In keeping with the United States Senate's encouragement to preserve the historical records of its members, Stanford University Libraries has received the senatorial papers of the late Senator Dianne Feinstein. Roberto Trujillo, Associate University Librarian for Special Collections & University Archives, held ongoing discussions with Senator Feinstein's office regarding the future of her papers. Following her passing in September 2023, the collection was officially deposited at Stanford, Feinstein's alma mater, in 2024.
The Dianne Feinstein Senatorial papers offer researchers a deeper understanding of her legislative priorities, decision-making processes, policy development, constituent engagement, and California's political history throughout her career. A team of five archivists is currently processing the collection: Lead Archivist Rebekah Valentine, Digital Archivist Sabrina Gunn, Associate Archivist Tiana Taliep, and Assistant Archivists Cali Vance and Queenie Don.
The Feinstein papers consist of 6,700 linear feet of analog records, over 3,000 memorabilia items, and approximately seven terabytes of digital material pertaining to her career as a United States Senator representing California from 1992 to 2023. Some collection highlights include decision memos, also known as “back from DF’s”; constituent mail; daily schedules; photographs; press interviews; and personal correspondence.
In “Senator Dianne Feinstein’s Career in Photos,” Sabrina Gunn, the Feinstein Papers Digital Archivist, described insights gained from transferring and describing 16,000 images from the Senate Photo Studio to the SearchWorks catalog record for the Dianne Feinstein Senatorial papers. The digital photos and a selection of other items are available now for online research. The physical materials and the remainder of the digital materials are closed as the collection is processed.
In this second article of the series, Elinor Aspegren, an MLIS student at the University of Maryland, reports on putting archival theory into practice as an intern this summer working with the five archivists at Stanford University Libraries who are currently processing the collection.
My Experience Working with the Dianne Feinstein Senatorial Papers Team
By Elinor Aspegren
How much do you know about Senator Dianne Feinstein? Do you have a picture of her in your mind? What were her major accomplishments in her 30 year Senate career?
As a born-and-raised Californian, I could answer these questions. Feinstein was my senator for 23 years, until I moved to Washington, D.C. for graduate school. I knew that she was mayor of San Francisco after George Moscone was assassinated, and I knew that she was fiercely passionate about assault weapons and reproductive rights policy. But I didn’t know that she was a dog mom to Kirby and Kirby II, or that she drew colored pencil sketches of flowers and woodpeckers. She also had a penchant for the same brand of planner to chart her work and had traveled to China to see the pandas. Learning these personal aspects made me feel more connected to her while processing the 2004 constituent mail* associated with The Dianne Feinstein Senatorial Papers, 1992-2023 during my summer internship at Stanford University Libraries’ Department of Special Collections.
I am in between my first and second year of my Master's in Library and Information Science (MLIS) program at the University of Maryland, and decided to do the mandatory internship class in my hometown of Palo Alto. I connected with Rebekah Valentine, who is the Feinstein Papers Lead Archivist and an alum of the University of Maryland, who worked with me to ensure that I would be getting the most out of my internship. These past ten weeks have been a crash course in learning how to physically process multiple types of media, and an incredible opportunity to connect with other library professionals.
One of the most valuable things I encountered with the Feinstein Senatorial Papers was the application of my coursework. I thought I understood the concept of more product, less process (MPLP) before this project. What I didn’t expect was the sheer volume of constituent mail and boxes that 2004 had in store for me. But Feinstein’s office had a specific system of categorization for each letter based on the subject of the letter, and we used that system to go through these boxes pretty quickly. This system made me reimagine MPLP in a new, faster way – based not off reading over every constituent mail letter, but by putting letters into piles and creating a box fort around my desk.
It also allowed me to exercise the theories I learned in my archives classes. I read about MPLP in my Introduction to Archives class, and remember reading how it addressed the massive archival backlogs to promote accessibility. Given that the Feinstein team is relatively small, and we have a limited amount of time to get everything processed, expediting getting collection materials into the hands of researchers is the end goal and better accomplished with MPLP.
My supervisor, Feinstein Papers Assistant Archivist Cali Vance, also provided me many opportunities to network, learn, and connect with people from outside the department. I learned about metadata and digital archiving from Digital Archivist Annie Schweikert and accessioning from Manuscript Accessioning Manager Christy Smith. Speaking with them was a great opportunity to increase my knowledge about real world experiences.
I did initially think, from my past experiences and my coursework, that being an archivist is an isolating job – I had been a teacher and a journalist, so I thought this would be a big difference from the social nature of those professions. But from the jump, Stanford and the Feinstein team proved me wrong. On my first day, we had a bagel breakfast where I met the team, and later we had a potluck with colleagues in the Special Collections, Stanford Media Preservation Lab, and Conservation departments. I have had plenty of time to do team building activities with the additional members of the team, Associate Archivist Tiana Taliep, Assistant Archivist Queenie Don and Digital Archivist Sabrina Gunn.
I have learned many things about Stanford and about processing from all of these people, and their enthusiasm for their jobs spurs me on to make this a career. Thanks to this opportunity, I now know I have the skills to succeed.
*Please note that constituent mail is not open for research. It will be open for in-person research when the series is fully processed.