Infinity (Spring/Summer 2000 Volume 16, Number 1)

SAA Preservation Section Affinity Newsletter 16:1

INFINITY


The Newsletter of the SAA Preservation Section         Spring/Summer 2000 Volume 16, Number 1


In This Issue:


FROM THE CHAIR

Pam Hackbart-Dean (Georgia State University)

It is hard to believe that the SAA Annual Meeting is not that far away. This has been an active year for the Preservation Section and much has been accomplished. To learn more about it, please make plans to attend the Preservation Section business meeting on Friday, September 1st from 8:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. Our program will feature two speakers: Clark Center, University of Alabama, and Bryan Collars, South Carolina Department of Archives and History, who will report on "Moving an Archives."

Discussion groups have also been planned for the Section meeting. Vanessa Simmons will lead a discussion on using volunteers for preservation projects. Sarah Talley will be on hand to confer about preservation issues related to audio/visual materials. Drawing on her experience working in the trenches of South Carolina, Theresa J. Montgomery will lead a discussion on environmental issues in archives. Tyler Walters will offer guidance on digital preservation.

There are several people who have been extremely helpful in countless ways over the past year, including Sharla Richards, Sheila McAlister and Evelyn Frangakis. Linda Overman, Carolyn Schumacher, Glenda Stevens, Clark Center, and Robin McElheny can always be counted on to provide thoughtful ideas and suggestions. Sarah Talley has been an energetic vice chair, who will do a great job as chair. Anke Voss-Hubbard has been a very dedicated newsletter editor. A special thanks to Julie Graham for all her hard work on the SAA Preservation Section website. Thank you all for your hard work and dedication to the Section.

It has been a very special and enjoyable year for me, and I encourage all of you to think about becoming more involved with your colleagues in the work of the Section. They are a great group!!!

I look forward to seeing you in Denver.

PRESERVATION SECTION LEADERSHIP

  • Pamela Hackbart-Dean (Georgia State University) Chair
  • Sara Talley (Utah State Archives and Records Services) Vice Chair/Chair-Elect
  • Robin McElheney (Harvard University) Immediate Past Chair/Chair, Nominating Committee
  • Sharla Richards (Preservation Consultant) Member-at-Large
  • Clark Center (University of Alabama) Member-at-Large Chair, Publications Committee
  • Glenda Stevens (Texas Christian University) Chair, Education Committee
  • Sheila McAlister (University of Georgia) Chair, Outreach Committee
  • Linda Overman (Alabama Department of Archives and History) Chair, Program Committee
  • Newsletter Editor Anke Voss-Hubbard (Eastern Illinois University)
  • Council Liaison Fynnette Eaton (Smithsonian Institution)

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SECTION MEMBER NEWS

Pam Hackbart-Dean has accepted the position of archivist at the Southern Labor Archives at Georgia State University. You can reach her at:

Special Collection Department Pullen Library Georgia State University 100 Decatur Street, SE, 8th Floor Atlanta, GA 30303-3202 phone: (404) 651-2477 email: libphd@langate.gsu.edu

Anke Voss-Hubbard has accepted the position of archivist and special collections librarian at Illinois Wesleyan University.

The NOMINATING COMMITTEE is pleased to present the slate of candidates for the following Steering Committee members: Vice Chair/Chair-Elect, Member-at-Large, and Member, Nominting Committee. Please review the biographical notes for each candidate and indicate your selection on the ballot page.

We are counting on your vote. Thank you!


PROGRAM PROSALS for the SAA 2001 Annual Meeting in Washington, DC, must bepostmarked no later than October 6, 2000.

See your printed program or visit the SAA website: www.archivists.org for more information and the proposal form, or contact Linda Overman, Preservation Section Program Committee Chair, at loverman@archives.state.al.us phone: (334)242-4437


WELCOME ABOARD! CLARK CENTER WILL serve as the newco-editor of the PRESERVATION SECTION NEWSLETTER STARTING WITH THE FALL/WINTER 2000 ISSUE OF INFINITY.

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PRESERVATION NEWS

Invitation to Test New Environmental Assessment Technology for Preservation

The Image Permanence Institute (IPI) seeks libraries, archives, and museums in the USA to participate in a field trial of newly developed preservation management technology. IPI will offer hardware, software, and training free of charge to eighty different cultural organizations under the terms of a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. The purpose of the project is to test and refine a computerized system for gathering and interpreting data on environmental conditions in collection storage and display areas. The field trial will last up to two years, beginning in fall 2000.

Applications must be received by Sept 1, 2000.

More information including the application form is available at: http://www.rit.edu/ipi

or by contacting:

Image Permanence Institute Rochester Institute of Technology 70 Lomb Memorial Drive Rochester, NY 14623-5604 phone: (716) 475-5199 fax: (716) 475-7230 e-mail: IPIWWW@RIT.EDU


Preservation Management Institute

Rutgers University will be offering its Preservation Management Institute again in 2000-2001. This program is designed for professionals with preservation responsibilities who would like some formal education and training in preservation. The schedule of the program fits into your work schedule, and the Institute will enable you to conduct preservation planning for your institution while you learn.

For details about the upcoming program, please visit: http://www.scils.rutgers.edu/pds/pmi.html or contact Karen Novick at Rutgers at pds@scils.rutgers.edu


NARA 16TH PRESERVATION CONFERENCE

The 16th Annual National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) Preservation Conference 2001, A Case Oddity: Preserving the Physical Evidence of Artifacts and Records, is scheduled for March 27, 2001, National Archives at College Park, 8601 Adelphi Road, College Park, MD.

The 2001 conference will bring together conservation scientists, preservation professionals, archivists and records managers to discuss technical issues related to maintaining and handling artifacts and records found in holdings subjected to or subject to forensic examination.

Preregistration is required.The Registration Fee is $75.00 (Includes buffet lunch). Please send check payable to: National Archives Trust Fund and/or obtain registration information from: Eleanor Torain Conference Coordinator (NWT) 8601 Adelphi Road, Room 2807 College Park, MD 20740-6001 (301)713-6718 fax: (301)713-6653 email: preserve@nara.gov


NATIONAL FILM PRESERVATION FOUNDATION AWARDS

The National Film Preservation Foundation is pleased to announce cash awards to 23 nonprofit and public organizations. For further information, including a complete list of the archives and projects awarded, please visit the NFPF web site: www.filmpreservation.org. National Film Preservation Foundation 870 Market Street Suite 1113 San Francisco, CA 94102 phone: (415) 392-7295 fax: (415) 392-7293


UNIVERSITIES CONSIDER ARCHIVING FOR ELECTRONIC RECORDS

On October 7, 2000, one hundred professionals with responsibility for creating or maintaining digital products convened the first Preservation and Access for Electronic College and University Records Conference (ECURE) sponsored by Arizona State University. Arizona State has posted many of the speakers presentations on the conference website ( www.asu.edu/it/events/ecure). ECURE 2000 is scheduled for October 12-13, 2000, in Tempe, Arizona.


NEW NEH PRESERVATION ASSISTANCE GRANT PROGRAM

This new NEH grant program awards grants of up to $5,000 on a competitive basis and sponsors projects that support the preservation of materials in libraries, archives, museums, and historical organizations. For more information and to apply go to the NEH website at: http://www.neh.gov or call (202) 606-8570.


NEW PUBLICATIONS

Coming from the Northeast Document Conservation Center this summer . . . Handbook for Digital Projects: A Management Tool for Preservation and Access. For more information, contact Jamie Doyle at jdoyle@nedcc.org

Recently published by the Council on Library and Information Resources: Moving Theory into Practice: Digital Imaging for Libraries and Archives, by Anne R. Kenney and Oya Y. Rieger. For more information visit: http://www.clir.org


SOLINET'S NEW PRESERVATION LISTSERV SOLPRES-L

The Southeastern Library Network's (SOLINET) Preservation Services is pleased to announce a new electronic forum for sharing information in a timely manner. SOLPRES-L is designed to disseminate information about SOLINET's preservation training and outreach programs and other preservation news of interest to libraries and archives. The focus is on issues of interest to SOLINET members, Preservation Services workshop participants, and institutions located in the Southeastern US, but the list is open to anyone who may be interested.

SOLPRES-L in an informational list and not a discussion list. It is a vehicle to disseminate information to SOLINET members and to the preservation community. Please do not post questions or comments to the list. Questions may be submitted to the list owner for individual reply. Please send questions and comments to: preservation@solinet.net. To subscribe: Send a message to: listbot@solinet.net. In the message area type: SUBSCRIBE SOLPRES-L

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The Society of American Archivists 64th Annual Meeting August 28 - September 3, 2000 Denver, Colorado

Important Program Notes Two pre-conference workshops of special interest to Section members are being offered: HAZCOM for Archivists, is being taught on Monday, August 28. The instructor is Monona Rossol. Pam Hackbard-Dean will be giving Preservation Planning for Archives on Tuesday, August 29. (See section meeting schedule for more information on these workshops).

Numerous preservation-related sessions are being offered at this year's meeting, including: Preserving the Collection: Planning for an HVAC System (S8); Assessing Preservation Needs: The Congressional Papers Roundtable 1999 Survey (S19SF); Records Management for Archivists: Disaster Planning and Vital Records (S12W); The Preservation of Authentic Records in Electronic Systems: A Progresss Report of the InterPARES Research Project (S14); Thieves in the Research Room: Precautions, Prevention, and Legal Remedies (S28); Archival Perspectives on Digital Libraries (S41); Look Before You Leap: Preservation Implications During Acquisition and Accession (S52); and Towards a National Preservaion Network (S63). Please check your program for a complete listing.

PRESERVATION SECTION MEETING SCHEDULE

SECTION STEERING COMMITTEE MEETING Wednesday, August 30 - 7:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m.

SECTION BUSINESS MEETING Friday, September 1 - 8:00 a.m. - 10:00 a.m.

See From the Chair for more details about the Business Meeting

Visit the Preservation Publications Fair Exhibits Area, Thursday, August 31 & Friday, September 1

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COMMITTEE UPDATES

EDUCATION COMMITTEE The Education Committee, consisting of Elli Bambakidis, Clark E. Center, Jr., Diana L. Hevener, Rebecca Mayne, Cathy Lynn Mundale, Ken Riccardi, and Glenda Stevens, Chair, makes its report. Two pre-conference workshops are being offered in connection with SAA's Annual Meeting at Denver. "HAZCOM for Archivists," is being taught on Monday, August 28. The instructor is Monona Rossol. Participants will gain insight into basic concepts of archival health and safety and develop transferable strategies to prevent hazards in the workplace. Pam Hackbart-Dean will be giving "Preservation Planning for Archives," on Tuesday, August 29. The workshop is designed for archives staff as an introduction to preservation issues and the holdings and maintenance activities performed during arrangement and description.

A Preservation Publications Fair, exhibiting materials included in Selected Readings in Preservation, 1999, will be held in the Exhibits Area at the Denver meeting on Thursday, August 31 (and perhaps Friday, September 1, if we can secure sufficient personnel to staff the exhibit).

We appreciate the efforts of the committee members who have solicited the materials and the publishers who have provided them. Come by and take a look.

Members of the committee gathered preservation policies and procedures documents and submitted them for consideration to the SAA Publications Board and the SAA/ARMA committee preparing a revision of the Forms Manual. The selection process is on-going. Once we know which of our contributions were utilized, we can move to providing electronic access to others on our web site.

Glenda B. Stevens, Education Commitee Chair Senior Archivist, Texas Christian University Box 298400, Fort Worth, TX 76129 email:g.stevens@tcu.edu phone: (817) 257-7595; fax: (817) 257-7282

OUTREACH COMMITTEE In the last issue of Infinity, the Outreach Committee published its Survey of Preservation Section Expertise and Needs. Thus far, section response has been low. I would like to encourage you all to fill out the survey if you have not already done so.

A printable version of the survey may be found on the section's web page at: http://dlis.gseis.ucla.edu/saapreserv/text/survey.htm, and we hope to have an electronic version of it ready in the near future. Please take the time to let us know how the section can serve you better.

Sheila McAlister, Outreach Committee Chair Electronic Access Coordinator Richard B. Russell Library University of Georgia Libraries email: mcalists@libris.libs.uga.edu phone: 706-542-5782

PUBLICATIONS COMMITTEE
The Selected Readings in Preservation, 1999, should be available on the Section website before SAA's annual meeting in Denver. Due to budget constraints, there will be no paper version published.

Clark Center, Publications Committee Chair W. S. Hoole Special Collections Library University of Alabama P. O. Box 870266 Tuscaloosa, AL 35487-0266
phone: 205-348-0505 email: ccenter@bama.ua.edu

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Society of American Archivists Preservation Section Annual Election, Summer 2000

The Nominating Committee (Robin McElheny, Mary Lynn Ritzenthaler, and Sarah Wagner) is pleased to present the slate of candidates for the following Preservation Section Steering Committee members:

Vice Chair/Chair Elect Member-at-Large Member, Nominating Committee

Please review the biographical notes for each of the candidates and indicate your selection on the ballot on the reverse of [below] this page. Write-in candidates are welcome.

Please mail this original ballot to Robin McElheny, Harvard University Archives, Pusey Library, Cambridge, MA 02138. Robin must receive your ballot by Friday, August 11, 2000. You can contact Robin at 617-495-2461 if you have questions about submitting your ballot. Election results will be announced during the Preservation Section business meeting on Friday, September 1, 8-10 a.m.

For Vice Chair/Chair Elect

Candidate: Diane Vogt-O'Connor A member of SAA since 1973, Diane Vogt-O'Connor has served as Chair of the SAA Visual Materials Group and a member of the Program and Standards Committees, as well as a member of the ACA Nomination and Ethics Committees. She has also served on MARAC's Arline Custer Award Committee, COPAR (Council for the Preservation of the Anthropological Records), and the Library of Congress Preservation Advisory Committee, and she is a founding member of REALACT, the Smithsonian's Conservation Taskforce.

Since 1993, Vogt-O'Connor has been the Senior Archivist of the National Park Service, where she writes policies for the management of the 45.6 million site-related manuscripts (such as the Thomas Edison Papers) held in 380 national parks. She also develops integrated management training courses with a focus on preservation with such organizations as NEDCC, CCAHA, and the University of Nevada. Vogt-O'Connor is currently developing a free Web-based distance learning course on the basics of archival management, due out in 2001. She also teaches for USIA and the State Library of New Jersey and has co-authored a 25 minute videotape called "Rescuing Records: The Preservation of Paper-Based Research Resources."

During the last decade Vogt-O'Connor has written 22 plus technical leaflets on archival conservation topics (see: www.cr.nps.gov/csd/publications/index.htm), special issues of the NPS journal CRM on archives and records management (at: www.cr.nps.gov/crm; See V. 22 # 2 & V.21 # 6), as well as numerous chapters of the Museum Handbook (MH) on archival management.


For Member at Large

Candidate:Glenda Stevens Glenda B. Stevens has held the position of Senior Archivist for the Jim Wright Collection at the Mary Couts Burnett Library, Texas Christian University, Fort Worth, Texas, since 1990. She serves as a resource person in her institution, her community, and regions beyond on archival matters. In addition to participating in a local Metroplex Archivists group, Glenda is a member of the Society of Southwest Archivists, appearing on a program at an annual meeting and serving as Chair of the Nominating Committee.

Glenda has been a member of SAA since 1990, serving as a member of the Steering Committee of the Congressional Papers Round Table and as member, co-chair, and chair of the Preservation Section Education Committee. In that capacity she has participated in the organization of sessions, promotion of a workshop, collection of preservation policy statements, preparation of a publications exhibit, and contributing to editions of the Selected Readings in Preservation.

A Certified Archivist and a graduate of the SAA Preservation Management Training Program, Glenda holds an M.A. in history from Southwest Missouri State University and has taken additional course work at Tulane University in history and at the University of North Texas in library and information science. Previous employment includes Amistad Research Center and Loyola University in New Orleans and the Mississippi Department of Archives and History.

For Member, Nominating Committee

Candidate: Evelyn Frangakis Evelyn Frangakis currently holds the position of Preservation Officer, National Agricultural Library. Her educational background includes Columbia University, Rutgers University, and Franklin and Marshall College. Her numerous professional activities include serving as Chair, Preservation Section, 1997; Director, SAA Preservation Management Training Program, 1992-1994; and serving on the ALCTS Research and Statistics Committee, PARS Policy and Planning Committee; and National Preservation Steering Committee of the Agricultural Information Network.

Deadline for receipt: Friday, August 11, 2000

Please note: Ballot appears on hard copy of Infinity.

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From the Co-Editors

Many thanks to all of you who contributed to this issue of Infinity, the newsletter of the Preservation Section of the Society of American Archivists. The newsletter is currently published bi-annually, and the submission deadline for the next issue ( Fall/Winter 2000) is November 3, 2000. Please contact Co-Editors Clark Center (see address above), or Anke Voss-Hubbard, Sheean Library, Illinois Wesleyan University, 303 East Emerson, Bloomington, Illinois 61701, phone: (309)556-3350 fax: (309)556-3706. (Please visit: http://www.iwu.edu for Anke's updated email address).

SEE YOU IN DENVER!


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© Society of American Archivists Preservation Section. Created 20 July 2001