Photo courtesy of New Mexico TRUE
Program for Thursday April 27
Please Note: All events are scheduled in Mountain Time
Welcome & Plenary Address 8:30 – 9:30 am Alvarado ABC
Anthropologist, historian, and cultural consultant, Dr. Estevan Rael-Gálvez has served as the former Senior Vice President at the National Trust for Historic Preservation, executive director of the National Hispanic Cultural Center and as the state historian of New Mexico. He is currently the Executive Director of Native Bound Unbound: Archive of the Indigenous Enslaved, a digital initiative supported by the Mellon Foundation. A native son of New Mexico, he received his BA in English Literature and Ethnic Studies from the University of California, Berkeley, and his MA and Ph.D. in American Cultures from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, where he completed his dissertation, “Identifying Captivity and Capturing Identity,” the basis of a book project.
Coffee with Vendors 9:30 – 10:00 am Franciscan Ballroom
Educational Session #1 10:00 – 11:30 am
A Case for Community Engagement
Potters Room
Four archival staff members with differing institutional missions, job descriptions, and geographic locale, will discuss how they’ve integrated community outreach and engagement into their work. This work has enriched their archival collections and services, as well as their institutional relationships with diverse groups, student-scholars, and new users. Danielle will discuss how the creation of her community outreach specific position has benefited the public library’s relationship with underrepresented community groups as well as how specific outreach initiatives have been successful in her first year in the position. Vina will discuss how Labriola’s programming and archival operations help urban Indigenous students to reconnect with their culture and their Indigenous community. Patrick will discuss his program’s monthly podcast as an extension of both their outreach with community groups and their engagement with broader public audiences. Dylan will present on how staff at the NMSU archives are partnering with community institutions to create exhibits and events that showcase local history.
Presenters: Danielle Afsordeh, CALS Butler Center For Arkansas Studies
Vina Begay, Labriola National American Indian Data Center, Arizona State University
Patrick Daglaris, Oklahoma Oral History Research Program, Oklahoma State University
Dylan McDonald, New Mexico State University, Las Cruces
Archiving Latinxs on the U.S. Great Plains
Weavers Room
This panel examines the intricacies of archiving Latinxs in the US Great Plains. Latinx communities comprise a significant portion of the area’s population, yet regional archival holdings often under-represent these groups’ experiences and historical contributions. This panel will describe three universities’ approaches toward addressing this disparity, beginning with bilingual oral history projects “Voces of a Pandemic”, which explores the impact of COVID-19 on Latinx communities near Omaha, and “Coming to the Plains”, which examines immigration experiences of Latinx people in central Nebraska, conducted by the University of Nebraska at Omaha and University of Nebraska at Kearney respectively. The panel also recounts efforts by the Southwest Collection at Texas Tech University to archive the legacy of Latinx communities on Texas’s South Plains, namely through its “Recuerdos del Ayer” project that centers on building relationships with South Plains Latinx communities, incorporating translation of archival materials, creation of online and interactive exhibits, and expanding Latinx outreach efforts.
Presenters: Robert Weaver, Texas Tech University
Zach Hernández, Texas Tech University
Wendy Guerra, University of Nebraska at Omaha
Laurinda Weisse, University of Nebraska at Kearney
FAAQ (Frequently Asked Archivematica Questions)
Turquoise Room
Are you a long-time Archivematica user with a deep understanding of digital preservation? This session is for you! Have you heard of Archivematica but don’t really understand what it does and why? This session is also for you!
Each panelist will spend 15 minutes reviewing their experiences and highlights of the tool. We will be discussing all phases of Archivematica from choosing to use the system in the first place through active implementation and the challenges we faced along the way. We will also leave plenty of time for questions. Our hope is that the session will be interactive and promise to answer any and all questions, big and small. Digital preservation is complex at all levels of engagement, and we encourage participation from those who don’t identify as digital archivists, or who don’t typically do this type of work. This panel is intended to provide a safe and inclusive space for attendees as every archivist’s area of expertise is valuable. We welcome all archivists to join us in digital preservation discussions.
Please feel free to send in questions ahead of time to cbanuelos@rice.edu, and we hope to see you there!
Presenters: Chris Banuelos, Rice University, Houston, TX
Bethany Scott, University of Houston, Houston TX
Lauren Goodley, Texas State University, San Marcos, TX
Lunch on Your Own 11:30 am – 1:00 pm
TARO Brown Bag 11:30 am – 1:00 pm lunchtime brown bag session
Potters Room
Join members of the Texas Archival Resources Online (TARO) Steering Committee and Subcommittes to earn about the work the group has done this past year. The agenda includes an overview of ongoing work, subcommittee work report(s), communication among TARO members, and an opportunity to share feedback and ask questions. This brown bag meeting is open to all TARO members and anyone interested in becoming a member.
Presenters: Matthew Richardson, McGovern Historical Center, Texas Medical Center Library, Houston, TX
Kristi Nedderman, Dallas Municipal Archives
Educational Session #2 1:00 – 2:30 pm
Diversifying the Archives: Archival Projects Delivered Through a Diverse Lens
Potters Room
As archivists strive to provide accurate representations of their communities, it is imperative to seek collections and deliver programs through a diverse lens. This session will present case studies of archival programs and projects specifically focusing on documenting diverse groups of people. The first project involves bolstering representation of Acadiana’s LGBTQ+ community through collections, lectures, and oral histories. The second involves Marshallese archives and the lesbian separatist movement in the Ozarks–divergent collecting areas pursued in the midst of institutional changes such as revising collecting scope and implementing reparative description standards. The third project is a collaborative effort at California State University, San Bernardino to document the stories, experiences, and history of the Black community in the Inland Empire region of Southern California.
Presenters: Zachary G. Stein, University of Louisiana at Lafayette
Joshua C. Youngblood, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville AK
Eric Milenkiewicz, California State University, San Bernadino
Wrapping Up Before Moving On
Weavers Room
This panel discussion addresses the impact of professional transition on archivists and archival institutions. When archival professionals are starting new positions or retiring, how can they facilitate the transition for themselves and their soon-to-be former colleagues? How are they preparing to exit the old institution and start in a new place/ role? How do archival institutions deal with an employee’s departure? The panelists will talk about different types of archival career transitions from the perspective of both the persons who are departing and of those who are left behind. They will focus on issues such as project wrap-up and handoff; workflow modifications and reassignment of duties; stepping down from leadership roles; preparing to start fresh in a new place; communication, transparency and privacy; and staying on top of human resources requirements and forms. The session will include examples and practical tips, as well as one panelist’s doctoral studies research dealing with workforce transitions in the archival profession.
Presenters: Ada Negraru, New Mexico History Museum, Santa Fe, NM
J.J. Compton, Oklahoma Christian University, Edmond OK
Joe Lueck, Union College, Schenectady, NY
Amanda Fisher, Baylor University, Waco, TX
Max Prud’homme, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater OK
Hybrid Archives: Expanding Access While Building Our Skills
Turquoise Room
Can we meet hybrid – or 100% virtual – user expectations by integrating new technologies into archival practice? Dynamic digital interactives and virtual reference services can expand access to fragile or underused collections, promote collection accessibility for those unable to visit in-person, complement curricula and in-person research, create ancillary archival files, and build staff skills.
NM Holocaust Museum & Gellert Center for Education staff discuss utilizing emerging digital platforms to integrate Holocaust related material into interactive, virtual programs. They will address using digital interaction to solicit conversations with the community, clarify archival description, crowd source knowledge, and develop relationships with survivors of genocide. Staff from the Center for Creative Photography at The University of Arizona, will discuss how adding an overhead camera to online meetings cultivates useful virtual engagement with archival materials; how this fits within the reference ecosystem; benefits and limitations for users, staff, and collections; and opportunities for new professional colleagues.
Presenters: Emily Una Weirich, Center for Creative Photography, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ
Ashley Swinford, Center for Creative Photography, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ
Elias Larralde, Center for Creative Photography, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ
Camelia Caton-Garcia, NM Holocaust Museum & Gellert Center for Education
Lewis Twite, NM Holocaust Museum & Gellert Center for Education
Break with Vendors 2:30 – 3:00 pm Franciscan Ballroom
Educational Session #3 3:00 – 4:00 pm
Who Penned This? Unboxing Hybrids
Turquoise Room
What to do when one finds non-manuscript items “boxed in” in with the personal papers of a donor? Our panelists, an art curator and archivist, will host a roundtable discussion on the complexities of working collaboratively to manage “hybrid” archival collections—manuscript collections that are embedded with fine art objects.
Panelists will invite participants to: discuss ways to create interdisciplinary practices that recognize and value the materiality and archival worth of hybrid collections. They will do so in part by focusing on the commonalities between archival and curatorial practices. Archivists and curators both strive to preserve original, often irreplaceable objects, materials and documents. They are also equally proficient in their conceptualization of “broad, deep knowledge” about records (i.e. provenance, history, arrangement, interpretation, and research).
What should one do when an art object is discovered “boxed in” with the personal papers of a donor? Our panelists suggest that curators should appeal to their archival colleagues’ intellectual–not aesthetic sensibilities in order to affect proportionate handling of fine art objects. Lastly, our panelists close their session by “unpacking” cross-disciplinary approaches to working with hybrid collections. They emphasize stewardship and collaboration, during acquisitions, processing, cataloging, and collections management.
Presenters: Paula Allen, Visual Arts Curator, Amistad Research Center
Rebecca Hankins, Texas A&M University
Shining a Light on the Opioid Industry Using Digital Archives Potters Room
The opioid epidemic is the worst drug epidemic in our nation’s history. In the name of transparency, the Opioid Industry Documents Archive (OIDA) consolidates publicly released litigation documents into a digital archive for the benefit of individuals and communities, researchers, journalists, policymakers and other stakeholders affected by the opioid crisis. This presentation will explore the archive’s work to enhance access to documents with the goal of improving and safeguarding public health. In addition, the presentation will describe the many collaborations that make OIDA possible, as a joint effort between libraries and health programs at the University of California, San Francisco, and Johns Hopkins University, and staff working on-site and remotely across the globe.
Presenters: Amanda Norman, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD
Rachel Taketa, University of California, San Francisco
Through a Community-Driven Archives Lens: Arizona State University’s Community-Driven Archives Initiative
Weavers Room
Arizona State University’s Community-Driven Archives (CDA) Initiative centers the lives and voices of historically marginalized communities in the southwest region, including Latinx, Black, Indigenous, Asian and Pacific Islander, and LGBTQ+ communities. CDA initiatives cultivate intersectionality that enhances and diversifies the historical record, and also empowers community members to preserve and manage their own histories. CDA and community members are dismantling white power structures, challenging the way historical records are created and redefining what an archive is, what should be included in their archive, and who should have access to these archives.
CDA now oversees both new and legacy archival collections, including Black Collections, University Archives, and the Greater Arizona Collection. Presentations will highlight the newly established Black Collections that implements CDA practices; K-12 programming which centers and uplifts BIPOC and Queer Knowledge in schools by introducing students to community archives; and reenvisioning Greater Arizona Collections and associated community-centered initiatives.
Presenters: Renee D. James, Arizona State University, Tempe AZ
Jessica Salow, Arizona State University, Tempe AZ
Jasmine Torrez, Arizona State University, Tempe AZ