There is no place quite like the D.C. Public Library. DCPL librarians have been celebrated in previous editions of the People Issue, and the agency as a whole, along with one branch in particular, were 2022 winners in our Best of D.C. Editors’ Picks.
Along with its free public services, DCPL boasts beautiful rooftop views at the central Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial branch and an ultra-efficient intra-branch delivery system. But more importantly, it is making significant contributions to the preservation of both D.C. history and the city’s alternative media publications. In doing so, they’re also giving the community the opportunity to be a part of the historical preservation process and engage with their city’s history.
The library’s D.C. archives date back to 1905, when then library director Dr. George F. Bowerman started assembling the Washingtoniana Collection. In 1972, the Black Studies collection launched with a focus on documenting the Black experience in D.C. and throughout the country. Today, these two collections live under the the People’s Archive.
Aptly named, the People’s Archive collects documentation in various formats of political, creative, and cultural life in the District, focusing on local, not federal, D.C., according to DCPL librarian Lisa Warwick.
When working with these archives, Warwick says, “you know you’re seeing exactly what people in D.C. were interested in at the time.”
In an effort to capture the diverse communities that have and continue to make up D.C., DCPL began collecting and archiving copies of underground and alternative media publications, including Washington City Paper. The collection dates back to City Paper’s first issue, published Feb. 20, 1981, when the paper was called 1981.
DCPL created scans of its media collections using microfiche, so images of the documents are digitally available on microfilm, which is kept in The People’s Archive at the MLK branch on G Street NW. There, DCPL staff can pull these records for patrons and access the images using onsite scanners. It’s a helpful resource for D.C. residents and researchers, but nonetheless only accessible by going to the branch in person.
In 2014 DCPL launched DigDC, an initiative that optimizes the library’s digitized, historical documents and are available to search online, DCPL digital curation librarian Robert LaRose says. DigDC includes several publications dating from the 1960s to today, including the Washington Blade, the nationally distributed Black lesbian publication Women in the Life, and the independent radical the Washington Free Press, as well as WCP.
With its vast archive of issues, the digitization process has been long, and DCPL is still working to transfer historical issues, as well as more recent issues and documents, into its online collection. “We’re taking it piece by piece,” Warwick says.
To more efficiently convert the existing archives into these accessible, searchable online resources, DCPL has begun enlisting the help of community members. They regularly host Describe-A-Thons where volunteers learn how to write descriptions of the archived issues that allow researchers to search by keywords.
During these Describe-A-Thons, Warwick says volunteers will often come across reviews of theater shows they attended, or organized political events they can still recall.
Ryan Shepard, another DCPL digital curation librarian, has recently been working to create metadata for City Paper issues from the 1990s and has noticed some similarities between today’s political discourse and the past.
“You have people at the time complaining about a lack of downtown services in the same way that you hear people talking about the issue today,” he says.
DCPL’s Describe-A-Thons have paused for the summer, but the next session will be held Tuesday, Sept. 12 at 6 p.m. For residents looking to engage with the physical archives, The People’s Archive staff of 13 can help pull physical issues, as well as the existing microfiche scans.