What’s in a name?

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When dealing with an institution name change it can be a delicate balance especially for an Archive. It is important to embrace the new name and brand in order to move forward, but in the Archives history is just as important as the future. So, we have to find a way to represent the historic name and yet move forward with the rest of the University to embrace the new name. With that in mind we’ve established a guideline to help guide us through the name change.

Archives Guidelines on UMUC/University College Name

The name University of Maryland Global Campus became official on July 1, 2019. The branding and identification for the UMGC Archives website and web-based platforms was updated on September 30, 2019, along with the UMGC Library website. Because the Archives exists to document the history of the institution, any materials created before July 1, 2019, will retain the UMUC/University College name to accurately reflect the historical period in which they were created. Materials added to the Archives and Archives website/repository will be reviewed for their creation date, and only items that were created after July 1, 2019, will be identified as UMGC/Global Campus. The name UMUC/University College will be used in historical context when identifying and describing archival materials on the Archives website, repository, and blog. Postings on the Archives blog created before July 1, 2019, will also be left as-is to reflect the time at which they were created.

Happy New Year!

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As we approach the end of the first work week of 2026, the Archives Team would like to wish everyone a Happy New Year! May all of your archive quests succeed this year, and all research projects go as planned! If you need help accessing UMGC related historical documents or want to inquire about donating valuable UMGC related items to us, feel free to contact us by filling out the form here.

We are happy to help!

Fireworks on a black background. Happy New Year in gold at the bottom of the page.

AI in the Archives – WHY?

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Archives are full of things – some we know about, some we don’t.

Why? 

Well, because different people give us different stuff – for example.

Person A gives us 6 boxes of papers.  The papers are sorted into file folders and are labeled.  One of the folders is labeled IUT.

Well, we don’t know what IUT is, so we just call it IUT in our intake form.  Then we make this a collection of papers donated by person A and they get their own shelf in the Archive (this doesn’t always happen, but let’s just say this time it does because it is a large donation for us).

2 years later, person B gives us 2 boxes of stuff, including a bunch of proceedings of the 11th-15th Improving University Teaching Conference.

A pink and blue human face, that is clearly a robot looks into the camera.

In those 2 years we have forgotten that we had something called IUT that we put on Person A’s shelf – so we put all this Improving University Teaching stuff in the Conferences Collection and preen that we have found yet another Conference that UMGC held back in the day when we had a Conferences and Institutes Department.

So, a few years goes by, and a researcher comes in to see all our Improving University Teaching stuff, because they are writing a paper on it and its influence on Distance Education…we give them access to the Improving University Teaching Conference Collection.

BUT little do any of us know that the IUT folder has the earliest plans on setting up this Conference, details on funding and early presenters that is not available in our main collection.

Well, dang – right?

That’s why we are trying so hard to get our AI-assisted processing off the ground. 

We are 2 people in the Archives, and we both have other jobs as well.  No amount of time spent in the Archives is going to do the same level of work as an AI-assisted program.  That program can say, “Hey, this IUT folder, I think that refers to Improving University Teaching” – and this is a simplified example.  We are hoping AI can identify connections that we would have missed.  For instance, “Hey, I found a nickname for Rebecca – they call her Ollie in this speech.” And we humans can go, “OMG! Ollie’s name was really Rebecca???  We have a ton of stuff on Ollie!”

If you work in Archives, I’m likely preaching to the choir. 

If you don’t…now you can see the level of complexity we are dealing with over YEARS and YEARS of work/processing/donations/reprocessing/transfers/funding changes/tech changes/etc.

Freedom and Tyranny

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Tomorrow is the most important day of our civic calendar. We commemorate the signing of the Declaration of Independence and the beginning of our country’s decades-, even centuries-long struggle for human liberty.  After two and a half centuries of struggle, hardship, generational patience and even the occasional setback, our uniquely American struggle for freedom has (by and large) been achieved. For the most part, we can now believe and practice what we want. Slavery and segregation are things of the past. We can do business, own our own houses and go to any church we like (or not). And with some exceptions, freedom is our “default status.” It’s so normal, we don’t even think about it.  

Unfortunately, for this very reason, it’s often easy to forget how “odd” our freedoms are, especially when compared  to the rest of the world, where empire and tyranny have historically been the norm. As we approach this July 4th, we in the archives would like to present a recent acquisition – a new and solemn reminder that freedom isn’t free.

Uploaded below is a photograph of a piece of the Berlin Wall. The Berlin Wall was a massive structure that existed from 1961 to 1989 that was mostly designed for just one purpose – to stop people from escaping Communism. Most walls are designed to keep people “out” of something. Only prison walls are designed to keep them “in.” At approximately 96 miles, the Berlin Wall can safely be said to have been one of the longest prison walls ever built.

And this little piece of concrete was once part of that terrifying, murderous structure.  Along with the physical concrete itself, the Wall was “supplemented” with miles upon miles of barbed wire, attack dogs, automated gun traps, landmines and standing orders from guard towers to shoot. Many people tried to escape the wall, tragically not always with success. At least 140 people are known to have been murdered (either by guards, traps or accidents), trying to escape the Wall and to the West. These people were so desperate to gain the freedoms we take for granted, they died in the process.

 This July 4th, as we celebrate with hotdogs and fireworks, let us stop for a moment, perhaps take a minute of silence, and remember these martyrs for freedom. Let us never forget that a price was paid for the beautiful things we take for granted today.  Let us finally also remember that the cause of liberty is universal and transcendent. Each generation has to struggle with its own tyrannies.  The only question is – are we willing to fight?

A piece of the Berlin Wall - concrete with obvious small rocks embedded in it - in a plastic bag, with Berlin Wall written on it.

The continuation of AI in the Archives

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Our next step has begun!

Did you know that there are more AI products than DeepSeek, CoPilot, and ChatGPT? So many more!

So many, in fact, that the first step we had to do in our AI project is to collect a list of product that might help us as we go forward. So, how do you do that?

Well, me being me, I was online doing Google searches and trying to pull things together…but one of my amazing co-workers said, “Why don’t you ask AI?”

decorative image of a robot in an archive

Mind.

Blown.

Of course, why don’t I?

BUT it isn’t that easy…you can’t just say, “what should I use to process my archives?” (which yes, actually, I did use at one point) — you’ve got to be specific! We ended up asking: “What free AI products are best for processing records in a university archives?”

BUT even then we had to do more tweaking to make it fit a university like ours who is located not only in the U.S., but Asia and Europe as well.

In the end, we found out that just 1 program is not going to work…we are still working on narrowing down which one we are going to focus on as our primary, but we will get support from various tools one the web including Sonix.ai and Transkribus.

As we are working on what program we are going to focus on, I’ve been pulling items into a temporary collection to “test” the AI to see how well it works at identifying: 1) format, 2) tags, 3) connections

We are hoping that it can sort photos with other photos, but eventually see the connection between a photo of Heidelberg and the European Division memos. BUT that is a long way off and will take lots of training and tweaking to get to.

More info coming as we continue to develop this project.

An amazing life…a wonderful donation!

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We have many people in UMGC that are amazing and wonderful – and have given most of their lives to helping students here succeed and feel valued.  One of those people is Steve Holowenzak.

A closeup of a box filled with awards, photos, nameplates, etc.

He has been with UMGC forever, in Europe and Asia, and now he’s retired and back here in the states…and when he reached out to the Archives I jumped at the chance to meet with him.  He has so many amazing stories and a storage space full of stuff.

After a few bumps and a few delays, we finally got to get together to go through the first batch of stuff.  He donated so many cool things (some of which we will be showcasing in the near future), things that help expand our knowledge of the history of UMGC. And some just plain things of interest!!

A photo of the donation of Steve Holowenzak. Many boxes, and some art.

Remember, your collection of UMGC items is not just special to you…it is special to us!  Not just awards and memorabilia, but papers and memos and reports too.  Those things tell us about the day to day operations that happened in the past. And just think…if you donate, you’ll be part of the archives forever!

Life is like a box of archive papers…

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…because you never know what you are going to get!

Working on an unrelated patron request, a member of Archive Staff recently opened a box of as yet unsorted papers. Going through the documents, our staff member found a random, but very exciting treasure. Check out this awesome “Edison Diamond Disc” containing a genuine audio recording of our 1954 Heidelberg graduation ceremony! What’s so exciting about a dusty old piece of vinyl? Everything! This is a part of our history, and our institutional heritage. We did not previously know about this recording, and yet here it was, hiding away in this donation box. We found it by chance, and now that we have it, we can properly document its existence and, in time, digitize the recording for all prosperity to enjoy. Another serendipitous day for the Archives!

What’s in a newsletter?

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In the age of internet, blogs, social media and YouTube, up-to-date information on local events is often literally at your fingertips. All you have to do is type a few words in a Search Engine, and poof! The information is already there. Well, not so in the 1950s and 60s! Before the advent of the Information Superhighway and the fiber optic cables that sustain it, university faculty and students who wanted to know what went on at their school had the humble newsletter. Typed out on a, noisy, inky, primitive typewriter and mass-printed, these little sheets of information would then be directly pinned onto bulletin boards (REAL ones) or distributed by hand or mail. UMGC is lucky to possess many of these original newsletters, and Archive staff are currently digitizing them for prosperity. “MARAB” is a wonderful example of these original newsletters handed out to European Staff and Faculty in the late 50s and 60s. From announcing new staff/faculty appointments, to telling entertaining anecdotes of US Army student life in Europe, MARAB kept the widely scattered UMUC Europe community together by informing it of anything and everything to do with university and community life. Balancing objective information with occasional stories filled with entertaining wit (and occasional tragedies), these surviving pieces of paper provide a wonderful glance into the everyday life of our university back in the day. Today, we are happy to provide a free sample for viewing below. Our long-term goal is to make all surviving copies of MARAB freely accessible online. We have some way to go to fulfill this dream, but in the meantime, enjoy this beautiful, faded anecdote from the past!

MARAB-VOL-IV-No-12-7th-October-1960Download

What’s going on in the AIarchives?

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A metallic and a human hand reach toward one another over the letters AI

Wait, what? AIarchives? AI? What?

Yup, you heard it here first – the UMGC Archives is working with Artificial Intelligence to try and get some of our backlog processed and put online.

Wait, what?

You keep saying that…yeah, AI isn’t just for helping you with your assignments or your thank you notes for your wedding.  There are things AI can do to help archives process items and create collection to make the accessible TO YOU.

We are working with a colleague to help cobble together a ChatGPTish AI program that will “read” items we have scanned and uploaded – then the AI will take a look at what is in those items and:

  1. Create metadata for the item – it is necessary, but often time-intensive and boring.  If AI can do this for us, more power to it!
  2. Create Finding Aids – Finding Aids are a description of the collection that allows people locate where things are in the library.  They are standardized, thus don’t need any creative thinking to create, so another perfect fit for AI!
  3. Create Collections – There are lots of thing in the library that were just thrown in a box and given to us.  Things that all come from a general department/person/topic BUT that might have other things mixed in.  These aren’t collections, they are piles of stuff – there was no reason it came to us in this box other than “hey, I think the archive might want this”.  SO, we are going to ask AI to group items that are similar into collections.

The thing is, just as with your assignment or thank you notes…we can’t expect AI to do everything perfectly.  In creating this program there is going to be a lot of trial and error.  BUT even after it is done, we will still need to vet everything (metadata, Finding Aids, and collections) – an Archivist’s work is never done.

BUT it can be very exciting!