Apologies for the delay this month, but I had a busier than expected Easter/beginning of Passover. Hope you had a blessed Easter and a hearty chag sameach!
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...
Critical approaches to librarianship help us think about the ways that our work is fundamentally political and theoretical. These approaches firmly assert that social justice should be central goal and professional responsibility of librarianship and are used, therefore, to inform more inclusive policy, curriculum, and communication. As critical librarianship gains in popularity and visibility there is a growing demand for spaces where beginners can explore and unpack what it means to be ‘...
A prominent image of the Canadian Museum for Human Rights (CMHR) will be featured on the new $10 bank note as a symbol of Canada's ongoing pursuit of rights and freedoms, the Bank of Canada revealed March 8.The front of the note displays a portrait of Viola Desmond, whose defiant stand against racial segregation is featured in an exhibit housed in the CMHR's Canadian Journeys gallery. An external façade of the CMHR, overlaid on an image of its glowing alabaster rampways, will be portrayed on...
On Tuesday, the Nelson Mandela Foundation, Media Monitoring Africa and the Oslo Freedom Forum hosted a panel discussion and dialogue named “Media Under Fire”. The dialogue was part of ongoing work to engage with the media in South Africa. The event sought to explore new threats posed to the media, as well how journalists begin to self-censor when they find themselves under threat.
The panel included award-winning Angolan investigative journalist Rafael Marques de Morais, Palestinian blogger...
All these conferences have sessions related to human rights and archives, and the HRA Blog needs YOU to write posts summarizing them. It's not as hard as it sounds, and it's a great way to ad a publication to your resume. Here are two examples of sessions covered at SAA 2017.
If you're interested in covering a session at these or other conferences, or if you have any questions, email hilary.h.barlow@gmail.com
The National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis, TN and the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center in Cincinnati, OH will be hosting events to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination.
Events at the National Civil Rights Museum include two symposiums on April 2 and 3, followed by am all-day remembrance on April 4, and a Evening of Storytelling featuring civil rights icons and new movement makers also on April 4.
The MLK50 event at the National...
Archival History News Call for Editor(s)
The Archival History Section seeks an editor(s) to assist in the production of Archival History News (https://archivalhistorynews.wordpress.com/).
Founded in 1986 as the Archival History Roundtable, the AHS advocates for and promotes an understanding of the history of the American archival profession. Archival History News has cultivated an international online readership interested in the people, events, and literature central to the history of...
As of March 2018, MDOS has updated its committee roster, and includes the following members:
Co-Chair: Martha Parker, University of Arkansas Libraries
Co-Chair: Blake Graham, University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries
Social Media Coordinator: Rebecca Pattillo, University of Louisville
Steering Committee Member: Courtney Butler, Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City
Steering Committee Member: Laurel Mcphee, University of California, San Diego
Steering Committee Member: Elisa Landaverde, Michigan...
The Students and New Archives Professionals (SNAP) Roundtable is seeking nominations for the appointed ex-officio position of Blog Coordinator (see description below). Ex-officio positions are open to all SNAP members.
The term for the office is for the 2018 calendar year, beginning immediately upon appointment and ending on December 31, 2018. A second year may optionally be considered after the end of the first year. If you wish to nominate yourself or someone else, please complete the...
The SNAP Steering Committee has reviewed its standing rules and is putting forward the following revisions (as detailed in the attached PDF). The proposed revisions bring the standing rules up-to-date with the section’s current communications methods, and include the removal of references to the defunct SNAP newsletter, which has been replaced by the SNAP blog.
Per Section VI Amendments of the standing rules, the proposed changes will be submitted to an electronic vote on the section’s annual...
Read the 2017 joint Section meeting minutes.
Read the 2016 meeting minutes.
The Society of American Archivists Preservation Section is holding a Twitter Conference beginning at 9:00 AM EST on April 26th as part of Preservation Week 2018. This free and inclusive conference will cover a range of preservation related topics for archivists and librarians (or any interested party!). You can follow along on Twitter using the hashtag #PresTC and ask questions to the conference “speakers”.
Each speaker will have a 15 minute time slot allocated to their presentation. There...
Share your public library archives projects at the Public Libraries Archives and Special Collections section meeting at the 2018 SAA Annual Meeting! This year's PLASC meeting will feature lightning talks highlighting community-focused projects by public library archives and special collections.
Submit a short description of a lightning talk on a public library archives or special collections project that might serve as a model for other institutions looking to involve their communities in...
Students in UC Berkeley’s Human Rights Investigations Lab used open sources to document the March 2017 chemical weapons strikes on Al-Lataminah, Syria—including a strike that appeared to have targeted a medical facility. The report Chemical Strikes on Al-Lataminah was issued on January 18.The Lab’s open source work—analyzing and verifying photos and videos found on Youtube, Facebook, and Twitter—was conducted in collaboration with the Syrian Archive, a nonprofit organization that curates visual...
A brand new public tour that explores the rich and complex human rights history of the Métis people will launched on Louis Riel Day (February 19), free with admission at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights (CMHR).The 75-minute tour takes visitors on a journey through many of the exhibits at the Museum related to Métis rights and includes activities and group discussion. It begins at the Ancestral Place Circle in the CMHR’s welcome hall and continues through the Indigenous Perspectives gallery...
Britain, 1910. EM Forster published Howards End; Cora Crippen was murdered by her husband, sparking an international manhunt as he went on the run with his mistress; and the suffragettes felt the wrath of the home secretary, Winston Churchill, on “Black Friday”, as 300 women attempted to enter parliament to argue for their rights. After the ensuing riot, the government desperately attempted to cover up evidence of police brutality and serious physical assaults on the suffragettes, but the...
On the Internet no one knows you’re a dog, as the old joke goes. But does anonymity truly exist on the web anymore? And when it’s taken from us, what else do we lose? So Sad Today talks about the value of anonymity for women and self-care. Jonathan Hirshon shares his personal battle to keep his face off Facebook. New Yorker cartoonists Peter Steiner and Kaamran Hafeez discuss the evolution of memes and digital anonymity, in dog years. And Alison Macrina and Morgan Taylor reveal what’s...
I was excited to be part of a symposium in New York, Libraries in the Context of Capitalism, put on by the Metropolitan New York Library Council in their new digs on 11th avenue. It’s a nifty space where people can do things – have a meeting or workshop, use equipment to transfer older format media (VHS tapes, audio cassettes, etc.) to digital, or record a podcast. The Council also coordinates a number of programs among libraries and archives in the area. This symposium, the first of a series...
