Archival History News, the official newsletter of SAA's Archival History Section, has released its Spring 2018 issue! This is the third issue since the newsletter was revived in October 2017, and it's going strong with lots of archival history content.
Featuring excellent writing and the most up-to-date information, Archival History News communicates the value of archival history to a broad public, through the publication of ongoing research, biographical notes, book reviews, and...
Last call for nominations! Please send any nominations by Thursday, May 31st!
Are you seeking an opportunity to expand your network and get further involved in the business archives community? If so, come join the Steering Committee and see what the fun is all about! Joining the Steering Committee is a small-time commitment, providing you with valuable experience as you contribute to vital services for your colleagues.
Please consider nominating yourself or a colleague for one of these...
VICE CHAIR CANDIDATE
Name/Title/Institution/Education
Nathan Gerth
Digital Archivist
University Of Nevada, Reno
Ph.D. (History), University of Notre Dame; M.A. (Russian East European and Eurasian Studies), University of Kansas; B.A. (Russian Studies), Luther College
Brief Biography:
Nathan Gerth is the digital archivist for the University of Nevada, Reno Libraries (UNR). He joined the Libraries’ faculty in February 2018. In this role, he manages UNR’s infrastructure for preserving...
The SAA-ACRL/RBMS Joint Task Force on the Development of Standardized Holdings Counts and Measures for Archival Repositories and Special Collections Libraries is pleased to announce the release of its revised draft Guidelines for Standardized Holdings Counts and Measures for Archival Repositories and Special Collections Libraries.The Guidelines are the product of the Task Force’s efforts to analyze, incorporate, and address community feedback received in response to its draft release between...
The Acquisitions and Appraisal Section has openings for three positions on the steering committee:
Vice-Chair/Chair-Elect
Steering Committee At-Large Member (2 positions available)
In order to be nominated for these positions, candidates must be a member of the Society of American Archivists and a member of the Acquisitions and Appraisal Section at the time of nomination.
The duties of these positions are as follows:
Vice Chair/Chair-Elect (1 position):
The Vice Chair serves a one-year...
By Meredith Torre, Archivist, Atlanta Housing Authority
The archival program at Atlanta Housing (AH) began October 2014. The AH Archives collects and preserves records of permanent and historical value dating back to the 1930's. These records document the history of public housing, the history of the United States' first federally funded public housing projects beginning in Atlanta, and the innovative role AH played in shaping public housing policy and history
To find out more, check out the...
The Students and New Archives Professionals (SNAP) Section is seeking nominations for a Vice Chair/Chair-Elect, Secretary, and three At-Large positions.
Serving in a leadership role on the Section is a wonderful way to become more involved with SNAP and SAA and get to know other archivists. Our proposed SNAP bylaws require that to ensure adequate student representation in SNAP leadership, at least two candidates on the slate must be students at the time of the election.
In order to hold a...
The A&A Section's Steering Committee is asking the section membership to vote on proposed revisions to the section's standing rules. The substantive revisions include realigning the section's former bylaws--switched to standing rules in August 2016 when all component groups became sections--to be in line with the SAA governance manual; adding a section for subcommittees; and revising the description of the intern role to allow for different activities, rather than focusing solely on social...
By Emily Cottle
Emily Cottle kicks off the program. Photograph courtesy Ryan Donaldson.
Nearly 30 corporate and religious archivists from the MARAC region and beyond gathered at our spring conference in Hershey for MARAC’s second ever Business Archives Forum. The forums are a full-day of programming for business archivists to network with colleagues and hear presentations focused on the unique challenges of the corporate environment.
The day began with a presentation from Winthrop Group’s...
The Oral History Section Steering Committee is seeking nominations for the 2018-2019 Oral History Section election through Tuesday, May 22. Serving on the Oral History Steering Committee is a great way to meet new colleagues and become more involved in the work of the Society of American Archivists.
Positions currently open for nomination include:
Vice Chair/Chair-Elect
* Provides support to help fulfill the duties and responsibilities of the Chair as assigned
* Operates as acting Chair in...
The Records Management Section steering committee has proposed the following standing rules revisions, to be voted on during the 2018 election.
A summary of the changes:
Cleaning up outdated language ("roundtable" to section, and defunct mentions of how the transition was to take place during the last revision of the standing rules in 2015)
Amendment to Article V, clarifying procedures for mid-term vacancies
Amendment to Article VI, eliminating prescribed officer roles in favor of allowing the...
Hello Museum Archives Section members!
It’s time to start thinking about the next issues of the MAS newsletter!
The Museum Archivist is seeking contributions for the upcoming Summer issue coming out in July, before the annual meeting. Our last issue was filled with lots of great stories, unveilings, essays, updates, and news. Whether you have in the past or for the first time, please consider submitting to the upcoming newsletter. And don’t forget to include images. The deadline for...
Something important to you missing from this newsletter? Send a submission my way and let me know what you would like to see.
Please submit newsletter items about archives and human rights (writ broadly) to hilary.h.barlow@gmail.com. These can be recent publications, upcoming events or exhibitions, opportunities and scholarships, or something else entirely as long as it connects to archives and human rights. For the May newsletter, please send you submission by May 24, 2018.
The site where hundreds of men and women trained as volunteers to register African-Americans to vote in the 1960s has been designated a Freedom Station by the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center.In 1964, hundreds of volunteers, many of whom were white college students, trained in Oxford on the former Western College for Women campus before they traveled south to register black voters and set up freedom schools.Read more here. In related news, there is a new president at the Underground...
This report describes our investigation into the global proliferation of Internet filtering systems manufactured by the Canadian company, Netsweeper, Inc. After undertaking a mapping of worldwide country installations, we focus in on ten country cases in which we verify that Netsweeper systems are being used to censor the Internet for subscribers of consumer Internet Service Providers, and where human rights and corporate social responsibility questions are acute.
Read more here.
This conference brings together scholars to address the role of the police in the Holocaust, particularly in the organized murder of Jews and Roma. The Nazi state and their allies involved police at every stage of the genocidal process, from the arrest and looting of the victims to their deportation and killing. During Nazi occupation, non-German police units—some already in existence, some newly created—performed a range of key functions in pursuit of German goals, but also based on their own...
Bishop Malusi Mpumlwana said at the event held in front of the Constitutional Court in Johannesburg that with Madikizela-Mandela’s passing “we have gained an ancestor of active citizenship”. He said this after leading the gathering in observing a moment of silence for her.
Monday 9 April marks exactly 100 days to what would have been Mandela’s 100th birthday; and a week since Madikizela-Mandela passed away on 2 April after an illness.
The public event honoured and celebrated the life of...
The National Security Archive filed suit under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) against the CIA today in federal district court in Washington. The case seeks 12 specific cables from November and December 2002 that were authored or authorized by Gina Haspel, the acting director of the CIA as of this morning. The cables describe the torture of a CIA detainee under her supervision.The Archive filed a FOIA request with the CIA for the 12 cables on April 16, 2018. The Archive FOIA sought...
The Home Office destroyed thousands of landing card slips recording Windrush immigrants’ arrival dates in the UK, despite staff warnings that the move would make it harder to check the records of older Caribbean-born residents experiencing residency difficulties.
A former Home Office employee said the records, stored in the basement of a government tower block, were a vital resource for case workers when they were asked to find information about someone’s arrival date in the UK from the West...
In the latest on our blog, Meg Hixon covers the panel on de-centering whiteness in archives at the Midwest Archives Conference in Chicago, IL. Read the post here.
There's more conference coverage coming very, very soon! If you're interested in covering a conference session, or writing about something else related to archives and human rights email hilary.h.barlow@gmail.com
Come join in the Twitter preservation conversation on Thursday, April 26, 2018. #PresTC will have 25 presentations on a range of topics, from the general public to preservation specialists. See below for the full schedule. Follow The Preservation Section's account at https://twitter.com/SAApreservation for more.
Time (All times EDT)
Session
9:00-9:15 AM
Emergency Preparedness: More than a Binder
Andrew Robb
Abstract: Collection Emergency Preparedness involves five steps...
By Marie Force, Archives Director, Delta Flight Museum
As Delta flies into its 90th anniversary of passenger service in 2019, the historical collections of the company continue to grow more accessible and active than ever. Since the 1950s, Delta has maintained archives that document and share its legacy of customer service—the “Delta difference”—in the words of its founder, C.E. Woolman. The collections also let visitors explore the history of aviation through the 40+ airlines affiliated with...
By Kerri Anne Burke, Global Curator, Citi Heritage Collection
Bob Clark of the Rockefeller Archives Center, L.J. Strumpf of the IBM Archives and I spoke at the Spring 2018 joint meeting of the New England Archivists and Archivists Round Table of Metropolitan New York. The panel was organized and moderated by Jamie Martin of the IBM Archives. The panelists spoke on the value of business records and how business archivists must advocate the worth of business records to internal audiences,...
