CONTENTdm software is bringing unique materials online and into WorldCat for the Indiana Historical Society

Sal Cilella

by Tom Storey

Salvatore G. Cilella, Jr. has been in the museum field for 33 years. He was Executive Director of the Northern Indiana Historical Society, South Bend, Ind., and Historic Bethlehem, Bethlehem, Pa.; Assistant to the Director of the New York State Historical Association, Cooperstown, N.Y.; and Director of Development and Membership at Old Sturbridge Village, Sturbridge, Mass. For six years he served as a Development Officer for the Smithsonian Institution. Between October 1987 and June 2001, he was the Executive Director of the Columbia Museum of Art, Columbia, S.C. On July 1, 2001 he was appointed President and Chief Executive Officer of the Indiana Historical Society, Indianapolis, Ind.

Mr. Cilella has served as a consultant to several museums through the auspices of the American Association of Museums and the American Association for State and Local History. He has served as a member of the AAM's Membership Committee, Development Committee and Nominating Committee, as well as Chairman of the Development and Membership Standing Professional Committee. He has written in the areas of painting collection, American maps and prints, fund raising, membership and institutional development.

Mr. Cilella holds a bachelor's and master's degree in American History from the University of Notre Dame. He received a master's in Museum Administration from the State University College at Oneonta, New York, through the Cooperstown Graduate Program.

Can you tell us about your background and how you became interested in cultural heritage organizations?

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I have been interested in history all my life. And I have always been a collector. In college during the sixties, the only thing one could do it seemed was to teach history, but I didn't see many teachers using the objects and artifacts of history. I volunteered in the local museum as a student and then realized just before I went into the service that one could go to school to learn how to be a museum person.

What are historical societies all about and why are they valuable?

Historical societies are all about the common community memory. Some have more, some have less. Some stories are completely forgotten to the detriment of others, but it is not a zero-sum game. There must be room for all stories in the tapestry that is local and regional history. When Carter Brown, the Director of the National Gallery of Art, opened the British Country House blockbuster show in the mid 1980's in Washington, his remark that these houses were the "vessels of civilization" is also very true of American Historical Societies. And we are really the successors of the great libraries of ancient times where the sum of human knowledge at that time was held for safekeeping.

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How is the Indiana Historical Society organized and what sites, museums does it manage?

The Indiana Historical Society does not operate any sites or museums. It operates the Indiana History Center in Indianapolis with a statewide mandate by its charter when the organization was founded in 1830. Our new long-range plan adopted two years ago restates that mandate and broadens its reach beyond just other historical societies or museums. We have a board of 27, a staff of 100 full and part time employees, a $10 million budget, a $115 million endowment, a brand new (1999) 165,000 square foot state of the art building where we welcome some 130,000 visitors a year.

How does the society's library work with the museum and other parts of the organization?

Our primary asset is the library and we are not technically a museum at all. We operate like a museum, but we do not collect any three dimensional objects. We concentrate on historical documents, such as manuscripts, photographs, maps, books, and most anything with writing on paper. The library informs all of our other programs. Without that scholarly base of information we would be no different than Disneyland. The library is the center of all of our information and it supports our publishing program, our public programs, particularly our exhibits, and all of our outreach and programs we do for the public.

How is running the society's library different from running the museum?

Since we do not have museum, running the library is not much different here than anywhere else-customer service is primary.

The society has thousands of cubic feet of materials-personal papers, manuscripts, photographs, post cards, posters. Does your library catalog these materials?

Yes, we catalog photographs, books, manuscripts, videos, etc. We want our collections to have the widest access possible in their usage. Putting them in the online catalog is the easiest way for researchers to find them. We create Dublin-Core item-level records for all of the materials in our digital collections. The library currently has a map cataloging project underway. There is a backlog of manuscript and visual collections material we are working our way through. Volunteers are working on databases for two of our large photographic collections.

Indiana History Center

What are the top issues facing the Indiana Historical Society, and historical societies in general, in 2004?

Money and the ever compressing time frame required to perform our mission within these monetary constraints are the top issues facing HIS and historical societies in general.

How has the Web changed museums, and what impact has the Web had on the way you run the society?

For the library, the Web has increased the ability to service long distance research. People email questions instead of sending letters. They telephone the reference desk with questions regarding our online catalog, or want to order photocopies, or a copy of a photograph. Our digital images are available through the Open Archives Initiative (OAI). We hadn't been participating in it long before we were contacted by a university in Germany saying they had found our site through it and wanted to establish a link.

Is the museum going online?

The two working together is mutually symbiotic and beneficial. One supports the other. During the times that I have worked in what I would call a "pure museum"-one with three dimensional objects-it was always necessary to link the object back to the documentary evidence to establish credibility. The object without the literature or documentation behind it is merely an object in a vacuum without relation to anything else, hence the critical importance of the library and its holdings as our font of information and knowledge.

How does working with the library community benefit historical societies and vice versa?

Here at the Indiana Historical Society, we believe that collaboration is the most efficient and effective way to proceed in this particular atmosphere. Resources are stretched thinly, we do not want to duplicate what others are doing and we want to provide quick efficient, quality service. We also do not want to lose sight of our strong collections here and as a result wish to promote them heavily while still paying attention to costs and the proverbial bottom line. Collaborating with other institutions in the digital environment offers a unique opportunity to bring together related information that is held in widespread physical locations. A digital summit was recently held at the Indiana State Library, and discussions are underway for an Indiana Digital Library. Cultural institutions throughout the state will have the opportunity to share related material. We intend to be active participants in this.

Librarians, historians, and archivists recognize the United States Newspaper Project as an innovative tool in newspaper collection and research. Can you describe IHS's experience with this national project?

Our experience with the U.S. Newspaper Project was very positive, roughly from 1988 to 1996. Of course, we already had been microfilming newspapers regularly since 1980, so it was an easy step for us to take. We had everything in place. Funding from USNP allowed us to hire more staff and step up production in what was already a very successful project and accounts for slightly less than 30% of the total collection we have built at IHS. We continue to film newspapers today, and we are very proud as an institution of the contribution we have made to preserve the "first draft of Indiana History" for future generations of researchers.

Is there a gap between the library world and the museum world and how do we narrow it?

We are firm believers in the value and role of each type of institution, and each need to have clear mission and stick to it. We are not interested in competing with each other, but rather in forming cooperative partnerships. We look to respect others, as we would have them respect us in a professional and personal way, and look for ways to work together successfully.

IHS has registered some of its digital collections for harvesting into WorldCat. What was the rationale behind this?

Access, access, access. We want researchers, wherever they are in the world, to find the materials and use them.

It seems as if it is “common knowledge” that there is a convergence of libraries, historical societies, and museums taking place in our culture. Do you agree that a convergence is taking place? What are the key factors fueling this?

It depends whom you ask. We are converging is some areas; in some we are miles apart. There is still a bias in the museum field that some libraries are pure research institutions with little public outreach. That is partly true. Here at IHS, we are transitioning from a pure research institution to one with more of a museum "feel." At the federal level, the old "Institute of Museum Services" is now the "Institute of Museum and Library Services" so that a real convergence has taken place there. Here we reach out to both areas using our strong archival collection to provide the solid basis of history, which underpins the artifact.

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