DAS Subcommittee Meeting
February 27-28, 2017
Minutes
I. Introductions
In attendance: Mahnaz Ghaznavi (Chair), Jennifer Brancato, Martin Gengenbach, Kathleen Legg, Lori Lindberg, Glen McAninch, Sibyl Schaefer, Monique Lassere, Kara Adams (Director of Education), Solveig DeSutter (Education Consultant), Mia Capodilupo (Education Coordinator), Brianne Downing (Education Coordinator). Absent: Pamela Mitchem – Replaced by Alice Prael
II. Staff Report
Kara has introduced new Education program initiatives including the Education eNews, a monthly newsletter of “inside” goings-on in the Education department, and an official Call for Co-Sponsors during the months of March and September. She is also overseeing the acquisition of Adobe Connect for the SAA office, which we will be able to utilize for webcasts, some online course development, virtual meetings and which will integrated with the new Learning Management System (LMS) once acquired. Other projects Kara is working on:
- Assuming Donna’s position on the Educopia committee and reporting back on developments and projects
- Massachusetts Municipal Clerks (MMCARP) training program – program being beta-tested right now as a facilitated online course being offered as a MOOC. There is a possibility that SAA could reinterpret this course and offer it to other states. This grant-funded project is currently housed at Simmons with Jeanette Bastian, Gregor Trinkaus-Randall and Bill Wisser (developer). They are willing to provide access to the resources. This course has the potential to reach a completely new audience.
- Hong Kong Government Archives DAS program series – In negotiations to move forward with offering DAS courses and the comprehensive exam in Hong Kong late 2017 through 2019.
- Working with Helen Wong-Smith to develop Cultural Diversity Competency webcast series or online course
- Advocacy Café and other free webcasts, looking into sponsorship opportunities.
We strongly encourage everyone to audit webcasts and in-person courses, especially Cultural Diversity Competencies if anyone is at MAC – just contact the Education department to register.
III. Core Competency Review
Core competencies have only been revised once since the beginning of the DAS program, should be examined and possibly revised again. Committee needs to review in concert with course developers every 2 years or so to make sure they are matching up with course content. Should also calculate the amount of competencies assigned to each course to make sure they are evenly distributed.
Possible program to provide municipal court training for clerks in Massachusetts is under development – more interactive than our current webinars, could be something used for SAA Education beyond this project, or partner with other organizations.
IV. DAS Strategy and Key Performance Indicator Review – Lori
Key Performance Indicators – Lori worked w/ Liz Bishoff. This is an important year for the DAS SUBCOMMITTEE strategic plan, goal year so need to assess effectiveness. Should be worked on in Summer of 2017.
Goal 1: Survey faculty in regards to LMS? Or possibly have committee input for reports that might be helpful to instructors, since almost everyone on the committee is also an instructor, or possibly short 3 question survey to faculty. LMS could also serve as a repository for students to have access to copyrighted material, like a learning commons. SAA is establishing an AMS, LMS and online communities all at once so there is a lot going on at once technically and administratively.
Goal 2: Going well – course reviews and website updated and going very well.
Goal 3: Looking good, recruitment needs to continue, need more faculty. Scope of partnerships is going well – need a policy document for prospective co-sponsors, what SAA can deliver and what we expect. Need to increase promotional efforts.
We can get rid of some goals, would also need to get rid of corresponding KPI’s. Originally the strategic plan was more of a high-level goal setting for DAS Subcommittee and not related to CoE. More of a guiding document than a hard goal. SWOT analysis should be re-done in the Fall and partnerships should be re-assessed.
Course-specific exams still need updating – Solveig is working on that. She could use help from course liaisons. Many instructors revise their course but not the exam. Recommend that this be an added step included in course liaison/course audit guidelines.
V. Summary from Discussion of DAS Comprehensive Exam Questions - Veronica
Courses requiring new pilot questions are written in RED; in some cases, individual shepherds were identified to write the pilots, in other case no one was specifically identified and Veronica will submit possible questions
F02 – Remove questions I0007 and I0127; reassess if course is revised
F03(a) – Remove I0005; I0008; I0119; I0048
Convert pilot to current question: I0187; I0188; I0194
Retain I0048 for now, but rotate out on the next cycle
F04 – Retain questions until course revision
F05 – Remove I0147
F06 – Remove I0029 and I0030
F07 – Retire I0032 and I0054
Pilot 1-2 questions so I0031 and I0032 can be rotated out
F08 – Retire I0046 and I0138
Pilot 1-2 questions
F09 – Change I0166 “basic” to “fundamental”
F10 – Retain questions
TST01 – Retain question for the time being, but revise if course if updated
TST02 – For I0169, add “geographically” to answer “B”; retain remaining questions
TST03 – Retain questions for now, but Pilot 1-2 additional questions to address expansion of course materials
TST04 – Retire Pilot question I0189; transition I0190 from Pilot to Current
TST05 – New question added, but a new Pilot should be added in case new question underperforms
TST06(a) – Pilot two new questions to – Mahnaz
TST06(b) – Retain questions at this time
TST07 – Pilot one to two questions to update question bank and increase difficulty – Lori
TST08 – Pilot two questions to update question bank and reflect additional content
TST09 – Review question with presenters to ensure that question appropriately reflects content of both webinar and ½ day course (question has been updated by Erin Faulder)
TST10 – Course is likely to be retired; retain the questions through the next cycle, but in the next round of planning, work on phasing out these questions
T&S02 – Retain question for next cycle, but consider revision and expansion of course
T&S03 - Retired I0159 and I0108
T&S04 – Pilot additional question - Glen
TR01 – Retire I0113 and use newer question I0191
TR02 – Pilot question to update question bank – Lori
TR03 – Pilot question to update question bank
Pilot questions should be generated by the end of March for review on the April call
To Do List:
Compile Summary info from call (Veronica) - Completed
Add designations to database for next cycle of comprehensive exams (Veronica) - Completed
Enter changes into Grubba.net (Veronica) - Completed
Work of pilot questions due by the end of April (multiple assignments)
VI. New Course Development
Some notes: A comprehensive, overall Core Reading List would be helpful, especially in studying for the DAS exam, possibly it could be a long list that instructors could pick from for pre-readings Marty and Lori will work on this. Could get a free account through Zotero – possible intern project.
Suggestions:
- Should do alphabetical rotation of course liaisons (if nobody volunteers).
- Provide suggested “paths” or “tracks” through the program depending on what people want to focus on, what job they are looking for. Could give basic, shorter webinars for free to get people interested or as outreach.
- Change term “electronic records” to “digital records” in all courses – notify instructors first. Mia & Brianne to assist in updating website and course materials.
- EPAD – Marty will reach out to contact at Stanford to ask about developing a new T&S course.
- Charles Dollar (Tool for Institutional Readiness) - Sibyl did a course outline and submitted online to SAA. Intro to different models so might be a half-day course. Webcast model wouldn’t work because there are a lot of hands-on exercises. Students would come with challenges and implementation ideas. Could be a good test for a true online course with chunks of info and exercises/interaction.
- Tool Selection & Management – Carol Kussman. Glen is working with Marty and Carol. First draft had holes in it, 2nd draft much better. Carol recently submitted exam questions. First offering will be in early May at the Federal Reserve in St. Louis. Course focuses more on selection than management, Carol is working with Max Eckerd to develop it in concert with pre-SIP to DIP course. Course sacrificed the full life cycle to focus on a few specific tools and what can be done with them in depth. Also focuses on re-evaluating workflows in light of software changes.
- Tool Integration: From pre-SIP to DIP – this covers automation of processes covered in the first course. Course flows well and is innovative, includes live demos. More aspirational than practical, gets students inspired which can help them pitch tools to their institution. Exam questions submitted, look good. Also, people can do live demos during the course which gives them a chance to show off accomplishments. Could be offered online.
- Negotiating the Landscape of Born-digital Photographs – Stephen Fletcher working with Solveig on a webcast and an in-person course. Will offer in-person course in Portland as a pre-conference course, goal is to have webcast in May, and could market it as a precursor to the in-person course where there is more hands-on processing discussions DAS SUBCOMMITTEE has done one round of reviews. Instructors are visual materials archivists. Jennifer agreed to be liaison. This material is often requested and we don’t have many courses that cover it.
- Jennifer & Kate are still in process of soliciting co-sponsors to present entire DAS program (modeled on SRMA series). Should continue, point all potential co-sponsors to SAA Call for Co-sponsors survey open March 1-March 24.
VII. Webcast Development
- Ethics of Web Harvesting/Social Media archiving – original suggestion from David Kay, Mahnaz has been following up –Committee strongly recommends developing this course, forward-thinking and relevant – Burgess Jules might be good to review it for a one-day archiving social media course proposal –some potential instructors include: Samantha Abrams (storycorps), Laura Wrubell (GWU)
- PREMIS – Lori is working on it.
Other ideas for online course or webcast development: Intro to Archives, intro to SAA education, Budgeting for repositories, re-vamp some current courses, A/V & sound recordings (one day course), Big data, data modeling, social science datasets, Accessioning & Ingest webcast version, case studies for accessioning and workflows – need more instructor variety
VIII. Mosaic Subcommittee mentors – Kara
Ancestry.com has recently agreed to sponsor the Mosaic scholarship, which now includes being matched with a member of the DAS SUBCOMMITTEE and getting a certain amount of DAS courses for free. Mentorship involves advising them on which courses to take, getting to know them, possible career advice depending on how involved they want to be. Kate, Mahnaz and Jennifer volunteered with Sibyl and Marty as backup.
IX. DAS Committee Term – Kara (Glen to report to CoE)
- 1. DAS Subcommittee Chair Term Length
- a. Proposed revision to DAS Subcommittee policy: Chair’s term will be reduced from 4 years to 1 year to allow more members of the committee to serve as Chair. Chair must be in their second or third year of their four year term, and agree to serve in the capacity of Past Chair for the year following their term as Chair to assure continuity of knowledge and progress.
- DAS Certificate Renewal for DAS Subcommittee Members
- Proposed addition to DAS Subcommittee policy: Current members of the committee will be granted a 2-year grace period following the conclusion of their 4-year term to allow adequate time for acquiring the education required to maintain and renew their DAS Certificate. Courses for which the committee members serve as a course shepherd (i.e. liaison) do not apply toward DAS Certificate renewal.
- 3. Recommendation of DAS Course for Dual Credit
- a. The DAS Subcommittee recommends that Appraisal of Electronic Records (to be renamed Appraisal of Digital Records) count toward both DAS and A&D Certificates.
Other High-Level Updates for CoE:
- Maturity of DAS program is lending itself to a potential restructuring of the tier and course requirements in order to ensure ongoing relevance to SAA’s audience.
- Changing the term “electronic” to “digital” in all course titles
- Core Reading list to be created as a resource for DAS students. Marty, Lori and Jennifer to lead task force.
- No current changes to Core Competencies
X. Comprehensive Exam and Question Revisions - Veronica
Veronica has reviewed all questions with course PowerPoints to make sure they match up. DAS SUBCOMMITTEE went through each question with Veronica and approved the changes (see handouts for details).
Individual course review
- Building Advocacy and Support for Digital Archives – should be retired, hardly ever requested and not well attended when offered. DIR covers some of the same material, could be expanded.
- Archival CMS – Should either be revised or retired, at least one ACMS is defunct, times have changed, etc. Should keep until there is an alternative though.
- Standards – Updated in 2014, all major standards covered. Extend another year before reviewing.
- Preserving Digital Archives – great course, great reviews, too many pre-readings – overwhelming. Sibyl available to teach (currently only one instructor). Pre-requisites appropriate, more exercises requested in evals. Could be offered online?
- RFPs – Standard course, not many changes over time. Lori audited and thought Cynthia made a dry subject very interesting. Seems to illuminate the process for participants, sense of relief after taking the course.
- MER – Also has extensive pre-reading list. Seems very basic but is often requested and is one of our few Tier 4 courses. Could be expanded to contain more material. Biblio, evaluations, exercises very good.
- Basics of MER – Needs competencies. Hasn’t been reviewed or audited, very similar to ER next step. Seems unlikely people would take the two courses back to back. Good for people who need an overview but its very basic. Maybe add exercises? Scheduled for August revision – good candidate for an online course.
- Thinking Digital – up for review in August Evaluations noted sound and tech problems. Jen will watch it to compare to other Foundational courses.
- Metadata – Updated in 2015, foundational overview. Good reviews, good bibliography, learning outcomes, etc.
- Appraisal – Questions as to how much this should be separated from general appraisal course since electronic records are much more a part of everyday appraisal than previously and appraisal is a central part of archives. Model for A&D curriculum and should be incorporated. Lots of variety in description and slides to cover different collection types. Solveig working on second set of exam questions. Would be a good candidate for a webcast or online course.
- Digital Curation – Basic topic to archives, could be its own track – report back during April call (didn’t get a name on who would report back…). Course focuses on curation of collections and appeals to a wide segment of the archives community. Multiple instructors – hard to decide on what viewpoint to represent. Glen recommends revising it, appeals to ARL/University archives group. Alice may be helpful as liaison. Or could focus the course more on business to compete with ARMA. Jamie Martin (Bus Arch section), Amy Stevenson possible instructors.
- A&D of Electronic Records 1 and 2 – Sibyl recommends a complete overhaul of this course, especially with the new Tools courses being developed. Should focus the course more on description. Old pre-readings, duplicating a lot with Tools courses.
- Digital Forensics Fundamentals – One of our strongest courses, excellent reviews, only criticism was trick questions on the exam, Marty will review.
- Intro to Processing – Great reviews, highly relevant material, only criticism was that exercises werent always clear. Nobody who filled out a survey had accessed the ebook so there is a question as to how valuable that was. With the new system we will be able to require people to read the book if we want to. Publication should be updated though (2012). Course is up for review – should extend another year.
- Web Archiving – Course feedback was good, most people said they could apply it to their work. Attendance has been small at Q&A sessions.
- Dig Pres of A/V – Good presentation, needs to be incorporated into Comp exam, also needs competencies, headings in ppt, re-take exam.
- Electronic Records next step – Needs tool updates, revise in Aug.
- Accessioning and Ingest – Very good reviews, merged with Appraisal for Yale contract (and also so each instructor can teach the others course, each only had one instructor) There is a variety of tools and variety of people taking the course – some tool changes should be reflected in the course.
- Digital Repositories – Its good, good reviews, activities well received, liked overviews done by Lori. Slides had all requirements. Exam needs to be looked at, some evals mentioned workbook quality could be improved.
- Copyright/Privacy courses – Reviews weren’t great for Dryden’s exercises, needs competencies, ppt updates, Heather Briston gets better reviews than Jean. Both courses need revision, need to sync exam questions with courses. High priority for revision, also need more instructors – contact legal issues SAA group for suggestions.
- Digital Archives & Libs – Tom gets good feedback, missing his competencies but course was just revised. No pre-readings but there is a good bibliography.
- Providing Access – Mixed reviews for Erin but overall better reviews than the webcast. Exam needs revision – doesn’t match course materials.
- Preservation Options of pdf/a – Updated in 2015, missing competencies, evaluations split on whether it met its objectives. Helpful for beginners but too basic for more advanced participants. Not very well attended – review again in 2018.
- Command Line – New, great reviews. Should highlight more in marketing – could have participants do a short write up on what they learned.
- User Experience Design – Introduced in March of 2016, fairly popular. Description, pre-requisites, competencies are very thorough. Includes lots of resources.
XI. Intern Project Update - Monique
Monique is working on a project examining job descriptions across many outlets and related fields to see what phrases are commonly used. The working title of her project is “Current Skillsets and Job Titles for Digital Archivists in the U.S” She is also studying titles and mapping them to our course competencies to see where we might be lacking/doing well in terms of appealing to a wide variety of fields and positions. Started the project over due to adjustments in data collection, currently cleaning the data, data consists of 3 columns w/ associated codes – Monique will send a draft to the committee before the next conference call.
Completed project due July 15, Monique’s internship is over on July 30. Committee requested a 5-10 minute presentation on the project during the Education meeting in Portland this summer. Very helpful in expanding courses and matching learning outcomes with job descriptions Helpful in deciding which sectors to branch into and which skills translate into other fields. Could be the basis of an article in Archival Outlook.
XII. Other Business
Conference Call Schedule
March 28, 1pm ET/10am PT
April 25, 1pm ET/10am PT
May 23, 1pm ET/10am PT
June 27, 1pm ET/10am PT
In-Person Meeting
CoE, DAS Subcommittee and GAE Subcommittee + Faculty Session at SAA Annual Meeting - July 26, 10 am – 12 pm
DAS Subcommittee - October 9 & 10 (arrive on 10/8)
Interested in virtual meetings via AdobeConnect. Shoot for virtual committee meeting to replace in-person meeting in early 2018. Possibly have longer conference calls or a practice session beforehand.
