[SOA] Save the Date: MAC in Chicago, April 22-24

[Janet Carleton]

Please save the date for the annual meeting of the Midwest Archives
Conference, to be held in Chicago, April 22-24, 2010!

The MAC annual meeting is a great value--registration for the 2 day
conference is always less than $100. Please see below the plenary and
session descriptions. <http://www.midwestarchives.org/>

Additionally there will be 4 pre-conference workshops:
- SAA's Intro to DACS (Describing Archives: A Content Standard)
- MAC Basics: Reference and Outreach
- Oral History Projects: After the Interview--Completing the Closing Stages
- Using the Audiovisual Self-Assessment Program (AvSAP) Tool.


*Plenary Descriptions*

Thursday, April 22
Plenary Speaker: Lee Bey: Unbuilt Chicago: What Could have Been
Lee Bey's keynote speech will examine seldom-considered aspects of 
Chicago architecture: What could have been: the buildings, architectural
masterpieces and grand urban schemes, planned for Chicago but never 
built. This unheralded but well-documented facet of Chicago's history 
included world's tallest buildings, airports--and even an entire 
town--that were planned, approved, but never came to fruition for a 
variety of reasons. The speech will show and discuss examples of 
Chicago's unbuilt architecture, while at the same time underscoring the 
importance archivists played in assisting the speaker in his research.

Friday, April 23
Plenary Speaker: Dominic Pacyga: Ethnic Chicago: Searching the Roots of
Chicago's Past
Dominic A. Pacyga's illustrated address will explore his extensive 
research into the waves of immigrants that have transformed Chicago from 
a tiny frontier settlement to a vast diverse metropolitan area. 
Beginning with French explorers and missionaries Pacyga will track the 
impact of European, Asian, Latino, African American, and Middle Eastern 
peoples on the city's history. Cultural clash has been a factor in 
Chicago from its beginning. Sometimes this struggle has become violent 
as in the Lager Beer Riot, Haymarket Affair, and 1919 Race Riot. Other 
times these groups established themselves peacefully in neighborhoods 
and in the political and social structure of the city. Dominic Pacyga 
will discuss how he traced these Chicagoans in their march across the 
city's past and present by the use of various area archives, newspapers, 
family papers and interviews.


*Concurrent Sessions to be Offered*

Accessing the Cultural Crossroads: Discovering Underrepresented Histories
through Processing and Digitization
There are many challenges in providing access to archival materials,
particularly those relating to historically underrepresented people and
groups. As efforts such as the ARL Hidden Collections initiative, the 
More Product Less Process movement, and digitization projects aim to 
broaden access, how can we ensure that material that has been 
under-supported and overlooked is given the context and description it 
requires? Given that documents of minority history are often dispersed 
or subsumed in collections, how can we reconcile processing methods 
based on broad aggregation? In digitization projects, how can we use 
controlled vocabulary terms and free-text fields to maximize the 
discoverability and accessibility of such items? How should 
minimum-level processing be represented to minority donors and other 
groups with whom many repositories must work to build trust and mutual 
understanding? Panelists will raise these questions, suggest best 
practices, and share lessons learned.
Chair: Rachel Howard, University of Louisville, Kentucky
Presenters: Maija Anderson, University of Chicago, Illinois
Sue Finley, University of Louisville, Kentucky
Elizabeth Fox-Corbett, Wisconsin Historical Society, Madison

Archivist's Show and Tell: An Open Mic Session
join us for a special session that has been designed as an opportunity 
to share new innovations. each participant will have 5 minutes to 
demonstrate a new innovation they're utilizing in their repository. 
meeting attendees will be requested to submit proposals to the session 
moderators via a blast e-mail message sent a few weeks before the 
meeting. we will also save a couple slots for people at the meeting to 
volunteer so that we can include all of the latest innovations. [chairs 
to be announced]

Avoiding the Chopping Block: Reinforcing your Archives' Value in a Tight
Economy
As administrators navigate the agonizing process of prioritizing budgets 
during lean economic times, archives that fall within larger 
institutions must increasingly justify their value. Three Chicago-area 
archivists share innovations in public programming and outreach that 
reinforce the value of services to parent institutions. Stecklein will 
discuss outreach programs that have increased Rush's Medical Center 
Archives presence and utility within a large hospital and medical 
university campus. Myers, of the Women and Leadership Archives, will 
address the ways by which external programs and partnerships can turn an 
archives "almost too small to notice" into an invaluable resource. 
Leonard, working from the university archives perspective, will round 
out the discussion by examining ways in which traditional business 
practices can be applied to expand patronage and exposure in the 
archival setting.
Chair: Heidi Marshall, Columbia College Chicago
Presenters: Beth Myers, Loyola University Chicago
Heather J. Stecklein, Rush University
Kevin Leonard, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois

Can I Really Sell my Footage?
Archivists whose collections include moving-image materials face a 
dilemma: in theory, licensing film and video materials can be a useful 
source of revenue--and access to these materials can be a critical part 
of an archive's mandate. In practice, such licensing is a daunting 
undertaking involving every aspect of archival management. Rights, donor 
relations, technology, ethical concerns, public access and preservation 
issues all figure prominently in licensing any archival footage. The 
question becomes: is it worth the trouble? This session will help you 
come up with an answer that's right for your collection. Martin and 
Faber are independent archivists and consultants and their goal is to 
provide a real-world understanding of what is possible--and what 
isn't--when it comes to allowing the use of your archival moving images. 
They will explore what production companies really want from archives, 
what rights you can reasonably give them, and how working with 
documentary producers can provide benefits beyond just licensing fees. 
Whether you are already licensing footage from your archive or just 
thinking about it, this session will appeal to archivists interested in 
expanding access to their collections.
Chair: Jim Hone, Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri
Presenters: Jeff Martin, Chicago, Illinois
Carolyn Faber, Chicago, Illinois

Capturing History: Archiving the Contemporary Cultural Transition
This session centers on how economic changes bring cultural transitions 
for communities that have formed around an industry. Documentation of 
these contemporaneous transformations is now almost entirely 
born-digital, making records more transitory and ephemeral than records 
of labor history past. Archives must expedite collecting efforts, 
connect with effective communities in new ways, and tackle digital 
preservation challenges before a transition runs its course. Smith will 
discuss how curators at the Reuther Library are developing new 
acquisition and selection strategies to ensure effective documentation 
of the changing nature of the labor force. Kessler presents challenges 
the University of Northern Iowa faces as it gathers electronic 
documentation on the slaughterhouse immigration raid in Postville, Iowa. 
O'Gara will offer insight into the development of acquisition, 
accessioning, and processing workflows for the digital records of the 
transformation of Kannapolis, North Carolina from a textile mill factory 
town to a high tech, human wellness community.
Chair: Lisa Carter, North Carolina State University, Raleigh
Presenters: Thomas Kessler, University of Northern Iowa, Cedar Falls
Genya O'Gara, North Carolina State University, Raleigh
Mike Smith, Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan

Conundrum at the Crossroads: Challenges of Ethnic and Immigrant Collections
The Midwest is populated by a plethora of ethnic and immigrant groups. 
The resulting archival collections can create new and unique challenges 
for archivists. Whether it be a language barrier, a cultural barrier, or 
researchers who have unusual needs, archivists are meeting the 
challenges. In this session, Maggard will discuss Cincinnati's 
German-Americana collection and her experiences creating finding aids 
and assisting researchers, despite having no prior knowledge of German. 
Mason of the Iowa Women's Archive will describe the challenges of 
funding and managing the transcription of oral histories conducted in 
Spanish as part of the Mujeres Latinas Project. Finally, Johansson of 
the Swenson Swedish Immigration Research Center will focus on solutions 
to make non-English materials accessible to English-only speakers.
Chair: Suzanne Maggard, University of Cincinnati, Ohio
Presenters: Suzanne Maggard, University of Cincinnati, Ohio
Kären Mason, University of Iowa, Iowa City
Christina Johansson, Augustana College, Rock Island, Illinois

Digitization in the Archives: Methods and Solutions
This session will explore the variety of ways that archives approach the 
issues of digitizing all in the order to push our information out to the 
general public quickly and efficiently. Some projects took the matter of 
More Product, Less Processing (MPLP) to heart, while other projects not 
only provided the digitization of textual materials and presentation; 
they also took into consideration preservation of digital files. Rice 
will discuss the digitizing of an entire collection from the moment it 
enters the door, straight to scanning bed, and directly online. Moore 
will talk about scanning standards, workflow, and aspects of scanning 
while looking at the assumptions of MPLP. Gemmill will talk about the 
LYRASIS Mass Digitization Collaborative effort partnering with the 
Internet Archive. She will discuss the nuts and bolts of a large scale 
collaborative effort to digitize, present, preserve, and make available 
materials available online.
Chair: Daniel Golodner, Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan
Laurie Gemmill, LYRASIS, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Erik Moore, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis
Deborah Rice, Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan

Facilitating Conversations in the Archival Community
Join in a guided conversation on issues of professional importance in 
this special session. After introductory comments, participants will 
break into small groups to discuss two of four topics of their choice: 
1.) reference and outreach; 2.) implementing and using content 
management software; 3.) success and failure with Web2.0 applications; 
and 4.) facilitating student use of archives, including History Day. 
Discussions will be guided by facilitators, who will offer questions to 
initiate the conversation and will keep the conversation focused, yet 
will allow participants the opportunity to share experiences and ideas 
with one another. This session is appropriate for both novice 
archivists, who will benefit from the opportunity to learn from seasoned 
colleagues, and from those with substantial experience, who can use the 
time to exchange information. The purpose is to strengthen the 
profession by facilitating the dissemination of information and to 
foster networking among archivists with similar interests which will, 
ideally, continue beyond the session and the conference.
Facilitators: Jeff Jenson, Gustavus Adolphus College, St. Peter, Minnesota
Ann Kenne, University of St. Thomas, St. Paul, Minnesota
Heather Lawton, Hennepin County Library, Minneapolis, Minnesota
Tom Steman, St. Cloud State University, St. Cloud, Minnesota

Invisible Cultures: Engaging the History of People with Disabilities
This session presents a case study of the efforts of the Ward M. Canaday 
Center for Special Collections to document the history of people with 
disabilities in northwest Ohio. What began as an effort to collect 
historical records has now moved into the phase of active outreach to 
the disability community through exhibitions and public programming, 
informing and enriching the broader history of the region. Since few 
repositories have undertaken efforts to document disability, this 
session will inform other archivists about the hidden histories 
discovered in this award-winning project and will describe outreach and 
engagement activities that have assisted disabled community members in 
connecting with their histories. Responding to the spread of 
cyber-subcultures, including those of people with disabilities who have 
become technologically adept over the past two decades, presenters will 
discuss how a virtual exhibit can be developed that meets accessibility 
standards for outreach. While this session will focus on the efforts of 
one repository, it will stress how other repositories might undertake 
similar projects to uncover the cultural history of disability in their 
communities.
Chair: Barbara Floyd, University of Toledo, Ohio
Presenters: Kimberly Brownlee, University of Toledo, Ohio
Barbara Floyd, University of Toledo, Ohio
Arjun Sabharwal, University of Toledo, Ohio

Landing a Job in This Economy
The recession supposedly is waning, but that doesn't mean money is now 
pouring into archival institutions for new hires. The competition for 
jobs is still fierce, and it could be tough getting to the promised land 
of a regular paycheck or new job. Hear how three recent graduates used 
their school experiences to make themselves more marketable for their 
first professional jobs, whether it was packing a resume with 
internships in the field; showing expertise through articles published 
in professional journals; or learning related specializations to broaden 
skill sets. The chair has seen many bad resumes and met plenty of 
applicants unprepared for interviews. She will provide a handout with 
tips to help applicants avoid common mistakes.
Chair: Kevlin Haire, The Ohio State University, Columbus
Presenters: Michelle Caswell, University of Wisconsinâ??Madison
Jason Nargis, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois
Adam Zimmerli, St. Marys, Georgia

Managing Electronic Records: From the Trenches
This session will examine two strategies for managing electronic 
business records: one a commercial application, the second a large 
research university repository. Arp's paper "Taming the 800 Pound 
Gorilla: How to Deal with SharePoint Sites" will suggest ways to engage 
your users in creating a thoughtful strategy that will allow your 
institution to successfully harvest SharePoint records. Esposito's paper 
"ElectRAR: Software Requirements for an Institutional Business E-records 
Repository" will detail the workflows for ingest, management, and output 
for university business records. Each presenter will detail structures 
and strategies for making the individual electronic records solution a 
viable proposal.
Chair: Jill Tatem, Case Western Reserve University
Presenters: Charlie Arp, Battelle Memorial Institute, Columbus, Ohio
Jackie R. Esposito, Pennsylvania State University, University Park

Managing, Preserving, and Presenting Oral History
Recently, three Wisconsin institutions created projects to preserve and 
present important oral history materials from new and existing 
collections. These institutions have oral history collections that are 
self-described as small, medium, and large. All three projects worked 
with limited budgets (Black Thursday Remembered at UW-Oshkosh, Forest 
Products Lab at UW-Madison, and Wisconsin Survivors of the Holocaust at 
WHS). The presenters and chair will discuss their projects and the 
challenges of converting analog content to digital form, working with 
born digital materials, preserving it permanently, and presenting to a 
wider audience, both conventional and on the Web.
Chair: Troy Reeves, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Presenters: Sally Jacobs, Wisconsin Historical Society, Madison
Allison Page, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Joshua Ranger, University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh
Leah Ujda, University of Wisconsin-Madison

More than just "Sheet Music": Identifying and Describing Music Materials 
in Archives and Special Collections
The development of descriptive standards for music materials tends to be 
a continuing challenge for many archives and special collections 
libraries. Our colleagues in music libraries have developed tools and 
strategies to convey accurate descriptions of the published music 
materials (sound recordings and music scores), and archivists can adapt 
these for the collections in their care. The three speakers will provide 
an overview of the informational elements that are most important in 
description of these music materials, illustrated in part by a 
discussion of how many different uses music might be put to in terms of 
outreach and public programming. Harbeson will address the descriptive 
issues of music on paper; Cuervo will provide an overview of best 
practices in the storage and use of printed music materials; and DeLand 
will focus on identifying and describing sound recordings and conveying 
useful search and retrieval information to the user. This session will 
include opportunities for participants to create descriptions of sample 
items using the tools and resources presented by the panelists.
Chair: Suzanne Flandreau, Columbia College Chicago, Illinois
Presenters: Adriana P. Cuervo, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Rob DeLand, VanderCook College of Music, Chicago, Illinois
Eric Harbeson, University of Colorado at Boulder

Organizing Anarchy: Zines in the Archives/Library World
[description to come]
Chair: Jeremy Brett, University of Iowa, Iowa City
Presenters: Kathy DeGraff, DePaul University, Chicago, Illinois
Jenna Freedman, Barnard College, New York, New York
Patricia Falk, Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, Ohio

Re-Casting the Net: Redefining Regional Archival Surveys and Expanding 
Access to Underrepresented Cultural Collections
A large number of collections documenting traditionally underrepresented 
groups of people are in the hands of individual collectors, historical 
societies, and neighborhood community centers. The collections are often 
unknown to archivists and researchers because they may not be listed on 
the Internet and too often the institutions holding them may not be in a 
position to apply for grant funding. One solution adopted by the 
panelists is to conduct a survey of these collections. Calahan will 
discuss the Black Metropolis Research Consortium's survey of 
African-American and African Diaspora materials in the Chicago area. 
Grimm will discuss the Midwest Latino Arts Documentary Heritage Project, 
which surveys Latino Arts materials. Finally, Graham will discuss a 
Wisconsin Records Assessment Project that highlighted minority materials 
in the state of Wisconsin and encouraged more active collection of these 
records in the future.
Chair: Bergis Jules, University of Chicago.
Presenters: Lisa Calahan, University of Chicago
Tracy Grimm, University of Notre Dame
Jennifer Graham, Wisconsin Historical Society

Roadside Assistance: Professional Contributions in Response to a Disaster
This session will focus on the various professional contributions that 
archivists can make following a disaster. McCorkell will describe how 
six archives students and graduates from the School of Information 
Studies traveled to Germany to assist with disaster recovery efforts at 
the Historical City Archives of Cologne, which collapsed in March 2009. 
She will comment on the effective use of expert assistance for 
immediate, short-term disaster response efforts, and will address 
organizational, communications, and task and volunteer management 
issues. Swanson will discuss how the Department of Special Collections 
has documented the 1997 Red River Flood by preserving resources that can 
be used for after-action analysis and review. The repository began 
documenting the flood as it happened, and has actively collected oral 
histories, publications, documentaries, photographs, ephemera, and 
artifacts related to the flood. Additionally, as a unique feature of its 
documentation efforts, Special Collections has digitized recordings of 
phone calls made to the Grand Forks 911 Dispatch Center on the day the 
levees broke. This session aims to provide attendees of all skill levels 
with new ideas and strategies for sharing their professional expertise 
and skills following a disaster.
Chair: Erin Vandenberg, DePaul University, Chicago, Illinois
Presenter: Michael Swanson, University of North Dakota, Grand Forks
Colleen McCorkell, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

Special Interest Groups: Surviving with the Three C's! Collaboration, 
Continuing Education, and Cost Savings
In this recession, archivists are banding together in unprecedented 
ways. Learn how specialty groups are helping archivists carry out their 
required duties by joining forces with others in their respective 
geographical areas. Representatives from three institutions will offer 
examples of how in one city, the founding of such groups has formed 
viable organizations that provide continuing education and support; 
collaborative projects in outreach, access, and preservation; resource 
sharing; content management software users groups; and bulk purchasing. 
These joint archival activities provide practical solutions at a 
fraction of the cost of larger archivist associations. Speakers will 
describe how through creativity and vision, group members enhance the 
activities of their member archives. Join the discussion about similar 
groups in your locale or come away with ideas about how to implement 
such a group.
Moderator: Diane Pugh, American Theological Library Association, 
Chicago, Illinois
Presenters: David B. Malone, Wheaton College, Wheaton, Illinois
Malachy R. McCarthy, Claretian Missionaries Archives USA, Chicago, Illinois
Susan Rishworth, American College of Surgeons, Chicago, Illinois

With a Little Help from my Friends
Preservation activities are often one of the first areas to be cut from 
already strained budgets in this uncertain economic climate. Many 
smaller institutions must make do without trained staff to handle 
preservation needs. The National Endowment for the Humanities offers 
Preservation Assistance Grants, an annual award program that can be used 
to jump start a preservation program or address a specific preservation 
need. In this session, case studies will be presented from three 
different types of repositories that have applied for and received NEH 
Preservation Assistance Grants. Chaired by a member from the NEH 
Preservation Division, speakers will demonstrate how a relatively simple 
grant can be leveraged within an organization for maximum results.
Chair: Joel Wurl, National Endowment for the Humanities, Washington, DC
Presenters: Julia Blair, Michigan Technological University, Houghton
Nancy Watrous, Chicago Film Archives, Illinois
Nicolette Meister, Beloit College, Beloit, Wisconsin

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_____________________________________________
Janet M. Carleton - carleton at ohio.edu - 740.597.2527
Digital Initiatives Coordinator / Women's & Gender Studies Librarian
Alden 237, Ohio University Libraries, Athens, Ohio
Digital Initiatives - http://media.library.ohiou.edu/
Library - http://www.library.ohiou.edu/