Photo courtesy of New Mexico TRUE
Program for Friday April 28
Please Note: All events are scheduled in Mountain Time
Past, Present & Future: Breakfast with SSA Leadership-
8:00 – 9:00 am Alvarado ABC
Educational Session #4 9:15 – 10:30 am
Creating More Inclusive Minimum Description: Implementing Inclusive Practices at Accessioning
Potters Room
In addition to looking backwards and repairing legacy description, archivists must also look forwards towards creating more inclusive archival description for newly acquired collections. With backlogs as the norm and MPLP as standard practice, archivists must reckon with how descriptive practices have traditionally obfuscated the existence of or excluded entirely the experiences of marginalized communities. In a minimal or extensible processing framework, archivists must adopt more inclusive descriptive practices at the point of accessioning to ensure that unprocessed (or minimally processed) collections are accessible and discoverable. This presentation will discuss how archivists at Penn State are adopting practices from the reparative archival description literature to create more ethical descriptions from the point of accessioning to ensure that even minimally described, unprocessed collections are respectfully accessible.
Presenters: Alexandra deGraffenreid, Penn State University, State College, PA
Mae Casey, Penn State University, State College, PA
Gideon Goodrich, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI
Persevering the Times
Turquoise Room
Members of the SSA Diversity and Outreach Committee will lead a discussion with attendees on what Perseverance means to them. Committee members will introduce the topic and talk briefly about their experiences. Then the session will break out into smaller groups – (both virtual and in person) and have committee members lead discussions that hopefully will lead to suggestions on coping with an issue. Topics can include persevering in the face of – poor management at work, micro aggressions, bumpy career paths, and managing life and work at the same time.
Presenters: Gerrianne Schaad, Florida Southern College
Jeremy Brett, Texas A&M University
Marikit Schwartz, John Brown University
Heather Green, The Historic New Orleans Collection
Anita Mechler, Anita Mechler Consulting
Joy Oria, University of North Texas
Management, What Management!: Addressing Collections Management for Accessibility Needs
Weavers Room
From processing backlogs and deaccessioning to organizational changes and relocations, collections management offers many opportunities to improve on archival holdings, while also presenting many challenges for smaller institutional archives. Implementing effective collections management programs under time and staff crunches can be done with proper planning, focused methods, and addressing critical needs first. In this session, presenters will share some of the unique collections management issues presented to their smaller academic archives and the solutions they have and are developing to install better long-term collections management strategies and improve access for collections. The individual presentations will focus on: conducting an inventory to gain control over collections, creating and implementing new policies for collections management and access, and discussing the many steps of establishing offsite storage with the view of increasing access. This session will be especially useful for archivists who work in small shop departments with limited staff.
Presenters: Sawyer Magnus, Texas A&M University-Commerce, Commerce, TX
Matthew Peek, University of Houston-Clear Lake, Houston, TX
Brittany Rodriguez, University of Houston- Victoria, Victoria, TX
Coffee with Vendors 10:30 – 11:00 am Franciscan Ballroom
Educational Session #5 11:00 – 12:00 pm
How Do We Balance Access to Collections with Ethical Considerations for Privacy?
Potters Room
We are hosting a Roundtable discussion on the overlap between diversity initiatives and privacy within archival collections. Our Roundtable presenters include Jennifer Follen, who will discuss drafting policies for a university digital archive, using the trauma-informed framework as a guide in access and description; and Samantha Schafer, who will discuss creating policies for working both personal and cultural privacy in museum archival collections. We invite participation from attendees interested in discussing ways in which archivists can maintain best professional practices while respecting different cultural perspectives on privacy. We hope to have active engagement from attendees, so that we may learn from one another by brainstorming techniques for balancing access to collections with ethical considerations for the individuals and groups connected to the material.
Presenters: Jennifer Follen, University of Rhode Island Libraries
Samantha Schafer, National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum
Data Everywhere: How to Collect, Share, and Reuse Data with the SAA Dataverse
Weavers Room
The Society of American Archivists’ Committee on Research, Data, and Assessment (CORDA) supports research on archives through a variety of initiatives, including the SAA Dataverse repository and educational offerings. CORDA launched the SAA Dataverse in 2021, a new open-source data repository aimed at fostering knowledge, insights, and a deeper understanding of archival organizations, the status of archivists, and the impact of archives and archival work on the broader society. This roundtable discussion will introduce the SAA Dataverse, its guiding principles, its policies and procedures, datasets that are available for reuse, and how archivists can contribute their data. The presenters will also share what is being done to support archivists engaging in data driven research through CORDAs online resources and educational workshops. Group discussion will center around ideas, needs, and potential for data-driven research on archives.
Presenters: Lulu Zilinskas, National Cowboy & Western Heritage Musuem
Emily Lapworth, University of Nevada, Las Vegas
Jane Fiegel, Tulane University, New Orleans, LA
Raising Her Voice: Collecting, Digitizing, and Teaching with Diverse Archival Collections
Turquoise Room
This panel discussion will center on the collections of two African American women: Dr. Carolyn Jefferson Jenkins and Jennie Elder Suel. Dr. Jefferson Jenkins is an educator and voting rights activist, who was the first woman of color to become the National President of the League of Women Voters. Her collection is currently the subject of a digitization project that will allow for her materials to be shared more widely. Jennie Elder Suel donated freedom papers kept in her family, as well as other historical materials documenting black life in the early nineteenth and twentieth century. Suel’s collection showcases what Dr. Sutton has termed descendant archival practices—a method that reveals new ways of writing histories of 19th-century Black women in the rural Midwest, and acknowledges the preservation and memory work of Black women elders as an alternative to mainstream archives.
The presenters will discuss these women and how the Miami University Libraries has and plans to use collections such as these to promote equity, diversity and inclusion in their archives, and in the classroom.
Presenters: Jacqueline Johnson, Miami University (Ohio)
Candace Pine, Miami University (Ohio)
Jazma Sutton, Miami University (Ohio)
Lunch on Your Own 12:00 – 1:30 pm
How to Run a LAC: Everything You Need to Know About Meeting Planning 12:00 – 1:30 pm lunchtime brown bag session
Potters Room
SSA is an all-volunteer organization that holds a meeting for members once a year. There is a need for members to volunteer to host meetings. Topics will include information on how sites for the conference are chose; annual meeting planning and what activities you can include; how to put together a Local Arrangements Committee and what each position is responsible for; and budgeting.
Presenters: Gerrianne Schaad, Florida Southern College, Lakeland Florida
Traci Patterson, Woodson Research Center, Rice University
Educational Session #6 1:30 – 3:00 pm
D.I.Y. Feminism: Utilizing Special Collections as Spaces for Creative Activism
Turquoise Room
DIY feminism is a term used by scholars to define ways in which feminists communicate and elevate ideas through independent cultural production that resists mainstream representations. DIY feminist material culture takes many forms, including zines, blogs, protest signs, art installations, craftwork, tarot and oracle decks, posters, collage, etc. This 90-minute workshop will focus on how DIY Feminism has and can be used to enrich student and community experiences. Attendees will explore various ways to engage students and the community by identifying and using DIY feminist materials in special collections to inspire and encapsulate/synthesize individual learning experiences. Examples of curriculum and assignments/projects where these materials have been used as alternative platforms for self-expression and to present research will be discussed. Crafting supplies will be provided and attendees will learn the basics of collage and zine making as well as how to create access using digital publishing tools.
This 90-minute hybrid workshop will focus on DIY Feminism and how it has and can be used to enrich the student and community experience. Crafting supplies for about twenty in-person attendees will be made available during the workshop. Both virtual and in-person attendees can choose to create a zine or poster using collage techniques and are encouraged to craft during the presentation. To serve the needs of those not attending in person, the presentation will be live via Zoom and all workshop resources will be provided digitally including how-to links, digital clip art, reference lists, and any handouts. All attendees will be introduced to tools such as Canva, Conceptboard, and Adobe Spark to help design, share, and publish their creations. Facilitators will be available to answer questions and help virtual attendees navigate the resources provided.
Presenters: Bernadette Floresca, Newcomb Institute Archives and Vorhoff Collection and Tulane University
Chloe Raub, Newcomb Institute Archives and Vorhoff Collection at Tulane University
Challenges to Faculty Status & Academic Freedom II: The Texas A&M University System
Potters Room
On September 29, 2022, SSA hosted the webinar “Challenges to Faculty Status & Academic Freedom,” that featured a moderated discussion on the experiences of librarians and archivists whose faculty status was transitioned under protest. This session continues that discussion but focuses on the changing employment status of librarians and archivists in the Texas A&M University System. The presenters will describe how their employers at the Corpus Christi and College Station campuses degraded their professionalism and work achievements, disregarded past academic policies, and ultimately reneged on the promises awarded through the tenure process. This discussion will include thoughts on the genesis of this radical change, the resulting effect on the library’s culture and its place within the university, and the impact this decision has had on their careers. The session will close with a conversation on how to resist this coordinated attack by university governing bodies, administrators, and library managers on core academic freedoms and the profession itself. Because of the nature of this topic, it will not be streamed or recorded.
Presenters: Dylan McDonald, New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, NM
Rebecca Hankins, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX
Sierra Laddusaw, University of Arkansas-Forth Smith
Thomas H. Kreneck, Texas A&M-Corpus Christi
Community Archiving Workshop and Audiovisual Collections Care in Tribal Archives
Weavers Room
Community Archiving Workshop (CAW), a project of the Association of Moving Image Archivists, originated as a one-day workshop to help community groups learn to identify and preserve their legacy recordings. In 2020 CAW received NEH funding for the Audiovisual Collections Care in Tribal Archives project and partnered with the Association of Tribal Archives, Libraries and Museums to conduct a series of regional workshops for tribal archives. The project aims to support efforts to preserve and improve access to these collections by training tribal archivists and librarians to assess their collections and prioritize them for digitization. When the pandemic hit, CAW adapted the hands-on workshop into the virtual world, creating a cohort in the Southwest region to deliver virtual training and mentorship in audiovisual preservation. This session explores the growing regional network for AV preservation in the Southwest. Panelists will discuss the Audiovisual Collections Care in Tribal Archives project and its impact on their audiovisual collections.
Presenters: Sandra Yates, McGovern Historical Center, Teas Medical Center Library, Houston, TX
Jonna C. Paden, Indian Pueblo Cultural Center Library & Archives, Albuquerque, NM
Mindy Bird, Poeh Cultural Center Archives, Pueblo of Pojoaque, Santa Fe, NM
Macario Gutierrez, Poeh Cultural Center Archives, Pueblo of Pojoaque, Santa Fe, NM
Curtis Quam, Zuni Tribal Archives, A:shiwi A:Wan Museum and Heritage Center
Carvanna Westika, Zuni Tribal Archives A:shiwi A:Wan Museum and Heritage Center
Beci Wright, The Wyandotte Nation Cultural Center and Museum
Break with Vendors and Student Posters 3:00 – 3:30 pm Franciscan Ballroom
Tours 3:30 – 5:30 pm
Library & Archives Open House & IPCC Museum Admission
For any and all not already on a tour, the Library and Archives at the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center will be hosting an Open House from 4-5pm on Friday, April 28. Museum admission is also included, so head over before the reception to see some of the incredible collections. Starting at 3:30pm, trolleys will take you from the hotel to the IPCC. Transportation will run continuously between hotel and IPCC until 7:30pm.
All Attendee Reception at the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center 5:30 – 7:00 pm
(buses will run between the Hotel Albuquerque and the IPCC)