{"id":6652,"date":"2017-06-23T10:16:48","date_gmt":"2017-06-23T14:16:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/vault217.gmu.edu\/?p=6652"},"modified":"2017-06-23T11:37:35","modified_gmt":"2017-06-23T15:37:35","slug":"the-c-span-chronicles-part-iv-viewer-mail","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vault217.gmu.edu\/?p=6652","title":{"rendered":"The C-SPAN Chronicles: Part IV – Viewer Mail"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hello all! Amanda here with another edition of the C-SPAN Chronicles. As this project has progressed, I have had ample time\u00a0to re-examine this collection, as well as the unique records it holds. Despite some of the more serious portions of the collection, there are those that are more entertaining (see the C-SPAN Chronicles: Part II<\/a>\u00a0for more on this topic.) One such portion is the Viewer Mail Series. Viewer Mail encompasses the many and varied pieces of correspondence sent to C-SPAN\u2019s founder Brian Lamb \u00a0– and C-SPAN in general – during much of his tenure at the organization. Though the letters vary in subject and substance, one aspect rings true for each letter: passion. The individuals who wrote these letters, emails, and everything in between were passionate about C-SPAN, the service it provided, and the political process at large. Sometimes this passion translated into a positive interaction, others…not so much. Below is a sampling of some of the more interesting pieces of correspondence from this series. Enjoy! **<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"

A complimentary note from a self-described “C-SPAN Junkie.”<\/p><\/div>\n

\"\"

A folder filled with viewer mail. The wide variety of correspondence, ranging from hand written letters, postcards, and greeting cards, to typed letters (both analog and electronic) is evident even in this single file.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"\"

Some of the viewer mail errs on the side of eccentric. This folder holds a packet thoroughly examining the effects of Dioxins.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"\"

Brian Lamb’s “Booknotes” program produced many viewer letters praising its content and unique style. Unfortunately though, you cannot please them all.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"\"

This particular viewer’s complaint does not seem to color their overall view of C-SPAN.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"\"

Perhaps my favorite letter of the series.<\/p><\/div>\n

**The C-SPAN records are currently being processed and therefore do not have specific box and folder numbers. Upon completion, we will update all images with proper citation. The viewer mail materials are part of Series 6: Viewer Mail of the C-SPAN records.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Follow SCRC on Social Media and\u00a0look out for future posts on the\u00a0processing of the C-SPAN Papers on our\u00a0Facebook<\/a>,\u00a0Instagram<\/a>, and\u00a0Twitter<\/a>\u00a0accounts. To search the collections\u00a0held at Special Collections Research Center, go to our\u00a0website<\/a>\u00a0and browse the finding aids by subject or title. You may also e-mail\u00a0us at\u00a0speccoll@gmu.edu<\/a>\u00a0or call 703-993-2220 if you would like to\u00a0schedule an appointment, request materials, or if you have questions. Appointments are not necessary to request and view collections.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hello all! Amanda here with another edition of the C-SPAN Chronicles. As this project has progressed, I have had ample time\u00a0to re-examine this collection, as well as the unique records it holds. Despite some of the more serious portions of the collection, there are those that are more entertaining (see the C-SPAN Chronicles: Part II\u00a0for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":101014,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[461],"tags":[289,348,422],"class_list":["post-6652","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-c-span-chronicles","tag-brian-lamb","tag-c-span","tag-processing"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8Ep5i-1Ji","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":6429,"url":"https:\/\/vault217.gmu.edu\/?p=6429","url_meta":{"origin":6652,"position":0},"title":"The C-SPAN Chronicles: Part II – Unique Finds – Processing is Like A Box of Chocolates: You Never Know What You’re Gonna Get","author":"Amanda Menjivar","date":"May 2, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Hello there! Amanda here again with another edition of the C-SPAN Chronicles. This week I will be exploring\u00a0unique items found in the C-SPAN records - some straightforward, some, well...not so much. As a processor, I have spent many an hour surveying collections, and usually this task is fairly clear-cut. But\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "The C-SPAN Chronicles"","block_context":{"text":"The C-SPAN Chronicles","link":"https:\/\/vault217.gmu.edu\/?cat=461"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/vault217.gmu.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/IMG_8697.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/vault217.gmu.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/IMG_8697.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/vault217.gmu.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/IMG_8697.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/vault217.gmu.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/IMG_8697.jpg?resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/vault217.gmu.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/IMG_8697.jpg?resize=1050%2C600 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/vault217.gmu.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/IMG_8697.jpg?resize=1400%2C800 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":6316,"url":"https:\/\/vault217.gmu.edu\/?p=6316","url_meta":{"origin":6652,"position":1},"title":"The C-SPAN Chronicles: Part I – A Processing Primer","author":"Amanda Menjivar","date":"April 13, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Hello one and all! My name is Amanda Brent, and I am the C-SPAN Papers Project Archivist here at GMU\u2019s Special Collections Research Center (SCRC). I began my journey at SCRC as a volunteer, then intern, then Processing Assistant, and now I have been given the opportunity to work as\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "The C-SPAN Chronicles"","block_context":{"text":"The C-SPAN Chronicles","link":"https:\/\/vault217.gmu.edu\/?cat=461"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/vault217.gmu.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/IMG_0632crop.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":9467,"url":"https:\/\/vault217.gmu.edu\/?p=9467","url_meta":{"origin":6652,"position":2},"title":"The C-SPAN Chronicles: Season 2, Part VI","author":"Kelsey Kim","date":"February 8, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Hello! It\u2019s me again\u2014Kelsey Kim: cereal lover, ghost story enthusiast, C-SPAN Project Archivist (today, I\u2019ll be primarily focusing on that last one).\u00a0 We are still hard at work making the C-SPAN collection available to you, plugging away at the tasks of refining and redacting to present it as best we\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Digital Collections"","block_context":{"text":"Digital Collections","link":"https:\/\/vault217.gmu.edu\/?cat=557"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/vault217.gmu.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/cat.jpg?fit=1200%2C769&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/vault217.gmu.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/cat.jpg?fit=1200%2C769&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/vault217.gmu.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/cat.jpg?fit=1200%2C769&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/vault217.gmu.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/cat.jpg?fit=1200%2C769&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/vault217.gmu.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/cat.jpg?fit=1200%2C769&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":9271,"url":"https:\/\/vault217.gmu.edu\/?p=9271","url_meta":{"origin":6652,"position":3},"title":"The C-SPAN Chronicles: Season 2, Part IV","author":"Kelsey Kim","date":"June 22, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Kelsey here, coming to you from my kitchen table, a.k.a. my home office.\u00a0 I have good news and bad news for you\u2014I\u2019ll start with the bad news, because it\u2019s always better to rip off the Band-Aid.\u00a0 Sadly, while we\u2019re out of office, our actual \u201cdigitizing\u201d (meaning our document photography) has\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Digital Collections"","block_context":{"text":"Digital Collections","link":"https:\/\/vault217.gmu.edu\/?cat=557"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/vault217.gmu.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/letter.jpg?fit=914%2C1166&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/vault217.gmu.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/letter.jpg?fit=914%2C1166&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/vault217.gmu.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/letter.jpg?fit=914%2C1166&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/vault217.gmu.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/letter.jpg?fit=914%2C1166&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":8648,"url":"https:\/\/vault217.gmu.edu\/?p=8648","url_meta":{"origin":6652,"position":4},"title":"The C-SPAN Chronicles: Season 2, Part II","author":"Kelsey Kim","date":"July 9, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"You can read Part I of Season 2 here. And we\u2019re back!\u00a0 Kelsey Kim, C-SPAN Project Archivist here, ready to introduce you to the next phase of C-SPAN Records digitization. A summary of the ground we\u2019ve already covered: Digitization is not just a lone person in a dark room scanning\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Digital Collections"","block_context":{"text":"Digital Collections","link":"https:\/\/vault217.gmu.edu\/?cat=557"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/vault217.gmu.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/paperclips.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/vault217.gmu.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/paperclips.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/vault217.gmu.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/paperclips.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/vault217.gmu.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/paperclips.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/vault217.gmu.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/paperclips.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":8671,"url":"https:\/\/vault217.gmu.edu\/?p=8671","url_meta":{"origin":6652,"position":5},"title":"A Journey Through C-SPAN’s Viewer Mail","author":"Amanda Menjivar","date":"July 31, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"This post was written by Brandan Culbert. Image Source Being an archivist is fun\u2026 if you like to read other people\u2019s mail. As an archival assistant, my role consists of reading letters and inputting corresponding information-- it sounds mundane but is rather exciting. The current letters I am working on\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Digitization"","block_context":{"text":"Digitization","link":"https:\/\/vault217.gmu.edu\/?cat=558"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/vault217.gmu.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/img002-2.jpg?fit=1200%2C932&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/vault217.gmu.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/img002-2.jpg?fit=1200%2C932&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/vault217.gmu.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/img002-2.jpg?fit=1200%2C932&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/vault217.gmu.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/img002-2.jpg?fit=1200%2C932&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/vault217.gmu.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/img002-2.jpg?fit=1200%2C932&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vault217.gmu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6652","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vault217.gmu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vault217.gmu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vault217.gmu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/101014"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vault217.gmu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6652"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/vault217.gmu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6652\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6662,"href":"https:\/\/vault217.gmu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6652\/revisions\/6662"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vault217.gmu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6652"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vault217.gmu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6652"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vault217.gmu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6652"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}