News & EVENTS

EXPLORING THE EYE OF HISTORY: NEA SYMPOSIUM ON 19TH CENTURY PHOTOGRAPHY

There are still spots available to attend the afternoon symposium portion of “Exploring the Eye of History,” the New England Archivists’ Fall 2015 Meeting at the Providence Public Library in Providence, Rhode Island. The symposium will include talks and workshop-style sessions devoted to the identification and description of 19th-century photography. The day will culminate with a collaborative performance of a magic lantern show by Providence's Wonder Show.

STRANGE SITES AND UNTOLD STORIES: JUST WHAT IS A WONDER SHOW?  

The Wonder Show is a group of artists who explore new ways of viewing, storytelling and community-building through contemporary reinterpretations of the Victorian magical lantern show. Anya Ventura (emeritus) and Carolyn Gennari describe why lantern slide shows appeal to them as artists: "Seemingly composed of nothing but light and shadow, projected images suggest a certain wavering faithfulness to reality but only an ephemeral, and perhaps deceptive, one. The projected image challenges the relationship between the seen and unseen, reality and representation, and reason and belief. As we thought about what a 21st-century magic lantern show might look like, we became interested in how the idea of sympathetic magic might be applied to the idea of art-making itself. We researched magic lantern shows, Phantasmagoria or ghost shows, Spiritualist séances, and magician's conjuring tricks—all to uncover something about the nature of illusion, and the magic of giving form to the spirit, the invisible, the ghosts of history."

For the NEA Fall 2015 Meeting, The Wonder Show will present an abbreviated version of their performance "Strange Sites and Untold Stories." For this show they worked with the Providence Public Library's special collections, reproducing—using 19th-century photographic techniques—an enigmatic collection of snapshots documenting life in Rhode Island at the turn of the century. The show features a series of readers performing original stories as the photographs are projected behind them with the magic lantern.

Visit https://thewondershow.wordpress.com/shows/ or http://www.provlib.org/exhibitions/wondershow for more information.

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The Fall 2015 Meeting Committee has worked diligently to bring you a completely unique meeting experience, so reserve your space before it fills up.  For more information about the program, local resources (such as parking, hotels, and restaurants), and the registration process, see the NEA website or follow us on Twitter and Facebook using the hashtag #NEAfall15.

Looking forward to seeing you in Providence!

Fall 2015 Program Committee
New England Archivists

NEA EXECUTIVE BOARD MEETING
Friday, September 25th

Time: 10:00 am – 4:00 p.m.
Location: Massachusetts Historical Society (MHS)
1145 Boylston Street
Boston, MA 02215

All NEA members are welcome to attend the NEA Executive Board quarterly meeting on Friday, June 26th.  If you are interested, please contact Anna Clutterbuck-Cook at MHS: acook@masshist.org

Unable to attend the September 2015 board meeting in person? NEA is committed to making our board meetings open to all members. If you would like to request remote access to part or all of the September meeting, please contact the Inclusion and Diversity Coordinator, Anna Clutterbuck-Cook (acook@masshist.org / 617-646-0561) and we will do what we can to accommodate your request.

You can read the board meeting agenda on the NEA website: http://www.newenglandarchivists.org/news/3393012.

New England Archivists
Communications Committee

The morning photo workshop at AS220 for the New England Archivists Fall 2015 Meeting, "Exploring the Eye of History" is now full. Good news though: there are still spaces left for the afternoon symposium, but make sure to reserve your spot early.

Because of the great interest in this workshop (it sold out in one day!), NEA workshop coordinators are working with AS220 to try and offer it again in the spring. Look for more announcements in the next few months.

If you are still interested in attending the workshop during the Fall Meeting, you can put your name on a wait list. Email NEA Registrar Emily Atkins.

See you in Providence!

EXPLORING THE EYE OF HISTORY: NEA WORKSHOP AND SYMPOSIUM ON 19TH-CENTURY PHOTOGRAPHY

We are excited to announce that registration is now open (symposium only or workshop and symposium) for the New England Archivists' Fall 2015 New England Meeting, "Exploring the Eye of History." This unique meeting promises to be a fascinating experience so make sure to reserve your space early.

The two-part day will begin at the AS220 studios with a small morning workshop, where thirty participants will gain hands-on experience developing images using several 19th-century photography processes like cyanotype and wet plate collodion photography.

The afternoon session, a larger symposium at the Providence Public Library, will include talks and demonstrations devoted to the history and techniques of 19th-century photography. The day will culminate with a collaborative reinterpretation of a magic lantern show by Providence’s Wonder Show.

All presentations will be geared toward those who manage large photographic collections as well as those who work with these materials just occasionally -- novices and seasoned archivists alike. Whatever your level of experience, this meeting will have something for you. Enthusiasm is the only prerequisite!

Registration opens today, Monday September 14th. For more information about the program, local resources (such as parking, hotels, and restaurants), and the registration process, see the NEA website or follow us on Twitter and Facebook using the hashtag #NEAfall15.

Looking forward to seeing you in Providence!

Fall 2015 Program Committee

The New England Archivists (NEA) Executive Board is pleased to announce a new student meeting and travel scholarship to honor late NEA member Susan J. Von Salis.

NEA is committed to the professional development of its members and recognizes the importance of attending the annual spring meeting to engage with colleagues. To this end, the Executive Board voted to dedicate funds to two permanent scholarships intended to help NEA student members attend the spring meeting. One will provide funds to assist three individual members of NEA in attending the spring meeting, while the second will provide funds for two student members to attend the spring meeting. The latter has been named in honor of Susan J. Von Salis.

The Susan J. Von Salis Student Meeting and Travel Scholarship honors the memory of Susan Von Salis, an active and influential member of New England Archivists from 1989 to 2012. Susan held positions within NEA as Membership Secretary, Representative-at-Large, Chair of the Hale Award Committee, and member of the Outreach Committee and the Task Force on Organizational Efficiency. Von Salis received NEA’s Distinguished Service Award in 2012.  Susan was a graduate of Smith College, received a BA in Religion and Afro-American
Studies and an AM in History/Public History, and held positions at Radcliffe’s Schlesinger Library and Harvard Art Museums Archives. Susan was a vocal advocate for NEA’s success, and many archivists in our community count her as a mentor. This scholarship is a fitting way to honor her impact.

More information about this and NEA’s other awards and scholarship may be found here.  Applications for all awards open on December 1st.

Help support the new Susan J. Von Salis Student Meeting and Travel Scholarship with a tax-deductible gift. Your support will help foster and strengthen NEA awards and scholarships, which recognize efforts in advocacy, service, professional development, and collaboration . Donations may be made on the NEA’s donation page. Thank you.

NEA Executive Board

This summer NEA's Constituencies Task Force (CTF) sent out a survey to identify the various constituent groups among the membership and among all relevant groups in the region. Our goal was to investigate NEA's needs for professional development and the exchange of ideas.

We are pleased to report that the CTF survey was a great success! The survey was filled out by 100 members and more than 200 non-members who answered questions on demographics, professional associations, professional development and NEA services.

For the survey directed to our members, we offered an incentive: the chance to win a free year’s membership in NEA. We are happy to announce the winner of the incentive was Mary LaBombard. Congratulations, Mary!

The survey results will inform the CTF's upcoming report on how NEA can reach out to the diverse array of organizations holding archival materials in New England, enlarge and broaden our membership base, and collaborate with related state-based associations to provide needed services to NEA constituencies.

If you have any questions, contact CTF co-chair, Tom Doyle at tdoyle@minlib.net.

Dear NEA Members,

The NEA Board seeks volunteers to plan the Fall 2016 meeting. We are looking for 5 to 6 people who can come together and plan a half-day symposium. The format is flexible, and we welcome all ideas. If you would like to nominate yourself, or a colleague, please send an email by Monday September 21 to vp@newenglandarchivists.org. 

Yours sincerely,
Jennifer King, NEA VP/ President-elect

Dear members of NEA:

Thank you for responding to the recent membership survey. We received 176 submissions with thoughtful comments and suggestions.  Our survey incentive, a free year of NEA membership, was awarded to Annalisa Moretti. My congratulations to Annalisa!

I wanted to update you on a few details around the survey results.  

The data from the 2015 was collated and presented to the NEA Executive Board by the Membership Committee on at the quarterly Board meeting held on June 26, 2015. All survey data was discussed and will help shape priorities and strategic goals for NEA.

Data collected from questions regarding the Roundtables has been passed to the Chairs of the respective Roundtables. Data around workshop and education opportunities has been digested by the Education Coordinator and the Education Committee.

Your comments on strategic priorities will be reflected in the forthcoming NEA strategic plan. The strategic plan will begin this year and run until 2020. More details on this plan will be available this winter.

Your welcome feedback on our recent trial with a new meeting structure was also helpful. There was overwhelming support for the longer spring meeting and the Board voted in June to keep this format. Since responses to the fall meeting were mixed, the Board has decided to take more time to realize the full potential of a fall event. NEA will need your help in shaping the fall meeting. If you have questions or comments about the meeting structure, let me or any Board member know.

Other interesting results from the annual membership survey:

•  40% of responders have been members for 1-5 years. 16% have been members for 15 years or more.

• 70% of respondents work in MA, 15% in CT, 4% in RI, 3% in NH, 3% in ME, and 2% in VT (97% of respondents reported location in survey)

• 80% of respondents are employed full-time; 20% said they were looking for a job.

• 52% of respondents work in an academic setting, followed by 15% for non-profit, and 15% for government.

• Most respondents (86%) are satisfied with how NEA communicates with membership; most respondents prefer the listserv and newsletter as means of communication.  

A summary of the survey may be found on the NEA website here. We hope you will take the time to voice your ideas and concerns next year in the 2016 Annual Membership Survey.

Colin B. Lukens

NEA President

Dear NEA,

I was excited to see the letter sent to Facebook by Kathleen Roe, President of SAA. The letter asks Facebook and its Board of Directors to provide users the ability to download their content for archival purposes. Kudos to President Roe and the many who collaborated to bring this forward.

It is great to hear a proactive archival voice on important topics like public access to personal content existing in proprietary or public frameworks.

Jennifer Gunter King

NEA Vice President/ President Elect

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(Sent on behalf of SAA President Kathleen Roe)

Mark Zuckerberg and Members of the Facebook Board of Directors:

The Society of American Archivists (SAA) is North America’s oldest and largest national archival professional organization. Our profession is dedicated to documenting the activities of institutions, communities, and individuals in order to provide authentic and reliable primary sources to researchers. This letter concerns the ability to download archives for pages created on Facebook.

Facebook is an incredibly important platform for documenting the lives and activities of more than a billion people around the world.[i]  We commend you for enabling users to download their “archive” periodically from Facebook. This archive includes a user’s messages, chats, likes, searches, photos, videos, and more.[ii]  It is conveniently packaged as a zip file, which contains commonly understood file formats that can be viewed with a web browser. This data is of great use to archivists because it allows donors to easily collect their Facebook activity when they are donating their materials to an archive. The data presents a unique snapshot of the individual’s activities on Facebook. Visitors using the donated materials in an archive can view this content in the context of other materials. Most importantly it is authoritative because it comes directly from Facebook and the donors themselves.

As you know Facebook users often create pages for their businesses, organizations, places, community groups, and more. Per your guidelines,[iii] Facebook pages are administered by an authorized representative of the entity in question. When an entity such as a business or community group is donating materials to an archive, it would be extremely useful if donors were able to download the contents of their pages so that the contents could be included with the donated materials. Unfortunately this function is not currently supported. In addition, Facebook’s terms of service prevent this content from being collected without Facebook’s permission (see section II.C in Facebook’s Pages Terms).

SAA’s members strongly encourage you to add functionality that allows a page owner to download the contents of his/her page(s). This would allow archival institutions to accept donations of this material so that it can be made part of a collection and be made available to researchers who are examining other materials from the donor.

We believe that Facebook is a platform that offers an unprecedented ability for users to make their voices heard, to organize, and to effect change in their lives. As archivists we are dedicated to selecting, preserving, providing access to, and ensuring responsible custody of primary resource materials related to our diverse communities. We believe that the content in Facebook pages that has been managed by particular organizations, communities, and individuals will prove to be an indispensable part of that record.

Sincerely,

Kathleen D. Roe

President, 2014 – 2015

 

cc:           Trevor Alvord, Chair, SAA Web Archiving Roundtable

                Kate Stratton, Vice Chair, SAA Web Archiving Roundtable

                Bethany Cron, Chair, SAA Records Management Roundtable

                Brad Houston, Immediate Past Chair, SAA Records Management Roundtable

                Robert Spindler, Chair, SAA Congressional Papers Roundtable

                Nancy Beaumont, SAA Executive Director

               

 

[i] http://newsroom.fb.com/company-info/

[ii] https://www.facebook.com/help/405183566203254

[iii] https://www.facebook.com/page_guidelines.php

The Journal of Contemporary Archival Studies (JCAS) is seeking guest reviewers with expertise in historical photographs or visual materials for a special issue on 19th-century photography collections and techniques, to be published in partnership with New England Archivists (NEA). We need peer reviewers who can be available between August 31st and September 15th.

DEADLINES:
August 31: Submissions period ends | peer reviews begin
September 15: Peer review ends | revisions begin
October 15: Revisions end
November 7: Publication and NEA Fall 2015 Meeting

The special issue will be published in conjunction with NEA's Fall 2015 Meeting in Providence, Rhode Island, on November 7, 2015.

For more information, please contact the JCAS Managing Editor, Mike Lotstein, at email.jcas@gmail.com.