready to be added.
The new material has been catalogued by Barbara Dunbar with
important help from Lil Haneman. The catalogue is available at:
committee/archives.htm .
Digitizing Text
Digitizing text documents will be very, very important to our work.
Eventually all the Swim-Masters and other important documents will be
digitized in a way that gives us a good chance of converting them to text
someday in the future when technology for that gets better. Wayne McCauley
has taken the first big step on this by digitizing the entire original 182
page "Blue Book" ("Masters Swimming History") by Ham and Mildred Anderson.
We now have that book in 2 pdf files (727mb total) that can be easily
shared. Meegan Wilson has created an index for it. This puts us on our way
towards the goals evident in our Policy statement on "Priorities for What we
will Collect".
committee/prioritycollect.htm.
Gathering Stories
We have 245 stories and 37 oral history contributions
from or about USMS swimmers. In the past these have mostly
been searched out and/or created by core members of the H&A Committee.
This year things have changed as Marcia Cleveland has shown
we really can draw contributions from our swimmers if we go after
them. Marcia wrote a personal letter to twenty or so top swimmers
in Colonies Zone and as a result 5 stories have already been added
to our archives. Gail Roper has been making similar effort.
Meegan Wilson wrote a brochure a year ago and she and Marcia have
revised it with help from Meg Smath and it will soon be mailed with
a cover letter by Jim Miller to 100 USMS leaders. Priorities
for getting new stories have been established for every Zone and
LMSC and we expect many new contributions before convention. See:
zone/index.htm .
Articulating Policy, Committee Administration & History
Barbara Dunbar, Vice-Chair of the History & Archives Committee,
has taken on the special project of articulating our policies
and organizing our Committee information and history.
This includes her leadership in our effort to affirm the
accuracy of our archives, to correct mistakes, and to make
sure all is fully documented.
The Permanent SwimmerID
Our permanent SwimmerID continues to be the lynch pin that
holds our archives together. We are greatly appreciative
that the database project initiated by the Executive
Committee is giving importance to a permanent USMS
Registration number.
Strategy for Continued Development of our Archives
Our most important objective for our Committee is to share
the technical burden of managing our archives.
It is hoped that this year one or more additional persons
will be maintaining our digital archives, providing assistance
and relief for our Chairman and assuring continuity for USMS.
Request for Proposals
While the database project underway by the Executive Committee
will have important bearing on our strategy for continued
development of our archives, we have written an RFP commensurate
with the vision that we have developed. It is available at:
committee/rfp/index.htm .
Respectfully submitted by Carl House, Chairperson.
