SGA listserv information – Subscription issues

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From time to time, issues may arise with your subscription to the SGA List serv. This may include any of the following possible scenarios.
 
  • Not receiving messages
  • Not being able to send messages
  • Help sending messages to the list
  • Email address changes
 
If this occurs, please contact, joshua.kitchens@me.com, the listserv manager directly to help resolve these or any issues that may arise.
 
Happy Listing!!

–Joshua Kitchens, SGA Listserv Manager

To be an archivist: Deborah Davis

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Our third post in the series “What does it mean to be an archivist at your repository?” is by Deborah Davis, the Director of Valdosta State University’s Archives and Special Collections.  Along with providing insights into what means to be the archivist at VSU’s archives, this post also highlights what it means to be an archival manager.

What does it mean to be an (the) archivist at Valdosta State University?
The VSU Archives is a mid-sized archives with 1 full time equivalent (fte) archivist, 2 fte staff members, 1 ½ time graduate assistant and 1.5 fte student workers.  One staff member and 35 hours of student labor are devoted to our digitizing and digital preservation program, including the website and social media.  These workers do 2/3 of the scanning for reference questions as well.  One staff member, the graduate assistant and 20 student assistant hours are devoted to paper processing and preservation and reference questions.  They handle processing on our Archon system. 
Well, a good question about now is what does the archivist do?  I’m a bit of a gadfly moving into all those areas.  I handle all teaching, about 50 classes per year including research, volunteer orientations, and work project design and teaching.  I handle all planning and design of our outreach programs, from sitting on inauguration committees and working across campus to commemorate 50 years of integration to designing exhibits and soliciting artwork for our 6 library art galleries. I design all exhibits, with assistance in mounting them.  I handle all administration, from writing annual reports to designing our assessment program to hiring and evaluating all staff and students. I supervise staff and students and assign and prioritize their duties.  I answer reference questions as needed, a few a week.  I work with the digitizing arm of our archives to set priorities, assign tasks, and evaluate results.  I occasionally process, mainly adding to collections when I come across something that needs doing, usually in the course of a reference question.  I handle all acquisitions, from negotiations to the move to setting processing priorities.  I purchase items for our Special Collections (Georgia Collection) and our rare book collection.  I write grants and handle our endowment spending.  I handle press outreach for our archives and our exhibits.
As a faculty member (I’m a full professor), I sit on and chair library and university committees.  Part of a faculty member’s duties are service and research.  I’ve just returned from teaching a week-long workshop to the archival community in Belize, and I work with the Consortium for Belize Educational Cooperation as their treasurer, archivist, and web master (with assistance from my staff) and have been helping to design and solicit classes in library training for that country.  I’ve worked for 15 years with a group that presents field trips for Georgia 7th graders on Asia and Africa.  We have several African art collections that we use with approximately 2000 students a year in this program.  For research, I’ve written a book and several articles, made over 50 presentations at state, regional, and national conferences, and I serve as the archivist for the Georgia Library Association.   I also teach the semester-long Archival Theory and Issues class for the VSU MLIS program every two years.

If I had to sum up my role as the archivist, I would say my work is to serve as the public face and advocate of the VSU archives.  Whether I am that face in front of a class or in another country, I’m always representing the needs of my archives.  My job is varied and in a lot of cases not the traditional processing/description role of an archivist.  In fact, my staff is better at those traditional tasks now than I am—even though I initially trained them.   But I love my job and love its diverse roles.  It’s never boring.  My favorite part is mentoring the staff and students I meet who want to be part of this profession.  Right now both my staff and my graduate assistant are in the MLIS program, specializing in Archives, and several of my student workers want to join them.  Students from my MLIS class have gone on to get jobs at UGA, the State Archives and other archives around the state.  I think that’s my biggest accomplishment and my biggest contribution to the profession.      
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Thank you to Deborah for sharing what it means to be an archivist at Valdosta State University Archives and Special Collections!  Want to share what your own experience is like working as an archivist?  Submit your “What it means to be an archivist at my repository?” post to us at outreach [at] soga [dot] org.

Scholarship Opportunities Available! Apply by August 7th

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SGA scholarship opportunities available!
All scholarship applications are due on August 7, 2015

The Anthony R. Dees Scholarship – each year SGA awards a scholarship to attend the SGA-sponsored pre-conference workshop. The purpose of the pre-conference workshop and this scholarship is to enhance archival education. This year’s pre-conference workshop date is October 21st. The workshop is entitled “Digital Preservation Tools: A Sampler” and will be taught by Seth Shaw, Assistant Professor of Archival Studies at Clayton State University. For more information on the Anthony Dees scholarship visit http://soga.org/scholarships/dees.

The Larry Gulley Scholarship – is a wonderful opportunity to expand your professional development by attending the SGA annual meeting on October 22 – 23, 2015. The scholarship will cover the following year’s membership dues, the meeting registration fee, and a maximum of $100 for other expenses incurred in attending the annual meeting. The registration fee for the successful scholarship applicant will be waived by the Society of Georgia Archivists, while other expenses will be reimbursed upon submission of a statement of expenses, with accompanying receipts, by December 1 of the calendar year in which the meeting takes place. After the SGA meeting, the recipient will submit a brief article on the experience for use in the SGA Newsletter. For more information on the Larry Gulley Scholarship please visit http://soga.org/scholarships/gulley.

The Taronda Spencer Award – honors Ms. Spencer’s work in encouraging students at HBCUs and students of color to consider careers in the archival profession. The Society of Georgia Archivists established the Taronda Spencer Award in 2014 to support student attendance at the SGA Annual Meeting. The award includes complimentary registration to the SGA annual meeting, hotel registration, and $300 for travel expenses. For more information on the Taronda Spencer Award please visit http://soga.org/scholarships/spencer.

Registration is open for workshop, Digital Preservation Tools: A Sampler

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Instructor: Seth Shaw
Wednesday, October 21, 2015
Columbus Marriott
Empire Mills Room
800 Front Avenue
Columbus, GA
9:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.

Digital preservation is a complex topic with many challenges. Identifying and selecting the right tools to help solve those problems can be confusing. This one-day workshop will introduce a selection of tools supporting digital preservation and how those tools might be incorporated into a workflow. Participants will see demonstrations of several tools and will practice with a few using their own laptop computer.

Digital preservation tasks addressed will include data acquisition (for example, TeraCopy, FTKImager, and HTTrack), fixity checking and monitoring (LOC’s Bagger and AVPreserve’s Fixity), scanning for content or threats (e.g. bulk_extractor and Identify Finder), format identification (e.g. Jhove and Droid), format migration, environment emulation or virtualization, and projects designed to package many of these tools together (BitCurator and Archivematica).

To get the most from this workshop, participants should be familiar with basic digital preservation concepts such as fixity, checksums, migration, and emulation. They should have good computer skills — word processing, browsing the Web, email, copying and renaming files, and creating folders. They do not need more advanced knowledge, such as programming or database design, although familiarity with command-line interfaces and XML is useful. (Individuals with experience in digital archives or advanced skills are welcome to come and contribute to the conversation!)

Attendees must bring their own laptops.

Registration is $80 per person; this workshop is limited to 15 attendees. The registration deadline is October 7, 2015.

Refreshments will be served during the morning and afternoon breaks. Lunch will be the responsibility of the attendees.

For more information on the course or to register, click here.

Registration open for workshop, A Guerrilla Approach to Digital Archives

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Saturday, September 12, 2015
Georgia Archives
5800 Jonesboro Road
Morrow, Georgia
10:00 am – 4:30 pm
Lunch will be provided

This one day workshop will introduce archivists to the basics of digital archives, explaining the 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 “guerilla 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. 

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.

 

Who should attend?

 

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 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!)

Registration is $80 per person; this workshop is limited to 15 attendees. 

The registration deadline is August 29, 2015.

For more information and to register, click here.

About the instructor

Richard Pearce-Moses was a practicing archivist for thirty years before coming to Clayton State University to head the Master of Archival Studies Program in 2010.  He is a Certified Archivist and a Fellow of the Society of American Archivists. In 2007, he received the Frederick G. Kilgour Award for Research in Library and Information Technology, and in 2009 the Library of Congress named him a Digital Preservation Pioneer.

 

About a “Guerrilla Approach”

The workshop name was inspired an article by Christopher A. Lee, “Guerrilla Electronic Management” in Records & Information Management Report 18:5 (May 2002). He notes, “We need to act now in ways that we can, rather than waiting for better solutions to come along.” Lee’s article quotes Jakob Nielsen, who coined the phrase, “insisting on using only the best methods may result in having no methods at all.” Participants are encouraged to read Lee’s article, online at http://www.ils.unc.edu/callee/guerrilla_erm_2002.pdf.

Early-bird registration for the 2015 Society of Georgia Archivists annual meeting

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Early-bird registration is now open for the 2015 Society of Georgia Archivists annual meeting which will be held at the Columbus Marriott in Columbus, GA, October 22-23, 2015.  
This discount will be available until August 21, 2015.
Deadline for late registration is October 8, 2015.
The Annual Meeting registration fee includes:
·  Sessions and poster exhibits
·  Beverage breaks and afternoon snacks
·  Access to exhibiting vendors
·  Luncheon on Thursday
·  Reception, silent auction, and awards ceremony at the Columbus Museum on Thursday evening
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Bringing guests? Purchase additional Thursday luncheon and reception tickets here.
Information regarding lodging and meeting location can be found here.
Not a member? To join SGA, click here.
Want to donate to one of our scholarship funds? Click here.
If you do not wish to pay online, please select the option to complete online registration then pay by mailing a check to Society of Georgia Archivists, P.O. Box 688, Decatur, GA 30031.

Late registration must be submitted online by October 8, 2015. After October 8, all registration will be on-site during the conference.

For more information and online registration: http://soga.wildapricot.org/event-1940967

2015 Georgia Archives Month "Spotlight on Archives" Grant

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The Georgia Archives Month (GAM) “Spotlight on Archives” Grant is meant to help archives, museums, or heritage institutions in Georgia promote public awareness of their archives and manuscript collections. This grant will help selected organizations fund their events promoting the theme of “Snapshots from the South” during Georgia Archives Month in October.
The GAM Committee is pleased to announce that this year’s “Spotlight on Archives” grant will have two award levels – $500 and $250! The grant application can be found at http://soga.org/page-1825398. Please send any questions and completed applications to ga.archivesmonth@gmail.com. The deadline for receiving grant applications has been extended to June 10!

To be an archivist: Rosemary Fischer

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Our second post in the series “What does it mean to be an archivist at your repository?” is by Rosemary Fischer, the University Archivist at Clayton State University.

I was the founding archivist hired at Clayton State in December 2014.  The Archivist position was established by combining a ¼ time professional librarian position and a staff position. The school was 33 years old and had no archives.  I was shown to my work space.  It was a classroom-sized space with windowed walls that did not go to the ceiling.  Our windows looked out on the library and the microfilm readers faced our windows.  Following a minor renovation, this space had formally been the library’s circulation department.  There was a desk with three legs held upright by a stack of books.  The phone hung from the ceiling.  There were two doors to the room.  There was no shelving and only a couple of document boxes, each with one photo in them.  There was one room for the archivist, the collections, the work space, the interns, and the researchers.
At the same time that Clayton was establishing their school archives, the National and Georgia Archives were moving to the edge of Clayton’s campus.  A lot was written and said about the Georgia and National Archives and only a small amount about Clayton’s archives.  It was a challenge to promote the school’s archives.  Whenever you talked about the Archives, people would assume you meant the National or Georgia Archives. 
The Clayton State University Archives has collections.  We have about 2000 cubic feet.  This is a small archives but it is a start and we are now adding to our collections weekly.   I don’t have to split my time 50/50 as a librarian and I was given a very small budget to cover the cost of archival supplies and equipment for the archives.
Being my first job out of graduate school, I was a bit nervous about being responsible for establishing an archives.  I didn’t know anything about Clayton State’s history and no one knew me or about the school’s new archives.  I realized that it wasn’t archival skills I needed but promotional skills.  I had to learn to be a librarian and share my time 50/50 with the library.  I had to manage my work without a budget.
The Director of the Library  gave me the task of walking around campus introducing myself and telling folks about the school’s archives.  I created a brochure and proceeded to “spread the word”   and encourage faculty and staff to donate items to the archives and to help us preserve the history of Clayton State.  I got a break when the on-campus publications started doing articles about our new archives and included my photo.  Some of these articles were picked up by local newspapers.   In a few months, I had been in the papers about a dozen times.  But I was still getting the same response from folks on campus, “I didn’t know Clayton had an archives!”  I am still getting that response today after 10 years. 
My main focus is still “promotion.”  I handle that in many ways.  I am invited by some professors to speak to classes about archives and how to use them for research.  I am engaged in community outreach programs to promote our collections and encourage graduates to donate to the archives.  I have an active internship/volunteer program.  I accept students from any school and any major.  (I have been known to convert some majors to history or liberal studies so they could continue working with archives.)  My outreach is extended to helping churches, schools, and other organizations start their archives. 
When I am given the opportunity to work with a department of the university, I jump at that chance.  I put everything else aside to work with that department to build a mutual and beneficial working relationship.  I will publicize the progress of our work together as an example for other departments and individuals to follow. 
Currently, our library space is in the midst of renovation.  The majority of our collections are stored off-site.  Later this summer or fall, we will move into our new space.  The Archives will have a large workspace, an exhibit hall, a research room, and a separate room for the collections.  I will open the exhibit space to anyone on campus wanting to share an exhibit – faculty, student groups, and departments. 
Perhaps with a more visible university archives, I will be able to build and process collections, which is why I became an archivist.   But for now, I work with what I have.
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Thank you to Rosemary for sharing what it means to be an archivist at Clayton State University Archives!  Want to share what your own experience is like working as an archivist?  Submit you “What it means to be an archivist at my repository?” post to us at outreach [at] soga [dot] org.

2015 Annual Meeting Call for Proposals

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The Society of Georgia Archivists’ Program Committee proudly announces the theme for the 2015 annual meeting: Archives as Community: Building Bridges and Sustaining Relationships. The Committee invites you to attend the meeting, to be held at the Columbus Marriott in Columbus, Georgia, October 22-23, 2015. 

Archives as Community calls for archives professionals to assess the relationships that enable them to conduct their work within changing cultural, technological and financial environments. For the 2015 annual meeting, the Program Committee is seeking presentations on the following topics:

  • Partnerships and projects with communities, including documentation initiatives, the preservation of civic memory, and the creation of community-based archives
  • Internal or external collaborations to achieve needed funding, resources, technology, space, or to accomplish other significant repository goals
  • Experiences with volunteers, interns, student assistants, members of the public or other nonprofessional archivists to process, promote, or make collections available
  • Any other research or program that illustrates how archives have addressed the needs of their communities and cooperated with stakeholders

This year’s theme, Archives as Community: Building Bridges and Sustaining Relationships reflects the significance of our constituents and stakeholders in facilitating and expanding the functions and use of archives and archival materials.

To submit a proposal, fill out the form and return to Heather Oswald at heather.oswald@gmail.com by June 5, 2015. The Program Committee is accepting both individual presenter and full session submissions. If you have any questions about the theme, presentation ideas, or the annual meeting program, please contact Heather Oswald.

To be an archivist: Dallas A. Suttles

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Our inaugural “What does it mean to be an archivist at your repository?” post comes courtesy of Dallas A. Suttles, who serves as the Computer Services Associate in the Archives and Special Collections department at Valdosta State University.


I am currently working on my Digital Archives Specialist (DAS) certification and work as a digital archivist, in all but name. For me, being an archivist has meant:
  • Digitization! – Scanning, organizing files, adding metadata, and making our materials accessible to the public.
  • Digital Preservation – Using command line tools like BagIt and Fitstool, I make AIPs for long-term preservation. We are using Google Drive for Business, with unlimited data, as an off-site backup.  I also scan the web for regional history to preserve. For example, I use IFTT to automatically index every local newspaper I can using RSS feeds.
  • Web Design – I run about a dozen websites and do a ton of web design with HTML and CSS.
  • Database Design – So many databases! Most were built from the ground up using PHP & MySQL. Our next database, an index of the 1860 Slave Census, will soon be underway.
  • Exhibit Design – All our exhibits need signs and labels. I use Photoshop to design these.
  • Social Media – Twitter, Facebook, Google+, etc… This involves mining our materials nearly every day to post something relevant.
I like to think that through my work, I am serving the past, present, and future. When a patron finds an ancestor in one of our databases, we are reuniting the past and present in that moment. Thereby serving the living and the dead. And to generations yet born, this data will only become more invaluable, not just to the public but to the next generation of archivists that will build upon this work.

Postscript: 
Why Archives Matter?
Archives and archivists are part of the foundational structure of civilization itself. Like pillars, we hold up the past so it doesn’t fall away into darkness, forgotten. We stand on the front-lines in an epic, losing battle against the ravages of time. By preserving the past we venerate the dead, serve the present, and educate the future. Please excuse my hyperbole, but in the grand scheme of things, this is precisely why “archives matter”, in my opinion.
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Thank you to Dallas for sharing what it means to be an archivist at Valdosta State University Archives and Special Collections!  Want to share what your own experience is like working as an archivist?  Submit your “What it means to be an archivist at my repository?” post to us at outreach [at] soga [dot] org.