SAA Web Archiving Steering Committee
Agenda and Minutes

March 20, 2024
1p EST

Present: 

Amanda Greenwood

Corinne Chatnik

Hope Dunbar

Allison Fischbach

Lizzy Zarate

Erinn Barnes
Joanna olosov

Absent: Kristi Mukk (traveling and conferencing)

Outreach Ideas:

Recruitment for blog posts

• Corinne is working on the Coffee Chat Recap

• Kristi is working on monthly link roundup 

• Guest post from Lori Donovan on web archiving syllabus in May (no updates)

• Lizzy interested in writing about IIPC conference

Recruitment for Coffee Chats

• Kristi and colleagues interested in presenting on AI project, ideally in May or June (no updates) 

  • Hope: updates on Doug Lambert and a spring coffee chat/blog post on oral histories?

  • Discussion on emailed description and possible collaboration with the Oral History Section

  • Action Item: Hope will email him to get clarity on how OHI relates to web archiving

  • Question on scheduling/dates/times

    • Tues/Thurs/Fri at 12p EST

    • Mid-April (16th, 18th, 19th, 23rd, 25th, 26th)

    • Presentation: Oral history indexing: an evolving enterprise:

“Oral history indexing (OHI) is a set of practices that emerged in recent decades for digital content management and multimedia presentation of large audio/video (A/V) collections. Driven by the desire to publish complete interviews and made possible by computer-based media, OHI introduced a variety of new modes of electronically linked timecode access through thematically defined passages within recordings. Akin to an indexed book, OHI systems allow cross-referencing to specific points within media documents, describe content through natural language, and promote browsing and exploring modes within and across collections rather than literal text searching.

In this presentation I will summarize OHI between the 1990’s and 2023, when it existed as a set of software-enabled human processes. I will highlight a range of methodological approaches and system attributes from major institutions who pursued OHI, and show examples illustrating how the concepts and skills involved in OHI are applicable well beyond oral history and its content. I will also stoke a discussion on how emerging technologies such as automatic speech recognition and large language models are already changing oral history transcription practices and OHI.”

Annual Meeting Planning: 

• Corinne: Does the Preservation Section want to partner?

  • Reached out to chair and vice-chair, no answer yet

• Amanda: Perennial question about getting the elusive Ed Summers to talk

  • Repeated emails have gone unanswered...I’m going to put this on hold for now and bother him next FY

• Contact Community Webs to ask about speaking, and possible partnership with PLA&SC section

  • Community Webs (archive-it.org)

Social Media

• No updates

Public Library Archives & Special Collections section collaboration: (1.30p)

• Erinn Barnes and Joanna Kolosov joining around 1:30

• Possible Lunch and Learn collaboration, talking to the PLA&SC section about web archiving

• Last month Allison and Hope had expressed interest in talking

• Topical Questions: 

  • How to get started in web archiving? 

  • Easy tools to try? 

  • How to handle limited funding and data budgets? 

  • Why is it important? 

  • How to make the case to leadership and stakeholders? 

  • How is the community involved? 

  • How to reach out to potential site owners? 

  • Who is using the sites? 

  • Collection development and policy for web archives?

• Erinn and Joanna are already involved in Community Webs

• Hope asked about a collaborate annual meeting regarding Community Webs

• Tentative: May 17th, 2pm EST/11am P

• Allison and Hope will speak, coordinating with Erinn and Joanna over email/shared doc

Adjourned: 2:00p EST