Acquisitions and Appraisal Section Newsletter Summer 2012

I. From the Chair

II. Announcements

1. Section Meeting

2. Acquisition and Appraisal Events at SAA

3. Support Your Fellow Section Members

4. Guidelines for Reappraisal and Deaccessioning

5. Facebook

III. Recent Literature on Acquisitions and Appraisal

IV. CFPs and Future Conferences

I. From the Chair

Appraisal and acquisition are the start of archives and records managements processes and at the heart of what ARM professionals do. As you’ll see from the list of sessions our fellow section members are participating in, acquisition and appraisal touch on many other areas of archival work. Acquisition and appraisal concerns don’t end when new material comes in. Rather, they are an underlying current to management, planning, space issues, descriptive practices, access, and so on. For example, the reason for acquisition in collecting repositories can impact the way in which the collection is described. In brief, our section’s interests overlap with many other sections.

One of the section goals for last year was increased involvement with other sections and roundtables, e.g. Electronic Records, College and University Archives, Privacy and Confidentiality. Given the stated need for guidance in the appraisal and acquisition of electronic records   along with members’ desires for cross-fertilization with other sections, I urge section members to develop a session for the 2013 annual meeting and/or a continuing education proposal on this issue. One way for us to address these issues is to take them on ourselves.

The 2011 membership survey demonstrated a degree of dissatisfaction with the inactivity of the section while the feedback from the annual section meeting indicated a desire for more support for interactivity. In response, section leadership (coordinated by Jennifer Graham) created a Facebook group where members can chat, share information, and create group documents. This group has seen much less activity than anticipated, but this would be a great venue to seek advice from others or even plan a session for 2013. Our section roster is overflowing with talent and knowledge. It just takes a little coordination!

The 2011-2012 term is winding down and I will step down as Chair in August. You have my thanks for entrusting me with this position. We’ve made a small start this year towards increasing section resources, but let’s make 2012 the year we tackle the big issues together!

My best,

Kim

Kimberly D. Anderson, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Archival Studies
School of Information Studies
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

II. Announcments

1. Section Meeting in San Diego

   Featuring: El Dorado or Pandora’s Box? What do You Find When You Lift the Lid?

   Thursday, August 9, 3:30-5:30

   We have planned a fun and exciting section meeting for your enjoyment.  After a brief business meeting, which will include suggestions and motions from the floor, please join us for an interactive program led by Tracey Panek.  Share your experiences about what you have found when looking through collections and WIN PRIZES for the best and worst stories.  See full program description and complete agenda here. 

2. Acquisition and Appraisal Events at SAA

   Want the acquisition and appraisal “track” for SAA?  Look no further. 

   For complete descriptions and room locations please see the Online Preliminary Program.

   Pre-conference workshops:
   Monday, August 6:    CURATE Camp
   Tuesday, August 7:    Web Archiving

   Roundtable Meetings, Wednesday, August 8
   3:15-5:15: Archivists and Archives of Color featuring “a panel presentation of ‘Building Collections Through Collaboration: A Collaborative Archive from the African Diaspora’”.

   5:30-7:30: Privacy and Confidentiality. “Laura Clark Brown, Dan Golodner, Nancy Kaiser, Aprille Cooke McKay, and Kelly Wooten will lead a lively discussion challenging archivists to share ethical responsibilities for modern personal papers with researchers and donors.”

   Section Meetings
   Thursday, August 9, 3:30-5:30: Acquisitions and Appraisal (see above for details!)

   Friday, August 10, 1:00-3:00: Manuscript Repositories, “the Manuscript Repositories Section begins a two-year exploration of electronic/born-digital records, beginning with appraisal and acquisition.”

   Professional Poster Presentations, Thursday, August 9, 9:30-10:00 and Friday, August 10, 3:00-3:30
   P01: Creating Collections: Crossing Borders to Strengthen Local Archival Collections

   P03: What They Captured and What We Remember

   P11: A Gallery for the Outlaw: Archiving the Art of the Iconoclast

   Graduate Student Poster Presentations, Thursday, August 9, 5:30-7:30 and Friday, August 10, 11:30-12:30
   The Occupy Project

   The Lebanese in North Carolina Project: Sourcing the Community for a History Only They Could Tell

   Sessions, Thursday, August 9
   10:00-11:30, SESSION 102 - Archiving Mujeres: Un Movimiento Toward Greater Indiscriminate and Inclusive Recordkeeping Practices Within Information Repositories

   1:30-3:00, SESSION 203 - To the Community and Beyond: Engaging Users to Interact with Participatory Archives

   1:30-3:00, SESSION 205- Share a Byte! A Practical, Collaborative Approach to Electronic Records in Modern Political Collections

   1:30-3:00, SESSION 207 - Beyond Borders of Belief: Spirituality and the Archival Enterprise

   Sessions, Friday, August 10
   8:30-9:30, SESSION 303 - Things They Never Taught You in Graduate School: Donor Relations

   8:30-9:30, SESSION 304 - Expanding Our Reach: Building International Collections and Global Relationships

   8:30-9:30, SESSION 308 - Adapting Together: Acquisition Strategies for 21st Century Archives

   10:00-11:30, SESSION 403- Beyond Documents: The Archivist’s Role in Research Data Curation

   10:00-11:30, SESSION 409 - Asian and Pacific Islanders (API) Creating Diverse and Collaborative Community Archival Methods

   Sessions, Saturday, August 11
   8-9:30, SESSION 506- Removing Barriers and Creating Bridges: Archives, Development, and Advocacy

   8-9:30, SESSION 509- Beyond Resettlement: Overcoming Hurdles to Document the Experiences and Contributions of Refugees

   8-9:30, SESSION 510- Independent Community-Based Archives: Opportunities and Challenges

   12:30-1:30, SESSION 606- Documenting Beyond Our Gates: Exploring New and Diverse Collecting Activities of Historically Black Colleges and Universities

   12:30-1:30, SESSION 608- Archivist-Artist Partnerships: Learning from Three Case Studies of Creative Collaboration

   2:00-3:30, SESSION 705- Darkness at Noon: Dealing with the Coming Digital Dark Age of Too Much (Archival) Information

   2:00-3:30, SESSION 707- Crossing Borders: Barriers to Documenting the Underdocumented

3. Support Your Fellow Section Members

   Below is a list of sessions that A&A section members are participating in. Please attend and show your support.

   August 9
   10:00 – 11:30, Session 101, Bitstreams Beyond Borders: The Value of Digital Forensics to Archivists
   Section Member: Courtney C. Mumma (Artefactual Systems, Inc.)   

   1:30 – 3:30, Session 202, Hybrids and Legacies: Challenges of Finding Aids in the Digital Age
   Section Member: Alexis Antracoli (Drexel University)

   August 10
   8:30 – 9:30, Session 302, Strange Bedfellows: Transgressing Sector Borders in Records Management and Archival Practice Projects
   Section member: Dr. Susan Malbin (American Jewish Historical Society)

   8:30 – 9:30, Session 303 (SECTION ENDORSED), Things They Never Taught You in Graduate School: Donor Relations
   Section Members: Virginia Hunt (Harvard University Archives), Brenda McClurkin (The University of Texas at Arlington), Linda Whitaker (Arizona Historical Society at Papago Park), Sheryl Williams (University of Kansas)

   August 11
   12:30 – 1:30, Session 601, Using Archon™ and Archivists' Toolkit™ to Become More Participatory
   Section Members: Christopher Stephen Ervin (San Jose State University), Cliff Hight (Kansas State University)

   12:30 – 1:30, Session 603, The Objects of Our Affection: Arranging and Describing Artifacts in Archival Collections
   Section Member: Brad Bauer (US Holocaust Memorial Museum)

   12:30 – 1:30, Session 604, A Bilingual History: Promoting Spanish Language Collections to Tell the History of the American West and Mexico
   Section Member: Theresa Salazar (University of California, Berkeley)

   12:30 – 1:30, Session 608, Archivist-Artist Partnerships: Learning from Three Case Studies of Creative Collaboration
   Section Member: Dr. Alfred Lemmon (Williams Research Center)

   2:00 – 3:30, Session 702, Crossing into Consulting: Tales from the Trenches
   Section Member: Thomas Wilsted (Wilsted Consulting)

   2:00 – 3:30, Session 704, Whose Justice? Social Justice and Political Correctness in Archival Thought and Practice
    [direct link not available]
   Section Members: Tamar Evangelestia-Dougherty (University of Chicago), Mark A. Greene (American Heritage Center)

   2:00 – 3:30 pm, Session 707, Crossing Borders: Barriers to Documenting the Underdocumented
   Section Member: Chrystal Carpenter (University of Arizona)

4. Guidelines for Reappraisal and Deaccessioning- APPROVED!

   On May 23, 2012, SAA Council endorsed the Guidelines for Reappraisal and Deaccessioning as a formal SAA standard.  The guidelines can be found on the Standards Portal.

5. Join us on Facebook

   If you’re on Facebook, please check out the Acquisitions and Appraisal Section’s NEW Facebook page.  Join the group and           receive timely news and updates pertaining to section interests.  

III. Recent Literature on Acquisitions and Appraisal Issues

American Archivist, Vol 75, 1 Spring/Summer 2012

Rabia Gibbs. “The Heart of the Matter: The Developmental History of African American Archives.” 195-204.

Sarah Buchanan and Katie Richardson. “Representation through Documentation: Acquiring Student and Campus Life Records through the Bruin Archives Project.” 205-224

Archival Science, May 13, 2012

Hea Lim Rhee.  “Genres and genre repertoires of user and use information sources in U.S. state archival and records management appraisal practice.”

Journal of the Society of Archivists, Vol 33, Issue 1, 2012

Cathy Williams. “On The Record: Towards a Documentation Strategy.”

E. Kate Jarman. “Showing Britain to Itself: Changes in Collecting Policy from the Festival of Britain to London 2012.”

Journal of Archival Organization, Vol 10, Issue 1, 2012

Brian Keough and Mark Wolfe. “Moving the Archivist Closer to the Creator: Implementing Integrated Archival Policies for Born Digital Photography at Colleges and Universities.”

IV.    CFPs and Future Conferences

1. Litwin Press invites original papers for a new volume in its Archives, Archivists, and Society series. The book's main objective is to assess the ways ethnic identities and other forms of belonging are affected by, and also affect, current practices in ethnic archiving. The book will both provide a historical overview of the ways ethnic organizations and communities have collected, preserved and provided access to their heritage; and examine contemporary practices and theories in the context of a cultural heritage sector that is today defined by the digital medium and the Web. For the purpose of this book institutions involved in ethnic archiving may include libraries, archives, historical societies and museums that document the history of immigration and ethnicity in the United States and Canada. The book will contain both theoretical and practical contributions by practitioners in the field and scholars in history and archival science. 

Deadline August 30! http://www.personal.psu.edu/dxf19/blogs/dolores_list_of_cfps/2012/06/ethnic-archiving-in-the-us-and-canada.html

2. Society of American Archivists Archives New Orleans 2013

 It’s not too early to begin thinking of proposals for sessions and continuing education workshops for next year’s SAA annual meeting.    Want to share your thoughts and experiences with acquisition and appraisal?  Then submit a session proposal!  The Acquisitions and Appraisal Section will endorse up to two sessions relating to acquisitions and appraisal issues.  Please see the call for proposals