PLASC Meeting Minutes 2013 August 16

PLASC Business Meeting

SAA Annual

Friday, August 16, 2013 4:00-5:30 pm

Hilton Riverside, Grand Salon 3/6

The meeting convened at 4:00pm, Jamie Seemiller, Chair, presiding.

Introductions

Present committee members:

-       Jamie Seemiller, Chair

-       Jean Fisher, Secretary

All attendees introduced themselves and a sign-in sheet was collected.

SAA Executive Council Update

PLASC’s SAA Council Liason, Geof Huth, joined us and shared the following recent Council actions: 

-       Approved new procedures for the revised standards committee.  Instead of requiring revisions to be published in print, the rules have been changed to allow new standards and revisions to be released digitally and therefore more quickly.

-       Passed a resolution posthumously recognizing Taronda Spencer for her outstanding contributions to the archives profession.

-       The Annual Meeting Task Force has approved holding annual meetings in “second-tier” cities so meetings can be held in more parts of the country. They also adopted a list of principles and priorities for continuously improving the SAA meeting.

-       Expanded the Communications Task Force, which looks at how to work cooperatively to get things done within SAA.

-       Affirmed SAA’s connection to the International Council on Archives with the intention of making the most of SAA’s role in ICA.

-       Created an Advocacy and Public Policy Committee that will be tasked to look at public policy in a way that supports archives. A group will be convened to design a charge by Sept. 1, 2013.

-       Revised the Glossary Working Group charge to add three members. They are working to keep the Dictionary of Archival Terms growing. Geoff encouraged us to give them any suggestions or ideas for how the glossary could help – or has helped – you and your work.

Election Results

-       Chair: Anke Voss, Director, Champaign Co. Historical Archives; Lecturer, GSLIS, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

-       Vice Chair: Leslie Waggener, Associate Archivist, Simpson Institute for Western Politics and Leadership, American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming

-       Secretary: Brittany Turner, Records Manager and Special Projects Librarian, Shreve Memorial Library

-       Webmaster: Jennifer Sharp, Digital Cataloging Specialist, Hartford History Center at the Hartford (CT) Public Library

PLASC Survey Results 

Adrienne Pruitt and Stephanie Bennett of the Survey Committee presented on the results of the PLASC survey administered to PLASC membership in Jan-Feb 2013. The survey measured various job demographics of members (including type of repository and specialization), reasons cited for joining PLASC, and annual salary ranges. Details of the survey results are posted on the PLASC micro site.

Forthcoming book

Leslie Waggener talked to us about a book she and co-author Kathie Markowiz have forthcoming from ALA editions: Starting a Local History Collection in Your Public Library. It’s reference book geared towards libraries that don’t have the resources or staff to develop a full archival program, but still want to develop a local history collection. The book addresses important issues such as reference, staffing, outreach, collection and access policies, and advice on topics such as how to say no to archival materials you know you can’t handle. The book is due out Fall 2014.

Lightning Round Presentations

-       Sally McDonald from the Denver Public Library presented on the “Creating Your Community” social history project happening at DPL. This is a new community-contributed online resource, funded by an IMLS grant, intended to collect and share the undocumented history of Colorado. Users create their own community, add their own photos, and post their own stories.

-       Jean Fisher from the Northwest Room at the Tacoma Public Library discussed TPL’s efforts to uncover the library’s hidden collections, which include manuscripts, architectural plans, and how they are leveraging community resources to preserve and share the collections.

-       Deirdre Joyce from the Central New York Library Resources Council described CLRC’s first effort at digitizing on a regional basis. This is an LSTA-funded project showcasing Central New York State on the New York Heritage website. Deirdre described issues dealing with collection development, digitization training, working with interns, and collaborating with smaller, regional organizations.

Open Discussion

-       The author of a new resource, Lois Hammel, shared information about her book Archives for the Layperson.  The book gives an overview of archival functions, and has advice for how to improve governance, create policies, care for collections, and more.

-       Also recommended were Beth Yakel’s Starting an Archive and Christina Zamon’s recently published book The Lone Arranger.

-       Question from an attendee: How do you promote archival collections to your library’s administration and community? How do you build support within your organization and outside of it?  Several ideas were offered by fellow attendees:

• Offer to have teachers visit with their classes
• Use exhibit space to show off collections
• Participate in National History Day
• Establish a newsletter
• Add more information about collection to the website – have dedicated pages to the collection
• Beef up public programming, and collaborate with local schools and historical/genealogical societies
• Engage those who donate materials by offering context to their donated materials - associate stories and scrapbooks with other materials in collection
• In-person tactile experience is key – perhaps even more important and meaningful than digital access
• Plan a program for archives month in October. Use it as an opportunity to advertise that there’s more in the archives that you’d think
• Prepare outreach kits that teachers can borrow to use in their classrooms, perhaps linking to digital content. Pick one or two schools and go to them, bring some original material
• Tie local history materials to specific members of the community. 
• Collaborate with staff in other departments – help them know what you have and how archives are relevant to all patrons
• Reach out to your Friends group
• Consider using your archives for an open house
• Arlington Public Library recently did a successful program tying American Girl dolls with materials from the local history department. Think about how can you tie archival material to popular culture - things that resonate with people
• Find a politician with a vested interest – reach out to them and ask them to contact you with any questions (soon after an election is best)

Chair-elect Anke Voss asked members with any ideas or wishes for the section for the next year to please contact her.

There being no other business, the meeting was adjourned at 5:15pm.

Respectfully submitted, 

Jean Fisher

PLASC Secretary