PLASC Meeting Minutes 2021 October 20

Public Library Archives & Special Collections Section Meeting 

Society of American Archivists 

October  20, 2021, 1pm PST 

Minutes 

Present: Laura Carroll, Matthew Peek, Johanna Russ 

Matthew Peek was taking meeting minutes for the October meeting in place of Dylan Gaffney. 

Approved September 15, 2021 meeting minutes. Moved and approved. 

Updates 

Chair, Heather Lanctot: not present for this meeting. 

Vice Chair, Laura Carroll: Discussed her review of the Social Return on Investment resources for the PLASC membership. Reference requests were quantified, but social interactions were not really quantified. Archives and libraries were not really referenced in the reports. Carroll 

suggested that we consult this with the larger Resources update effort, and that we bring this up to the larger group.  

Website, Johanna Russ 

Secretary & Social Media Coordinator, Dylan Gaffney: not present for this meeting. 

Member-at-large: Matthew Peek presented on his review of the PLASC Resources List, and 

ways it could be updated. He produced an Excel spreadsheet analysis of the resources on the page, and suggestions on what categories could be added and sampled resources. The committee agreed to revisit this topic of updating the Resources list with the larger committee membership when everyone is present. Peek will email his spreadsheet and comments out to the larger membership.  

Old Business 

Newsletter : Adapt a newsletter to a more basic blog platform. Discussion revolved around 

using a platform outside of the SAA section platform. Wordpress and 

Medium.com were brought up as possible platforms. Discussion was about 

soliciting for posts from PLASC members, and discussion about how to format a 

potential newsletter apart from a formal quarterly post. Carroll wants to do some 

mock-ups on several free blog sites to show potential new looks for the 

newsletter.  

SROI Research (see Updates section) 

Social media accounts for PLASC to follow 

Issues surrounding locating regional archives accounts for PLASC to follow. 

Possibly rethink locating accounts by major regional institutions’ accounts to 

start, and let PLASC membership submit some of their own instead of PLASC 

committee members doing the bulk of it.   

PLASC Membership list from Felicia: General thoughts on the membership. Surprised by 

the number of people signed up. Looks like more about interest of members, than 

institutional representation.  

A-Census: Carroll encouraged PLASC Steering Committee members to take the 

A-Census II survey. 

New Business 

No new business items.  

Action items: Have PLASC members review and propose categories for new Resources page and potentially claim a category for the Resources page (if whole committee agrees to Peek’s proposal). Carroll will review and produce potential newsletter mock-ups, costs and longevity for new platforms.

Adjourned at 4:45 PM