You could not, would not want to miss an archives conference as fun as this! Registration is now open for the New England Archivists (NEA)’s annual Spring Meeting, Innovating the Archives, on March 13-15, 2025, in Springfield, Massachusetts — the birthplace of Dr. Seuss!
We’re positively ga-fluppted at our schedule, which features virtual and in-person workshops, sessions, special events, and roundtable discussions. You don’t want to miss this amazing opportunity to build connection, understanding, and skill, so be sure to register today!
Vendors interested in exhibiting at the Spring 2025 Meeting should contact Jenna Colozza, Vendor Coordinator.
Workshop, one-day, and two-day registrations are available at member, student, non-member, and contingent rates. Meeting and travel scholarships are available through NEA.
Ready to book lodging? Our group rate for the Spring 2025 Meeting at the Sheraton Springfield Monarch Place Hotel is $117/night. The last day to make reservations at this rate is February 21, 2025, so book now!
FULL PROGRAM (PDF) |SCHEDULE | WORKSHOPS | PLENARY SPEAKERS | SPECIAL EVENTS | SESSIONS | REGISTRATION RATES
WORKSHOP REGISTRATION RATES | ACCOMMODATIONS | PARKING & TRANSPORTATION | DINING OPTIONS
RAMADAN | ACCESSIBILITY & CODE OF CONDUCT | PROGRAM COMMITTEE - SPRING 2025
Thursday, March 13, 2025
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9:00am - 5:00pm | Respite, Lactation and Prayer Rooms available |
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9:00am - 12:00pm | Registration |
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9:00am - 12:00pm |
Day of Service Activities: The Lyman and Merrie Wood Museum of Springfield History, Springfield History Library & Archives (part of the Springfield Museums):
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9:30am - 12:00pm |
Virtual workshop: |
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1:00pm - 3:30pm |
In-Person Workshop: Facilitation and Project Management for All |
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1:00pm - 3:30pm |
In-Person Workshop: Simple DOS Commands for Digital Records Arrangement and Description |
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1:00pm - 5:00pm |
NEA Executive Board Meeting |
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2:00pm - 3:00pm |
Afternoon break available |
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4:00pm - 6:00pm |
Vendor setup |
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Friday, March 14, 2025
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8:00am - 4:00pm | Vendor Showcase Open |
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8:30am - 5:00pm | Respite, Lactation and Prayer Rooms available |
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8:30am - 3:00pm | Registration |
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8:30am - 9:30am | Continental Breakfast |
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9:00am - 9:30am | New Member Meet & Greet (with a concurrent virtual session) |
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9:30am - 10:45am |
Plenary I: Evolving the Archives |
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10:45am - 11:15am |
Morning Break |
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11:15am - 12:15pm |
Concurrent Sessions 1 (3 sessions): 102: Black Power On The Air: The Story of the Black Mass Communications Project at UMass Amherst Jeremy Smith (he/him), Moving Image and Sound Archivist, Robert S. Cox Special Collections and University Archives Research Center, UMass Amherst Location: King George Suite 103: Mix and Match Teaching Archival Silences with the New Hampshire Maps Collection |
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12:00pm -1:30pm | Lunch on your own |
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1:30pm - 2:30pm |
Concurrent Sessions 2 (3 sessions) 201: Artificial Intelligence in a Climate Emergency Andrea Belair (she/hers), Collections Services Librarian, Bennington College. Lois Parshley, Investigative Journalist at The Lever Steve Fernandez, Solidarity Engineer, People's Tech Cooperative Andrea Puglisi (she/her), Digital Initiatives and Technology Librarian at Westfield State University; Privacy Advocate, Library Freedom Project Shanna Hollich (they/them), Learning and Training Manager, Creative Commons Jess Farrell Location: Grand Ballroom/Hybrid 202: Strategies for Success: Working with a New Generation of Faculty on Primary Source Instruction Eric Stoykovich, College Archivist and Manuscript Librarian, Watkinson Library, Trinity College Eric Johnson-DeBaufre, Special Collections Librarian, Watkinson Library, Trinity College Location: King George Suite 203: Adapting Digitized Collections to Meet Researchers' Needs Documentary Now! When a Film Producer Discovers Your Archive's Digitized Footage Tessa Mediano, Research & Instruction Librarian/Archivist (Term), Rhode Island School of Design Online Resources: The End-All Be-All? Savannah Miller (she/her), Master of Library and Information Science student, Simmons University former Reference Assistant, Massachusetts Archives Location: Longford |
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2:30pm - 3:00pm | Afternoon Break |
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3:00pm - 4:30pm | Repository Tours: The Amazing World of Dr. Seuss Museum Michele and Donal D'Amour Museum of Fine Arts The Lyman and Merrie Wood Museum of Springfield History |
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3:00pm - 4:30pm | Roundtable Meetings |
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5:00pm - 6:30pm |
All-Member Reception |
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Saturday, March 15, 2025
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8:00am - 5:00pm | Respite, Lactation and Prayer Rooms available |
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8:00am - 4:00pm | Vendor Showcase Open |
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8:00am - 11:30am | Registration |
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8:00am - 9:00am | Continental Breakfast |
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8:30am - 10:00am | Annual Business Meeting |
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10:00am - 11:15am | Plenary 2: Reconstruction in Archives: Reflections on Organizing the Black Teacher Archive Micha Broadnax (she/they) |
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11:30am - 12:30pm |
Concurrent Sessions 3 302: Creating, Administering, and Operating an Undergraduate Library Residency Program Lauren Gray (she/her), Massachusetts Historical Society, Reference Librarian for Researcher Services CJ Haggard (she/her), Massachusetts Historical Society, Library Assistant Jolli Shevitz (she/they), Massachusetts Historical Society, Library Resident Location: King George Suite 303: Modulating Instruction for the Community Amanda Ferrara (she/her), Senior Instruction & Public Services Archivist, Burns Library, Boston College Maggie Erwin (she/her), 2024-2025 Library Outreach & Access Assistant, Burns Library, Boston College Location: Longford |
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12:30pm - 2:00pm | Lunch on your own |
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2:00pm - 3:00pm |
Concurrent Sessions 401: Student Lightning Talks Say Digital Millennium Copyright Act Ten Times Fast: Deciphering the Act and the History of its Use in Archives Emily Colson (she/her) 9/11 and Archiving Remembrance Brandon McGrath-Neely (he/him) The Somerville Municipal Archives Backlog Project: Creating Space for Incoming Accessions Abigail Mulligan (she/her) Daniel Whitebread (he/him) The Ethics of Supposition in Exhibition Design in 19th-Century History Zoë Pollak (she/her), Exhibit Designer, The Robbins House Museum of Concord's African American History Internship Experience - Setting the Standard for a rewarding experience as an Intern Nina Aguiar Shempliner (she/her) Location: Grand Ballroom/Hybrid 402: Trust the Process: Creating Local, Cross-Institutional Communities to Support Instruction M. Michelle Chiles (she/her), Head of Archives and Special Collections, Providence College; Veronica L. Denison (she/her), Digital Archivist and Special Collections Librarian, Rhode Island College Angela DiVeglia (she/her), Instruction and Outreach Librarian, Special Collections, Rhode Island School of Design Emma Metcalfe Hurst (she/her), Special Collections Librarian/Archivist, Rhode Island School of Art & Design Location: King George Suite 403: “Hey, Can I See That!?” Strategizing Together on Making Unprocessed Collections Accessible Eve Neiger (she/her), Lead Archivist, Boston Public Library, Special Collections Crystal Rodgers (she/her), Archivist, Boston Public Library, Special Collections Chris Tanguay (she/they), Processing Archivist, MIT, Distinctive Collections Location: Longford |
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3:00pm - 3:30pm | Afternoon Break |
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3:30pm - 4:30pm | IDC Reading Group (In-person and Virtual options) |
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Workshops will be held virtually and onsite on Thursday, March 13th. Please note that workshop registration is separate from meeting registration and that onsite registration will NOT be available for workshops; attendees must register in advance. Registration closes on February 28th for the in-person workshops and March 7, 2025 for the virtual workshop. Please contact the Education Committee at education@newenglandarchivists.com with any questions about workshops.
Digital Preservation vs. Digital Asset Management: The Differences and Why They Matter
Chelsea Fernandes, Archives and Special Collection Librarian, Ferreira-Mendes Portuguese-American Archives, University of Massachusetts Dartmouth
This virtual workshop explores the differences between digital preservation and digital asset management (DAM), familiarizing attendees with the history of both so that attendees are better equipped to make policy and purchasing decisions at their institutions. Attendees will participate in polling and discussion throughout the workshop. The workshop will focus on the broad concepts of DAM and digital preservation, so no technical knowledge is required. Special attention will be given to exploring the current leading platforms such as Archivematica and Preservica for digital preservation and ContentDM, AM Quartex and Islandora among others for DAM. The workshop will also review platforms that are often used for either digital preservation or DAM but were not designed for either.
This workshop will be virtual.
Time: 9:30am - 12:00pm ET Date: Thursday, March 13, 2025
Participant limit: 30 registrants
Registration closes on March 7, 2025. To register for this workshop please visit the registration page.
Simple DOS Commands for Digital Records Arrangement and Description
Kent D. Randell, Assistant Archivist for Digital Collections, Dartmouth College
Archive like its 1989! Learn how to use five simple DOS commands, in conjunction with Excel and Notepad, to create and run your own Batch scripts and make processing electronic records easier. The aim of this workshop is to let archivists become more self-sufficient with digital records and operate in an environment where electronic records resources may be scarce.
Attendees will learn five commands in the command-line version of DOS, a text-based file operating system that comes packaged with Windows. The commands are: Delete (del), directory (dir), make directory (md), rename, and move. Participants will learn how to get file data out of DOS and into Excel and how to write a simple batch (.bat) script that can delete, rename, and move files. The instructor will also demonstrate creating checksums in DOS and using DOS tools like exif to mine metadata.
NO PRIOR PROGRAMMING EXPERIENCE OR DOS EXPERIENCE NECESSARY!
Participants should bring a Windows-based laptop to the session. The workshop instructor will be able to provide attendees with a temporary laptop (maximum number of laptops: 10). If participants wish to reserve one of the loaner laptops provided by the instructor, participants must email the Education Committee (education@newenglandarchivists.org).
Attendees will be provided a pre-packaged set of files with which to practice sorting, deleting, and renaming. Attendees will then run exif on some files to mine their metadata and output the data to a text file.
This workshop will be in-person.
Time: 1:00pm - 3:30pm ET Date: Thursday, March 13, 2025
Participant limit: 15 registrants
Registration closes on Friday, February 28, 2025. To register for this workshop please visit the registration page.
Facilitation and Project Management for All
Jessica Farrell, Redstart Works
Are you new to collaborative work or are you looking for a new perspective on how to move projects along? "Facilitation and Project Management for All" demystifies collaborative work in the face of all of those #feelings that emerge when working in diverse groups. Significant administrative and planning labor goes into developing anti-oppressive spaces. We will cover topics like setting expectations, making direct asks of your colleagues, building consensus, moving to action, and more. We will explore empathetic facilitation, honest communication, and meeting people where they are. There are several full group discussions, and we will practice an advanced facilitation method called "taking stack". This workshop may be useful if you are working on a community project, committee, or working group; if you are managing a project or program team; or if you aspire to lead or coordinate work in the future.
This workshop will be in-person.
Time: 1:30pm - 3:30pm ET Date: Thursday, March 13, 2025
Participant limit: 24 registrants
Registration closes on Friday, February 28, 2025. To register for this workshop please visit the registration page.
Greg Colati: Evolving the Archives
Friday, March 14
The digital revolution that began in the last century was the beginning of an epochal change in archival expectations and practices. In this century, the growing use of low-investment tools (AI being only one example) to enhance access has generated some discomfort among archivists who fear that vital context is being lost. Let’s talk about how we can use new tools for our benefit while not forgetting the traditions of our profession.
Greg Colati is a High School history teacher turned archivist and digital librarian specializing in digital preservation. He was educated in liberal arts colleges and attended Library school when there was a unit in his class on how to type catalog cards. But, to paraphrase Samuel Clemens, he didn’t let his schooling get in the way of his education.
Greg learned about digitization and digital preservation by working with a group of early adopters who were trying to understand the effect of technology on records and record keeping. As early as 1995 he gave a presentation for the Society of Maine Archivists called “Collections Management with Computers” a quaint sounding name today, but novel at the time.
Since then, Greg has been experimenting with how to leverage technology for the common good and has been a part of national and international efforts to understand and develop the role of technology and the role of archivists in the digital age.
Micha Broadnax: Reconstruction in Archives: Reflections on Organizing the Black Teacher Archive
Saturday, March 15
Join Micha Broadnax, Senior Project Manager for the Black Teacher Archive at Harvard Graduate School of Education, for a plenary talk about her work centralizing materials from nearly a hundred repositories. Micha will share insights on the challenges, opportunities, and tensions inherent in archival work, offering reflections from her experience.
Micha leads the Black Teacher Archive, a grant funded project based at Harvard Graduate School of Education and made possible through the generous support of the Mellon Foundation and Spencer Foundation. In collaboration with colleagues at Harvard Library and across the country, she co-develops workflows and coordinates labor to support the digital centralization of materials created by African American educators in the 20th century. Micha’s professional experience includes roles at Mount Holyoke College, Converse (a subsidiary of Nike, Inc.) and Emerson College. In a consultative capacity, they have collaborated with the Schenectady County Historical Society, the History Project, Documenting the Now, legal and policy scholar Anita Hill, and artist Napolean Jones-Henderson. Micha has a BA in Sociology from Brandeis University, and a MLIS in Library and Information Science from Simmons University.
Hotel Parking Information and Rates:
Tower Square (retail mall and Food Court connected to the conference space via skywalk):
Nearby (10-15 minutes walking distance):
Farther away (more than 10-15 minutes walking distance:
Red Rose Pizzeria (Local Classic!) | Wahlburger's (American) |
350 Grill Steakhouse | South End Market at MGM Resorts |
Frigo Foods (Deli & Bakery) | Shah's Halal Food |