Three out of five of all federal agencies are flouting the new law that improved the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and required them to update their FOIA regulations, according to the new National Security Archive FOIA Audit released today to celebrate Sunshine Week.
The National Security Archive Audit found that only 38 out of 99 federal agencies have updated their FOIA regulations in compliance with the FOIA Improvement Act of 2016 that was passed with bipartisan, bicameral support. The...
In our very first post for the relaunched Human Rights Archives Section blog, I had the pleasure of interviewing Katharina Hering and Hanna Clutterbuck-Cook of the Concerned Archivists Alliance. They opened up about why they started the Alliance, and what they see as the role of information workers and professional organizations under this administration.
If you would be interested in writing for the HRA blog, send blog post pitches to hilary.h.barlow@gmail.com. Include a short summary of your...
On Thursday, March 16, 2017, President Trump sent an outline of his proposed FY 2018 budget to Congress, to be followed by a more detailed proposal in the spring. The budget, known as “America First: A Budget Blueprint to Make America Great Again,” proposes a $54 billion increase in defense and public safety spending that is offset by equivalent cuts in discretionary non-defense programs. Included in those cuts are reductions in, or the total elimination of, funding for federal agencies with a...
By now you've probably heard about the potentially devastating cuts proposed for Institute of Museum and Library Services. Below are some resources to make your voice heard and hopefully block or at least reduce this disastrous proposal.
This tool from the Every Library Action Center allows you to easily look up the contact information for your representatives, and also provides a call script. You can also email your representatives via Every Library or the American Library Association. Use...
Steering committee member Heidi Butler put up this year's first blog post, Sharing Some Archives Love. Look for more blog entries in the coming weeks!
Though the initial deadline has passed, we are still collecting stories about projects to try, and projects to steer away from. You will find the Google form here. Thanks to those who have already submitted!
Attention, Members!
The RAO Nominations and Elections Committee is seeking nominations to fill vacancies on the RAO Steering Committee; we invite you to volunteer yourself or someone as a candidate! We value a variety of ideas and perspectives in RAO and we encourage candidates from diverse backgrounds, institutions, professional settings, and experience. Students and new professionals should feel welcome to run for these leadership roles.
The Nominating Committee seeks nominations from all...
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 March newsletter, please send you submission March 23, 2017.
The human rights archives blog is making a comeback and we need your contributions! Is there an issue that really irks you and you have something to say? Is there something in the news that can benefit from an archival perspective? Did you work on an incredible project related to archives and human rights and you want to share you insights?Send blog post pitches to hilary.h.barlow@gmail.com. Include a short summary of your idea and why you're the best person to write it. Publication experience...
Join us from 1 pm to 4:30 pm on Monday, March 13, 2017 to celebrate Sunshine Week and learn more about open government! Leading experts, advocates and technologists will join the National Archives’ Office of Government Information Services for this special afternoon program. The event is free and open to the public but registration is recommended.
See the schedule of events here and register here.
Washington, D.C. February 7, 2017 – CIA covert aid to Italy continued well after the agency’s involvement in the 1948 elections – into the early 1960s – averaging around $5 million a year, according to a draft Defense Department historical study published today for the first time by the National Security Archive at The George Washington University.
Read more here.
We are very excited to talk with Jarrett Drake, digital archivist at Princeton University’s Mudd Manuscript Library. He was awarded an Innovation Award from the National Digital Stewardship Alliance (NDSA) in 2016 for his work in challenging and re-examining the practices of archiving and documenting history, particularly relating to preserving the under-represented voices in history. Follow his writings here.
Read the interview here.
On January 11, 2017, Senators Mike Lee (Utah) and Marco Rubio (Florida) introduced S.103–115th Congress, the “Local Zoning Decisions Protection Act of 2017.” The language is blunt: “no Federal funds may be used to design, build, maintain, utilize, or provide access to a Federal database of geospatial information on community racial disparities or disparities in access to affordable housing.” A similar billwas also proposed in the House of Representatives.
Read more here.
In 2016 the Nelson Mandela Foundation and the Global Leadership Academy of the Deutsche Gesellschaft fuer Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) convened two six-day dialogues with “memory workers” from nine countries. This was the second series of international Mandela Dialogues, the first having taken place in 2013-2014. Informing the first series had been a discomfort with what was seen as a growing orthodoxy around “transitional justice”. The discomfort gave rise to a range of questions aimed...
Beth Cron and Courtney Bailey had a good conversation with Seth Shaw and Jeremy Gibson about open source records management tools. If you didn’t have a chance to join, you can view it here.
On February 8, the Records Management Section hosted a Hangout with Snowden Becker of the UCLA Department of Information Studies to discuss law enforcement body-worn camera footage and recordings. If you missed the Hangout, you can watch the recorded version here. In addition, Snowden prepared some...
* Half-day course question pool requires 30 questions
* One-day question pool requires 40 questions
* Two-day question pool requires 60 questions
* Webinar question pool require 20 questions
Attached are e documents to assist you in preparing exam questions for CoE courses:
1. Item Construction Form: fill this out for each question
2. Guide to Preparing Questions: contains tips and suggestions for good questions and answers
3. Exam Submisison Criteria: contains criteria for CoE exams
The latest issue of SOLO is available!
Check out Volume 3, Issue 1 (January 2018) here.
Montana Historical Society Receives Grant to Capture Oral Histories on State’s Brewing Industry Anneliese Warhank, Archivist and Oral Historian, Montana Historical SocietyThe Montana Historical Society Research Center has received a $4,500 grant from Humanities Montana to conduct a series of oral history interviews designed to begin capturing the history of modern craft brewing and breweries in Montana. Anneliese Warhank, Certified Archivist and Oral Historian for MHS, will coordinate...
A Century of Women in Congress
Office of the House Historian, U.S. House of Representatives
On November 7, 1916, Jeannette Rankin of Montana became the first woman elected to Congress. To commemorate the centennial of Rankin’s election to the House of Representatives and her April 1917 swearing-in, the Office of the House Historian conducted interviews with former women Representatives and staff to create A Century of Women in Congress, an ongoing web-based oral history project that examines...
Archives Alive: Democratizing Public Library Archives through Oral HistoryDiantha Dow Schull, DDSchull AssociatesArchivists and special collections librarians across the country are employing myriad approaches to community documentation, ranging from crowdsourcing and scanning events to social archives, digital memory projects and documentary films. Among these approaches, oral history is especially effective, enabling archivists to animate and expand local history collections....
Note from the Chair
Happy 2017 to everyone! Our new year brings with it a new newsletter editor, and I would like to start by welcoming and thanking Melissa Lindberg, who volunteered to take over the reins of Dialogue. We are all looking forward to working with her and getting out the news on section and member activities.
On a more somber note, the new year has also brought with it fresh concerns, including the potential impacts of recent Executive Orders. As oral historians and archivists, we...
The Archival History Section seeks an editor--or two!--to help relaunch a newsletter for AHS members and other interested parties.
Founded in 1986 as the Archival History Roundtable, the AHS advocates for and promotes an understanding of the history of the American archival profession. Inspired by the work of other SAA sections (see, for example, the Lone Arrangers Quarterly Newsletter, https://lonearrangers.wordpress.com/about/), this digital newsletter will function as a dynamic space to keep...
The results of the special election are in: we are pleased to welcome Adriana Flores as the new SNAP committee Secretary! We would like to thank the candidates and all those who voted for their participation.
Something important to you missing from this newsletter? Send a submission my way and let me know what you would like to see. I did not get any newsletter submissions last month (shocking, I know) but you can remedy that!
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...
The human rights archives blog is making a comeback and we need your contributions! Is there an issue that really irks you and you have something to say? Is there something in the news that can benefit from an archival perspective? Did you work on an incredible project related to archives and human rights and you want to share you insights?
Send blog post pitches to hilary.h.barlow@gmail.com. Include a short summary of your idea and why you're the best person to write it. Publication...
Chapter 1: How Khmer Rouge Came to Power
With the support of the European Union and Rei Foundation Limited, Bophana Center is currently developing a smart-device application for learning Khmer Rouge history. In line with this project, Bophana Center launches a series of thematic panel discussions about Khmer Rouge history and its education with special guests.
The first edition will be dedicated to the theme of "How the Khmer Rouge came to power" which constitutes the first chapter of...
