PLASC Meeting Minutes 2018 September 18

Public Library Archives and Special Collections (PLASC)
Section of the Society of American Archivists

Meeting Minutes

Teleconference (WebEx)

September 18, 2018

In attendance: Lauren Algee, Patricia Delara, Suzanne Im, Heather Lanctot.

Purpose of Meeting: FY 2018-2019 planning.

1. Discussion of steering committee activities for the coming year based on the Spring 2018 membership survey. The primary recommendations from the survey are:

• Establishing a statement of priority areas to guide the section’s work

• Creating a toolkit to help members advocate for the importance of their work as archivists within their institutions and the profession

• Coming up with a communication plan and campaign to increase awareness of PLASC, raise awareness of public library archives and special collections, and expand memberships and partnerships

2. Guiding statement of priority areas:

• Accessibility

• Efficiency

• Community of Practice

• Examples from experience

• Be an aggregator of news, opportunities, training, etc. for the membership

3. Advocacy Toolkit

• SAA Issues and Advocacy Section a place to start cross-referencing

• Review existing toolkit for outreach that PLASC started a few years ago: https://localhistoryrt.wordpress.com/  

  • Move relevant content over from WordPress to PLASC microsite and move on from WordPress

• Check Resource List on PLASC microsite (http://www2.archivists.org/groups/public-library-archivesspecial-collections/resource-list) to ensure listed items are up-to-date/available

• Heather suggested compiling firsthand accounts from archivists of “what worked or didn’t” at their institutions 

  • Less formal versions of case studies

  • Lauren suggested framing these in an interview style, which is less time consuming than writing an article

4. Communications

• Encourage use of the PLASC Listserv

• Newsletter - send over listserv

  • “Did you know?” a way to frame existing resources

• Push out periodic news and highlight resources through a blog platform or social media

  • Twitter: Patricia proposed starting a PLASC Twitter account. It is more practical, with succinct text that can help lone arrangers or practitioners who are spread thin to scan for information they need

• Question: Should one person be assigned to coordinate all communications? Lauren will reach out to Petrina to find out if this is standard practice in other sections.

  • Ideally, all steering committee members will contribute posts

  • Create templated versions of types of posts

5. Other business

• Steven Robertson, from George Mason, talked to Lauren about training librarians to work with primary sources through his program, Creating Local Linkages (http://locallinkages.org/). Inquired about PLASC sponsoring to host his workshop at the next SAA annual meeting. Algee reached out to Petrina and confirmed sections do not do this anymore. Possibility of promotion or co-sponsoring of the program. 

Action items: 

• Patricia and Lauren will establish communications and social media presence.

• Heather and Suzanne will go through existing advocacy resources and integrate into one toolkit on the PLASC microsite.

• Angela will identify and coordinate how we reach out to other sections and roundtables outside of PLASC to raise awareness. 

Next meeting: October 2018 (TBD) to check progress of work. Lauren will send out a Whenisgood poll.