Year in the Life: Elizabeth Shulman, Pt. 8

Elizabeth Shulman is one of our participants in our Year in the Life series, which follows new archivists in their first professional position. We will be following Elizabeth for a year. You can read her previous posts here.

Earlier this month, I attended a day-and-a-half Local History Librarian conference hosted at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The conference was generously sponsored by the North Caroliniana Society which made it free to all attendees. As soon as I learned about the conference through the North Carolina Digital Heritage Center’s partners list-serv, I knew I had to attend. I figured this was at the very least a good way to meet colleagues doing similar work from across the state. The majority of attendees work for public library systems across North Carolina.

The vast majority of the speakers either worked at Wilson Library at UNC or worked for the state government at either the State Library or State Archives. The first two sessions were the type of work being done at Wilson Library and the state agencies. The third was an open forum for participants to discuss their collections and ask questions of other librarians in the room. The question we spent the most time discussing was “How do I get more people to learn about and use my collection?” I ended up talking about my Archival Petting Zoo as well as my efforts to promote the collection on social media. That wrapped up the morning. In the afternoon there were sessions about demographic of users in North Carolina, conservation (which is a struggle for us public librarians), state-level grant applications, and free North Carolina oriented reference resources. The last session was particularly interesting to me as I learned about several digital map resources. I have been getting a lot of map questions lately so it was definitely a helpful resource I’ve passed along to my patrons. The first day of the conference ended with a lovely dinner at the Carolina Inn and a dinner talk about the story food can tell in the archives by the head of the American Studies department at UNC.

Getting Ready for SAA 2017: 9 Ways to Prepare for SAA in Portland

The Annual Meeting is a month and a half away, but in our minds we’re already there. If you are just now finding the time to plan for #SAA17, here are nine things you can do to prepare:

1. Sign up for the Navigator Program: If you’re a First Time Attendee, this is a great opportunity to be mentored by a conference veteran! The deadline is coming up so act fast and request a Navigator by June 15!
2. Sign up to give a Lightning Talk at the SNAP Section Meeting: Did you miss the deadline to submit a poster or presentation for the Annual Meeting? Get your feet wet presenting at a professional conference with a short talk for SNAP! Submit your proposal by June 23.
3. Sign up for the SAA Career Center: Looking for a job? Feel like your resume needs some sprucing up? Sign up for mock interview and career consultation appointments by July 10.
4. Sign up to share Rides or Rooms with other SNAPpers: Looking for a ride, a place to stay, or need a roommate? Conferences are expensive–let’s help each other make them affordable! Use our spreadsheet to connect with others looking to share rides or housing.
5. Sign up for SNAP’s Lunch Buddy Program: Conferences can be lonely, so make some new friends through the Lunch Buddy program. You can volunteer to lead a meal excursion or join one that’s already been planned on our spreadsheet.
6. Plan your conference schedule: The interactive conference schedule allows you to mark what looks interesting and see who else is planning on attending a session. Create your own schedule (and make sure you plan to attend the SNAP Section Meeting on 7/26 from 2:30-3:45pm).
7. Share your SAA 2017 experience with others through the SNAP Blog: Not everyone can make it to the Annual Meeting this year, so be a friend and summarize the sessions you attend for those who can’t! Sign up to summarize any session or conference event.
8. Check out SAA’s tips for New Members, First-Timers, and Students: A large conference like SAA can be overwhelming. Make sure you’re well prepared and consult these tips.
9. Read SNAP’s First Timer’s Guide: Not sure what to wear? Overwhelmed by the program options? Read SNAP’s guide and feel at ease!

A Day at SCA

Guest author: Casey Seyb
Science Data Archivist at Raytheon IIS

The Society of California Archivists (SCA) Annual General Meeting was my first conference attendance as a recently employed archivist and volunteer with a local historical preservation society, the Sierra Madre Historical Preservation Society. It was difficult to limit myself to just one day and even more difficult to decide which sessions to attend, as I felt I could learn a lot from any number of them.

One memorable moment was a group that presented for the community engagement talk. They had collaborated with other department students at their university to create a way for people to virtually interact with archives. I had been thinking about that since I had attended a tech talk at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) during my internship. At the time, I thought virtual engagement of archives would be a good next step in getting people interested in what archives have to offer for everyone. And they succeeded in creating a way to do that!

There were a few people in attendance who I already knew: two fellow interns from a previous gig at JPL in the summer of 2015 (one of them was presenting on a panel). A third was an archivist at a local university, someone who had given me great advice and insight into the field, before and during my MLIS (which I completed in August 2016).

Even without that, the event had a communal sense–people in the SCA are supportive, hard-working and engage with collaborative pride. And I gained many tips and resources, especially how to provide more outreach for my local society through photo-sharing and social media.

This was inspiring as I was due to receive a great job offer in a somewhat-related field, but one that doesn’t provide the opportunity for more archival training or skill development. Being at the conference reminded me how passionate I feel about archives and how many roles one can play in the field, traditional or niche. It also demonstrated how much potential there is for networking, professional growth and recognizing my own potential. That was a critical, valuable and timely experience for me.

Casey Seyb is a Science Data Archivist with Raytheon IIS in Pasadena, CA. As a JPL affiliate with Raytheon, she assists several NASA earth missions with technical document preservation. She also represents the Sierra Madre Historical Preservation Society as their Archives Chair and volunteers in the archives, co-owned by the City of Sierra Madre, CA. She completed her MLIS at San Jose State University in August 2016.

Attending MARAC as a Student & First-Time Conference Attendee

Guest author: Lauren Bell
Archives and Preservation MI student at Rutgers University. 

Lauren with her poster during MARAC poster presentation, 4/21/17.

On April 20-22 I attended the bi-annual Mid-Atlantic Regional Archives Conference (MARAC) in Newark, New Jersey. I had initially planned on being at the conference to attend workshops and get a better understanding of conference structure, but gradually assumed other roles throughout the conference.

This was the first conference I’ve attended as a graduate student in the archives field and I was blown away by the amount of opportunity presented at this gathering. On the first day, I attended a workshop titled “Dating 19th Century Portrait Photographs,” given by Gary Saretzky (Monmouth County Archives). During this workshop, Saretzky discussed various 19th century photographic media including daguerreotypes, ambrotypes, tintypes, carte de viste, and cabinet cards. Saretzky went through each of these photographic types at length, providing many visual examples of how one could determine the date that the photo was taken. Some consistent elements to look for amongst all of these types include dress and accessories worn by subject in the photo, color of photo, the casing of the photo, material of photo, photographer’s marks, and captions. The presentation was supplemented with reading material and a hands-on look at some photographs in Saretzky’s own personal collection.

Student Experience: First-time Conference Presenter

This post is part of the Student Experience series, which features current and former archives students as they reflect on graduate school, internships, and early career issues. If you would like to contribute a post for this series, please email me. 

Guest poster Irina Sandler, Simmons College student and archivist at the Baker Library of Harvard Business School as well as the Cambridge Historical Society, discusses her experience as a first time presenter at the New England Archivists Spring 2017 meeting. 

There is almost nothing as nerve-wracking as public speaking.

Personal Digital Archiving (PDA) 2016

Guest author: Colin Post
Ph.D. (Information Science) and M.A. (Art History) student, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and SNAP Roundtable Steering Committee Member

I had the pleasure of attending the recent Personal Digital Archiving conference, held this year at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor from May 12 to May 14. As I was considering a venue to present on a project that I’ve been involved with, the IMLS-funded Learning from Artists’ Archives program at UNC, PDA 2016 seemed like a great fit. I wanted to talk about how the artists’ archives project has helped artists to create and sustain their own personal archives, specifically through a series of workshops where local North Carolina artists have been able to gain necessary skills for tackling both analog and digital archiving projects. As the focus of the artists’ archives project has been to help artists with archiving at the personal level, the PDA conference seemed to me a fantastic opportunity to both share the successes and challenges of our project, as well as to learn about other exciting personal archiving efforts taking place across the country.

As I dug in for the first day, looking over the program of sessions, I quickly realized that the PDA conference is unique in many ways. The conference brought together an eclectic mix of information professionals from a variety of institutions, academics and graduate students with diverse research interests, businesses and tech companies developing digital archiving tools, and (perhaps most importantly) individuals and community organizations hard at work sustaining vital archiving projects. Despite the broad mix of participants, the total number of attendees was not overwhelming, filling a single, smallish lecture hall. Between sessions and during breaks, participants engaged in friendly dialogue, quick to spark a conversation with a presenter to learn more about their research or project. This congenial atmosphere pervaded the conference, generating a collaborative environment with professionals, academics, developers, and citizen archivists alike exchanging ideas and learning from each others’ experiences.

Prepping for Prepping for SAA 2016

Nope, the title of this post is not an accident!

It’s kind of hard to believe, but SAA’s annual conference is less than three months away. In the usual fashion of covering many angles of attending the conference leading up to the conference, we’re planning posts that will help you prepare for the conference, and the SNAP Roundtable Steering Committee has been working to put together some information (forthcoming) that will help you navigate the conference and the area. Another group working on this – from a different angle – is your wonderful host committee, which includes SNAPers JoyEllen Freeman and Cathy Miller! Here is the host committee’s blog, which already has lots of great information about what to do and how to get around.

As usual, SNAP has Lunch Buddy and Roommate/Rideshare signups, and we’ll also have a spreadsheet for you to sign up for session recaps before the conference – and this year we’re encouraging pictures! We’re also looking at different ways to cover the conference that go beyond the session recaps, with more information to come on that later. I want to go back to the two spreadsheets, though. SNAP tries very hard to think of ways to make SAA’s annual conference as welcoming and accessible for new members as it possibly can, and to that end, cutting costs is a big issue for us, but so is making certain new members have a support system. If you’re a more established SNAP member, please consider hosting a Lunch Buddy date, and if you’re someone who isn’t, don’t be scared to join us for breakfast/lunch/dinner/etc. We’ve each been the newbie, and we get how difficult it can be to “break into” a new place. Good news! We’re an easy bunch to “break into.”

Finally, I’d be remiss in not pointing to the excellent posts on conferences past, which includes tips for networking, session proposals, and more.

As a native Georgian, I’m really excited to have SAA come to my home state, and I hope y’all enjoy your time in the Capital of the South!

The First Conference: SCA AGM as a First Time Attendee

Guest author: Mary Priest
MLIS student at the University of California at Los Angeles and 2016 James V. Mink Scholarship Winner

I glanced down at my packing list one final time before pulling the door closed behind me. “Chargers, tooth brush, business cards, baby Yoda plushy (my travel buddy)…YEP!” I dashed to my car in the early morning light and eagerly began my road trip to Santa Rosa, California for my very first conference: The Society of California Archivists’ Annual General Meeting (SCA AGM).

I was introduced to SCA at the USC Archives Baazar in my first year of my MLIS program and by my second year, I became the Programs Chair for their first student chapter at UCLA. Because SCA board members were so supportive of our student group, I knew that their conference would likely be just as welcoming. The AGM was also alluring because it seemed a little more intimate than some of the nation-wide conferences and it was more affordable for this thrifty grad school student. When looking for more information about the conference on their website, I found details about James V. Mink Scholarship which would help support a student’s attendance at the meeting and a pre-conference workshop, so I applied. A couple months before the meeting, I received an email stating that I was selected as the 2016 Mink scholarship recipient. I squealed gleefully, shared the news with my grandma, danced around my room, and then registered for the conference.

New England Archivists (NEA) Spring Meeting 2016

Guest author: Kristen Weischedel
MSLIS and MA Dual Degree Student at Simmons College School of Library and Information Science

New England Archivists hosted their annual spring meeting in Portland, Maine from March 31-April 2. This year’s theme was “Uncharted Waters,” examined through a multidisciplinary lens. (You can find more discussion on twitter with #neasp16, each session marked with #sSessionNumber, for example 1.2 is #s102)

The pre-conference options on March 31 included a Day of Service at Maine Historical Society, or one of three workshops, emphasizing different approaches the preservation, description, engagement with different types of records (oral histories, paper records, and electronic records). More about each of these workshops can be found here.

The conference kicked off with a plenary talk by graffiti artist, Caleb Neelon, who talked about the evolution of graffiti in American culture and how he incorporates historical artifacts into his graffitti. Although not an archivist by training, Neelon spoke on how he resonated with the work of archivists and how his graffiti was his way of preserving moments.

The Institute on Copyright in Higher Education

For many in the archives world copyright is seen as a formidable foil—a barrier and source of confusion harkening to a Kafka novelette, forever confounding and hindering efforts to increase access. Yet the principles and output of intellectual property are fundamental to the work of information professionals. In many nations, including the U.S., copyright was explicitly designed to promote scholarship and continued production of creative works, and ultimately societal betterment. Copyright concerns become even more prevalent in the digital age, considering the monumental impact networked technology has already had on information delivery, and potential for widespread open access.

In higher education, where academic libraries and archives also serve as information creators and facilitators, publishing their institution’s intellectual capital, curating digital exhibits, and managing data in institutional repositories, copyright knowledge is an integral component to daily work. On February 26, 2016, in honor of Fair Use Week, Florida State University hosted a free, one day conference, the Institute on Copyright in Higher Education, providing regional librarians, educators, administrators, and students, an opportunity to convene and discuss concerns surrounding copyright, open access, and other related intellectual property issues. Sponsored by the Panhandle Library Access Network, and funded in part via Institute of Museum and Library Services, the day’s sessions were spearheaded and organized by FSU’s Office of Digital Research and Scholarship, known for their strong scholarly communications work and open access advocacy.

Hack Library School – 3 Lessons From My First Library Conference

Having just come back from my seventh conference in the GLAM field – one where I presented on a panel for the first time! – I tend to forget how intimidated I was at that first conference because now I know a lot of the attendees, whereas back then, I did not. There are a lot of first time conference attendees heading off to regional conferences in the next couple of months, and Atlanta will welcome many first timers to SAA/COPA in August. When I read Lauren Hester’s post on the Hack Library School blog earlier this week, I knew I wanted to give it a boost over here. Lauren has three really great tips for us to consider when attending that first conference. And you never know, old hats, we may end up needing to attend a conference in a different field – and you can bet I would be intimidated about that!

SNCA 2016

Guest author: Valerie Szwaya
MSLS Student at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

The Society for North Carolina Archivists and the South Carolina Archival Association held their annual conference jointly at the Mint Museum Uptown in Charlotte, North Carolina from March 30-April 1, 2016. This years theme was “Advocacy and Engagement: Demonstrating the Value of Archives.” Participants discussed collaboration, community engagement, advocating for the profession, and education about archival collections.

Wednesday, March 30 consisted of three pre-conference workshops held at the Mercy Heritage Center. Their descriptions can be found here.

Thursday, March 31 began with a keynote address from Dr. Seth Kotch, Assistant Professor of Digital Humanities in the Department of American Studies at UNC Chapel Hill, on the subject of digital sharing entitled “The Collector, the Community, the Reel, and the Real.” He discussed his participation in the Media and the Movement Project, supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities, that looks at the role of journalists and media throughout the Civil Rights Movement. Despite not being an archivist himself, he recognizes the function of the archivist as being essential to his efforts.

Americana 2016

Guest author: Sarah Jones
MLS Student, University of Maryland’s iSchool

Every year the Student Archivists at Maryland (SAM) hold an archives symposium called Americana. Each symposium focuses on a different topic, bringing together three speakers who exemplify work on that area. This year the topic was “Archival Activism and Social Justice.” SAM felt this topic was especially relevant this year and would be an interesting and important topic for Americana 2016.

How do archives and social justice intersect? Must archives even be involved in social justice? How can archives bring about social justice in an impactful and meaningful way? Three speakers at Americana 2016 tried to show how they have tried to do just that.

The first speaker was Katja Hering. Katja is the Project Archivist for the National Equal Justice Library at the Georgetown Law Library. Katja’s talk focused on the general idea of digital inequality as a whole. Katja urged archivists to think about digital equality when both creating digital content and providing access to that content. It is not enough to simply create digital content regarding diverse groups, but ensure that everyone can also access that content. Katja believes that digital archives must democratize access to materials while promoting “peace, equality, and justice, which our present society denies.”

Web Archives 2015

Last November, the University of Michigan held Web Archives 2015: Capture, Curate, Analyze. Ève Bourbeau-Allard, a first year MSI student at UM, wrote a post for their student SAA blog, which she has kindly shared with us. You can read the full post here.

Digitorium 2016

Guest author: Alissa Matheny Helms
Digital Access Coordinator, Metadata & Digital Services Department, University of Alabama Libraries

The goal of the conference is to create interdisciplinary scholarly communities, bringing together technology and researchers in a collaborative environment. The second annual Digitorium, held March 3-5 in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, focused on the methods used in producing Digital Humanities projects. This allowed the presentations and discussions to center on not just project generation but on the creation of tools that can be used for further research.

Two sessions were especially of interest for archivists and special collection librarians. On Thursday, Pedagogy and Public Scholarship I: Digital Scholarship and the Archive highlighted the ways in which archives and museums can help students gain knowledge through action and create a link between the classroom and the community. Juilee Decker of the Rochester Institute of Technology drew attention to the benefits of student collaboration in the archive in her presentation on three different digital projects carried out by her students. The projects allowed students to interact with archival materials and archivists to produce exhibits or transcriptions that tell stories and reach out into their communities.