Tag: SAA

Call for Contributions: Updating Visual Materials Bibliography

The Visual Materials Section steering committee has formed a working group to update our resources and bibliography for visual materials. If this project interests you, consider joining the working group by contacting Angela Schwartz at schwarzleo13@gmail.com.

The 38-page bibliography started in the 1980s by Richard Pearce-Moses and later donated to VMS has been updated periodically over last thirty years. This current revision will include:

· Member submitted resources. If you have a favorite resource that helps you with your visual materials work, please submit it via this form.

· Links to digital copies of available resources.

· Expansion of visual material types. The bibliography currently includes photographs, moving images, selected print technologies, visual ephemera, and architectural records. We will be adding resources for cartographic materials and born-digital. If there are additional formats you’d like to see represented, let us know!

Stefanie
VMS Chair

Survey: Tell us about your American Archivist reading experience!

What do you love about the digital American Archivist? What would you like to read more of? Tell us in this 15-minute survey.

Take the Survey

In the last decade, the Journal has seen a tremendous shift in how readers engage with it. Established in 1938 in a physical format, American Archivist launched a companion digital format in 2010. Then in 2021, the Journal shifted to a digital-only format. With these recent changes, the Editorial Board seeks your input on how you interact with the digital American Archivist, what you think of it, and how your reading experience can be improved. Take the survey by March 1 and send additional comments to AmericanArchivist@archivists.org.

SAA AAC/SNAP panel discussion: “Writing and Publishing for Archivists”

Are you a student or early career archivist interested in learning where and how you can start publishing? If so, join the SAA Archivists & Archives of Color and Students & New Archives Professionals sections for the panel discussion, “Writing and Publishing for Archivists,” on February 20 at 2pm ET / 11am PT.

This webinar will introduce you to some of the many opportunities and pathways archivists have to write and publish. Panelists include: Joyce Gabiola and Kristina Santiago (up//root produced by WeHere); Sharon Mizota (ARTchivist’s Notebook); and Yvette Ramírez (SAA Publications Board).

Learn more about the speakers and register through Zoom.

Call for 2023 Graduate Student Program Proposals

The application has opened for Graduate Student Program Proposals for the 2023 Joint Annual Meeting. Work from both master’s and doctoral students will be considered. This call encompasses proposals for sessions – presentations or posters – to be presented during the hybrid meeting.

Graduate Student Presentation

The work of three current archives students and/or SAA student chapters will be selected for presentation. Each speaker will be allotted fifteen minutes to present a paper. Be creative! Proposals from individual students as well as SAA student chapter groups will be considered. Proposals may relate to the student’s applied or theoretical research, research about the archives profession itself, or even practical/internship experiences. Student chapters may consider presenting on projects or initiatives conducted in the current term (Fall 2022 through Summer 2023). Participant selection will be based on the quality of proposals submitted.

Graduate Student Poster

The 23rd annual Graduate Student Poster Session will showcase the work of both individual students and SAA Student Chapters. All posters will be presented in-person and virtually in PDF format. More information about preparing posters will be shared upon acceptance. Posters will be available to all meeting attendees throughout the week of the conference and in the virtual platform. 

To submit a paper or poster proposal, please complete the proposal form no later than March 15. 

Learn more and submit.

Call for Nominations: SAA Writing Awards

The Society of American Archivists is in search of excellence! The four awards below celebrate outstanding achievement in writing. Be it a finding aid, published work, or student paper, each of these awards highlights the value and importance of superior writing in the profession.

Do you know someone who has published a groundbreaking book, written an outstanding article, or developed an innovative finding aid? Consider nominating them for one of the awards below!

Nominations are due February 28.

Preservation Publication Award
The Preservation Publication Award recognizes the author(s) or editor(s) of an outstanding published work related to archives preservation. The work can be an article, report, chapter, or monograph in an audiovisual, digital, or print format. It must contribute to the advancement of the theory and practice of preservation in archives institutions. Author(s) or editor(s) of a preservation-related work of relevance to the North American archives community and published in the previous calendar year are eligible.

Check out the most recent recipients and consider nominating!

Theodore Calvin Pease Award
The Theodore Calvin Pease Award recognizes superior writing achievement by master’s or doctoral students of archival studies. Entries are judged on innovation, scholarship, pertinence, and clarity of writing. Papers examining major trends and issues in the archives profession are preferred. Entries are submitted by archival educators, and the recipient is published in a forthcoming issue of American Archivist.

Check out the most recent recipients and consider nominating!

Waldo Gifford Leland Award
The Waldo Gifford Leland Award encourages and rewards writing of superior excellence and usefulness in the fields of archival history, theory, or practice. Monographs or documentary publications in print or digital editions published in English during the previous calendar year are eligible.

Check out the most recent recipients and consider nominating!

C.F.W. Coker Award
The C.F.W. Coker Award for Description recognizes finding aids, finding aid systems, projects that involve innovative development in archival description, or descriptive tools that enable archivists to produce effective finding aids. Nominees must set national standards, represent a model for archival description, or otherwise have a substantial impact on descriptive practices. Individuals, institutions, or groups of individuals or institutions are eligible.

Check out the most recent recipients and consider nominating!

Call for Applications: Awards for Excellence in Writing and Publishing

The Society of American Archivists is soliciting recommendations for writing and publishing awards for excellence. There are five awards up for grabs with varying prize amounts. All submissions must have been produced during 2022.

Note that you can apply or be nominated for multiple awards in a single cycle, but may only receive one. The deadline for nominations is February 28, 2023.

Call for Nominations: Philip M. Hamer and Elizabeth Hamer Kegan Award

The Philip M. Hamer and Elizabeth Hamer Kegan Award Committee invites nominations for the 2023 award.

The Philip M. Hamer and Elizabeth Hamer Kegan Award recognizes an archivist, editor, group of individuals, or institution that has increased public awareness of a specific body of documents (which can be a specific archival collection or thematic aggregation) through compilation, transcription, exhibition, or public presentation of archives or manuscript materials for educational, instructional, or other public purpose. Work that has had an impact on a local, regional, national, and/or international level is welcomed.

Recent winners include:

  • 2022: San Diego Air and Space Museum
  • 2021: California State University Japanese American Digitization Project
  • 2020: Laura Wagner, Rubenstein Library, Duke University (Radio Haiti)
  • 2019:  Dickinson College Archives and Special Collections for Carlisle Indian School Digital Resource Center

Eligibility:

Individual archivists and editors, groups of individuals, organizations. This award is open to nominees within and outside of the United States, and is not limited to SAA members.

Prize:

A certificate and a cash prize of $500.

Application Deadline:

All nominations shall be submitted to SAA by February 28, 2023. 

For more information on this award, including the nomination form, please go to http://www2.archivists.org/governance/handbook/section12-hamer

For more information on SAA awards and the nominations process, please go to https://www2.archivists.org/aboutsaa/awardsandscholarships. 

New Issue: American Archivist

In the digital-only issue of American Archivist 85.2, two international perspectives share steps taken toward disaster preparedness in Germany’s cultural archives, and lessons learned from a data recovery project at the National Archives of Australia; Heather Soyka discusses the effectiveness of the Archives Leadership Institute’s career building opportunities; and Alston Brake Cobourn, Jen Corrinne Brown, Edward Warga, and Lisa Louis show how metaliteracy and transliteracy projects are doable at underserved institutions.

Other articles examine the current state of archival education, user experience and reference staffing in archives, and the personal archiving habits of modern soldiers. In addition, contributors review several books that consider social and cultural movements and the fate of historical archives.

On the cover: German archivists participate in a training course on disaster and emergency response at the Augsburg City Archive in 2016. Guided by a conservator, small groups practiced the handling, packaging, and transport of damaged materials. In his article, “’Together We Are Strong’: Emergency Associations for the Protection of Germany’s Cultural Heritage,” Rainer Jedlitschka discusses the creation and development of several emergency associations in Germany that have collaborated to offer mutual support in the event of natural and humanmade disasters. Read more about the role and success of the new networks and German archivists’ new experience and preparedness. Photo courtesy of Kerstin Lengger, Augsburg City Archive.

American Archivist 85.2 (Fall/Winter 2022)
Table of Contents

(Review access here)

From the Editor

Articles

Reviews

Love what you’ve read? Share it with a friend or colleague! 

Interested in writing an article or review? Check out American Archivist’s submission guidelines.

Participate in a research study about the impact of chronic illness and disability on careers in special collections libraries and archives

Special Collections librarians and archivists are invited to participate in a research study about the impact that having a chronic illness and/or disability has on their careers. To participate, you must be 18 years or older, a current employee at a special collections library or archive, and self-identify as having a chronic illness and/or disability.

This study consists of an online survey and is being conducted by Melanie Griffin, Director of Special Collections Services at the University of Arkansas Libraries (melanieg@uark.edu).  The survey will ask questions about your current employment status as well as questions related to your experiences working with chronic illness and/or disability while working in a special collections library or archives. It should take 10-15 minutes to complete the survey.

If you decide to participate, understand that participation is voluntary and can be discontinued at any point without penalty. You can choose not to participate. There is no cost associated with participating in this study, and you will not receive compensation for participating. At the conclusion of the study, you have the right to request feedback about the results by contacting the researcher.

All information will be kept confidential to the extent allowed by applicable State and Federal law. Data will be anonymized before analysis, and results will only be presented in the aggregate. Records will be stored on secure university servers.

If you have questions about the study, please contact Melanie Griffin, Director of Special Collections Services at the University of Arkansas Libraries, by emailing melanieg@uark.edu.

The deadline to complete the survey is March 1, 2023.

Access the survey: https://uark.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_3sZ99mGKviYwK58.

Thank you for your consideration.

Sincerely,

Melanie Griffin
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Melanie Griffin
Director of Special Collections Services
University of Arkansas Libraries
Fayetteville AR
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Seeking Presenters for Digital Records & Collection Management Webinar

The Collection Management Section will be hosting a webinar this spring on the theme of digital records and collection management, and we are actively seeking presenters!

Do you have clever workflows for managing electronic (or hybrid) records and collections? What information are you tracking, and what tools are you using? What are some of the challenges or hurdles that you’ve encountered in implementing a system for managing electronic records? How do you distinguish between born-digital and digitized records (or do you)? How do you distinguish between donor-digitized materials and originals in a collection management system? If any of this sounds like something you are excited to present about, we would love to hear from you!

We are looking for speakers to share their experience in a 10-15 minute virtual presentation planned tentatively for March or April, date TBD based on presenters’ availability. We would love to have diverse presenters and institutions represented: speakers from small institutions, HBCUs, and community archives are encouraged to apply. 

If you’re interested in presenting, please send a brief proposal to Rita Johnston at ritajohnston@miami.edu by January 31st. Please feel free to email with any questions!

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Jane Gorjevsky
Head of Collections Management
Columbia University Rare Book and Manuscript Library
jg2138@columbia.edu