"Taking Notes"

The past few weeks have been nothing but hectic because *drumroll* I packed my stuff, put them in storage, then drove all the way from Ohio to Utah by myself...again. Every time I say, "I'll never..." I always eat my words. *sigh* Anyway, upon arriving in Utah, I participated in the 50th Anniversary Mormon History Association Conference in Provo, and then moved to Salt Lake the next week, where I'll be stationed for 3 weeks doing research.

More about that drive and the conference later. Right now though, I want to vent talk about bureaucracy and legislature, and how sometimes they DO NOT MAKE SENSE AT ALL.

As you can tell from the caps, I'm frustrated by my research at the Church History Library (CHL). It's a beautiful and comfortable building to work in, and the people are friendly and helpful, but the institutional rules and bureaucracy of the building do not make sense.

Example 1: Two years ago, I requested to view a mission president's papers, and the Access Review Committee said that I could work with an archivist to view some of the the papers. Two years later, I wrote the Committee and asked for clarification of what exactly I could view, and they came back with a "Sorry, you have been denied permission to view the this record." Wait, WHAT???!!!

Example 2: The Committee has stonewalled my efforts to view most of papers of former mission presidents because they contain information of living individuals. When I asked if I can work with an archivist to view some of the less-confidential records, or if I promised to not mention names at all/ use pseudonyms, they said, NO.

Example 3: What little I've been able to access so far has been oral history interview transcripts and a mission diary, which have been phenomenal sources so far. Unfortunately,

#1, I was given the microfilm copy, which is understandable since it is very difficult to damage microfilm. But microfilm readers are finicky and a pain to work with! But I can deal with this except...

#2, There is a copyright law (no idea state, federal or institutional) that mandates that oral history interview transcripts cannot be copied until 70 years after the interviewee's death. Well, my work deals with people who are either still alive or passed away in the last 30 years or so. So here I am, having access to these terrific sources, and all I can do is "take notes."

That's right-- "take notes." Guess what I've been doing in the CHL for the past 3 days? Staring at the computer screen of the microfilm projection, and using my laptop to "take notes" of the diaries/ memoirs of the individuals. Page after page after page... As a result, my research pace has slowed to a crawl, and I need an eye check up when I'm done at the CHL. *Sigh* On the bright side, "taking notes" has forced me to read every single word of my sources, and I've read some touching and uplifting stories.

It's just an extremely frustrating process now.