Michael Lotstein started his career in 2011 at Yale Manuscripts and Archives, which now falls organizationally under the Beinecke Library. He became university archivist in 2015, and he is also a fellow at Saybrook College. With offices located in Sterling Memorial Library, Lotstein is responsible for acquiring and processing records from offices and academic departments across the university as part of preserving the university’s history. Prior to joining Yale, Lotstein was the assistant archivist for Collections and Records Management at the Arizona State University Libraries.
| Job title | University Archivist |
|---|---|
| Time in current position | 13 years |
| Started at Yale | 2011 |
What does the university archivist do?
My principal focus is preserving Yale’s historical records. I bring in the university records, process them, and then manage the daily operations of the University Archives, which is the official repository of the university’s historical records.
Often a department will ask me to look at items they would like to archive, so I meet the staff, review the records, conduct an appraisal of what they have, and identify the records that have permanent historical value. The office boxes up the records, inventories them, and then transfers them to University Archives, which is based out of Sterling Memorial Library. From there the records will either be processed into existing collections or, if they are new, will go into an inaugural collection. I also work with departments to make sure that they can access their archival records when they need them.
If a faculty member wants to work with a particular collection, I collaborate with them to make the records accessible to their classes, and I also talk to students about the collections and instruct them about primary source materials and how to use them.
What is important about the university archives?
The misconception about an archive is that it is a bunch of boxes in a basement that are rarely used. But from a contemporary standpoint, Yale needs to know what it did in the past to inform the choices it makes today. When President Salovey announced that he would return to faculty and after the Presidential Search Committee launched, we received queries about what the university did in 2012 during the search for President Levin’s successor. We have all the records that were put together during that search, and we provided the committee with the documents that informed their work. This type of event is often part of our daily operations.
At the same time, we’re working very closely with the university to make sure that we’re collecting for historical continuity. If years from now there is another pandemic, or if someone wants to write a book about a pandemic, the administrative or research person can see what the university did from an academic, administrative, and medical perspective. In fact, we are working with the provost’s office right now to acquire all those types of records.
Can you explain an archivist’s concept of discoverability?
Archivists process and describe collections in their custody, so they are easily discoverable. I make sure that the description I create lends itself to discoverability and future access. If students or researchers require historical information, they will search online. It’s my job to make sure that the appropriate records come up in the search results if they reside in Yale’s collections.
Is there a professional challenge in your line of work?
One challenge has been Yale’s transition from paper to electronic records. We’re fortunate that the library has a state-of-the-art digital preservation system. Some of the best and brightest people in the field of digital preservation are here, and we have the resources to preserve records digitally. We like to educate offices on best practices for managing their digital records and how to develop procedures to transfer them on a routine basis.
People often think that because something is digital, it can stay on the computer forever so there’s no need to archive it. But that’s not true. Digital records are just as fragile in their own way as paper records are. There’s a lot more conscious thought that goes into taking a piece of paper and putting it into a shredder or ripping it up and throwing it away, versus clicking a mouse, and it’s gone. We are working to realign our practices towards ‘the born digital’, as we call records that are created digitally. We make sure that offices are in the position to have good digital record-keeping practices at their disposal, so they know when to transfer their records to the university. We take their history very seriously.
What is your favorite part about working at Yale?
My favorite part is the people that I work with here at the library. We have an amazing group of colleagues, archivists, librarians, and curators; they are brilliant and it’s a real pleasure to work with people that are so knowledgeable in their professions. The people that I interact with at Yale as University Archivist are so open, warm, friendly, and approachable.
Five facts University Archivist Michael Lotstein finds fascinating:
- My favorite part of Yale Class Books and sports programs from the 19th and early 20th centuries are the ads — all the strange things for sale a century ago like fur coats or miracle cure tonics, or ads for services like horse carriage repair. They are great.
- In a recent episode the podcast “YaleTalk,” Professor David Blight said universities “exist to face reality, face the past, face new knowledge, [and] take new knowledge out into the world.” I believe in many ways the University Archives is critical for the success of this idea at Yale.
- Of all the amazing books published in the last few years about Yale history, “Yale Needs Women” by Anne Gardiner Perkins ’81, is my recent favorite.
- While attending a prohibited Independence Day celebration, famed American author James Fenimore Cooper, Class of 1806, set off an explosive device, destroying the door of his neighbor’s room, resulting in his dismissal from Yale.
- Prior to the opening of Sterling Memorial Library in 1930, librarians and library staff hand carried the books from their previous location on old campus (now Dwight Hall) to their new facility.
