Looking Back
47% Down, 53% To Go
An Archive Project Update
by Elizabeth Hane
It’s been 18 months since I last wrote to inform you all of the beginnings of the “Online Archive Project.” The goal of this project is to take all the back-issues of Out in the Mountains and make them accessible on the web. OITM didn’t become available online until May of 1997, so all the issues before that exist only in paper copies, and not in electronic form. The process of turning them from paper into pixels is tedious, but it has been well worth the effort!
By my reckoning, when we started, we had 118 back issues to put onto the web. Of that, 29 are on the web, and 26 are “in process” (that is, waiting to be posted, in web-prep or being typed). That means we’ve got 25 percent of the back copies on the web, and 22 percent “in process.” Considering that the first back issue was posted just 16 months ago, in February of 2001, that's pretty amazing! Especially considering this is all the work of unpaid volunteers, we have much to be proud of in this project.
The topic of volunteers is one that keeps cropping up again and again, both in my own work as Online Archive Director, and in the articles we read in the papers that we have been transcribing and posting to the web. Volunteer burnout is a major factor in our community. Looking at back issues, I find that, in fact, the newspaper folded briefly in December of 1989 because the people who were writing, publishing, and distributing the paper were so exhausted they could not continue. The paper was resurrected in March of 1990 as a 4-page paper with these words at the beginning:
“Out in the Mountains may have been down, but contrary to its name it’s certainly not out. An outpouring of help and support from OITM’s readership has resurrected the paper and saved it from the point of collapse.
A lack of volunteers and burnout among the core members of the collective had put OITM on hold and drawn dire warnings that the last issue was just that – the last issue. However, a meeting on February 17th to determine the future of OITM drew nearly 45 people from across the state to Fletcher Free Library in Burlington and showed that OITM must continue to fill a need among the gay, lesbian and bisexual population in Vermont (especially those living in remote areas) to receive news on local and national events as well as listings of resources and connections.”
Looking through the papers in the late 1980’s, it’s easy to see how this exhaustion happened, since the same names are constantly coming up as the people who write, organize, publish and distribute the paper. Burnout is a constant problem for activists, particularly when it’s hard to see concrete evidence of progress. The 1980’s saw a flurry of articles about the lack of progress fighting AIDS and about the defeat of the non-discrimination legislation in the Vermont senate. I find myself wanting to go back to the frustrated people writing those articles and say, “Hold on! Help is coming!”
The Archive Project too has definitely seen its share of burnout, even in just a couple of years. Several of the early enthusiastic volunteers have moved on and gotten busy with other aspects of their lives. We recruit new volunteers to help, but the work is slow and at times seems overwhelming. The good news is that we have gotten a $2,000 Challenge Grant from the Vermont Community Foundation. Money raised for this project will be matched dollar for dollar by VCF. Money donated to the archive project can be used to send the transcribed copies of the paper to paid professionals who will prepare them for the web, giving the tired fingers of our volunteers a rest. Donations can be sent to Mountain Pride Media, POB 1078, Richmond VT 05477.
Both Vermont and the paper have come a long way since 1986. If Vermont can move from having no protections for sexual orientation to its present status in 16 years, that provides me with tremendous hope for progress that may be possible in the rest of the country, and what we may yet achieve here.