- About Archives
- About SAA
- Careers
- Education
- Publications
- Advocacy
- Membership
Kylie I. Casino, Victoria R. Castaneda; NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory
The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) is bringing its robust visual history to wider audiences by increasing digitization efforts for its collection of 350,000+ images. These efforts allow us to preserve negatives from physical damage, as well as images lacking any digital or intellectual representation. From 2018-present, 150,000+ images have been digitized and catalogued.
Colleen Cirocco, Wayne State University
This poster explores my MLIS practicum experience in which I worked with an incredibly rare and precious collection at the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History. The collection depicts the lives of an African American family from Adrian, MI, in the 1800s and 1900s and contains over 400 photographs, in addition to original slave transaction documents. I focus on the process of conducting a remote oral history with the collection donor, in which I utilized technologies such as Zoom and Google Photos in effort to enhance the descriptive metadata record.
Gerard Collins, Azatuhi Babayan, Crystal Johnson; California State University, Dominguez Hills
Post-custodial theory coupled with digital technology presents new opportunities for community archives to partner with larger institutions without ceding physical or intellectual control of collections. In Los Angeles, a program by LA as Subject permits resident archivists to work with community archives on digitization projects. This approach has the potential to build relationships between host universities and local communities by providing guidance and expertise, while ensuring that the communities are included as partners and collaborators.
Daniel M. Davis, Utah State University - Special Collections & Archives
Primary source literacy and visual literacy have fundamental differences but many complimentary ideas. In 2019 author and photograph curator Daniel Davis experimented with creating a complex lesson plan that integrated these two standards. This poster session details how Davis integrated ideas from both standards into one lesson plan and then how he then taught from the lesson plan in a way that learners can create their own unique interpretations of visual documents.
Carly Dearborn, The Ohio State University Libraries
This poster will present the initial findings and future directions of a research project interrogating the sustainability of the lone digital archivist staffing model. It will build on existing work on staffing in digital preservation and present a case for future explorations and application of organizational theory to evaluate the satisfaction and effectiveness of the presence and location of lone digital archivists within an organization.
Kate Dundon, University of California, Santa Cruz
Featuring an overview of a recent retroactive accessioning initiative at the University of California, Santa Cruz, this poster empowers archivists to expand access to holdings by framing the work of managing unaccessioned material in an extensible processing context. Countering the narrative of "hidden collections" and "beastly" backlogs, this poster invites attendees to instead consider the valuable learning opportunities afforded by such labor.
Hannah-Jayne Duran, City and County of Broomfield, Colorado
Creativity! Flexibility! Cultural heritage organizations are full of opportunities for cooperation with your archive. This poster presents the challenges of creating relationships and the benefits of increased accessibility by working together with other entities. Through collaborative events, audiences are shared and the fruits of archival research can come to life in the community. The world of archives is changing and the needs of our users are shifting and demanding new possibilities. What's next? Let's collaborate!
Colleen Farry, The University of Scranton
Through metadata reconciliation and semantic enrichment, archivists and digital collection librarians can derive additional value from collection metadata and potentially expose hidden collections. Through evaluation and reconciliation, local metadata can be leveraged to enhance the visibility of archival collections through linked data environments. This presentation will present the strategies, challenges, and outcomes of a metadata reconciliation project for an archival collection of photographic negatives at the University of Scranton.
Margaret Huang, Philadelphia Museum of Art
The Duchamp Research Portal is an online platform that unifies the digitized archival holdings at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Centre Pompidou, and Association Marcel Duchamp to make a significant portion of Duchamp's primary source materials freely accessible and discoverable through a single interface. This project is multifaceted and has been an important exploration for the museum into the topics of linked open data, integrating museum and archival collections, working with international partners, and copyright.
Rita Johnston, UNC Charlotte
In Fall 2019, UNC Charlotte Special Collections and University Archives launched a new interface for their Islandora digital collections repository, Goldmine. This poster will provide an overview of the collaborative design process, led by a working group of librarians and archivists with diverse backgrounds and implemented by the library's Technology and Digital Strategies team. Included will be before-and-after comparisons of the old and new site, project workflows, design decisions, and lessons learned from the process.
Jaime Karbowiak, Emily Antoville; Long Island University
The PUPS Model focuses on the collaboration between the private and public institutions working on the Robert Moses Collection Project—an ambitious venture to create widespread public access to historic records produced during the era when Robert Moses developed most of Long Island's public parks and parkways. The project is a rare initiative under which both state agencies and private entities have come together with a commitment to bring to light this previously hidden collection.
Kahlee Leingang, A.L. Carson; Iowa State University
This poster describes how we transformed a dysfunctional but high-value process (artifact cataloging) by focusing staff time on shifting personal knowledge into institutional documentation. Prioritizing documentation has resulted in a more sustainable workflow, freeing staff from a repetitive task by supporting student-worker creation of consistent records for artifacts in the archives holdings. The poster highlights the process of creating that documentation, from outline through testing to iterative maintenance.
Tyne Lowe, Northwestern University
For decades following the Newberry's acquisition of a collection of antique photographic postcards, the identity of the photographer remained unknown. As an assistant processing this collection, I identified the photographer by combining visual analysis with traditional research methods, establishing connections between our photographs and those in other collections. This project underscores the value of interdisciplinary research approaches in archival processing, specifically by using art historical principles when assessing a collection of visual materials.
Carly Marino, Cutcha Risling Baldy, Kayla Begay; Humboldt State University
This poster discusses a digital archive focused on Northwest California tribal activism, particularly the Lyng v Northwest Indian Cemetery Protective Association Supreme Court case. The project included a two day digitization event, symposium, and oral history project led Humboldt State University's Special Collections and Native American Studies department. This project created dialogue between members of tribal communities to relay the history of indigenous activism in the region while educating the public in methods of preservation.
Carrie P. Mastley, Ryan Semmes; Mississippi State University
Upon receiving the Frank and Virginia Williams Collection of Lincolniana, Mississippi State University Libraries Archivists identified a need for an item-level description standard. The team selected Cataloging Cultural Objects (CCO) due to its focus on describing individual cultural works and their visual surrogates. This case study presents best practices and lessons learned and rethinks established practices to allow for better description and ultimately better discovery and access of cultural objects in archives.
Veronica Palensky, University of Southern Mississippi/ Indiana University Southeast
The Ars Femina Digital Library is comprised of musical scores composed by women from 1500-1900. This archive preserves and celebrates the historical impacts that women have made in music. The presentation will focus on ways to promote archives through programing, why creating diverse digital archives that will lead to a more inclusive future, how and preserving diverse groups' works, lives, and information fuels a 21st century archivist.
Brittany Parris, NARA, Jimmy Carter Library
One of the ways to step into a leadership role with more confidence is to express what you believe as a leader--by articulating what guides you, you can better guide others. By crafting a personal leadership philosophy (PLP,) the contemporary archivist is better prepared to communicate ideas, decisions, priorities, and expectations. This poster will break down PLP into component parts to give attendees building blocks for expressing themselves. Sharing of individual PLPs is encouraged. #SAA2020PLP
Thomas Philo, California State University, Dominguez Hills
A collection with papers of noted Disability Rights scholar Harlan Hahn provides the springboard for this creative and cooperative effort among a Professor, Archivist, and Reference Librarians. A "guest-curated" approach to archival description makes the collection accessible to Disability Studies students and models archival research methods. The joint effort elevates the Archives and Library as partners in Disability Awareness, and offers a prototype for similar cooperative efforts across the campus.
Fatemeh Rezaei, University of Baltimore
University of Baltimore holds the WMAR-TV news collection. Due to the size and complexity of this collection, Archives at UB has been facing several challenges to manage, preserve, and make it available to the public. Issues related to copyright, environmental conditions, reformatting or migrating and preserving the most at risk materials, and making available the digital files of a large audiovisual collection are just some examples of challenges that this poster addresses.
Samantha Schafer, National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum
How can archivists utilize free resources such as Google Maps to analyze their collections? Using a collection from the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum as a test case, we can map out numerous possibilities for analysis, outreach and more from one set of virtual pushpins. This adaptable technique can fit into any budget plan and can help archivists think more creatively about their collections.
Anita Sharma, WAAM
This poster examines the importance of community-based participatory archive platforms in the documentation of artist archives. The Women Artists Archive Miami (WAAM) is an independent archive centered on the principles of post-custodial and participatory practices. By describing the research, development and implementation phases of the project, I will highlight how WAAM utilizes both a digital and collections exhibition platform to create peripheral sites of engagement for women artists.
Kathelene McCarty Smith, The University of North Carolina at Greensboro
Increasingly, colleges and universities are losing their history because they are not adequately tracking campus artifacts. Typically, archivists collect material that falls into traditional archival collections, but archivists at The University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG) are instigating a "tag and release" program, whereby campus artifacts are identified as historically significant and "tagged." This poster will examine the development of this "tag and release" program and how it is being implemented at UNCG.
Beth South, Indiana University East
Creating a collection and exhibit in one by using an e-publishing platform, the IU East Archives used Pressbooks to collaborate with IU East students in creating the first LGBTQ archive collection for Richmond, IN. The e-book format also allows the collection to be easily accessible to the public, with chapters denoting different themes, focusing on people, places, or events and it can be easily searched for those wanting to find specific content.
Scott Richard St. Louis, University of Michigan
My poster will outline a forthcoming project that may be of interest to fellow graduate students (and others new to memory institutions) who seek to refine their career trajectories with technology. I will share how I plan to organize and manipulate a collection of more than 100 job postings gathered over roughly the last two years, specifically with an approach that could strengthen the quality and efficacy of any full-time job search for early-career memory professionals.
Tanya Zanish-Belcher, Rebecca Petersen May, Ashelee Gerald Hill, Melde Rutledge, Finley Turner; Wake Forest University
Wake Forest Special Collections recently chose to refocus its K-12 efforts at the Kingswood Alternative School. Part of the Crossnore Children's Home literally down the road from Wake Forest University, it offers an opportunity to collaborate directly with teachers and have a tremendous impact on a K-12 student population. Planned programming currently includes career day with visits by local professionals and programming on the creative use of archives with an active assessment component.
We value and respect our diverse guests, volunteers, service providers, and staff members. We expect all of our attendees to do the same. Read the SAA Code of Conduct.