2009 Annual Report

Date: December 14, 2009

 

Name of Section/Roundtable: Archivists' Toolkit Roundtable

 

Officers:

      Genie Guerard, Chair (UCLA)

      Daniel Hartwig (Yale Univesity)

      Marisa Hudspeth (Rockefeller Archive Center)

      Cory Nimer (Brigham Young University)

      Kat Stefko (Bates College)

 

 

Report from annual meeting:

 

Number of attendees: 140

 

Election results:

STEERING COMMITTEE

      Genie Guerard, Chair (UCLA)

      Daniel Hartwig (Yale Univesity)

      Marisa Hudspeth (Rockefeller Archive Center)

      Cory Nimer (Brigham Young University)

      Kat Stefko (Bates College)

 

Summary of meeting activities:

 

 The theme of the inaugural ATRT meeting was community development. We began with a review of the mission statement, with a call to ATRT members to send suggested edits to the ATRT discussion list throughout the year.

     

Brad Westbrook, Archivists' Toolkit Project Manager and Lead Analyst, provided an update on AT application enhancements in version 1.5.9 and those to come in version 2.0 within the coming months (released September 2009). Enhancements in 2.0 associated with digital object functions and an assessment module.

 

Key to the future development and sustainability of AT was Brad's announcement regarding an invitation from the Mellon Foundation to the New York University Libraries, University of California, San Diego Libraries, and University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Libraries to submit a proposal to integrate AT and Archon into one application that will support description, collection management, and access to archival materials. As the archival user and developer communities are to be consulted throughout the development process, the ATRT is positioned to play an important role in communications, serving as liaison between the development team and the user community.  


Three AT users presented plug-ins and AT feature enhancements they have developed: Brian Hoffman, NYU; Cory Nimer, Brigham Young University; and Nathan Stevens, AT Programmer. Brian Hoffman presented NYU's analysis of their digital object workflow and subsequent development of a digital object plug-in. Cory Nimer presented BYU's data model review and plug-in providing for expanded dates and physical descriptions in AT resources. Nathan Stevens presented a framework AT will provide for plug-ins.

 

The AT Roundtable presentations can be viewed at: http://www.archivists.org/saagroups/atrt/

 

The meeting concluded with an announcement of the steering committee election.

 

 

Completed projects/activities

 

Inaugural meeting powerpoint presentations posted to ATRT SAA Roundtable site: http://www.archivists.org/saagroups/atrt/

 

Steering committee met via conference calls and emails to:

  • Establish individual roles within the committee: web liaison, newsletter
  • Provide feedback to the AT/Archon integration team on high-level requirements for the integrated system.

 

 

Ongoing projects/activities

 

Provide feedback to AT/Archon  integration team on needed features and functions

 

Provide information/updates and solicit feedback concerning community development projects and plug-ins

 

New projects/activities


Co-chair to be appointed by steering committe

 

Enhance communications with archival community using AT and Archon utilizing SAA ATRT website and discussion list

 

Solicit ideas from the AT and Archon user communities regarding ideas for useful content and functions for the recently established ATRT website

 

 

Diversity initiatives

 

 

Questions/concerns for Council attention


As AT and Archon become integrated, can the definition of the AT Roundtable evolve to encompass the newly developed system? In the interim, can the definition be expanded to include Archon users?