Call for Research Participation: A Study into Environmental Sustainability and Archival Practice

A Study into Environmental Sustainability and Archival Practice

I am Georgina Robinson, an Archives and Records Management MA student at University College London currently undertaking dissertation research to explore environmental sustainability within archival practice. My aim is to quantify levels of awareness and action in the UK. This investigation will form the basis of my dissertation and the results may be published as an article to encourage further discussion on this topic.

For the purpose of this study:

  • Those involved in archival practice are taken to be anyone (aged 18 or over) whose work involves the care and curation of archives, records or data, e.g. archivists, records managers, conservators or digital curators.
  • The practice of environmental sustainability is to ensure that the needs of today’s population are met without jeopardizing the ability of future generations to meet their needs. This is done through responsible interaction with the environment to avoid depletion or degradation of natural resources.

If you are interested, please follow or share this link to the online questionnaire: https://opinio.ucl.ac.uk/s?s=67873

There are 17 questions it total, which should take about 10 minutes to complete. The closing date for responses is the 22nd June 2020.

If you have any questions please contact me on georgina.robinson.18[at]ucl.ac.uk

Background to this study

In archival discourse, the term ‘sustainability’ has mostly been used in relation to the sustainability of running an archive service. This may seem understandable in a sector where many are subject to financial and practical limitations in their work. This study aims to explore whether costs are ever a contributing or motivating factor in the implementation of environmental sustainability. An example would be the assertion that decreasing energy consumption in an archive will save money and reduce fossil fuel consumption.

Although environmental sustainability has been less frequently explored in archival theory, significant literature exists on how to be a ‘Green’ Archivist[1] or how to build a ‘Green’ Archive.[2]

This project, however, seeks to explore current awareness of our environmental impact and what cultural heritage professionals in the UK are doing about it. Interest in this study has already shown that there is significant concern about the issue of Climate Change and desire to act upon it from within the Archive sector. In part this may have been accelerated by the recent waves of environmental awareness seen over the world with climate strikes and protests.

This is true in US as well as in the UK and Europe. Over the last couple of years, we have seen an increasing level of discussion on this issue from archive professionals in the US. Detailed papers, such as Harvard Library’s Toward Environmentally Sustainable Digital Preservation[3] and Ben Goldman’s It’s Not Easy Being Green(e): Digital Preservation in the Age of Climate Change[4] detail the impact of Digital Preservation and what Archivists can do to alter theory and practices to better reduce their collection’s toll on the environment.

The common theme of these studies is whether we, as archivists, records managers or conservators, have a duty to mitigate the impact of our work on the environment? Do we have any power in the struggle for Climate Justice? Why should we care?

I would like to hear about your experiences, thoughts and opinions on this issue. I am looking for UK based archivists, record managers and conservation professionals who are willing to participate in this study. Any support with this will be greatly appreciated.

Kind Regards,
Georgina Robinson

Department of Information Studies
University College London

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/georgina-robinson-90160bb1

Twitter: @georginarobin

[1] Heidi N. Abbey, The Green Archivist: a primer for adopting affordable, environmentally sustainable, and socially responsible archival management practices,
Archival Issues, vol. 34, no. 2, pp. 91-115, 2012

[2] IFLA PAC, Library & Archives Facing the Challenges of Sustainable Development, International Preservation News, No 44, 2008.

[3] Keith L. Pendergrass, Walker Sampson, Tim Walsh, and Laura Alagna, “Toward Environmentally Sustainable Digital Preservation”, The American Archivist 82 (1): 165–206, 2019.

[4] Benjamin Goldman, “It’s Not Easy Being Green(e): Digital Preservation in the Age of Climate Change,” in Archival Values: Essays in Honor of Mark Greene, Society of American Archivists, 2019.

Image from page 141 of “The Canadian field-naturalist” (1919). Cortesy of Internet Archive Book Images.

CFP: The International Journal of the Inclusive Museum

The International Journal of the Inclusive Museum addresses the key question: How can the institution of the museum become more inclusive? The journal brings together academics, curators, museum and public administrators, cultural policy makers, and research students to engage in discussions about the historic character and future shape of the museum.

The International Journal of the Inclusive Museum is peer reviewed, supported by rigorous processes of criterion-referenced article ranking and qualitative commentary, ensuring that only intellectual work of the greatest substance and highest significance is published.

Read submission guidelines.

Information & Culture

Our access policies are expanding! Information & Culture is proud to announce that authors in the journal may now archive pre-print and post-print versions of their articles. Open access policies make scholarly research more visible and accessible for both authors and researchers.

Learn more at Sherpa Romeo which enables researchers and librarians to see publishers’ conditions for open access archiving on a journal-by-journal basis. Visit https://v2.sherpa.ac.uk/id/publication/22227 or https://infoculturejournal.org/Selfarchiving for details.

CFP: Collections and COVID-19

Articles are sought for a focus issue of the journal Collections which will consider collections and COVID-19. How have museums, archives, and libraries been impacted by COVID-19? What impact has COVID-19 had on collections, particularly?

In particular this call seeks contributions which address any of the following: institutional efforts at rapid response collecting; the intrinsic value of building collections during this historic time; the role and messaging of collections during the pandemic; the shift to online collection display as a way of providing opportunities for online engagement while institutions are not permitting visitors; the role of “essential staff” and their duties as related to collections; the financial impact of COVID-19 on collections; and other topics within the scope of “Collections and COVID-19”

For this issue, we are seeking articles, essays, and case studies of 2,000-3,000 words (8-12 pages double-spaced, plus notes and references). Authors should express their interest by submitting a 150-word abstract, anticipated article length, number of images, and any relevant information (such as context, short bio, pertinent URLs) to the guest editor carrie.meyer@unmc.edu and the journal editor jdgsh@rit.edu by Tuesday, June 30, 2020.

Notification of acceptance will be made by July 15, 2020, with the deadline for submission of final papers set for August 30, 2020 through the SAGE online submission portal. Publication is anticipated for volume 17 with an issue date of 2021.

For additional information or to receive samples of the journal, please contact the journal editor, Juilee Decker, jdgsh@rit.edu.

 

Call for Survey Participation: Archives and Refugees

Dear All, I am currently undertaking a dissertation research about: “Archives and Refugees: An investigation on mainstream and community archives and other projects and their relationship with refugee records”.I compiled a questionnaire and would be happy, if everybody who is working with refugee records or with projects that record the heritage of refugees could take part in my survey. The questionnaire can be found here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSd7vv_ecp8jo8f9D1BpdsxVCVr8XhSdXm-fhf9aO0W_95OXCg/viewform?usp=sf_linkI would love to gather as many different responses as possible! Any support with this is massively appreciated.Thank you in advance and stay safe!

Elisa Schlarp

CFP: For the Health of the New Nation

CALL FOR PAPERS

FHNN Virtual Conference

June 2020 

Title:  Silences in the LAMS: Digital Surrogacy in the Time of Pandemic

Date:  October 12, 2020 (VIRTUAL)

Intro: The College of Physicians of Philadelphia, in conjunction with the CLIR-funded project For the Health of the New Nation (FHNN) through a partnership with the Philadelphia Area Consortium for Special Collections Libraries (PACSCL), invites proposals for a one-day, online conference on the use of digital primary sources. 

In a time when the use of hard-copy primary sources has been all but eliminated, how are teachers, scholars, and other researchers using digital surrogates in their work? How has this digital format impacted the research process? What are the strengths and weaknesses of working solely with digital collections? How do (or don’t) digital surrogates manifest silences within archives?  This conference will explore these questions and more to examine the challenges and rewards of conducting or teaching history in a near virtual environment.

Session Formats

Presenting online creates new challenges, but it also offers new possibilities. While we suggest your proposal match one of the session formats below, we encourage presenters to use any digital presentation style that would engage and entice viewers.

Traditional Paper Presentation – 30-minute session of one fully prepared paper, with time for comments and discussion 

Panel Discussion – 60-minute session consisting of three to five panelists discussing perspectives on a selected topic 

Lightning Talks – 30-minute session of four to five 5-minute talks on a given topic 

Proposal Evaluation:  The Program Committee invites proposals on the following topics, as they relate to digital archival collections:

  • Archival silences
  • Exclusions in the history of medical education
  • Metadata and access
  • Teaching with primary sources
  • Loss of physicality
  • Effective digital tools to mine content

    Presenters are encouraged, though not required, to use digitized materials from the CLIR Hidden Collections grant project, For the Health of the New Nation…, in their proposals.

    Submitting a Proposal: Initial proposals require an abstract of up to 250 words as well as a preliminary title. If the abstract is accepted, full papers will be due this fall (see below for more details). 

    Submission form: forms.gle/i7pPgVLXMYLgtPHu7 

    Deadline for abstract submission:  July 1, 2020

    Date of acceptance notification:  July 15, 2020

    RBM publication:  If your abstract is accepted, you may be asked to submit your full presentation for potential publication in RBM: A Journal of Rare Books, Manuscripts and Cultural Heritage, Spring 2021 issue.  Final selection for publication will be dependent on the number of submissions and input from the RBM editorial board.

    Deadline for paper/presentation submission:  September 1, 2020

    RBM accepted papers due:  September 15, 2020

    Word limit for papers:  Papers must conform to the publication guidelines of RBM.  We suggest no more than 3500 words. 

    Review Committee members:

    Beth Lander, College Librarian/The Robert Austrian Chair, College of Physicians of Philadelphia
    Kelsey Duinkerken, Special Collections & Digital Services Librarian, Thomas Jefferson University
    Kelly O’Donnell, Ph.D., NEH Postdoctoral Fellow, Consortium for History of Science, Technology, and Medicine

    Keynote Speaker:  Melissa Grafe, Ph.D.  John R. Bumstead Librarian for Medical History, Head of the Medical Historical Library

    Contact names

    Beth Lander, College of Physicians of Philadelphia (blander@collegeofphysicians.org)
    Kelsey Duinkerken, Thomas Jefferson University (Kelsey.Duinkerken@jefferson.edu)

    For the Health of the New Nation is supported by a Digitizing Hidden Special Collections and Archives grant from the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR). The grant program is made possible by funding from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

CFP: Visual Resources Association

The VRA invites you to submit proposals for papers, sessions, special interest/user groups, and workshops for the 2021 Conference program.

The VRA’s 2021 Annual Conference will be held in Chicago, IL from Tuesday, March 23th through Friday, March 26th, 2021 at the Westin, Michigan Avenue. We are exploring hybrid (in-person and online) conference options, so please consider ways you could present materials to both physical and virtual audiences.

About the VRA:

We are a multidisciplinary organization dedicated to furthering research and education in the field of image asset management within the educational, cultural heritage, and commercial environments. For more information on VRA: http://vraweb.org/.

Presenting at the VRA Conference provides you with the opportunity to see how your ideas, research, work, and passion connect to those of other dedicated professionals while building networks and friendships in an open, collaborative environment.

Presentation Types:

  • Individual Paper- A paper is an individual idea submission, which will be reviewed for possible grouping into a session. Your ideas, whether they come to us alone or in a group, are equally valued in the Board’s proposal and selection process.
  • Session – A session is typically a 60-minute moderated panel with 3 presenters, speaking for 15 to 18 minutes, followed by a brief facilitated question and answer period. If you feel your session topic requires more time, consider dividing it into two sessions, consisting of a Part I and a Part II.
  • SIG/SUG- A special interest/user group is a 60-minute informal, community -driven, facilitated group discussion on topics related to a specific segment of the VRA membership.
  • Workshop- A workshop is a 2, 4, or 8-hour workshop to develop skills and experience in the field of visual resources with hands-on activities.

All proposals are welcome, and if you have other conference ideas or suggestions that do not fit the conference proposal form, please reach out to the Vice President for Conference Program, Sara Schumacher at vpcp@vraweb.org.

To Apply:

The deadline for submissions is Monday, July 27, 2020. Program submissions received after this date will not be considered for the 2021 conference.

Preview the Paper, Sessions, Special Interest/User Groups Submission Form. Preview the Workshop Submission Form.

Submit your proposal here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/cfpvra2021.

All speakers/presenters must register for the conference and may register under the Conference Speaker rate for the full conference (same as member rate) or under the one-day rate. Speakers/Presenters may apply for Travel Awards through the VRA Travel Awards Committee or through select VRA Chapters.

Suggested topics:

  • Challenges and Lessons Learned from Remote
    • The Workplace, Institutional Transitions, Personnel Issues
    • Copyright & IP in Education and Beyond
    • Teaching & Research Needs, Visual Literacy
    • Equity, Ethics, Privacy, Advocacy
  • Metadata
    • Best Practices and Standards (VRA Core 4, CCO, etc.)
    • Critical Cataloging, Alt-Text, Rights Statements, Geolocation Data
    • Crowdsourcing
  • Managing Collections
    • Digital Asset Management, Digital and Institutional Repositories
    • Preservation, Planning for Collections Growth
  • Outreach and Instruction
    • Instruction using Materials, Special, and Digital Visual Collections
    • Accessibility, Universal Design, Open Educational Resources, Online Exhibitions, Social Media
  • Emerging Technologies and Applications
    • 3D Photography Imaging and Digitization, Audio and Video Editing
    • Coding, GIS, IIF, Omeka S, Story Maps
    • Digital Humanities/Scholarship Tools, Projects, Research Processes

Sara Schumacher
Vice President for Conference Program
VRA, http://vraweb.org/
Architecture Image Librarian
Architecture Library
Texas Tech University Libraries
sara.schumacher@ttu.edu
806.834.1245
Pronouns: she, her, hers

Call for Participation: Survey on COVID-19 and Information

Dear All,

Please consider participating in the following brief survey that seeks to understand the public attitude about information during a public health emergency.

Link to survey: http://sjudlis.com/covid19survey/

This is the final call for participation – the survey closes on Thursday, June 4. Feel free to pass on the survey link to anybody who may be interested in filling this out.

Thank you for considering participation in this research project.

Best,

Rajesh

—

Rajesh Singh, Ph.D.

Associate Professor

Division of Library and Information Science

St. John’s University

8000 Utopia Parkway

Queens, New York 11439

Tel: 718-990-5705

Podcast: Archivist’s Alley

What and Who Is Archivist’s Alley?

WHAT is Archivist’s Alley?

Archivist’s Alley is a safe conversational space designed for casual and lively discussions about how to preserve our work and identities in the professional landscapes and media that we work and create in. It is an open and dynamic arena to talk about archival ideas, new projects and to celebrate the power of each guest’s voice as a critical part of this community and our world at large.

Every city, every town, every village has an alley. Most are not acknowledged, they are simply viewed as invisible thoroughfares. But alleys provide access; alleys are necessary. Alleys provide living communities with a variety of uses: short-cuts, storage, business exits, secret spots for lovers to meet. Whether they have allowed for covert exchanges or indispensable business work, the primary purpose of an alley is connection. This is the trajectory of Archivist’s Alley.

WHO is Archivist’s Alley?

A collection of voices gathered from the world of the lesser represented or marginalized populations in media or media preservation. These voices are women’s voices, queer voices, trans voices, non-binary voices and voices of color. These are indigenous voices and the voices of the differently abled. Let’s just say that here on Archivist’s Alley, the volume will most certainly go to 11.

Everyone’s officially invited to this party. Get comfy and hangout for a bit. Let’s jam!

 

CFP: Provenance

The Society of Georgia Archivists and Provenance editorial board are pleased to announce that they have moved to an open access model for the journal. All issues will be available online as soon as they are ready for publication, removing the one year embargo on content that had previously been in place.We hope this shift will better meet the needs of the profession and provide more timely research and commentary on the topics that matter most to the field. You can read the latest issue or browse earlier publications at: digitalcommons.kennesaw.edu/provenance.

Call for Papers

Provenance: The Journal of the Society of Georgia Archivists, a peer reviewed academic publication, seeks articles on archival theory and practice for the 2020 issue. Please note that the content of the journal is not limited to the state of Georgia, and articles of regional or national significance are welcome. First-time authors are especially encouraged to submit articles for consideration. Provenance is also interested in innovative and unique methods for presenting scholarly content. Please contact Heather Oswald if you would like to discuss an article idea or format.

Articles on archival topics outside of theory and practice which meet publication standards will also be considered. Typical papers should be a Word document, 10-20 pages, double spaced, and formatted according to the 17th edition of the Chicago Manual of Style. Please review information for contributors: digitalcommons.kennesaw.edu/provenance/policies.html.

Articles are to be submitted utilizing Provenance’s online system: digitalcommons.kennesaw.edu/provenance.

For additional information contact Editor Heather Oswald at: provenance@soga.org. Deadline for contributions is July 15, 2020.

Gracy Award 

Each year the SGA awards the Gracy Award, a $350 prize which recognizes a superior contribution to Provenance. Named for David B. Gracy II, founder and first editor of Georgia Archive, the award began in 1990 and is judged by the editorial board.

*Back issues of Provenance and Georgia Archive available online*

Table of Contents for volume 36, issue 1:

Articles

Participatory Archival Research and Development: The Born-Digital Access Initiative
Alison Clemens, Wendy Hagenmaier, Jessica Myerson, and Rachel Appel

Chain of Custody: Access and Control of State Archival Records in Public-Private Partnerships
Sarah Carlson

Case Study

Using Captions and Controlled Vocabulary to Describe Visual Materials as an Alternative to Digitization
Eric Willey

Reviews

Brown, Archival Futures
reviewed by Joshua Kitchens

Marshall, The Complete Guide to Personal Digital Archiving
reviewed by Erin Lawrimore

Ryan and Sampson, The No-Nonsense Guide to Born-Digital Content
reviewed by Pamela Nye

Cohen, Archive That, Comrade! Left Legacies and the Counter Culture of Remembrance
reviewed by Cheryl Oestreicher

Foscarini, MacNeil, Mak, and Oliver, Engaging with Records and Archives: Histories and Theories
reviewed by Martin T. Olliff

Abrams, Oral History Theory (Second Edition)
reviewed by Amanda Pellerin

McDade, Torn from Their Bindings: A Story of Art, Science, and the Pillaging of American University Libraries
reviewed by Kay Strahan

——————————
Heather Oswald
Manager of Public Services
Baker Library, Harvard Business School
Somerville MA