- About Archives
- About SAA
- Careers
- Education
- Publications
- Advocacy
- Membership
The Newsletter of the SAA Preservation Section Spring/Summer 2004 Volume 20, Number 1
The Society of American Archivists annual meeting in Boston is fast approaching! The Preservation Section Steering Committee and members have been hard at work behind-the-scenes to bring preservation-related topics and forums for preservation discussion to the annual meeting. I hope you will be able to join us for a wide array of programs.
SAA Annual Meeting Preservation Programs
While reviewing the program, I was pleased to see that the Preservation Section's two endorsed sessions: "Preservation Policies for Digital Resources" and "Preserving Moving Images: Assessing Risk and Value" are being joined by many other preservation-related sessions. It is also evident in the program that the archival profession continues to grapple with complexities of the digital world and its impact on preservation of archival documentation. There is a total of nine of preservation-related sessions on the program this year.
There are also a number of pre-conference workshops with preservation themes on August 2 -3. Gregor Trinkaus-Randall, Preservation Specialist, Commonwealth of Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners (and long-time member of the Preservation Section) will be teaching "Leaky Pipes and Broken Windows."
Paul Conway, Director of Information Technology Services, Duke University Libraries, will be the instructor for "Archival Perspectives on Digital Preservation." Fred Calabretta, Associate Curator and Oral Historian, Mystic Seaport Museum is leading "Oral History: From Planning to Preservation. Finally, Jean-Francis Blanchette will be the instructor of "Preserving Digitally Signed Documents: Technical, Legislative, and Policy Responses."
Preservation Section Steering Committee Meeting
The Steering Committee of the Preservation Section will meet on Thursday, August 5 for a working brown bag lunch from Noon to 1:30pm. The meeting will be held in the Alcott Room on the third floor of the Boston Park Plaza. Although the meeting is technically a Steering Committee meeting, I welcome anyone who would like to contribute to the future of the Section. Bring your lunch and creative ideas!
Preservation Section Meeting
The Section Business Meeting is scheduled for Friday August 6 from 8:30 -10:30 am. I am pleased that Doris Hamburg (Member-at-Large) and Mary Lynn Ritzenthaler have agreed to present "Assignment Baghdad: Preservation of the Iraqi Jewish Archive" at the Section meeting. In June of 2003, Ms. Ritzenthaler and Ms. Hamburg (representing NARA) went to Baghdad at the request of the White House, and with the support from the Department of Defense, to assess the water damaged records of the Iraqi Jewish Archive. The Archive had been under water for several weeks and efforts to salvage, sort and pack the collection resulted in extensive mold damage and physical distortion of the records. In their presentation, they will discuss the challenges they faced creating a preservation plan for the collection and the intriguing aspects of disaster recovery of cultural property in the midst of war.
There will also be presentations on available grant funding for preservation projects and an update of the activities of the Regional Alliance for Preservation (RAP). The Chairs of the Outreach, Education Nominating and Newsletter Committees of the Section will also report. If there are other topics you would like to see covered at the meeting, please feel free to contact me at 215/242-2343 or skdubois@verizon.net.
Reception
The Northeast Document Conservation Center has generously offered to host a Preservation Section reception at the Boston Public Library, Friday, August 6, 2004, 5:45-7:00 PM. Members of the Preservation Section and anyone with an interest in preservation are cordially invited to come and enjoy refreshments, conversation, and socializing in the Library's historic courtyard. I am so grateful to NEDCC for offering such a wonderful opportunity for us to meet and mingle on a more informal basis.
To get to the Library, take St. James Street to Copley Square. Use the Dartmouth Street entrance of the Boston Public Library and then turn right to the courtyard.
In conclusion, I want to thank all the Preservation Section leaders and members whose dedication and hard work helped bring the message of preservation (in its many forms!) to the archival community throughout the year, and to the annual meeting. I hope to see you in Boston.
The Nominating Committee (Tom Clareson, Chair), is pleased to present the slate of candidates for the following positions:
Please review the biographical notes on each of the candidates and indicate your selection on the ballot on page 4. Write-in candidates are welcome. Please mail this original ballot to: Tom Clareson, Manager, Education & Planning, Digital Collection & Preservation Services, OCLC Online Computer Library Center, Inc., 6565 Frantz Road, Dublin, Ohio 43017. Election results will be announced during the Preservation Section Business Meeting to be held on Friday, August 6, at 8:30am. The nominating Committee wishes to thank all the candidates for their willingness to serve the Preservation Section.
Your ballot must be received no later than July 31, 2004 for it to be counted.
For Vice-Chair/Chair Elect Candidate— Gregor Trinkaus-Randall, M.L.S., C.A. Gregor Trinkaus-Randall received his BA and MAs in History and Library Science/ Archives Administration from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and is a graduate of Yale University's NEH-funded Preservation/Conservation Internship. He has also attended the training institutes in "All-Hazards: Preparedness and Response," “All Hazards: Recovery and Mitigation,” and “Hurricanes: Preparedness and Response” at FEMA's Emergency Management Institute in Emmittsburg, MD, and “Digital Preservation Management: Short-Term Strategies for Long-Term Problems at Cornell University. He is a member of the Academy of Certified Archivists, the Society of American Archivists, and the New England Archivists. He is currently the Preservation Specialist at the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners where he is responsible for implementing the statewide preservation program, the MBLC’s Emergency Assistance Program, and its Environmental Monitoring Program, and for maintaining the Massachusetts Special Collections Directory on the MBLC’s Web site. He is a member of the NEDCC's Advisory Committee, the Boston Cultural Emergency Disaster Team, and the Massachusetts Emergency Management Team. He has spoken widely on preservation, disaster preparedness, archival, and security topics. He has run numerous disaster preparedness, repair, security, and other preservation as well as archival workshops for librarians and archivists. With the NEDCC staff, he is currently running workshops on dPlan: an Online Disaster Planning Tool, developed through an IMLS National Leadership Grant. He is the author of Protecting Your Collections: A Manual of Archival Security, published by the Society of American Archivists (1995), and "Library and Archival Security: Policies and Procedures to Protect Holdings from Theft and Damage," in Management of Library and Archival Security: From the Outside Looking In (New York: The Haworth Press, 1998). He is also the compiler of the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners' Massachusetts Special Collections Directory (2000).
For Member-at-Large Candidate— Clark Center Clark Center received an A.B. and M.A. in history from Samford University in Birmingham, Alabama, and the M.L.S. degree from the University of Alabama. He is a member of the Academy of Certified Archivists and a graduate of the Society of American Archivists' NEH-funded Preservation Management Training Program. He has been active in the Society of Alabama Archivists and in SAA, particularly in the Preservation Section, having served on the Publication, Education, Outreach, and Steering Committees, and as newsletter editor for the past four years. He has worked as a processing archivist and is currently Curator of the W.S. Hoole Special Collections Library at the University of Alabama.
For Nominating Committee
Candidate— Linda Overman
Linda Overman has been the Preservation Officer at the Alabama Department of Archives and History since 1989. Prior to that she was the Paper Conservator at the Mississippi Department of Archives and History. She has over twenty years of experience in preservation administration and hands-on conservation. Linda has served as an officer in the Society of Mississippi Archivists and the Society of Alabama Archivists. For the past four years, she has chaired the SAA Preservation Section Program Committee.
***Ballot not available for electronic newsletter***
Society of American Archivists Preservation Section. Created 29 July 2001