Infinite Conversations

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First Block (10:00-11:00)

Archival Advocacy at Work

Optional Resources:

• The Society of American Archivists has put together some resources on archival advocacy that may be of interest: https://issuesandadvocacy.wordpress.com/advocacy-toolkit/what-is-advocacy/.

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Archivists Working with Activists - Considerations for Success

Questions for Discussion:

• What are the differences in working with activists as opposed to other donors, and what knowledge or skills should be developed for this work?
• How can archivists build trusting relationships to overcome hesitation and distrust?
• What impact does an archivist's identify or stance have on this work?
• What are the benefits and limitations of activists donating to institutional archives, which often resemble or actually are the same institutions which they struggle against?
• How can we navigate issues of ownership and copyright when working with dis-empowered and minoritized communities?
• How do we navigate privacy issues when dealing with activist donors and materials documenting activist work and movements?

Presenting Archival Collections to the Public

Facilitator:

• Margaret Peachy, Digital Archivist, Tufts Digital Collections & Archives. I’m interested in finding discovery and access tools that both fully leverage archival metadata and are intuitive to end-users.
  

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Whose History? Community Outreach and Partnerships to Cultivate Representation and Diversity in our Collections.

Questions for Discussion:

• Does your organization target or focus outreach on specific demographics of your community? How do you determine where to focus your outreach?
• Do you feel that your programming and exhibit offerings represent your community equally? Are there gaps? Have you ever received any criticism from outside individuals or groups about your inclusiveness and how did you address that?
• Do your collections represent your community? How do you ensure that collections are inclusive? Does your institution have to collect other communities, or can/should you help others.

Optional Resources:

• Writer/activist/educator/poet Walidah Imarisha delivered the opening keynote address at The Liberated Archive: A Forum for Envisioning and Implementing a Community-Based Approach to Archives at ARCHIVES 2017 in Portland, OR. Imarisha discussed the role of a community archives in telling community stories—and making sure that all stories are told: https://www.pathlms.com/saa/courses/5062/audio_presentations/79197

• Collections Assistant at The Royal Airforce Museum in London Shaz Hussain on ‘diversity’ and changing the language we use in museums: https://www.museumnext.com/2017/07/diversity-and-changing-the-language-we-use-in-museums/?utm_content=bufferb9f6c&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer

Facilitators:

• Erik Bauer, Archivist, Peabody Institute Library. Community outreach has been an area of opportunity for my department at my institution. Peabody’s demographics have been changes over the last 20 years and there is an opportunity connect and diversify the collections, while finding new ways to our current collections and programs with the public. One way to have greater outreach has been through public programing and partnering with the Peabody Historical Society on exhibits and digitization projects.
• Barbara Austen, Librarian 2, Connecticut State Library. When I was at the Connecticut Historical Society, the institution joined with the Connecticut Cultural Heritage Arts Program, realizing the difficulty in reaching and connecting with the varied ethnic groups that comprise the citizens of Connecticut. Since then, programming, exhibitions and collecting have focused on the state’s rich multicultural heritage, but much more remains to be done to make the organization more inclusive.
• Michelle Chiles, Robinson Research Center Manager, Rhode Island Historical Society. As the Research Center Manager for the Rhode Island Historical Society, I feel that it is important to strive for greater representation in our collections and programming. We are the keepers of the state’s history but we often struggle with giving all members of our community space to share their stories or to see themselves represented as an essential part of what makes up the history and culture of our region.
• Claire Lobdell, Librarian, Nahman-Watson Library at Greenfield Community College. I struggled with this issue in my previous job, where our collections reflected the largely white pre-World War II history of the town, but not the very diverse recent history. One of the ways I addressed this imbalance was by being more strategic about our oral history outreach, including recruiting an Urdu-speaking anthropologist with deep ties to the local community as an interviewer.

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Ethical Dilemmas in the Archives

Questions for Discussion:

• What are some ways that one can educate non-archivist colleagues about archival ethics?
• How would you support colleagues whose professional settings can be in conflict with the Code of Ethics?
• Can you think of situations where aspects of the Code of Ethics might be in conflict?
• Do you think that the NEA (or SAA) should have a process for censuring institutions that do not adhere to the Code of Ethics?
• Consider some of the ethical issues that are raised by digitization (e.g., balancing privacy and access).

Optional Reading:

• SAA Core Values Statement and Code of Ethics (2012)

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Second Block (11:30-12:30)

Laboring in the Archives: A Conversation about Ourselves as Workers

Questions for Discussion:

• What language do you use to describe yourself as an archival worker?
• Do you identify as a “professional”? Why or why not? What might be lost when a field is professionalized? What is gained?
• What are your thoughts and feelings about “service to the profession”?
• If you belong to a union, how does that membership shape your experience?
• What ideas about work and labor did you inherit from your family? Is the labor you do a break from or in continuity with your family/community of origin?
• How are our understandings of work shaped by ableism, ageism, classism, racism, sexism, and other axes of privilege and oppression?
• If you have worked in other fields, how has the meaning of labor and your identity as a worker shifted from one field to the next?
• What cultural discourses about work and identity inform our individual and shared understandings of what it means to be an archivist?

Facilitator:

• Anna J. Clutterbuck-Cook, Reference Librarian, Massachusetts Historical Society. As a special collections librarian concerned with social and economic justice, I am interested in how archivists understand themselves as workers within the archives and in overlapping fields (such as library science and higher education). I hope this discussion will encourage reflection about how we think about ourselves and the work that we do, and how those beliefs do and do not help us to identify and work to dismantle structural inequality.

Optional Reading:

• Reproducing the Academy: Librarians and the Question of Service in the Digital Humanities by Roxanne Shirazi (2014-07-15).
• Labor Solidarity Within and Across the Library #critlib chat (2014-10-07). Especially the Storify of the chat itself.
• White Librarianship in Blackface by April Hathcock (2015-10-07)
• Voting Yes by Emily Drabinski (2017-04-25).

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Intermediate Topics in Records Management: After the Retention Schedule

Discussion Topics:

• Digital Records: preservation repositories and storage management systems (Preservica, etc), email management, web content as records, digital continuity, working with IT professionals.
• User Buy-In / Outreach: when general counsel is involved, when general counsel is not involved, compliance, cooperative approaches to working with executives and staff to make sure RM system is enforced.
• Taking the next step after the retention schedule is in place: enforcing retention schedules, ensuring user access needs are met, risk management and security, audits, sustaining RM program and measuring performance, litigation issues, proper disposition once record’s lifecycle ends.

Questions for Discussion:

• How do you encourage and enforce compliance with retention schedules while maintaining positive relationships with other departments?
• What do you look for in an electronic records management system and digital repository?
• What metadata do you require from departments submitting paper vs. digital records?
• How do you ensure that all departments are aware of, and can properly interpret, your retention schedules and policies (DROs, training, etc.)?
• What methods do you use to retrieve digital files from other departments?
• How do you ensure the longevity of a records management program (updating schedules/policies, user buy-in especially after staff/faculty turnover, consistency over time, file format/hardware/software changes, etc)?
• How do you handle the storage of long-term (but not permanent) digital and physical records?
• How do you handle requests for permanent and non-permanent digital and physical records (complete restriction for a period of time, only certain departments have access, etc.)?
• How do you handle the ever increasing number of emails and other digital records?
• How do you ensure that all PII and other confidential information is secure over time?

Optional Reading:

• OAIS Reference Model.
• Management of Information Security, 5th Edition (2016).  By Michael E. Whitman and Herbert J. Mattord.
• Information Governance and Assurance:  Reducing Risk, Promoting Policy (2014).  By Alan McLennan.
• Developing Electronic File Structures (ARMA International TR 23-2013).
• Records Management, 10th Edition (2015).  By Judith Read and Mary Lea Ginn.
• Managing Active Business Records (2014).  By Ann Bennnick and Judy Vasek Sitton.
• Auditing for Records and Information Management Program Compliance (ARMA International 25-2014). 
• Best Practices for Managing Electronic Messages (ARMA International TR 24-2013).
• Secure Management of Private Information (ARMA International TR 28-2015).
• www.arma.org (ARMA International).
• www.aiim.org

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Make an Impact: Marketing and Communications for Archives

Questions for Discussion:

• In the continually changing digital landscape, what enduring promotional strategies should archivists leverage?
• How should archivists communicate the value of our profession?
  
• Where can archivists go to find resources on archival advocacy? Discussion participants may work together to compile a list of useful resources.

 Optional Readings:

• Standards for libraries in higher education [read section 9: “External relations”]. (2011). Chicago: Association of College and Research Libraries. Retrieved from ala.org/acrl/standards/standardslibraries
• Archival advocacy sampler [read section 1: Haws, B. (2011). “Advocating within the institution: Twenty-five years for the New York Philharmonic Archives.” In Hackman, L. (ed.), Many happy returns: Advocacy and the development of archives (pp. 186–199). Chicago: Society of American Archivists]. (2013). Chicago: Society of American Archivists. Retrieved from archivists.org/publications/sampler-series

Commemoration of Historical Anniversaries in Archives

Optional Resources:

• Participants can review the World War I Centennial Commemoration website: http://www.worldwar1centennial.org/index.php

Facilitator:

• Samuel Howes, Archivist III, Maine State Archives. As a participant in the WWI centennial commemoration in Maine I am interested in what others are doing to commemorate the event, and more generally how archivists commemorate anniversaries of significant events.

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Documenting Digital Student Life: Outreach & Relationship-Building for Practical Collecting

Optional Resources:

• Student Collecting Toolkit: We’ve started collecting resources that could be valuable to other institutions that are trying to start or revamp a student collecting effort. Take a look at the draft version of the website and feel free to give us feedback!
• If you haven’t already read Jarrett Drake’s Documenting Dissent in the Contemporary College Archive: Finding our Function within the Liberal Arts, check it out!