Professional Poster Descriptions

The 2018 Program Committee encouraged submission of professional poster presentations to broaden the ways in which presenters can share their work. This format gives you the chance to view posters on your own schedule and have informal, one-on-one conversations with the presenters during a set time. Presenters will be available to discuss their presentations at the poster display on Thursday, August 16, from 2:30 to 3:00 pm, and on Friday, August 17, from 1:30 to 2:00 pm.

P01 - Digital Migration and the Creation of ERDC Knowledge Core 
Jennefer Beyl, Joycelynn Brooks, Jered Lambiotte, and Natalie Meyers, US Army Corps of Engineers, Engineer Research and Development Center

The Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC) is an organization within the United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) that works on engineering solutions for civilian and military organizations. Because of the unique nature of the material produced, it has become increasingly imperative that the organizations' materials be made available digitally. This poster presentation focuses on the ERDC Library's strategy, successes, and challenges of implementing its new digital repository.

P02 - Beyond the Embargo: Ingesting a Mind-Boggling Amount of Partner Data into the National Archives Catalog 
Erica Boudreau and Gary H. Stern, National Archives and Records Administration

The embargo on much of the U.S. National Archives material digitized by for-profit partners has expired, and we are now free to make it available to the public. The challenge is to figure out how to ingest approximately 225 million digital objects and their associated metadata into the National Archives Catalog, almost twenty times the current number of non-partner digital objects available. Learn about the workflow and Python scripts developed to accomplish this daunting task.

P03 - Records Management at UVA: From Chaos to Control 
Jessica Burgess, University of Virginia

Before the Records Management Office was established at UVA in 2008, University records could be found not only in office filing cabinets but in mouse-infested warehouses and empty swimming pools. This poster presentation traces how training and outreach, customer service, a records management application, improved storage options, and an emphasis on compliance with law and internal standards have brought order to much of the former chaos -- and increased transparency at an institution subject to FOIA requests.

P04 - Using Data Visualization to Make Accessible Collections 
Thomas Cleary, LaGuardoa Community College, CUNY

Despite advances in finding aids and in collection management software, what an archives holds can still be murky. Digital humanities techniques offer new insight and access to collections through methods such as topic modeling and data visualization, offering greater transparency to holdings. These methods can also bring forth new themes and connections within and between collections, giving greater depth and relevance to holdings.

P05 - Navigating CORA, the Colorado Open Records Act 
Kay M. Dirling, Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment

Open records requests involve much more than just documents. Increasingly, requesters are after data?and they are demanding it in machine-readable formats that facilitate searching, sorting, and analysis. The Colorado Open Records Act was amended in August 2017 to reflect changing needs, requiring agencies to provide data in these formats rather than in paper or PDF copies. The legislation was produced after numerous stakeholder meetings and was hailed as a step into the 21st century.

P06 - Using Extensible Processing to Establish a Small Institution's Archives Program as a Contract Archivist 
Irene Gates, Robert S. Peabody Institute of Archaeology

This poster presentation describes my experiences drawing on Daniel Santamaria's "Extensible Processing for Archives and Special Collections: Reducing Processing Backlogs" (2015) to establish a small institution's archives program. The visible progress made by using an extensible processing approach and the structure it lent to the project facilitated advocacy for continuing funding beyond the initial contract.

P07 - Mobile Archivists: Outreach on the Go 
Catherine Hannula, California State University, Stanislaus /  Jennifer Barth, Wisconsin Historical Society

In July 2016, three archivists planned and designed a personal digitization workshop series, called the North Woods Tour, across rural northern Wisconsin where there are few professional archivists nearby. The series was designed to empower local communities to digitize their own historical items of interest. These items, both in original and digital form, were to fully remain in the patrons' hands, thus promoting a sense of trust and transparency between the archivists and the public.

P08 - Colorado State Archives First Born 
Scott Lawan, Colorado State Archives

In Colorado, when a court case or other legal matter involves a section of the Colorado Revised Statutes, attorneys investigate the bill's legislative history to present the legislative intent to the judge. Preserving and providing documentation verifying the validity of this legislative history aids in ensuring government transparency in Colorado. Lawan and Smallwood present a use case demonstrating the value of conducting thorough planning and documentation to guarantee transparency of government records.

P09 - The World Is Not Flat: How We Moved Beyond the Flatbed Scanner 
Alessandro Meregaglia, Boise State University / Jim Duran, Vanderbuilt University Libraries

Boise State University Special Collections and Archives instituted a rapid-scanning program using an overhead camera and imaging software. Our poster presentation illustrates a) how we designed the system using donated resources and strategic purchasing of equipment, b) our imaging workflow, and c) metrics about speed and training. This poster highlights new advances in imaging technology, our combination of software and repurposed hardware to digitize diverse objects efficiently, and how archivists can reproduce this set-up themselves.

P10 - How Can Archives and Special Collections be a Part of Makerspace? 
Fatemeh Rezaei, University of Baltimore

Makerspace is one of the new ideas/features of the future libraries. It involves having more space for creativity and invention and different methods for learning. I argue that archives and special collections also have the opportunity to be part of Makerspace. My research focuses on how archives and special collections can be involved in Makerspace in academic libraries and what distinct values it can offer to contribute to a more effective Makerspace.

P11 - Search Among Sensitive Content: Investigating Archivist and Donor Conceptions of Privacy, Sensitivity, and Access 
Katie Shilton and Douglas Oard, University of Maryland

This poster presentation describes initial findings from a collaborative investigation of contextual privacy and redaction in email archives. By interviewing archivists and donors of email collections, the project team has identified themes of what constitutes a "sensitive" email record and is building an ontology of categories of sensitivity in email communications. This project deconstructs definitions of privacy, sensitivity, transparency, and access from interdisciplinary research using an archival lens.

P12 - Reduce, Rehouse, Reveal: Employing Extensible Processing at The Henry Ford 
Janice Unger, The Henry Ford

This poster presentation focuses on an extensible processing project that occurred at the Benson Ford Research Center in the midst of creating shelf space for an extremely large collection. It explores the reasons for choosing this process, information included on finding aids, challenges faced, and benefits that resulted.

P13 - Escape the Archives: Public Programming to Promote Transparency 
Hillary S. Kativa, Science History Institute

In October 2017, archivists at the Othmer Library of Chemical History staged a special archives-themed "Escape the Room" game during the library's annual open house. The result? A fun and engaging way to promote transparency and educate the public about archival work. From planning and development to outcomes and lessons learned, see how they did it and gain the tools and inspiration necessary to undertake similar initiatives at your own institution.