Spring Meeting 2000: Meeting Program
"Archival Traditions in the New
Millennium"
April 28-29, 2000
DoubleTree Hotel, Lowell, Mass.
Meeting Registration and Coffee 8:00-9:00
Keynote Address: 9:00-10:00
John Fleckner, Chief Archivist, National Archives of American History, Smithsonian Institution. Publicity regarding his SAA Presidential address. Email: fleckner@nmah.si.edu.
Break: 10:00-10:30
Concurrent Sessions I: 10:30-11:45
Session 1: Student Forum
Description: For this session, students have been invited to share their work and present their research ideas before our professional organization. This is an opportunity for NEA members to welcome them and renew our own understanding of what's happening in today's archival and history programs.
Chair: Leith Johnson, Wesleyan Cinema
Archives
Speakers:
- TBA
Session 2: Revisiting Reference: How May We Help You?
Description: Traditionally the role of reference archivist as collection analyst and interpreter has been crucial to providing successful service to researchers. New tools such as email and WEB outreach are changing reference service dramatically. How do different types and sizes of repositories respond to change and what else is in the future? What values do archivists seek to incorporate into reference service? What does our public value? Three experienced archivists will share their thoughts about the present and future challenges of the reference scene.
Chair: Elizabeth Andrews, Massachusetts
Institute of Technology
Speakers:
- Kathy Marquis, Bentley Historical Collections, University of Michigan
- Diane Kaplan, Yale University
- Martha Clark, Massachusetts State Archives
Session 3: Appraising Audiovisual Materials
Description: Managing audio-visual materials requires technical knowledge, good management practice, common sense, and an understanding of the significant historical information they contain. This session, designed for the archivist who deals mostly with paper-based collections, will address some of the issues involved in the appraisal of audiovisual materials. David Weiss will talk about changing philosophies in the appraisal of moving images in recent years, and outline basic practices and procedures for the identification, inspection, and appraisal of film and video materials. Bridget Carr will talk about her experience at the Boston Symphony Orchestra as manager of a collection of more than 10,000 sound recordings in a variety of formats. She will discuss some of the tools she has developed to appraise and manage the collection, as well as preservation projects she has completed and others she has planned for the future.
Chair: Frances O'Donnell, Harvard
Divinity School
Speakers:
- Bridget Carr, Boston Symphony Orchestra
- David Weiss, Northeast Historic Film
Lunch and business meeting: 11:45-1:30
Concurrent Sessions II: 1:30-2:30
Session 4: Discussion Groups
Description: Archivists often look to eachother for information, and advice. In this session 8 concurrent discussion groups will provide archivists with opportunities to talk, to learn, and to network about specific issues. Each group will have a facilitator with expertise in the subject to lead the discussion, but the focus will be on the participants asking questions and exchanging information.
Groups:
- Group 1: Genealogy as a Development
Tool
Facilitator: Rebecca Putnam, Manager of Research and Donor Relations, Peabody-Essex Museum - Group 2: When Archivists are
Responsible for Automation
Facilitators: Mary Fabiszewski, Nancy Heywood, Massachusetts Historical Society - Group 3: MassLegacy: Promoting
Archives and Historical Records in Massachusetts
Facilitator: Susan Edwards, Salem State College - Group 4: Recruiting and Managing
Volunteers
Facilitator: Marie McAndrew-Taylor, Woodstock Historical Society - Group 5: Career Development for New
Archivists
Facilitator: Brenda Lawson, Massachusetts Historical Society - Group 6: Rising Researcher
Expectations in the Digital Age: Comments and
Solutions
Facilitator: Kathy Marquis, Bentley Historical Collections - Group 7: Museum Archives: How an
Archival Program Supports Museum Activities
Facilitator: Sarah Demb, Peabody Museum, Harvard University - Group 8: Copyright Issues and Photographs
Facilitator: Kathy Flynn, Peabody-Essex Museum
Session 5: Managing Archives in a Changing Environment
Description: In a changing organizational, financial, and technological environment, the traditional roles of archivists and functions of archives are being challenged. Two senior managers, drawing from varied experiences in government and university archives, look at management strategies for archivists in the year 2000.
Chair: Peter Drummey, Massachusetts
Historical Society
Speakers:
- Megan Sniffin-Marinoff, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- Megan Desnoyers, John F. Kennedy Library
Break: 2:30-2:45
Concurrent Sessions III: 2:45-4:00
Session 6: Archival Education: The Role of Practical Learning
Description: While most archivists associate practical learning with graduate archival programs, a rapidly changing environment requires archivists to add to their traditional store of knowledge and skills throughout their careers. The speakers will talk about practical learning at various stages of an archivist's professional life.
Chair: Connell Gallagher, University of
Vermont
Speakers:
- Jeannette Allis Bastian, Simmons College
- Susan von Salis, Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute
Session 7: Communicate; Cooperate; Collaborate: Marketing Strategies for the 21st Century
Description: Both to encourage use of their collections, and to win financial and institutional support for their programs, archivists find themelves actively and aggressively marketing their programs to their donors, to the public, to their governments, and to their bosses. In this session the participants will suggest ways to effectively market archival programs to a variety of audiences.
Chair: Christopher Beam, Bates
College
Speakers:
- Kathryn Jacob, Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute
- Robert Johnson-Lally, Archdiocese of Boston
- Cari Palmer, Independent Consultant
Session 8: Archival Description: Multiple Choices for Repositories
Description: Repositories today have many choices for description. Decisions about what to use are based on multiple factors, including staffing levels, staff expertise, available technology, and budget. Four speakers will give brief presentations on various avenues they have used for description, including NUCMC services, Microsoft Access databases, Encoded Archival Description, and the Web. Following the presentations, the audience will break out into smaller groups for focused discussions on one of the four topics.
Chair: Donna Longo DiMichele, Rhode
Island Office of Library and Information Services
Speakers:
- Louise Sandberg, Special Collections, Lawrence Public Library, will speak on NUCMC's free service to make manuscript records available in RLIN
- Robert E. Schnare, Naval War College Library, will discuss the wide range of issues that must be dealt with to make a manuscript collection available on the Web
- Timothy J. Spindler, James P. Adams Library, Rhode Island College, will talk about using MS Access to manage archives data and images
- Timothy G. Young, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University, will address the way EAD has transformed the use of finding aids
Reception: 4:15-5:15
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