Northwest Archivists Annual Conference Preliminary Program

 

Dynamic Archives: Preserving the Past and Speaking to the Future

Moscow, Idaho

May 17 – 19, 2007

 

 

Thursday, May 17

8:00 – 5:00

Workshop: Describing Archives: A Content Standard (SAA)

Practical DACS Implementations – provides an in-depth, practical consideration of the key concepts and descriptive elements in Describing Archives: A Content Standard, the new U.S. standard.  Participants explore strategies for incorporating this standard into workflows for accessioning, arrangement, and description through discussions and hands-on work with a variety of exercises, culminating in a DACS-based analysis of existing finding aids.  This workshop, a basic introduction to the standard, focuses on application of DACS rules and concepts, which participants can apply to repository processes and descriptive outputs.  Instructor: Kelcy M. Shepherd, University of Massachusetts.  Registration through Society of American Archivists: http://www.archivists.org/prof-education/workshop-detail.asp?id=2023

 

Workshop: Issues in Photograph and Film Collection Management (NWA)

This workshop is for anyone who works with photograph and film collections, and will address basic film preservation issues and advanced issues in the management of visual materials collections.  Through lectures, group discussions, and practical exercises, participants will gain insight into how to establish processing priorities, plan preservation projects, and create more meaningful access to their collections.  Topics include: photographs and film as artifacts, visual literacy, collection development and appraisal, organization and description, and legal and ethical issues.  Instructor: Nicolette Bromberg, University of Washington Libraries.  Registration through Northwest Archivists: NWA members $55, non-members $75.

 

5:00 – 7:00

Opening Reception at One World Café: http://www.one-world-cafe.biz/

 

 

Friday, May 18

8:00 – 9:30

Plenary session with Thomas E. Mills

Mr. Mills is Assistant Archivist for Regional Records Services at the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), headquartered in College Park, Maryland.  He will discuss NARA’s revised Strategic Plan and how it addresses the issues of preservation, access, electronic records, civic literacy, education, and customer needs.

 

10:00 – 11:30

Leadership Skills for Archivists

The increasing complexity of challenges facing archival institutions and archivists in the 21st Century requires creative and innovative responses.  Archivists need to become more effective leaders to ensure the efficacy and efficiency of their institutions and to enable them to play a major role in defining changes within society, based on accountability and knowledge resulting from professional recordkeeping.  Presenters will discuss the latest principles, theories, and methods of organizational leadership that archivists need to learn in order to effectively lead their institutions into the future.

·         Sharon Howe, Washington State Archives Central Branch

·         Rand Jimerson, Western Washington University

·         Donna McCrea, University of Montana - Missoula

·         Anthony Kurtz, Western Washington University

 

Building a National Archival Network: Roles of National and Regional Projects and Organizations

In recent years, state and regional consortia have been the mode of choice for archival projects of all types, including metadata and digital content projects.  As they search for long-term sustainability, consortia confront issues of scale.  What are the benefits and disadvantages of national-level aggregation of data, content, and skills?  Of maintaining smaller scales and regional identities?  Representatives from state and regional consortia, national-level bibliographic services, and national-level federal granting agencies will explore these questions.

·         Jodi Allison-Bunnell, Northwest Digital Archives

·         Todd Welch, Northern Arizona University

·         Ann Lally, University of Washington Libraries

·         Leigh Grinstead, University of Denver

·         Max Evans, National Historical Publications and Records Commission, NARA

 

11:45 – 1:15

Founders’ Lunch

Celebrate NWA history!  Join founding & early members Karyl Winn, Terry Abraham, Keith Richards, Lisa Fagerlund, Jay Rea, and Jim Scott as they recall the organization and early challenges of Northwest Archivists.

 

1:30 – 3:00

Taking Over: Managing an Archives Created by Another

Stepping into another archivist’s (or non-archivist’s) collection can be a challenge. Most books and articles on “starting an archives” seem to assume that you are starting completely from scratch, with no collection, or that you have inherited a perfect system. As we know, that is rarely, if ever, the case. This session will examine some common legacy situations and provide suggestions for handling inherited collection management issues. Presenters will also address the political and emotional aspects of “taking over” and how to approach this with respect for your predecessor(s). In addition to traditional presentations by panelists, where they will describe their experiences, the session chair will offer comments drawn from her experiences consulting with a variety of repositories. An extended question-and-answer period will invite discussion among all those in attendance.

·         Jodi Allison-Bunnell, Northwest Digital Archives

·         Anne L. Foster, University of Alaska Fairbanks

·         Michael J. Paulus, Jr., Whitman College and Northwest Archives

·         Deb Kennedy, King County Archives

 

Regional Film Preservation Projects

Very little is being done to actively preserve film across the region.  In an effort to address this issue, this session will describe several film preservation projects recently completed in Washington State as well as discuss a future collaborative film preservation project that encompasses Washington, Idaho, Montana, and Oregon.

·         Gina Rappaport, University of Washington Libraries

·         Alex Merrill, Washington State University Libraries

·         Nicolette Bromberg, University of Washington Libraries

·         Anne Frantilla, Seattle Municipal Archives

 

Point of Need Assistance: Incorporating Help Pages and Tutorials into Online Archival Resources

Archival materials continue to populate the web; however, access and navigation are often hampered by a lack of point of need assistance.  This session will focus on creating user centered online tutorials and help pages to increase access and use of online archival resources.  Presenters will discuss barriers to access, and design principles for creating online instructional resources.  An overview of software options for creating tutorials will also be presented.

·         Anthony Kurtz, Western Washington University

·         Jane Scales, Washington State University

·         Steve Borelli, Washington State University

 

3:30 – 5:00

Disaster Planning: An Overview

This session is designed to provide an overview of what you should do and who should be involved before you are faced with a disaster, in order to protect people, prevent damage, and provide the best possible outcome.  Disaster plans, communications plans, public relations, salvage priorities, insurance, training, and supplies are among the topics to be discussed.

·         Eileen Brady, Washington State University Libraries

 

Research and Analysis in Archival Theory and Practice

This session will highlight some of the outstanding archival research being conducted by graduate students in the Western Washington University archival education program.  The presentations offer fresh perspectives and will stimulate critical thinking about archival theory and methodology.

·         Trevor Bond, Washington State University Libraries

·         Erica Olsen, Western Washington University

·         Josh Zimmerman, Western Washington University

·         Rozlind Koester, Western Washington University

 

Using Expressive Metadata Formats to Support Preservation in Digital Repositories

To support the preservation task, expressive metadata formats must be used to describe digital resources in repositories.  This presentation will describe how more expressive metadata formats can be used in conjunction with the Open Archives Initiative - Protocol for Metadata Harvesting.  Additionally, information will be presented on the emerging Open Archives Initiative Object Reuse and Exchange initiative, which is designed to enable cross-resource interoperability at the digital resource level.

·         Terry Reese, Oregon State University

·         Alan Cornish, Washington State University Libraries

·         Greg Matthews, Washington State University Libraries

·         Jonathon Scott, Washington State University Libraries

 

5:30 – 7:30

Banquet at University of Idaho Commons

 

 

Saturday, May 19

8:00 – 9:30

NWA Business Meeting

 

9:45 – 10:45

Plenary session with Augusta Rohrbach: The White Glove Treatment: Using Special Collections in the Literature Classroom

Ms. Rohrbach is an Associate Professor of English at Washington State University and Editor of ESQ (Emerson Society Quarterly).  Her teaching and research focuses heavily on book history.  She will discuss collaborating extensively with archivists and librarians to introduce her students to reading “literature” in the wider context of print culture.

 

11:00 – 12:30

The Challenges of Collecting, Researching, Arranging and Describing Printed Ephemera

This session will discuss how we can best make printed ephemera accessible to users.  Two projects will be discussed in detail: the original development and current management of the Bodleian Library’s John Johnson Collection, and the effort to identify and make available all known Montana Native Press newspapers and newsletters.

·         Nathan Bender, University of Idaho

·         Trevor Bond, Washington State University Libraries

·         Cheryl Gunselman, Washington State University Libraries

 

The ABC’s of MPLP: How to Apply the “More Product, Less Processing” Method in Your Archives

Every archival facility has a backlog of wonderful collections that sit unused and unprocessed in a back room or basement. Every archivist has the intention of getting this material processed and into the hands of researchers just as soon as time allows.  Every archivist can do this by applying the MPLP method of collection processing.  This session will introduce the steps, issues, and philosophy of the MPLP method, and provide a hands-on opportunity for attendees.

·         Janet Hauck, Whitworth College

 

Archivists in a Web 2.0 World: How Can We Make Social Software Tools Work for Us?

This session will focus on the emerging social software tools, how they are being used in Archives, and how archivists can utilize these tools to meet the changing wants and needs of users.  Examples of these tools include blogs, wikis, Flickr, RSS, and social bookmarking software.

·         John Bolcer, University of Washington Libraries

·         Tiah Edmunson-Morton, Oregon State University Archives

·         Ann Lally, University of Washington, Digital Initiatives Program

·         Anne-Marie Deitering, Oregon State University

·         Rachel Bridgewater, Washington State UniversityVancouver Library