Cal Lee Named New Editor of The American Archivist

The Society of American Archivists is pleased to introduce Christopher A. “Cal” Lee as the next Editor of The American Archivist. Lee, a tenured professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC) School of Information and Library Science, will serve a three-year term beginning January 2018. The American Archivist, established in 1938 and published semi-annually, is the premier professional journal in the archives field.

Read more: https://www2.archivists.org/news/2017/unc-professor-cal-lee-is-next-editor-of-the-american-archivist

Archival History News: Online Newsletter is Launching!

Archival History News seeks written submissions for the launch of the Archival History Section’s recurring newsletter, soon available on the web.  Are you working with a collection that sheds light on the history of the profession?  Have you just made an archival discovery that you wish to share with the community?  Or are you conducting some exciting historical research at your institution and want to get the word out?

Consider submitting your piece to the Archival History News!  We are soliciting brief essays, short biographies or remembrances of archivists, book reviews of archival histories, and longer articles detailing moments in archival history.  Also send copies of archival photographs (taken before the year 2000) showing the work of archives and special libraries.  The newsletter’s scope is flexible and first-time submitters are always welcome.

The Archival History Section is excited for the revival of its newsletter.  Edited by Adam Mosseri and Eric Stoykovich, Archival History News is eager to receive submissions.

Please send contributions to ArchivalHistoryNews@gmail.com

One Book, One Profession 2017

How can archivists create a diverse record or recruit and retain a diverse workforce? Whose stories are being told—and by whom? Where are the silences in the record? These questions and more are at the heart of the 2017 One Book, One Profession selection, Through the Archival Looking Glass: A Reader on Diversity and Inclusion, edited by Mary A. Caldera and Kathryn M. Neal.

In ten essays incorporating theory and case studies, archivists explore prominent themes related to diversity and question the archive on representation, authority, neutrality, objectivity, and power. This book illustrates a multitude of perspectives and issues so that fresh voices can emerge alongside more familiar ones, and new concepts can be examined along with new perspectives on established ideas.

Diversity is an ever-evolving concept; the term itself is increasingly rephrased as inclusion. By stimulating further ideas and conversation, we can come closer to a common understanding of what diversity and inclusion are or can be and, perhaps most importantly, how they may be realized in archives and the archival profession. As Stephen Scarth of the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland wrote in his review of the book for Archives and Records, The Journal of the Archives and Records Association: “This collection of essays should be best viewed as a springboard which will hopefully inspire further original thought on what is still an emerging subject.”

The ideas in this book don’t end with the last page. For the second year of One Book, One Profession, join your colleagues in reading, talking about, and translating these theories into action.

Let’s read Through the Archival Looking Glass—together!

Group Discount on Book Purchase: Host a book discussion within your institution, among archivists in your community, or at a regional meeting—group orders of 5 or more books receive a 40% discount!

Study Guide Questions: Click here to download.

Related Reading & Resources: Click here for a list of other resources.

Selected Events

ARCHIVES 2017 in Portland

Twitter Discussions

  • Follow #OBOP17 on twitter for more updates and to join the conversation profession-wide

The ‘why-to’ as well as the ‘how-to’ textbook for archivists

Facet Publishing have announced the release of the second edition of Laura A Millar’s Archives: Principles and practices

Originally published in 2010, the second edition of the Waldo Gifford Leland Award-winning textbook, Archives: Principles and practices, has been extensively revised to address the impact of digital technologies on records and archives.

Written in clear language with lively examples, the book introduces core archival concepts, explains best-practice approaches and discusses the central activities that archivists need to understand to ensure the documentary materials in their charge are cared for as effectively as possible.

Author Laura A Millar said, “Archivists search, sometimes in vain, for a balance between abstract theory and traditional practice, both of which can become increasingly arcane or impractical over time. My book seeks to strike a balance between principles and practices. It is as much a ‘why-to’ book as a ‘how-to’ book”.

Part of the Principles and Practice in Records Management and Archives series, this book will be essential reading for archival practitioners, archival studies students and professors, librarians, museum curators, local authorities, small governments, public libraries, community museums, corporations, associations and other agencies with archival responsibility.

Laura A Millar is an independent consultant in the fields of records, archives and information management, publishing and education. She has taught records, archives and information management courses in universities and colleges in Canada and internationally and is the author of dozens of books and articles on a range of topics. In 2010, the first edition of Archives: Principles and practices was awarded the prestigious Waldo Gifford Leland Award from the Society of American Archivists in recognition of its ‘superior excellence and usefulness in the fields of archival history, theory, or practice.’

Call for Contributors for “Archival Resources on the Web” column

The Midwest Archives Conference Newsletter seeks writers for “Archival Resources on the Web.” This column highlights digital projects, collections, and other information about archival materials available online. The articles typically feature about five resources and are no longer than 1,500 words. Images are encouraged.

Recent topics that have been featured in “Archival Resources” include: travel and tourism, LGBTQ, fashion, World War I, vaudeville, dime novels, Civil Rights movement, and Civil War letters

A few suggested topics include (but are NOT limited to!): science fiction (or other genre fiction), food studies/culinary history, historic advertisements, history of activism or a particular social movement in the US, early film, Native American history, and professional development resources for archivists.

Please send a short summary of your proposed topic or queries to Jolie Braun at braun.338@osu.edu.

The deadline for the fall issue is August 1, 2017.

Submit to Archive Journal

Archive Journal publishes content in 3 distinct sections:

  • Archives Remixed invites analytical and creative pieces that reflect on meaning-making in and through archives. The format is open to traditional research or theoretical essays as well as multi-modal, alternate, or experimental formats. Contributions that analyze, use, theorize, create, find ways through, or reconstitute particular archives, objects or exhibits are invited. Only original work that has not been published elsewhere will be accepted for publication.   Length variable.
  • Notes + Queries are published on a rolling basis to share timely, short essays about best practices, archival finds, recent publications or events, reports from the field, and thoughts on current work in the field.  500-2000 words.
  • 360° features an asynchronous “discussion” among contributors from various backgrounds who respond to the same set of questions about a single archive or archival topic.   500 words per response.

Submissions for “Archives Remixed” and “Notes + Queries” are on a rolling basis.  If you have an idea for a “360″ roundtable, please contact the editor, Lauren Coats, at contact@archivejournal.net.

Submission guidelines can be found at http://www.archivejournal.net/submit/

CFP: Journal for the Society of North Carolina Archivists

Journal for the Society of North Carolina Archivists

Special Topical Issue:   Collecting Communities

Call for Papers

J-SNCA is a peer-reviewed journal that seeks to support the theoretical, practical, and scholarly aspects of the archival profession.

The editorial board of J-SNCA invites members of the research and archival communities to submit articles for a themed issue, Collecting Communities, to be published online in fall 2017.

Today, many in the archival profession are actively working to identify, document, and better serve communities that have been underrepresented, misrepresented, or entirely unrepresented in their collections. Marginalized communities, communities whose histories are documented in non-traditional formats, or communities that primarily exist in the online world all present challenges and opportunities for archivists to collaborate with community members and make archives – both their collections and their services – more inclusive and far-reaching.

This notice is a broad call for papers [shorter articles 1,500-4,000 words in length] that discuss specific ways archives are working to document and collaborate with communities.  We would be particularly interested in articles that discuss the broader lessons and meanings that collecting communities has for the larger archival community.

The deadline for article submission is August 1, 2017. All members of the archival community, including students and independent researchers, are welcome to submit articles.  Contributors need not be members of Society of North Carolina Archivists or live in the state of North Carolina.  Article proposals are welcome and encouraged.

Submission guidelines can be found at http://www.ncarchivists.org/publications/journal-of-the-society-of-north-carolina-archivists-j-snca/manuscript-submission-guidelines/

SAA Book Sale thru May 8

Offer valid April 21–May 8, 2017.  While supplies last.

Books for $15 each . . .

Controlling the Past: Documenting Society and Institutions
List $56 (SAA Members $39.95)

Many Happy Returns: Advocacy and the Development of Archives
List $56 (SAA Members $39.95)

Navigating Legal Issues in Archives
List $69.95 (SAA Members $49.95)

*        *        *

Books for $10 each . . .

Archival Internships: A Guide for Faculty, Supervisors, and Students
List $29.95 (SAA Members $24.95)

Becoming a Trusted Digital Repository (Module 8)
List $29.99 (SAA Members $19.99)

Describing Archives: A Content Standard
List $29.95 (SAA Members $24.95)

College and University Archives: Readings in Theory and Practice
List $54.95 (SAA Members $39.95)

Encoded Archival Description Tag Library – Version EAD3
List $29.95 (SAA Members $24.95)

How to Keep Union Records
List $49 (SAA Members $35)

Managing Congressional Collections
List $19.95 (SAA Members $19.95)

Norton on Archives: The Writings of Margaret Cross Norton on Archival and Records Management
List $45 (SAA Members $35)

Protecting Your Collections: A Manual of Archival Security
List $30 (SAA Members $25)

Waldo Gifford Leland and the Origins of the American Archival Profession
List $62.95 (SAA Members $44.95)

New Issue: Information & Culture

A new issue of Information & Culture is out! Articles in 52-2:

• NORAD’s Combat Operations Center
• Nineteenth-Century Croatian Female Writer Dragojla Jarnević
• Elizabeth Cleveland Morriss, the Literacy and Adult Elementary Education Movement in North Carolina
• The Kinsey Institute’s Sexual Nomenclature: A Thesaurus
• Public Library Movement, the Digital Library Movement, and the Large-Scale Digitization Initiative
• The Internet in Argentina and Brazil

Also available on Project MUSE: http://muse.jhu.edu/journal/111

SAA Title in HathiTrust: Film Preservation

Another SAA book has been added to the HathiTrust Digital Library. Film Preservation: Competing Definitions of Value, Use, and Practice by Karen Gracy was published by SAA in 2007 and is now out of print, but you can view it for free by clicking here. Film Preservation is one of dozens out-of-print books for which SAA has granted full-view permission in the HathiTrust. For a complete list of these open access books, click here. The HathiTrust is a partnership of academic and research institutions, offering a collection of millions of titles digitized from around the world.