PLASC Meeting Minutes 2022 February 16

Public Library Archives & Special Collections Section Meeting

Society of American Archivists

February 16, 2022, 1pm PST

Minutes

Present: Heather Lanctot, Catherine Champion, Laura Carroll, Dylan Gaffney, Jeanie Child

Meeting called to order at 4:03 Eastern

General round-robin discussion about how members are doing. Discussion of mask mandates and changing state and municipal guidelines. 

Motion to approve January 19, 2022 minutes as written. Moved, seconded, approved.

Chair, Heather Lanctot - Flurry of discussion on SAA leadership email thread about what various sections are planning on or expecting for SAA 2022 in terms of virtual, hybrid, etc. Expectations are that section meetings will be virtual. 

SAA Council Liaison, Jasmine Jones - not present, we will await updates from Council.

Vice Chair, Laura Carroll - Newsletter will be discussed later in the agenda. 

Website, Johanna Russ - no updates, new minutes will be posted. 

Secretary & Social Media Coordinator, Dylan Gaffney - We could use a few more tweets in poll format to have a balance. 

Outreach, Laura Carroll

Agenda

Newsletter - Laura

• Update on Blog layout progress - Five posts submitted. Name still needed, and change in email account associated with blog to publibarchives email. Still collecting info on language around submissions.

• Banner ideas - Panel shown by Heather with a busy reading room selected for initial banner. 

• Blog name - The Finding Aid: Information for and about Public Library Archives and Special Collections the overwhelming choice by members

• Content from PLASC Committee members

  • Is Matthew’s “meet the member” profile still relevant with his job change? Catherine will complete a “meet the member” segment. 

• New assignments for next newsletter - Heather and Laura may have new pieces to submit after Women's History Month and Black History Month events.

Twitter - Dylan

• Questions for polls - information on how poll questions should be formatted (character limits, etc.) now at top of doc

• Other content ideas - “Show off an item from your collections” post could be tied in with the rollout of the blog. We have enough questions and prompts for the immediate future. 

Resources page on Microsite 

• Discuss resource findings - whether formatting of our document and division of categories works. Do we need to limit the resource list to what is actually relevant and useful to public library archives? We can examine more next month and look at overlap between categories and how to organize further. Discussion about existence or absence of manuals at various institutions. 

Speakers/Applying for funding from SAA - Catherine

• Update on Invisible Histories Project Workshop - So much depends on whether the meeting is virtual. They have asked clarifying questions, which we answered as much as we could but they have not gotten back to us. There is a possibility of presenting the content created for previous SAA that was never really presented. Are there any funds to provide an honorarium for possible presenters even if they present virtually so that we are compensating them for their time and work. 

Action Items

Catherine will get word from Invisible Histories on whether SAA is still a possibility (with it looking likely that it will be a virtual or hybrid program).

Members continue to contribute to resources doc with further discussion next month.

Laura will explore further options with website, access or editing by multiple members, and find a way for members to look at the site as it develops. 

Meeting Adjourned at 4:53 Eastern