The Society of Georgia Archivists’ Program Committee proudly announces the theme for the 2014 annual meeting: Plans and Strategies for the Future of Archives.

The Committee invites you to attend the meeting, to be held at The Classic Center in Athens, Georgia, November 5-7, 2014.

Plans and Strategies for the Future of Archives pushes archives professionals to reflect on the various theories, strategies, and the preparations that go into the new and innovative approaches we take in conducting our work. For the 2014 annual meeting, the Program Committee is seeking presentations on the following topics:

• Unfinished projects or those still in the planning stages, discussing ideas and theories that were or are being discussed, or completed projects in which there was a significant  and interesting strategies and paths that were pursued.
• Plans and ideas on how best to tackle issues that face archives and archivists, thoughts on best practices and reviewing standards whether it be new approaches to processing, offering access, or advocacy. How are archivists being innovative and are there better ways to use our resources.
• Digital projects, virtual reference, changes to meet user needs, new considerations, and thoughts on how to create better ways to interact with users. How are archivists molding technology to our own needs and to those of our users?

This year’s theme, Plans and Strategies for the Future of Archives, reflects the primary steps and considerations that face archivists when proposing new projects and programs.

Click here for SGA Session Proposal Form

Proposals must be submitted no later than Friday, May 2, 2014. Email proposals to: lstarratt [at] gmail.com.

National History Day (NHD) engages K-12 students in history through hands-on experiences, project-based learning activities, presentations, and competitions.

The NHD Mentoring Program at LaGrange College, in association with the Georgia Humanities Council, is organizing the first ever NHD Round Up in the state of Georgia. They are encouraging archives, museums, local historical societies, and libraries to open their doors to local NHD students during Saturdays in October. On “Round Up Saturdays,” these institutions will introduce NHD students to their facilities and holdings and assist them as they engage in research.

How your archives can get involved:

1) To help students develop topics, the NHD Mentoring Program is asking participating institutions to prepare a list of local and regional history topics relevant to their collections. The 2015 NHD theme, “Leadership and Legacy in History,” is particularly well suited to local and regional history topics. Your list should include both topics and the collections that address those topics.

2) Consider whether, in addition to providing a topic/collection list, your institution would be willing to host a Round Up day for NHD student researchers during the month of October. Saturdays are best, but if your institution isn’t open on Saturdays, you can designate a regular business day for the Round Up.

3) Email your institution’s topic/collections list and chosen Round Up date by July 15 to NHD Mentoring Program coordinator Dr. Kevin Shirley (kshirley [at] lagrange.edu), who will post them on the program’s website: http://www.lagrange.edu/nhd.

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About the NHD Mentoring Program at LaGrange College:
The NHD Mentoring Program at LaGrange College exists to promote the power and value of historical study, education and research through National History Day.  Our program provides support to students and teachers throughout the process, from topic selection to competition preparation.  We offer teacher and student workshops, serve as a web based clearinghouse for information, resources and ongoing education, answer research and project development queries from students and teachers, host the West Georgia Regional NHD Competition and provide support at the Georgia NHD State and National Competitions.  Our goals are simple:  (1) Help Georgia’s students experience as positive and powerful an experience through NHD as possible, (2) Help Georgia’s Teachers enjoy as much NHD success as possible, and (3) help Georgia become nationally known for the strength of it’s NHD program.  Please visit the program’s website at www.lagrange.edu/nhd. If you have any questions about the program or would like to learn more about NHD and the ways in which you can help, please contact the program coordinator, Dr. Kevin Shirley at kshirley [at] lagrange.edu or by phone at (706) 880-8033.

This one day workshop will introduce archivists to digital archives, explaining the basic concepts of curating and preserving electronic records in terms of traditional archival practice. Participants will learn practical things they can do to acquire, preserve, and provide access to electronic records with limited resources and technical expertise.

Creating and sustaining a robust, trustworthy digital archives is hard work. The problems are complex, and even more perplexing as technology evolves and presents new problems. At the same time, archivists don’t have to build an ideal system. Instead, a “guerrilla approach” looks for short-term tactics – inexpensive, simple steps that can help archivists move in the direction of the strategic ideal. Breaking digital archives into smaller pieces makes the problem manageable.

In this workshop, participants will discuss the core functions of digital archives and how they parallel traditional archives. Which records should be selected and acquired? How should those records be arranged and described? How should they be housed and preserved? And what about access? Participants will learn how their existing knowledge can be adapted to digital archives.

The facilitator, Richard Pearce-Moses, will lead participants through a series of questions, call for possible solutions, and suggest some of his own.

To get the most from the workshop, participants should understand the fundamentals of archival practice – appraisal and selection, arrangement and description, housing and preservation, reference and access. They should have a good computers skills – word processing, browsing the web, email, copying and renaming files, and creating folders. They do not need more advanced knowledge, such as programming, database design, programming, or web design. (Individuals with experience in digital archives or advanced skills are welcome to come and contribute to the conversation!)

Lunch will be provided for all participants!

Registration fee: $25.

Register here.

If you have any questions please contact Education Committee Chair Heather Oswald at hoswald@kennesaw.edu.

Update on Governor Deal’s funding FY2015 funding requests for the Georgia Archives, from GeorgiaArchivesMatters:

“Gov. Nathan Deal recently released his budget requests for Fiscal Year 2015

The governor requested an increase of $476,041 for operating the Archives. The sum includes $460,000 to allow the Archives to open to the public five days a week and to hire six additional employees. The remaining funds would be used for adjustments to employees’ retirement, insurance and salaries.
In addition, the governor recommended an expenditure of $957,910 for maintenance of the Archives building.

[…]

The budget still must go through the legislative process, which generally does not end until near the end of the session.

[…]

Contact your legislators at least once during this session, just to let them know we are still watching. Thank the lawmakers, Gov. Deal and the Board of Regents for their support. They will be watching, too. Now that the Archives will be open five days a week, it is important that researchers use the facility we all have worked so hard to save.”

For details on the Governor’s request, see pages 69-70 of http://www.house.ga.gov/budget/Documents/2015_FiscalYear/FY_2015_Tracking_Govs_Rec.pdf.

The Society of Georgia Archivists, Society of North Carolina Archivists, and South Carolina Archival Association have collaborated to provide three wonderful educational opportunities at this year’s Tri-State Meeing in Greenville, SC.  See below for details and registration information for the SGA-sponsored oral history workshop. We look forward to seeing you in October!

The 2013 Tri-State Program Committee invites submissions for poster proposals for the annual meeting of the Society of North Carolina Archivists, South Carolina Archival Association, and the Society of Georgia Archivists at the Furman University’s Younts Center in Greenville, South Carolina, October 17-18, 2013. Submissions may address any perspective on this theme as it applies to current issues in the local, state, national, or international sphere of the archival field. Notification of Program Committee decisions will be made by June 28, 2013.

Proposals that incorporate any of the following are encouraged:
Collaboration – projects focused on working with non-archives professionals, historians, researchers, or other stakeholders
Relevance – innovative ways archivists continue to remain relevant through continuing education, outreach, advocacy, and diversity
Re-Imaging Archives – digital projects, virtual reference, changes to meet user needs

PROPOSALS MUST BE SUBMITTED NO LATER THAN
Monday, June 3, 2013

Please find the Poster Proposal Form and submission details online here.

The world of archives and special collections has traditionally been what those both inside and outside the field would call “isolated.” The description, though commonly apt, is not intentional. Few archivists want anything more than increased access to, and greater use of, their collections. With this in mind, changes in resource sharing and the development of sophisticated tools and prescient systems and practices may offer far more to the archivist than meets the eye.

Toward that end, OCLC and Lyrasis are teaming to bring together resource sharing practitioners, systems and policy developers, archivists and librarians to share information, tackle questions and challenges, and initiate a broader discussion about access, dissemination, and cooperation. They will hold a FREE, one day conference May 17 at Mercer University in Macon.

Topics will include WorldShare (inheritor of Worldcat), metadata for cataloging, systems and tools, institutional repositories, statistics and copyright. Speakers from OCLC, Lyrasis, Atlas Systems, the Digital library of Georgia, among others will lead the discussion. Though initiated by the speakers, the discussion is meant to be as much of an open forum as possible.

The conference is designed for anyone with an interest in resource sharing, institutional partnership, or bringing greater access and visibility to their collections. This is an opportunity for archivists, librarians, tools and policy makers remove some barriers to communication, and begin to envision how we all may be able work together to meet the ever-growing demands of digital materials, and needs of the researchers who use them.

A link to the registration page may be found here:
https://www.lyrasis.org/pages/eventdetail.aspx?eid=22c594f8-cf90-e211-8d82-002219586f0d

And those interested may contact: russell.palmer@lyrasis.org.